Ameraucana Breeders Club
The Official Forum of the Ameraucana Breeders Club => Housing, Health & Hatching => Topic started by: Mike Gilbert on December 14, 2011, 11:29:52 AM
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Well, I succumbed to temptation again this year. I set eggs yesterday, including Brown Red Ameraucana large fowl from two small matings. They are my best layers, and egg color has improved immensely, though the eggs are still a little too small. As each year passes small, incremental improvements are being made. The Ameraucana bantams have not been laying lately, although the pullets were laying in November. The L.F. take longer to develop than the bantams, so this will work out fine; we should have a few more to show at the National in Missouri next October. Mary and I wish all who visit here a very Merry Christmas and a blessed 2012.
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Mike,
We too have set eggs, have the fist batch hatched out- 2 buff bantams and 6 wheaten bantams. We plan to hatch every other week now for the next 3 months or so then switch to the call ducks.
Hope you all have a wonderful holiday season~
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I also have a few chicks out.I have set up pens to make lavender splits in bantam and LF.Now a 2 week wait before I can save eggs.Weather permitting.
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I have been holding steady...no eggs set yet. I was going to set a few for a New Year\'s hatch, but just wanted to wait so I can go ahead and set a BIG batch in January! It\'s a month earlier than I promised my husband, but I just can not wait any longer.
Our Lavender Ameraucanas and Split Lavs that made the cut last year are showing serious promise as breeders. One of our Lav pullets is one heck of a looker, great size, type, excellent comb...and has been a consistent layer of the bluest eggs I\'ve ever seen. This next year should be an excellent year for the lavs!
I will be working on a new project and can\'t wait to set those eggs. Spring comes a little early when chicks are hatching in the house! ;)
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Incubator - check
Brooder - check
Eggs - negative
Can I expect around 27 to 30 weeks to start getting LF eggs?
In the fall I disconnected the lighting and the older birds went into molt and have yet to lay. Its been almost 3 months since i have had eggs and I hate having to rely on the grocery for my eggs. Christmas treats just won\'t be the same... I just now got electric setup in my chicken coop and have a timer set to provide light for 12 hours daily. Does anyone else use a timer? If so how many hours of light?
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how many hours of light?
12 hours should get you some eggs. I only use artificial lights during the hatching season and start them a month before I plan to start collecting eggs to hatch. I start with 12 hours and increase it each week until I\'m up to 16 hours...generally from 4am to 8pm.
I\'ve read that some commercial laying operations go with 18 hours of light. I know of some folks that leave a light on in their coops all winter and they claim it also provides heat. I don\'t recommend that at all. If they need heat they should use another source and 24 hours of light can stress the birds.
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I don\'t have power in my coop. I have run a power cord across the yard in the past and put the coop lights on a timer.
This year I bought some solar christmas lights and hung them up in the coop (very festive). Depnding on how bright the day is the lights stay on for 2 to 4 hours after dark. It is a soft light but enough that I can see the birds on the roosts and I am getting eggs. No more cords across the yard and the decrease in the power bill should eventually pay for the investment. A 24 foot string of solar lights cost me about $20.
Curtis
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I am not going to set eggs until Feb or Mar. I don\'t like running the brooder while it is cold and my wife won\'t let me keep chicks in the basement any more.
Curtis
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I have cords across the yard & running through conduit across the pasture. One of these days I\'ll get ambitious, run real wire, rent a ditch-witch, and bury the conduit. Maybe I\'ll drop a water line, too, while I\'m at it. But for now, it\'s redneck engineering all the way! :p
I\'ve had the lights on in the coop since early October and the free-loaders just started laying. I was really hoping to get an earlier start than this. The coccidia has been so bad the last 2 seasons I\'ve decided this year I\'m not setting anything past February.
I did set a dozen eggs from a nice wheaten pullet. I had a couple eggs from a splash pullet that I put in as well, even though there was a chance she may have been exposed to a buff cockerel. Of course, none of the wheaten\'s eggs were fertile, so I have 3 little gambles due on Christmas Eve (assuming they\'re still kicking - haven\'t candled lately).
