LFG

Hubby and I candled the eggs this evening.  Some of them have mottling in the coloring which makes it hard to see past, but I think we did it right.  I added a little bit of humidity because it was down to 20 percent and the temperature is holding at 99 degrees.

 

I sent the candling info to Steve to post here.  If we're correct, we have three duds and 18 chicks.  The duds would be two larger ? eggs and one medium mottled egg.  I forgot about listing the shading on a few eggs and of course it was two of these.  I hope you can figure out which rooster is doing it's job! 

18? Wow! That's awesome!

I'm so glad I sent the eggs from the young girls. I rarely see the chickens during the week, so I wasn't sure if that rooster was getting the job done yet, but I'm seeing good fertility in my set as well. I did get to spend some time with them this weekend, and it was like Caligula in that pen

I'm surprised the big eggs are the ones not developing, but maybe they were more susceptible to disruption during shipping. Maybe those smaller, compact eggs kept the yolks from getting shaken up too much.

I really hope you have a good hatch rate. With that many developing, you should at least get the  number of girls you wanted for yourself. If you have room to grow the roosters until they are big enough to take to that butcher, BCM are some of the best eating chickens around.

The other good news with those younger eggs developing is that rooster is the best I have. He has a great body type, his color is fantastic, and the girls with him have a nice green sheen to their black feathers. You will have Bev Davis show chickens as your backyard layers

 

ETE: When you add water, is it warm? That will help bring the temperature back up quickly, especially in Styrofoam. I may be telling you something you already know, just trying to pass along a trick or two

Here you go

 

Egg sizes (1).pdf

 

eggchart2.png

Just got to where I could see your charts on PC. You need a job?

Petee, if it helps, I hardly ever see veins in the eggs, they're just too thick. I candle from the fat end down. I can see the air sack, and if the egg is developing a dark shadow. Infertile eggs will be opaque, and the light will go all the way through the egg. With eggs developing you won't see much past the line of the air sack, especially after day 8 or 9. This doesn't help determine the quitters, but it will let you pull infertiles at lockdown

Thanks Steve. I decided that I would weigh my own eggs this morning just for the heck of it and because the scale was still sitting on the counter. One was 84 grams which is off the charts, and that is not the biggest that has been laid from my chickens. The old biddy, who only lays about once a week, lays whoppers! She will be going to a older couple in Troutville just as soon as I can get her processed. She's definitely slowing down physically and that's an indication that she could be suffering the pains of old age. I will not put her through the heat of summer or the cold of winter again. She deserves a quick and worthwhile end. I want to respect each of their needs too.

My second year black coppers lay a lot of 80+ gram eggs

Normally I wouldn't bother but I thought it might be fun for the people on here who have never seen eggs being incubated.

 

I went out today and bought a flashlight that has 700 lumens. Then I built a "holder" out of a stack of McDonalds cups so the flashlight is standing inside on end with the light up, and there's an opening on which to lay an egg. My hands are giving me fits so I don't want to risk dropping an egg or making my hands ache.

 

It must be bright enough because I got a ray of light from around the eggs and about blinded myself! Tonight, after dark, I should be able to take an x-ray of them!

I think it would be a lot of fun for everyone. I'm hatching every few weeks, but hatch day is always exciting. I think people will learn a lot from your documentary

I used an LED flashlight last night without much success, but I did find one that had come in the mail with hairline cracks. I was incubating it anyway but realized that the cracks were widening and a small chunk of the shell had dropped away with a slight leakage of fluid so I circular filed it. However, I opened it first and there was definitely an embryo so there has been fertilization. I'm off today to find the brightest flashlight I can find.

 

Today they will each be numbered and photographed so everyone can now keep track of what's going on. Originally there were 25 eggs so they will be numbered from 1-22. #1 came broken, #2 broke in the incubator, #3 had the cracks and leakage. When they hatch I will try to connect the chick with the egg shell. Unless they sneak out when I'm not watching it should be fun tracking them.

You're much more hands on than me. When the incubator is full of chicks, I'll take them out.

It's easier to do that on this set. All my eggs are from the young girls in the same pen. If I had eggs from two pens, I would put a divider on lockdown and band the chicks with different colors

Maybe Steve can sort out the chicken stuff and move it to another thread or another one could be started.

 

No, I haven't tried to candle them yet. I've had a rough couple of last days so all they've gotten is their rolling several times a day.

Just did a full candle of the ones I set the same day as you. 16/24 developing, so keep your fingers crossed

What is candling?? Holding an egg up in front of a candle to see if a chick has started?

 

When my family raised chickens, we bought them through a magazine, I think it was The Grit. We would pick them up at the PO, & feed, water, & keep them warm.

Kind of. More like shining a flashlight through one end, but all the light has to be directed into the egg, if light escapes around the sides, you can't see. A candler has a rubber cup to set the egg in. A good, cheap, homemade way is to use a toilet paper roll and flashlight

Go online & become a member of back yard chickens. It's free & very informative regarding chickens & ducks & more...

Best chicken forum on the internet. Hands down

This post is completely in the wrong thread, but I couldn't find the landfill accident thread. I saw an advertisement on channel 6 that they are doing a story on the landfill collapse Tuesday, May 9 on the 6 o'clock news.

I had been told that, but was asked not to post it online until it was made public. I'll bump the thread for you

Petee, have you tried candling yet? I peeked at a few of them on day 6, and it looks like I have some swimmers in the medium eggs. I am giving them a few days to develop more, and I'll do a full candle this weekend

Say all you want about how slow the south is, but I planted my tomatoes 2 weeks before Easter

Just for eggs then the feed stores are fine, but if you want good bloodlines from which to raise quality chickens then you have to go to a breeder such as Landfillguy.  They usually require a minimum purchase and won't usually guarantee sex or mix breeds.

