Happy New Year

[Mike Gilbert]

Here\'s wishing all who visit here a happy, healthy, and peaceful New Year.   Mary and I will attend services tonight, then host a small gathering at our home to celebrate.   Today I transferred fertile eggs to the hatching tray.   By Sunday there should be some bantam buffs, wheatens, and blue-wheatens.    Also some bantam and standard Partridge Chanteclers.   The Chant\'s are remarkable winter layers, and the eggs were nearly 100% fertile.    Is anyone else hatching yet?

[Blue Egg Acres]

Happy New Year to you!  I have lights on the pullets (LF) and am getting up to 9 eggs a day out of 13 birds.  The eggs are still pretty small but plan to setup the breed pens by mid Jan. to get eggs in the incubators early Feb.  Fertility in my LF wheatens/blue wheatens has typically not been great that early, but hoping for the best and will take what I can get.  Need some mature birds for the 2010 National!

[grisaboy]

I turned the lights on about a month ago because the hens had all but stopped laying and I hate buying eggs from the store.  I am getting a lot of eggs now and I have been able to check egg color on all the pullets.  I won\'t set up breeding pens until Feb and won\'t start hatching until March.  I have to brood the chicks in an unheated barn and it is too cold before then to properly heat up the brooding box.

Curtis

[jwoodhaven]

Happy New Year to all.  We have about 90 chicks out as of today. A little of everything, LF Ameraucanas,Langshans,White Leghorns,Spanish,Bantam Buff Laced Polish and a few Bantam Ameraucanas. The bantam blacks and blues refuse to lay and hoping we get some fertility this year.   We start setting up breeding pens for the waterfowl this week.  
The Large fowl White Ameraucana chicks have great grey color (the darker grey the better). They tend not to yellow like the yellow chicks do and have a much nice white as adults. LF white cochins tend to work this way too.
Is anyone else having the cold weather we are having?  Makes us appreciate our heated barn that much more,

[John]

Jerry, it\'s 5 degrees with a feels like temp of -9 here in the Saginaw valley.
I don\'t have a heated chicken barn, so like Curtis, I\'ll set up the breeding pens in February and start hatching in March with the first two hatches for myself.  Then I\'ll hatch for 8 more weeks to fill orders for day-old chicks.  
I\'m sold out of LF wheatens already and may be sold out of most LF varieties soon.  I\'ve gotten very few orders for bantams so far.  

[Coyote]

-17 here last night-no heated barn-only faverolles and wyandottes laying

[Anne Foley]

Cold weather is extending to Southern Indiana
So we will follow Curtis\' lead for setting up the breeding pens
We wont have many blacks or whites early.
Happy New Year to all ABC members.

[Mike Gilbert]

Our first hatch of 2010 is history.   We have 35 chicks out of 36 fertile eggs.    Three, however, had splayed legs which are being repaired via hobbles constructed from strips of bandaids.
Considering the cold weather and that we were not using any special breeder feed, just regular layer, I\'m very satisfied with the results.

[faith valley]

Mike, what did you hatch out in this first batch?

Patty

[Mike Gilbert]

Mike, what did you hatch out in this first batch?

Patty

Patty, I hatched seven wheaten/blue-wheaten bantams (can\'t tell which is which until the feathers start coming in), four buff bantams, eight large fowl partridge chanteclers, and sixteen bantam partridge chanteclers.    Fifteen of the bantam chants were from just two hens, both two years old.  I only saved eggs for nine days - you can do the math.  I also got 100 percent fertility and hatchability from the wheaten pullet that placed 2nd at Columbus, all seven chicks are from her.  She\'s a keeper.

[faith valley]

That is wonderful for the first hatch of the season~  We hatched out 25 chicks, then turned the incubator off for the next few months.  We will turn it on again when the call ducks start up in March.  Hated to run that big thing for just a few eggs.  Good to hear that you got some buff chicks on the ground- we have just the 5 buff chicks right now- but will plan to reset that variety in the spring.

~Patty

[verycherry]

Happy New Year!

It has been in the low 20\'s for a while now, and was around 14 last night, but my Black/Lavender split pullets from Jean are beginning to lay at 7 & 1/2 months old!  No heat in the coops either, so I\'m trilled with them!  I\'m definately looking forward to putting them in the breeding pen with the better of my 2 Lavender boys (from John) soon.  The eggs are a nice blue too.

John, by the way, I told you that I wound up with 6 chicks from your B/L split eggs, and that either 2 or 3 looked like males, but looks like only one was a male after all.  The other two are just bigger girls with thicker legs, so I was fooled.  One female does have a crooked toe though, so I\'m thinking that maybe she should go into the EE pen anyway.  What do you think?  She is one of the larger girls, and has a really great beard too, but that toe worries me.

[Paul]

We set-up several breeding pens this past week-end.  Yesterday, started saving some eggs from some pens that hadn\'t been out free ranging.  We are a little behind this year but there is still plenty time to get some hatched to do well at the national meet.

[John]

crooked toe

If she is a good looking pullet otherwise and you don\'t have many to breed from, I would use her.  
Keep in mind that some LF lavender still have bantam genes so the sizes can range.  Selecting for size and egg color are my top priorities with that variety.

[verycherry]

crooked toe

If she is a good looking pullet otherwise and you don\'t have many to breed from, I would use her.  
Keep in mind that some LF lavender still have bantam genes so the sizes can range.  Selecting for size and egg color are my top priorities with that variety.

She\'s probably the largest one out of the 5 pullets.  Then I have the 3 pullets from Jean but those are all smaller.  I\'ll go ahead and try her then, but if she produces chicks with crooked toes I\'ll probably put her in with my laying hens.  Thanks!