The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: greengumbo on February 24, 2017, 10:18:34 am
-
Thought I would kick off a topic on what everyone is / has hatched this year so feel free to add whats in your incubator and how they are doing !
We had our first chicks start hatching yesterday - 12 Lavender Aracaunas set and 6 out so far and doing well in the brooder. We start them incubating in a brinsea then swap them out into a still incubator at lockdown time. Last year was a steep learning curve but we have a good reliable system now.
Also got some of our duck eggs with a week to go. A mixed bunch of drakes (khaki, white/black runner, appleyard, saxony) so who knows what they will look like.
Really want to hatch some guineafowl this year if anyone has or knows of source for hatching eggs.
Feel free to add to the thread :)
-
Nothing laying here yet but will have
cou cou de rennes
Silver Kraienkoppe bantams
and maybe a mix of cou cou x LSX
-
We usually have our first hatch Easter weekend as we aim to lamb that weekend so know we will be about. So nothing in the inccy for a while yet.
Last year we popped a Cuckoo Maran egg in (she'd been with the Dorking cockerel) which produced a lovely hen. Black in colour but is blue/green/purple like a magpies black feathers. She is now laying little peach coloured eggs. We might do this again this year, just to see :-)
We have tried time and time again to get some cream legbar girls, but keeping having rubbish hatches and the only survivors are always boys. I might not bother this year and buy in some day olds instead :thinking:
Edited to add: if anyone needs a cream legbar cockerel, we have one which will be going in the freezer soon otherwise.
-
Mine will just be Marans crosses as I have to start early this year and thats what I have ;)
-
Mine will just be Marans crosses as I have to start early this year and thats what I have
Are your hens Maran crosses, or are your hens marans and cockerel something different?
-
I only have 1 pure cuckoo marans hen left, the others are sussex and aurucana crosses and the boy 'Grey' looks like a pure cuckoo marans but is a cross too - so I'm hoping I'll get some cuckoo lookalikes :D
-
Nothing laying here yet but will have
cou cou de rennes
Silver Kraienkoppe bantams
and maybe a mix of cou cou x LSX
Hi Princess - your potential cou cou x |LS mix sounds interesting - have you tried this before? Do the boys make a size worthy of plucking?
-
I've got silkies hatching in a couple of weeks....got four chicks about one month old already. They're SO cute. I hope my d'Anvers start laying this year too and I get some hens - 2016 seemed to be a huge year for cockerels.
For birds which are of actual use, I'm building my Ixworth flock. Got two hens and two cockerels from a late hatch last year, so going to eat one boy and then swap the other with a friend to get in some new blood. And then, hopefully, my pullets will start laying and I can hatch out a few more both as layers and meat.
Finally....and I know these aren't poultry but I breed them for some extra income, I'll have budgie, zebra finch and cockatiel babies though not in the incubator. ;D
-
I have eggs from my meat hybrids going in and a cross between them and my Cuckoo Marian's, then pure Indian Game when they start laying and later I will be swoping cockerels over and crossing IG x meat hybrids.
Also will be adding a few eggs from my Blue Laced Wyandotte bantams each batch.
-
Been hatching over winter and had some decent results as the eggs were mine
I.G X L.S
I.G X La Bresse
I.G X C.B.T.
Bought in some R.I.R. B.P.R. + L.S. Eggs had 24 in the incy but only 4 hatched so was not impressed but thats why im not having eggs posted this year.
Hopefully having a drive to Teeesdale,Co Durham to collect some I.G. eggs later in the spring :fc:
Also looking to incubate some Barnevelders as a meat bird project.
-
Thought I'd reply to the bad hatch issues Jukes Mum had. Hatches of mainly males can either be co-incidental or if repeated can be due to too high humidity in the first 18 days resulting in slightly too small an air sac. The males are stronger and are able to cope with it better it seems. Best to check to air sac development than rely on a fixed humidity reading in my experience, as it is dependent on shell porosity.
-
If all goes according to plan(!) we'll have Speckled Sussex, Blue-, Buff- and Gold-Laced Wyandotte L/F, Silver Grey Dorkings, Blue + Blue Splash Jersey Giants, Narragansett turkeys and Indian Blue peafowl. No eggs available until May, however, as we don't fire up the incubators until lambing's finished and won't sell until we know fertility and hatchability are sound.