 

You have to consider:

 

Cold and Heat Tolerance

How many eggs per year?

Friendliness

Do you want to use them for meat?

Color if it matters

 

You can sex chicks in a couple of ways that don't involve stripping the poop out of their vent first!  Then you don't have to worry about whether you end up with roosters!

I have not figured out the sexing of chicks yet. I have heard and tried several old wives' tales, but none have proven effective. I go by combs and wattles, unless they are peacombed like Ameraucanas or Easter Eggers. Those combs develop so slowly that it's hard to tell. Thankfully with the marans I have a good idea at 2 weeks, and am about 95% certain at 4.

I wouldn't call myself a full fledged breeder yet. I started with good stock, culled to the best of those, then mated what I hoped would produce the best results. You are actually one of the first recipients of what will be considered my line. Marans are notoriously hard to breed to the Standard, and if you are culling for egg color at the same time you will keep about 1 in every 10 chicks hatched. Like I said, for eggs it doesn't matter, but a lot of my customers show. Every chicken has faults, some are more egregious than others, and if you don't cull then those faults are magnified in the offspring. Some faults can actually be combined to reduce other faults, such as too much/too little copper color. A rooster with too much color is a good match for a solid black hen.

Hatcheries don't cull, they can't afford to. Everything that hatches is bred and reproduced, so faults are magnified to the point of being a DQ at show. Again, fine for egg layers, but not for picky customers

Beautiful birds! One of these days, one of these days

Thanks

There's nothing wrong with feed store chicks for pets and eggs, but there is a differece when buying from a breeder.

They also cost 4 times more, and quite often I will recommend feed stores to people just looking for a few layers

Someone else can do that, we won't!!   

Do you have an incubator?

Oh my, they are beautiful!

Those are your parents

As promised, here are the two flocks Petee's eggs came from:

Chicken Saddle.jpgChicken Saddle.jpgI'm getting one of the high intensity flashlights to make the candling easier.  The kids and I used to do it in front of the bathroom nightlight but I don't think that will work.

 

It was one of the medium eggs.

 

Maybe your girls would like this idea:  

I've debated that for a few. The roosters definitely have their favorites, but usually a few extra girls will give them... options

If I can keep 8-10 girls per pen, that usually spreads them around without hurting fertility.

I have a Brinsea candler, but not the HI. I need to get one. Like I said, usually by day 10 you can at least see a developing air sack. I don't have a lot of hope for those medium eggs, but my fingers are crossed. Those two roosters are the same age, but the hens in the blue pen were trained to submit by another rooster. He kicked me one too many times, and I have a smoker

I had some excitement this afternoon when the electricity went out.  I had wrapped the whole kit and kaboodle (incubator) in towels when the electric finally came back on.  I had visions on having to take the whole bundle to bed to cuddle till the incubator heated up again.  They got down to 95 for about 15 minutes but that was all.  Now they are at a toasty 99-100 degrees.  

 

I did lose one that broke out the small end for some reason.  I checked it thoroughly but it was not fertile or rotten.  Two total down.  Everyone else seems to be fine.

I used to get really nervous when the power went out, but it seems anything under 2 hours pretty much has no effect. My incubators even have a setting where they will purposely shut down the heater for an hour every day to mimic the mother getting off the nest. The fine print said that the tests showed an improvement of one more hatched egg for every 48 set, so I haven't messed with it.

I hate that another one broke. Maybe I had it too close to the edge of the box when I packed it. I hope it wasn't another big one. That rooster is starting to strip the feathers off the girls, so I know those eggs are fertile, but the young girls I still don't know about. I'll try candling Thursday or Friday and see if I can make out anything.

If for some reason you have no luck at all with these eggs, we'll do it again

Not only is Pennsylvania leading the way, Jefferson, Clearfield and Elk Counties lead Pennsylvania.  So what makes us a safe place for these ticks and this disease?  Something is supporting them.

In the short time I've been on this forum I have learned one thing. It ain't the Olive Garden

That is so wonderful! I absolutely love birds except for the damned crows, lol! But, the sound of a rooster crowing in the morning is one of the best sounds ever. I've always felt sorry for townies who've never experienced it.

I have 5 big roosters that have varying lengths of deep crows. I have one silkie rooster that weighs about 4 pounds that can outdo every one of them. It's a higher pitched crow, he drags it out, and the sound carries for about a mile

Actually it was one of the largest one with a few little ripples in that end of the shell. Lighter beige.

Dang...

I'm hoping some of the younger girls are fertile. I guess we'll find out in 7-10 days. Those eggs are tough to candle. Sometimes I can see veins, but usually I'm just looking for a shadow and developing air sack

 

 

I came home to roll the eggs!  What a profession....egg rolling!

What is that?

 

The box was in extraordinarily good shape.  One egg had the end broken but only one other is questionable.  I'll let you know how it goes when they are old enough to candle.  Right now they are warm and toasty at 99 degrees almost constant.  Humidity without adding anything to the humidifier is 35%.

I hate that one was broken, hopefully it was one of the smaller ones.

I set 2 dozen last night, all from the young girls, so I'm 12 hours behind you rolling the dice. Those are pretty big eggs, huh?

  Start counting.

I know Petee is probably gone for a while, so for you guys keeping track, if she set this morning they will be due on May 18. The hatch usually lasts 18-32 hours, so they could start hatching around the evening of the 17th, and it could stretch into the 19th or 20th