The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: Clansman on March 26, 2015, 11:44:10 am
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Finally managed to track down some good breeding stock and got some eggs in the incubator at the start of the month.
Looking good so far and plenty more on the way! :thumbsup:
(http://i57.tinypic.com/2hmlte9.jpg)
(http://i58.tinypic.com/b96hbt.jpg)
(http://i62.tinypic.com/33yp8p1.jpg)
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excellent, I had some pipping this morning :thumbsup:
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3 SGs out, 2 Marsh Daisies and all the others have pipped :)
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I've got another two Scots Greys, 4 turkeys and 6 Red legged Partridge out this morning :thumbsup:
Not lost anything yet that has pipped.
I'm running at 37C at egg level and keeping the water trays topped up although I don't check humidity.
The lid is off about 4 times a day for turning the eggs, adding new eggs and removing chicks, so none of this "lockdown" malarky ;D
Working well though :thumbsup:
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another MD out-at this stage I am a bit more interested in them right now as they are all from an older hen that I held onto, even though for a time I gave up on trying to breed them. Saying that I am also hatching SG eggs from an older hen who was my old cock's sibling so haven't been able to use her until now either.
I have added wet cloths periodically this hatch (incubated dry)-no shrink wrapped chicks so far, removed shells etc.
Got a broody due on Easter Sunday and ducklings due next tuesday :fc:
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slightly odd but very successful hatch (only two did not). Day 21 was Friday, had three hatch on thursday, several more on friday and the remainder yesterday. All hatched quickly after pipping and nice strong, lively chicks. Two impostors though, one must be my ancient LS star crossed with the Marsh Daisy boy and another which is 1/4 silkie ;D , hope they are girls.
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! No longer available (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kQFfmz15JE#)
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I had one chick under broody that was either maran or SG hen by CL cockerel. It looked very like the pics at birth, yellow under black above and a yellow headspot. Thought the spot was a legbar trait indicating a boy but wondering now how you sex SG? He/she is about 6 weeks now with SG or cuckoo maran colouring and yellow legbar legs! Would be nice if it laid..
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With the SG both sexes have the yellow headspot but its usually bigger on the males.
Males are more grey coloured, females are black but it's not 100% guaranteed, there's always the odd one breaks the rules :)
at 6 weeks they should be easy to spot though, or at least the SG's are.
Here is a male (left) and a female together.
Males are more grey with black markings, females are more black with grey markings
(http://i60.tinypic.com/2v3h8i0.jpg)
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They all look gorgeous I i hope they do well. Am hoping to build a chicken nursery to hatch out chicks, probably a long way off yet :thinking:
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Clansman, your photos always intrigue me. You seem to have chicks of very different ages in together, which Id love to be able to do but Im scared that the big ones will attack the little ones.
On a previous thread when I mentioned this you told me that in fact the chicks were roughly the same age but different breeds, but surely this last photo shows some very little chicks in with older ones? If so, how do you do it without fisticuffs?
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The picture above is probably about as far as i'd ever go with age differences, I reckon the older ones are 3-4 weeks and the small ones just a few days old.
I think the other picture had quail and partridge as well as young chicks and maybe ducklings?
I wouldn't say I never see any fighting but no more so than between groups of similar aged birds, the smaller ones have plenty of room to back off if they need to and usually its no more than a quick peck on the head if they get to close to one another.
Quail are the problem, immature quail of 4 weeks or more will kill new quail chicks very quickly so I need to keep them fairly well separated out by age/size.
The rest seem to be fine together, I have two week old turkeys in there just now and the odd one of them can be a bit of a bully but no disasters so far.
Another factor may be that my brooding areas are always pretty busy, if there were just a small number of different aged birds in them there may well be more problems with the small ones being chased and bullied but when its busy they seem to tolerate each other a lot more.
This picture has week old turkeys, Scots Greys roughly 0-2 weeks and quail about 2-4 weeks that I can see, maybe more
(http://i57.tinypic.com/1547f9h.jpg)