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Offline Beth Kirkley

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more baby chicks
« on: April 08, 2005, 06:45:39 pm »
Over a month ago a friend of mine and I started hatching out baby chicks to sell. That's going over really well! I've enjoyed it so much. In a little over a week we might even have some geese hatching, and a week after that, more chicks. Plus, someone asked if we would try to hatch out two swan eggs, but they're not due to hatch for awhile.

We've both had so much fun with this, and found that selling the babies can bring in a little cash, that we decided to order some more chickens to have several purebreeds. My friend's chickens that we've been hatching these babies from aren't pure. The hens include two pure types - 4 pure silver laced wyandottes & 7 pure rhode island reds. Then there are several "mutt" hens, and a "mutt" rooster. For a dollar a piece, no one has cared that they're mixed up babies. :) But we'd like to do better next year, and offer purebreds. So my friend Kay ordered 17 silver laced wyandottes (hens & roosters), and 17 rhode island reds (hens & roosters). She'll sell off the mutts next fall so that she has all purebred next spring for hatching. I've got my partridge rocks, and my husband said he wanted to be the one to pick our second breed. He wants to experiment with making our own hybred Cornish X Rocks, so I ordered white rock hens and then some dark cornish. We figure if the experiment doesn't work we can always replace the cornish roosters with white rock roosters.

I just ordered the new babies today - and they're going to come as fast as next Monday or Tuesday!! This babies won't be ready for hatching out purebreds this year, but will get us fully set up for next spring.

And an update on MY chicks..... oh boy! The cornish hybreds are doing fantastic. All the chickens are really. Haven't lost a ONE of either breed! They're all so strong and beautiful. But the cornish X rocks are so amazing - 7 weeks old tomorrow, and already weigh 10 pounds on the roosters, and 9 pounds on the hens! We're going to go ahead had put the 5 roosters to the freezer tomorrow, then wait to do the hens next weekend. In the end, the cornish ones will have only cost me an estimated 60 cents per pound of meat to the freezer. That's including the cost of the chick and the shipping too. Not bad at all. (Hope all this wasn't too horrendously grafic to the vegitarians out there.)

That's it..... just wanted to share in what's up in my little world. :)

Beth

Offline Jay

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more baby chicks
« Reply #1 on: April 08, 2005, 09:28:38 pm »
Hey Beth, has the dove come back with the olive branch over at your place yet? :lol:
By the rude bridge that arched the flood
Their flag to Aprils breeze unfurled
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world
-Emerson

Offline Horns Pure Honey

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« Reply #2 on: April 08, 2005, 11:50:04 pm »
We are thinking about baby turkeys right now, bye :D
Ryan Horn

Offline Beth Kirkley

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« Reply #3 on: April 09, 2005, 08:19:12 am »
Not yet Jay. :) And the partridge hasn't returned the pear tree either. Maybe they're off together somewhere.


Beth

Violacea

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more baby chicks
« Reply #4 on: April 12, 2005, 05:04:46 pm »
Our chicks are coming in tomorrow!  *Can’t wait*  :D   Turkey's too.  

Do you let the eggs sit out before incubating?  I was trying to hatch some but haven't had any luck as of yet.  I think it's just a fertility problem with my roosters, getting some more in, so I'll try with them.  You know you can also sell fertile eggs on ebay for hatching, people love to hatch them out them selves for projects or schools and such.  If you have enough land to free-range, young egg laying hens can bring in $5 - $20 apiece depending on your location. They sell better in the spring too.  Happy hatching!  :D

Offline Beth Kirkley

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« Reply #5 on: April 13, 2005, 01:30:33 am »
Violacea-
There are really alot of reason for low or no hatch rate.
- young hens and/or roosters (less fertile)
- infertile hens and/or roosters (not as common, but maybe if old)
- temperature of eggs before incubating (never store below about 45 degrees)
- length of time stored before incubating (one to two weeks is ok, past that the hatch rate drops more)
- not enough roosters (should have it about 1 rooster per 10-12 hens)
- different diseases

And other less common stuff.

Congrats on the new babies! I got my little ones on Monday. I was a little disappointed though. The post office never called me when they came. So it was a good thing I decided to check the mail anyway. Also, McMurray messed up the order just a touch - and that's not like them. We were short 3 rhode islands (plus one of the rhode islands died in transport), so now we've got to order 4 more of them later on. It's not a huge deal since we plan to order more cornish x rocks in a couple months. Just agrivating. I wouldn't have felt quite so bad about it - ACCEPT - it was my friend's chicks that were short, not mine. I actually got extras of both breeds I ordered. That's how McMurray usually does it - sends a few extra just in case. But her order was exact on the wyandottes, and then short on the other.

Oh.... and I think the goose eggs we put in the incubator are hatching tonight. :) I REALLY hope the 2 swan eggs hatch. Those we're hatching sort of in trade for some advertising. The guy getting the swans (if they hatch) will be on top in the trade though. But I just want to see the successfull hatch.

I've rambled enough,
Beth

Violacea

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more baby chicks
« Reply #6 on: April 13, 2005, 09:41:27 am »
haha, oh the joys of hatching.   :D

Well, I was a bit disappointed in our order too.  They sold more Wyandotte then they had so we didn't get any.  :(  They did throw seven extras in of the others though so that's good.  I used to get mine from McMurry but wasn't happy the last couple of times so I switched to the Estes Hatchery.  Ever hear?
I think my roosters are still a little young, that might be the trouble, I'll give it another shot here in a few weeks.
Let me know how the geese eggs hatch out too.  I'd really like to hatch our geese’s eggs instead of letting the hen sit, but I hear they are really hard to hatch out.  