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There are some old topics on lighting that you can find thru some searches. Here is one that shows some of my Christmas lights.
http://ameraucanabreedersclub.org/abcforum/index.php?a=topic&t=1401
Keep in mind not all light is the same when it comes to stimulating eggs production and the cocks/cockerels need it too.
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I\'m holding off for awhile this time on setting eggs. I recently read the article by Kenny Troiano in the PP where he talked about late Fall and Winter chicks not developing as well or as fast as Spring chicks. Having gone back over some of my records, I found that my winter chicks don\'t do as well either.
Also, I am going to wait until the pullets have been laying for quite awhile and at least have their full sized egg. His comments about egg size I thought hold some merit too. And finally, I\'m also going to breed some of my older hens for the reasons he mentioned.
So my plan now is to set up the pens after the first of the year and start putting birds in them about mid-January. Then I\'ll start collecting about the first week of FEB. Unless I decide to set some as EE\'s before then.
Oh, and btw, let me take this opportunity to wish any of y\'all reading this a very Merry Christmas and a safe, happy, and prosperous new year!
God Bless,
God Bless,
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We finally joined in on the fun and anticipated excitement of newly hatched chicks. Set 70 eggs on Jan. 3.
The girls have really gotten busy laying the past few days. Soon we should be setting full incubators.
Paul & Angela
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joined in on the fun
I think I\'ll set eggs before the end of the month. It\'ll be the earliest ever for me.
The weather is spring like with sunshine and a high of 50 today...January 6th in mid Michigan!
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We are supposed to be in the upper 40\'s here in western Wisconsin today. I have 30-some chicks hatched. Did not expect a high percentage due to the colder weather at the time I was collecting eggs. But have another batch scheduled to hatch next Tuesday, and another the Tuesday after that.
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I set 21 eggs on Dec 31st. There were 7 each from 3 hens. I candled them last night and found that one of my hens must have said, \"No way, buddy!\" to my cockerel because all of her eggs were clear. I think the rest all look pretty good, although two of them appear very dark inside. What does that mean? I can\'t see inside of them. I can see the air sack, but the rest is dark. I\'m going to try to find me a better light and candle again in a few days. I\'m really bummed about those 7 eggs. I was expecting some really good chicks out of that combo. Well, you know the saying, if at first you don\'t succeed, um... give your rooster an ultimatum!!!
Sharon
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I set 21 eggs on Dec 31st. There were 7 each from 3 hens. I candled them last night and found that one of my hens must have said, \"No way, buddy!\" to my cockerel because all of her eggs were clear. I think the rest all look pretty good, although two of them appear very dark inside. What does that mean? I can\'t see inside of them. I can see the air sack, but the rest is dark. I\'m going to try to find me a better light and candle again in a few days. I\'m really bummed about those 7 eggs. I was expecting some really good chicks out of that combo. Well, you know the saying, if at first you don\'t succeed, um... give your rooster an ultimatum!!!
Sharon
In my experience, if you can see the air sack but the rest is dark, you have a chick in there.
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Just candled some week old eggs today.Even with this mild weather there were some that must have been chilled too much.I have 19 LF lav splits that show developement.Hope to make some improvements with these.I have not looked for the slow feathering gene in the past but will watch for it this year.I don\'t think I have it but there may be a few.
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I set 21 eggs on Dec 31st. There were 7 each from 3 hens. I candled them last night and found that one of my hens must have said, \"No way, buddy!\" to my cockerel because all of her eggs were clear. I think the rest all look pretty good, although two of them appear very dark inside. What does that mean? I can\'t see inside of them. I can see the air sack, but the rest is dark. I\'m going to try to find me a better light and candle again in a few days. I\'m really bummed about those 7 eggs. I was expecting some really good chicks out of that combo. Well, you know the saying, if at first you don\'t succeed, um... give your rooster an ultimatum!!!
Sharon
In my experience, if you can see the air sack but the rest is dark, you have a chick in there.
