YO GEORGIANS! :)

I got the space. After replacing the second incubator, it's not even half-full. It has 26 spots open in the turner. So the third incubator hasn't even been set up yet.

But if it comes down to it, the third incubator may become the goose/reptile incubator. Either way, I don't have a turner for it, so eggs in there will be hand-turned, unless it's reptile eggs.
 
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I think I told you all this before, but I contacted a chicken hatchery and asked which chickens they could feather sex at day one.  They sent me a whole list.  But, you have to have parent birds that 1) males are slow feathering and 2) females are fast feathering.  When you have these traits, the males.....well, just watch this video and it will show you how to feather sex them.  I can feather sex my chicks, thank goodness!  If you have been cross breeding your own chicks for a while, it probably won't work because you haven't kept the slow feathering males and the fast feathering females.  But if you go to Tractor Supply and want to get a pullet from their straight run bend, then this is the way to guarantee to get one.


Thank you! How'd you know I was going to try my luck at TSC ;)
 
I ordered a small group of SLW pullets from McMurray hatchery to arrive around April 7th. But I didn't order a roo. Since so many of you have BLRW, I was thinking maybe I should get a roo from that. And with that I went to the "chicken color calculator"

So according to THIS SITE (the chicken calculator):

If I breed a BLRW roo to a SLW hen, I get... SEX LINK OFFSPRING! Well, mostly. They'll still be purebred Wyandottes. The roos will have a yellow/gold color, and the females will have red.

So, take a blue-laced male from that offspring then, and breed it back to a silver-laced hen and.... WOW. The red comes back out with both blue or black lacing possibilities. The silver also comes out with blue or black lacing. But then you also have gold, yellow, and cream with blue or black lacing. It's like every possible base color with blue or black lacing. I want to try this just to see those colors!
 
By the way, I'm loving this page here:
http://www.mjhatcheries.com/experiments.html


This guy is actually doing experiments to "debunk" many myths of sexing chicks, and some other rumors about hatching, incubating, etc.


Although the first one apparently seems to be turning out true for him. Not so for myself. When I switched to the dry-hatch method, I actually got more hens than doing the 50% humidity method.
the hen gives the sex gene to the chick, so the egg is laid male or female. I've heard male eggs are more sensitive to to temp and humidity, so that's why he had more chicks die in shell, they where the males that weren't hatching.
The pointed egg thing didn't work, different breeds tend to lay certain shapes eggs. My Anconas lay pointy eggs, and my various oriental games lay rounder eggs, almost so round they look like a golf ball, I have to candle to see where the air sac is, lol.
 
the hen gives the sex gene to the chick, so the egg is laid male or female. I've heard male eggs are more sensitive to to temp and humidity, so that's why he had more chicks die in shell, they where the males that weren't hatching.
The pointed egg thing didn't work, different breeds tend to lay certain shapes eggs. My Anconas lay pointy eggs, and my various oriental games lay rounder eggs, almost so round they look like a golf ball, I have to candle to see where the air sac is, lol.

Agreed, especially with the pointy egg thing. When my sumatras first started, they laid eggs that were actually kinda pointy on BOTH ends!
 
A more complete version of the Chicken Calculator site. The URL is really long, but it includes drop-down boxes at the bottom for things like comb shape, leg feathering, frizzle, etc. Also includes an explanation of what is in those drop-down boxes.
 

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