It was kind of cold this morning so I couldn't bring myself to put the chicks outside in the barn.  They're in a cardboard box on our front porch.  I know, I'm pathetic.  :roll:


Offline Horns Pure Honey

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« Reply #7 on: April 13, 2005, 11:51:22 pm »
You just have to love baby chicks, sad that they grow up so fast. bye :D
Ryan Horn

Offline Beth Kirkley

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« Reply #8 on: April 14, 2005, 12:49:11 am »
I haven't heard of the hatchery you mentioned. I think I'm pretty stuck on McMurray. They've been great more than bad, and all my babies have done so well. I didn't lose a single chick while they've been growing (first order is nearly 8 weeks old). Well except for just one dying in transport - just like in the second order.

I haven't heard from my friend about the goose yet. I'll have to call her in the morning. The last I heard was that it was definately hatching and peeping. But surely it's hatched by now! If it hasn't, then it would have died because she told me it was cracking about 24 hours ago. Darn.... wish I had called her earlier to find out how the baby was.

What kind of chicks did you get? The picture is sorta blurry, but my guess was black sex-links, rhode islands, and not sure at all on the chipmunk colored ones. :)

How old are the turkeys you have? I hadn't realized you had said it was turkeys that you were trying to hatch. I don't know much about them, but did read a book once that said you have to artificially inseminate turkeys to do well on hatches.

Beth

Violacea

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« Reply #9 on: April 14, 2005, 12:44:24 pm »
No, I meant hatching chickens.  The chipmunk colored ones are the turkeys. :D The only turkeys we have.  Aren't they cute?

We got Buff Orpingtons (the light yellow ones), New Hampshire (More of a reddish in color), and Barred Plymouth Rock (the dark black with yellow specks on their heads) chicks.  Oh, and the turkeys are Bronze Breasted.

We called our farm store yesterday and found out they had got some Laced Wyandotte in, so we'll get some this year after all.   :D

Offline Beth Kirkley

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« Reply #10 on: April 15, 2005, 01:56:58 am »
Boy.... I was WAY off on my guess. :) Oh well. Good to hear the farm store will have what you want. My friend that was shorted on her rhode islands lucked out like that too. Here we had JUST gotten our order on Monday, and she went to the farm store Wednsday - and there she found 11 little rhode island chicks! So that worked out.

You sure so have a big selection of babies. They're adorable.

The baby geese I mentioned ARE hatching. They're slow breaking out though. Is that normal? Never hatched geese. I'm wondering if the humidity in the incubator is just too low for them to get out in a reasonable time.

Beth

Offline Horns Pure Honey

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« Reply #11 on: April 15, 2005, 03:28:32 am »
Geese need a high hummidity, I will have to look it up latter, never really studied geese in my fowl book. bye :D
Ryan Horn

Offline leominsterbeeman

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« Reply #12 on: April 15, 2005, 10:47:01 am »
This is so cool.  I need more land,  I could never keep chicks in my neighborhood.
Michael Keane
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Offline Horns Pure Honey

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« Reply #13 on: April 15, 2005, 05:58:51 pm »
You would be supprised, you can keep chickens in New York as long as they are not for consomption, bye :D
Ryan Horn

Offline Kris^

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« Reply #14 on: April 16, 2005, 10:16:03 am »
I hope to ge some chickens but probably not til next spring.  My partner doesn't want them free-ranging (even though several of our neighbors down the road do so), so it looks like a pen might be in order.  Unless it can be assured they would stay within our own compound.

-- Kris

Offline Horns Pure Honey

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« Reply #15 on: April 16, 2005, 01:37:33 pm »
We used a 4 foot high pen but they started to fly out. We live on a square acre in the front of one of are feilds and on a very fast pace road. The chickens never go but say 50 to 100 feet away from the pen and if you have a gate just let it stay open when the sun starts to set and they will all walk back in. You just need to make shure you close them up at night. It wasnt but a few months after putting up the fence we took it down and had no problems. We had a fox come around a while so I turned on a radio out by the shed and that kept the fox away. bye :D
Ryan Horn

Offline amymcg

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« Reply #16 on: April 18, 2005, 04:06:01 pm »
Hey Beth, do you have a picture of that Americana chick now that it's grown up?

Offline Beth Kirkley

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« Reply #17 on: April 18, 2005, 09:50:57 pm »
Amy-
I'll have to see tomorrow if I can get a good one. Sorta have troubles just lately with taking pictures. Too hard to explain. Basiclly, I need a program to be able to make my pictures smaller or else the file size is too big. Use to have one - but it was on our old computer that broke a couple weeks ago.

But I've got some possible options to get a picture. She's kinda nice looking. Odd, but nice. Her color is so mixed up. :) My best friend says she looks like the dog threw up on her. LOL But she's got very sharp colors, and very noticable ear tufts.

Hey..... I think I heard somewhere that the color of an aracana/americana's legs was the color of the egg they'll lay. Ever heard that? She has very nice dark olive green legs. Or are green legs normal for them?

Beth

Offline Horns Pure Honey

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« Reply #18 on: April 18, 2005, 09:56:37 pm »
I got like 99% teal or green eggs out of mine and like olive brown the other 1%, lol, bye :D
Ryan Horn

Offline crw13755

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« Reply #19 on: April 27, 2005, 06:47:08 pm »
Beth Do you ship your chicks? I am looking to buy some more and was thinking if you did I would get them from you (kinda like help support the small business person)  :)