Our girls are laying very well without added light or heat. They stopped on August 31st, and started on Christmas morning all by themselves. Nice gift. I won\'t be hatching for a while until a do a harder culling and I just don\'t have the time right now.
I have the hardest time candling my eggs. I use a 2 million candle light under a tube that narrows at the top to see. A few times, when I thought there was nothing in there, a fully developed , but dead, chick was in it, other times it was either orange or a green icky stinky mess. BTW, what is the reason it\'s green and icky?
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Are you disinfecting your eggs before setting them? I use a solution of Oxine.
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BTW, what is the reason it\'s green and icky?
So you can have green eggs with your ham!
Just kidding. Here is a link that may help answer some of those questions: http://animalscience.ucdavis.edu/Avian/pfs33.htm
--Sharon
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Mike: I wash them but do not disinfect them - I will do oxine from now on. Thank you
Sharon: Nothing in there about green - at least that I saw. Thank you for he referral to that chart though.
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disinfecting your eggs before setting them
Oxine may be fine, but just to give you another option I use Tek-Trol. I use it in a spray bottle, mixed with water, in the incubators and I mist the eggs with it before putting them in the setters.
TEK-TROL DISINFECTANT-CLEANER -M-91
For sanitizing eggs, incubators, incubator rooms, spraying pens. Proven effective against E.coli,Klebsiella, Salmonella, Pseudomonas, Aspergillus, Mycoplasma and many more. Highly concentrated-use only 1/2 oz. per gallon of water vs. 1 oz. For many other disinfectants. 1 gallon (makes 256 gal.)
http://www.cutlersupply.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3_82&products_id=386
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I also use Oxine. It is a wonderful product for hatching eggs and fogging the coop. If you are rubbing your eggs when you wash them, instead of just dipping them, that may be part of the problem. Here is another link that explains that an eggs natural defense and bacteria penetrating the shell.
http://msucares.com/poultry/reproductions/poultry_wash.html
Sharon
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Commercial hatcheries disinfect their hatching eggs. I would rather rub a little dirt off, even if it means the egg might not hatch, than take a chance on an explosion of bacteria growth in the warm, humid environment of the incubator. It\'s a lot easier to replace an egg than to disinfect an entire incubator.
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I\'ve been using a mild bleach solution on the eggs. I use Tek-Trol to disinfect the incubators & brooders but didn\'t know that it could be sprayed onto the eggs. I\'ve heard great things about Oxine, too, but haven\'t gotten around to ordering any.
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I use Tek-Trol to disinfect the incubators & brooders but didn\'t know that it could be sprayed onto the eggs.
After I place the eggs into the plastic trays that go into the setters (incubators) and just before setting them I liberally spray the eggs with the Tek-Trol solution. It completely covers the eggs and is much quicker then dipping them. When I first tried it a few years ago I started with just a little mist and was afraid of overdoing it, but I haven\'t noticed any negative results and it only takes a few seconds to do. I especially feel very comfortable using it because it includes hatcheries, setters and hatchers in the list of many uses on the label.
PS...like Mike I rub or scrape dirt off the eggs. I\'ve never washed or dipped hatching eggs. Seldom do I get a rotten/stinky egg and I hatched over 4,000 chicks last year.
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We use 6 1/2 oz. of Oxine to 1 gal. of water to disinfect our incubators. The eggs are also washed in the Oxine/water solution. A tip I learned last year was to put 2 tablespoons of bleach in 1 gal. of water to be placed in the water pans inside the incubator during incubation and hatching.
I like using it!
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Just set the second batch of eggs. Candle the first batch looking good just 2 more weeks.
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A tip I learned last year was to put 2 tablespoons of bleach in 1 gal. of water to be placed in the water pans inside the incubator during incubation and hatching.
I use city water in the incubators which is chlorinated, so adding bleach isn\'t needed here. If you have a choice between using city water and well water (with a lot of minerals like mine) in your incubators I would recommend the city, distilled or filtered water.
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I\'ve never done anything to disinfect my eggs before setting them in my incubator. Don\'t I feel like a country bumpkin! Good advice here, I\'ll have to give it a try. I also never gave a second thought to using our well water, might have to try some distilled as well and see what my results are like.
