3 Rookie Questions

[Sharon Yorks]

1. If you take one rooster out of a pen and replace him with another rooster, how many days does it take to be certain the eggs are fertile by the second rooster?

2. And when breeding blue/black/splash, are there any does and don’ts you all have learned over the years that you would like to share?

3. Has anyone had any good or bad experiences with using shredded newspaper as bedding. I keep chicks in my house for several weeks after they’re born and I was thinking paper might help with the dust. I haven\'t tried it yet.

Thanks,
Sharon

[jerryse]

I wait 14 days.At 10 days most of the eggs will be from the new rooster but there is still some carry over.I have never tried shredded newspaper as litter.

[Beth C]

I\'ve never tried the shredded newspaper, either. But last year Jesse used puppy house training pads. I don\'t know how well they worked after the chicks got older and more active, but they wouldn\'t produce dust like litter does.

[Mike Gilbert]

The worst dust in my opinion is from the chick dander and fuzz that they lose when they start growing feathers.  I cover my little cardboard box brooders with a furnace filter to cut down on the dust.  The air gets through, but the filter catches most of the dust.   I start my chicks on newspaper covered with textured paper toweling to keep them from slipping and developing splayed legs.  After a week or ten days they get clean, fine pine shavings, and by that time they are situated out in my pole barn in a larger brooder.

[John]

1. If you take one rooster out of a pen and replace him with another rooster, how many days does it take to be certain the eggs are fertile by the second rooster?
 

Check this old topic for some ideas...
http://ameraucana.org/abcforum/index.php?a=topic&t=558&min=0&num=15
The cock that was with the hen yesterday is probably going to be the daddy.
Other than that I like to keep 21 days in mind for this and a few other rules of thumb.  21 days for the chicks to hatch we know, so it is an easy number to remember.  With some vaccines you shouldn\'t collect eggs to eat for 21 days.  When you bring news birds onto your property it is best to quarantine them for 21 days.

[Tailfeathers]

I agree with Jerry and John.  Most sites I\'ve read say a hen should be clean after two weeks but I have read three on some sites.

Since I want to be absolutely sure and not have ANY chance at a mistake, I pull the rooster as soon as I\'ve got all the eggs I want from him.  Then I collect for another week, then I collect for cooking/selling for 4-5 days, and then I\'ll start cracking them open and if I get eggs that are infertile for 3 days in a row, I set the new rooster on them.  Then I wait three days and check for fertility.  As soon as I find my first fertile egg, I start collecting again.

I have a big Rubbermaid watertank that I use as a brooder in the house and I fill it with shavings.  I get a lot of dust to be sure but I just vacuum everything down when it gets to be too much.  Although the wife has been giving me nods that I think she wants me to find someplace else for them.   :p

God Bless,

[Sharon Yorks]

PAPER BEDDING - What a great idea! I will surely try the furnace filters around their pen. I normally put pine shavings down first, topped with a double layer of Bounty paper towels right after the chicks are first hatched. Paper towels are so easy to change out. After a week or two (depending on the number of chicks), I leave the paper towels off and go straight to shavings. I just wondered if shredded paper would be okay. It would definitely be cheaper.  

ROOSTER CHANGE – I have 2 really nice black hens that I would like to have a lot of chicks out of, but would like to use multiple cockerels to experiment with. I just wanted to make sure I knew which chicks would be out of which cockerels. My best cockerel is a splash, so I know they will all be blue, but I really want some blacks, so I wanted to try them with a blue cockerel, too. I just wanted to make sure I knew which cockerel the blue chicks were out of in of the second batch.

Thanks for all of the great advice. It was very helpful.

Sharon

[Paul]

#1.  You need 3 weeks to be sure the chicks are out of the new cockerel.  APA President, Sam Brush, has a story to share about only waiting two weeks.

#2.  The splash X blue may produce blues that are too light.

#3.  We use a fine grass hay-Bermuda grass.

[grisaboy]

Swapping Roosters;
2 to 3 weeks is the \'rule of thumb\' but some breeds (nankins) are notorious for staying fertile longer.  Some individual hens may also stay fertile longer.
If you absolutely must be sure you should use the incubator test.
separate the hens from all males.  after one week save all the eggs and set in incubator.
after 7 days set another set of eggs and in the incubator.  Break open all the eggs set 7 days prior.  If they are fertile they will have started developing. Keep doing this each week until all of the eggs are clear. Once all of the eggs are clear, you can put the new rooster with the hens and be 100% confident that all subsequent offspring are his.
Curtis

[Tailfeathers]

Setting them in the incubator is certainly one way of ensuring that you get clear eggs but unless you\'re going to feed those eggs back to your birds (which I do) the egg is wasted.

I prefer to just crack it open, check it for fertility, and then eat it myself.

God Bless,

[OldChurchEggery]

RE: Chick bedding. I use paper towels for the first two or three days and then use pine tags. Since I grow lots of blueberries, the soiled bedding makes a perfect mulch afterwards. If you have azaleas or other acid-loving plants it would work nicely for those as well. The pine tags don\'t mat down like I\'ve found hay does, so I use it in my coops and nest boxes, too.

[Sharon Yorks]

BEDDING: Well, shredded newspaper isn\'t going to work. Indy acts as though he has just found a plate of spaghetti. Back to pine shavings. I like Mike\'s air filter idea and am designing a new indoor pen.  

ROOSTERS: I REALLY hope my stupidity can eventually help others, especially since I\'m sharing my \"not-so-bright\" antics with so many people. LESSON!!! Big rookie mistake! Never put two rooster in pens or runs beside each other! Yes, Paul. I know you warned me about this a while back, (when they were just baby chicks) but I forgot, okay? That was many months ago. I\'m of age now to have some of those moments. I wasn\'t thinking. My mind was on Ruby. Long story short, both cockerels are okay with now bandaged feet and corn starch all over their bruised faces and combs. Thankfully, I hadn\'t left them out very long. NOTE: Red all over a splash is NOT a pretty sight.