The Official Forum of the Ameraucana Breeders Club > Housing, Health & Hatching
Artificial light and male fertility
Schroeder:
I have LF Silvers, both hens and pullets, in the same coop as my Wheatens, separated only by chicken wire. They have the same of everything - light, temperature, feed, etc., yet my Wheatens are laying 3 to 4 eggs a week and the Silvers have not laid anything since September. The only difference I can think of is that the Silvers are all together in a mixed flock, and the Wheatens have their own, more spacious area (as in square foot per bird.)
Beth C:
I have noticed that some varieties (and it probably varies by strain) lay earlier than others. My WBS always started about a month earlier than the other varieties. My buffs are usually the last, but I have one hen that lays very early. In contrast, my NHR layers lay straight through the shortest days, even w/o supplemental light.
I have also noticed that it takes a while longer to get fertile eggs, perhaps because the cocks need more light? Right now I have 12 out of 15 hens laying but only one has produced fertile eggs, 1 of 2 covered by Old Man. The others are covered by first year males, which may have something to do with it, but, since hens seem to vary in the amount of light they need, wonder if it's the same for males, just not as obvious since you don't have something as obvious as an egg to go by?
Mike Gilbert:
Hope this does not bore anyone, but I was pleased to have a good hatch on my brown red bantams and large fowl yesterday. Out of five bantam eggs set (all from one pullet), all were fertile and five hatched. Of six LF (one hen, one pullet) eggs set, all were fertile and five hatched. It isn't much, but we are off to a good start on the hatching season. I'll have larger hatches coming off for the next three Tuesdays, but I'm not setting eggs again for at least two weeks. If anyone is close enough to pick them up, I'll be happy to share eggs, but I don't ship them. On a sour note, my water hydrant inside the coop is froze up, so I'll be toting water until we get a good thaw. The thermometer here had not risen above zero for the last two days, and we had twenty below night before last. This morning it's a little better, but snowing again.
Birdcrazy:
Mike, The offer on the eggs is tempting, but your weather report has me wanting to go south not north. My hydrants froze too and I'm carrying water also. At least we are not -20 just down to about zero at the coldest. It is to be a heat wave here today about 30 then back down for the next few days. Hang in there and throw another log on the fire. Keep warm.
Don:
Mike, hatch all those rascals that you can and maybe we can put together a "Poultry Delivery Express" to get them distributed over the country once the ice melts. We just need to work on bird/egg availability and travel routes together to make this work well for everyone.
Congrats on the excellent hatches, not many of us have that good luck with our own incubators. Maybe we could go in together to buy you a couple of the units from John. Then we can ship our eggs to you to hatch!
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