Chickens for bug control and food recycling.

[Beekissed]

Poor results on hatches this year but have no solution for it. Both clutches that hatched yesterday only had 4 chicks each out of 15 eggs set. Nice big chicks but not the usual outcome.

 

[Nyboy]

Bee how old is your rooster ?

 

[Beekissed]

He's just two and sporting well on the BAs in the flock, as most of the chicks that have hatched have been BA/WR cross. I've even got eggs in these clutches with fully grown chicks in them that have died prior to hatching but no visible signs as to why.

Not that usual on a broody hatch to have such a poor rate of hatch...if the eggs are fertilized and from healthy chickens~and all of mine are healthy as can be, as usual~the hatch rate is usually very high.

I think this one is going to remain a mystery. This flock has been shooting out eggs like gumballs all winter and spring, so food production is high, even if it's not going to be meat production this year. I've got another broody in the offing that I wasn't going to allow to sit, but I'm going to do some shuffling of birds for a bit until I get the eggs I want and load her up for another try.

 

[Ridgerunner]

it's a strange year for my hatching too. I did an incubator hatch in January and got 22 out of 28 eggs to hatch. I consider that OK for a January hatch. The cockerels from that hatch will go in the freezer in another 2 to 3 weeks.

Then in March, I put six eggs under a broody and 12 eggs in the incubator, planning on giving the broody whatever hatched. That was a big disappointment, I got nine chicks, 3 under the broody and 6 in the incubator, exactly half from each. Most of the eggs were clear, no development at all. That broody weaned her chicks at three weeks, end of April. That's the third time I've had a broody wean her chicks at three weeks, but the other two were in the heat of summer.

Right now I have 5 eggs under another broody and 14 in the incubator, due early next month. We'll see how many she gets to raise. If this hatch is anywhere decent that should be all I hatch this year.

 

[Beekissed]

Ridge, I usually cut off broody hatches by the end of May but I may try one more time...got a broody in the wings. I'm going to make sure the rooster gets some breeding time with only the WRs and load her up only with WR eggs, then candle at 10 days to see what's happening in there.

I'm also going to let her brood in a different place to see if that makes a difference.

The only thing I can think of that I did differently this year was use more moth balls in the vicinity of the maternity ward to try and keep the black snakes at bay this year....they took 20+ chicks right after hatching last year and I wanted to keep them away, but could very well have shot myself in the foot with overuse of mothballs.

I know they are pretty toxic, even the fumes, and most are located right where these hens are sitting on eggs.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I understand why you stop Bee. It will be November/December before the cockerels are ready to eat and the pullets start to lay from this late a hatch. But I need one more hatch to get enough in the freezer to last until next summer when that spring's hatch is ready. So I'm doing it.

Those moth balls may be part of the hatching problem, I don't know. Broodies usually do better than me with the incubator but sometimes I just get horrible hatches with either. You just never know.

The main reason I put some in the incubator when I start a broody is that I have had problems with snakes taking eggs out from under broody hens. Of course I've lost a few chicks to snakes but really not many. Losing the eggs is a higher risk to me. This way she gets a few chicks to raise even with a disaster.

 

[Beekissed]

I usually get excellent hatches under the broodies, which is why I don't incubate. I used a LOT of mothballs this year...and I mean a lot. Could be that the BA eggs are smaller, more thick shelled and less porous, which could mean greater survival of the chicks in those. The WR eggs are much larger, thinner shelled and more porous, as are the single EE bird's eggs in each nest that didn't develop either.

I'm going to collect all those mothballs and try with this new broody in a different place in the ward, across the pen from where the mothballs were even located and see if she's successful. If she is, I'll know it was the toxicity of the mothball fumes.

Never get too old to make huge mistakes, do we? Especially with livestock...seems like learning is always on the menu with those.

 

[thistlebloom]

Never get too old to make huge mistakes, do we? Especially with livestock...seems like learning is always on the menu with those.

So it's not just me...

 

[Beekissed]

Nope...I make mistakes every year and some are big, some are smaller, but there's never a year that I don't make them, it seems. I'm getting so used to being wrong that it doesn't bother me as much any longer.

 

[thistlebloom]

I know, me too.
I just consider it a lifestyle now.