-
Thought I'd reply to the bad hatch issues Jukes Mum had. Hatches of mainly males can either be co-incidental or if repeated can be due to too high humidity in the first 18 days resulting in slightly too small an air sac. The males are stronger and are able to cope with it better it seems. Best to check to air sac development than rely on a fixed humidity reading in my experience, as it is dependent on shell porosity.
Interesting! We never measure humidity. But they were put in with Dorking eggs which all hatched :thinking:
-
Could it be that some breeds are more susceptible to humidity levels than others? Dorkings are a very old and very fixed breed, with centuries of selective breeding behind them (i.e., in this case, if you're not a healthy bird, you die). Maybe the country of origin also has some significance ?
-
Hi,
I am hoping to hatch some runner ducks and some Khaki campbell eggs in the next little while. Just looking around locally to see who has some eggs available. Good luck and keep us posted on your hatches. I love hearing how others are getting on!
-
Hi [member=27063]Marches Farmer[/member] , I'd be interested in some Wyandotte and Dorking eggs when you have them available.
I'd also like to hear from anybody in Central Scotland who keeps these breeds, and also utility strains of Rhodies and Welsummers. Cheers! :thumbsup:
-
I'll let you know how the first hatch goes, Womble. I have two breeding groups of each, so I'm hopeful. I'd recommend choosing the RIR strain with care. We had some a few years ago but the hens were very aggressive towards our other breeds.
-
Yes, I know they can be a handful MF, but they're also real characters. I have a thing for feisty ginger birds - just ask Mrs Womble! :roflanim:
-
Well we have had really good hatching success so far this year. Only our own chickens are not fertile as I suspect the cockerel is firing blanks.
9 out of 12 Lavender Aracaunas hatched and are doing well after 3 weeks and we have had 3/3 khaki ducks and 4/4 mixed bantams.
Just put in 4 Sevastapol Goose eggs - never kept geese before.....any tips !
Still looking for guineafowl eggs to hatch.
-
May be a bit early for guinea fowl. I found that, like our turkeys, laying doesn't begin until the longer daylight hours and warmer weather in April.
-
I've noticed this week on ebay there are a few sellers of GF eggs. Will wait a while longer though.
-
Got my first Minorca eggs due Monday, 11 out of the 12 was fertile so am pleased, i have some spare birds available if anyone is interested
-
Candled our 4 Sevastopol X Emden goose eggs and 3 fertile. Excited about this batch.
-
Since my last post we have hatched 13 Scots Dumpys and two of the geese hatched. The geese are fantastic, totally friendly and follow us about the smallholding munching grass as they go and ignoring the veggies / fruit.
They are starting to get feathers now so looking forward to finding out how much Sevastopol is in the mix !
We have 12 guineafowl due to hatch in the next few days (i hear hatching times are quite variable?) and 4 turkey eggs with a week to go.
Then I think thats us for the year. We had 4 duck eggs under a broody bantam but it went a bit wrong. A second hen went broody in the same nest and they kept stealing the eggs from each other. 1 duckling started to hatch but was later found out the nest cold and deceased :( Lesson learned so I will separate the broody hens next time.
-
Silver Grey Dorkings. Had our first hatch rather later than usual this year. 100% fertile but lost 1 just before hatching. Good timing as we lost two hens this week. One didn't go to bed and got got by the fox and one got squashed on the lane by the house :gloomy:
-
Have a broody toulouse goose sitting on 2 toulousexembden eggs and at least 1 toulouse egg (Depends if she has laid any more).
Have a broody chicken sitting on some hybrid eggs from our flock, a mixture of Cream Legbar, Cuckoo Maran, Barnveldar and something else.
I've not cracked a single unfertile egg this year for eating so fingers crossed we have a good fertility rate.
Dans
-
and we are done for the year !
Guinea fowl doing well and 2 lovely bourbon red turkeys hatched.
One of our Wyandottes has disappeared for about a month but comes back every few days for a feed. I suspect she is sitting on eggs somewhere. Not found the nest yet.....is she likely to come back with a load of chicks ?
-
I have some Indian Game, Blue Laced Wyndotte bantams and Sasso x Marans, all due to hatch in 2 days.
That might be it for me....... or maybe one more :innocent:
-
Not due until Thursday, got one pipped already, probably not a good sign.