I\'ve been hatching like a fiend since October. \'Course that\'s when my lavenders were finally giving me eggs. This is my first year raising my own lavs and splits, so I really want to have lots of birds to choose from as breeders and hopefully to show. I also only have 7 hens laying, so we aren\'t talking the huge amount of eggs some of you guys have :) I have 2 good black hens, 4 lavender pullets, 1 lavender hen, 1 lavender roo and 1 split roo in that pen. I put 2 new lavender hens in that pen only to have them everybody stop laying a couple weeks ago. Now my Blue/Splash pen is kicking up, so I\'ve been setting eggs from them. I have a Splash rooster, Splash hen, Black Hen, Blue Hen, 2 Splash Pullets and 2 black pullets in there. I lost my blue rooster last year and was lucky enough to find this splash rooster (from a very generous individual) so these are the first chicks from him. Excited to see what sort of quality they are!
I also just purchased a Silver flock and they came with a blue silver hen, 2 blue silver pullets and a blue silver cockrel. They are still in quarentine and no one is laying yet, but I\'m sure I\'ll be having lots of questions for you all. I\'ve always loved the silver color but the genetics of it are still abit intimidating to me.
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FYI...The temperature of your egg storage room should be between 55 & 68 degrees with a relative humidity between 75 & 80% according to the University of Georgia.
I printed page 4 of the article (see link below) and posted it in my egg storage room for a reference. I\'ve got the temp where it belongs, but I can never get the humidity that high this time of year and I have many pans of water all over in the room.
http://animalscience.ucdavis.edu/Avian/qualconproc.pdf
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I set 21 eggs on Dec 31st. There were 7 each from 3 hens. I candled them last night and found that one of my hens must have said, \"No way, buddy!\" to my cockerel because all of her eggs were clear. I think the rest all look pretty good, although two of them appear very dark inside.
Sharon
Peeps started hatching yesterday at noon and finished up today at around the same time. As I suspected, the 7 from the one hen were never fertile. 6 out of the 7 splashes hatched and 5 out of the 7 blues hatched. One of the blue chick looks like a cross between a splash and a blue and is almost grey. I\'ll have to post a picture tomorrow. All of the blues are out of the same splash male and black hen. I\'m surprised it has such a variation in color from the other peeps since they all have the same parents. I\'m eager to see how much it changes color and/or if it stays grey. My blue-looking Indy chick turned black so I\'m figuring this chick will darken up some as it gets older.
--Sharon
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I will accept 3 more orders for LF lavenders and LF wheatens (the limit on the order form for these varieties) before I consider them sold out for the season. An order form and all the details are on my Chick Hatchery site.
I\'ve had Canadian orders before for Ontario and British Columbia, but this year I have orders from two provinces I haven\'t before...Quebec and Alberta! There may be one more order for over the border coming in the mail.
Another first for me is an order from Hawaii. I\'ve sent chicks to Alaska before and most of the lower 48, but I haven\'t kept track as Paul has.
Due to the warm winter I started incubating early this year and after saving many chicks from these first hatches for myself, I should be able to start filling some orders sooner than usual.
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I shipped my 1st 3 orders of chicks, of the season, yesterday. They were accepted at my local post office between 4:04 and 4:06. One box was picked up at the post office in TN this morning at 9:13 and another was picked up in FL at 11:46. None were DOA, although one lady said a few \"bantams have significant spraddle legs and one of those is pretty severe\". I\'ve been hatching chicks for many decades and had to look up what that meant last year when a customer said some chicks had it. Of the couple hundred chicks that hatched yesterday I found only 1 with that condition and it died shortly thereafter.
The third box is going to IL, but the post office tracking site doesn\'t show it has left Detroit yet. I think that box is being trucked and hopefully it will be there sometime tomorrow.
I know Michael said he has problems shipping from his local post office, but fortunately there are no problem from here this year...so far. :rolleyes:
3/1/2012...update...the IL chicks were picked up at 6:18 this morning.
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Looking forward to my chicks!