Farm Interesting Chick Hatching Experience... 90% pullets!

S

summerthyme

Administrator
_______________
So... I'm always experimenting. I needed to set a batch of eggs for next year's layers, and recently read that the more round eggs (as opposed to longer and narrower) are usually pullets.

This didn't make a lot of sense to me, because we've noticed that most hens lay a fairly similar egg, in color and shape, every day. To the point that we often know who laid an egg any particular day.

But, why not try it and see?

So, I picked out the fattest, roundest eggs every day, and set 39 eggs. When I candled them at 8 days, I found 4 "clears"... unfertilized... and tossed them.

They started hatching Tuesday, the first 2 emerging a day earlier than I expected, and the rest finishing up through this morning. At noon, I tossed the last 2 eggs... one had pipped, but died before hatching, and the other appeared to have died sometime earlier.

While hubby put the finishing touches on their pen, I counted and sexed them, using the wing feathering method. (I double checked with vent sexing under my big lighted magnifier as well, but that's... tricky!

I was shocked to find we had 33 healthy chicks, and 29 pullets! I marked them as I checked them, and went through them 3 times, thinking I was missing something. Not that I can tell... but we'll see!

It's tempting to try another batch, but this gives us all the layers we'll need! I may set half a dozen pointy, narrow eggs, timed to hatch when the first batch of Cornish X chicks are being delivered... I can use 6 extra cockerels for dog food.

I'll be interested in seeing if I'm just crazy... I haven't feather sexed chicks before, but it's pretty obvious when you compare them.

And one more discovery... we have two roos, a Slow White and a nice, Partridge Rock cross. Both 1 year old. 28 of the chicks are white... I can tell who rules the roost!

Summerthymek
 
Last edited:
J

John Deere Girl

Veteran Member
summerthyme said:
So... I'm always experimenting. I needed to set a batch of eggs for next year's layers, and recently read that the more round eggs (as opposed to longer and narrower) are usually pullets.

This didn't make a lot of sense to me, because we've noticed that most hens lay a fairly similar egg, in color and shape, every day. To the point that we often know who laid an egg any particular day.

But, why not try it and see?

So, I picked out the fattest, roundest eggs every day, and set 39 eggs. When I candled them at 8 days, I found 4 "clears"... unfertilized... and tossed them.

They started hatching Tuesday, the first 2 emerging a day earlier than I expected, and the rest finishing up through this morning. At noon, I tossed the last 2 eggs... one had pipped, but died before hatching, and the other appeared to have died sometime earlier.

While hubby put the finishing touches on their pen, I counted and sexed them, using the wing feathering method. (I double checked with vent sexing under my big lighted magnifier as well, but that's... tricky!

I was shocked to find we had 33 healthy chicks, and 29 pullets! I marked them as I checked them, and went through them 3 times, thinking I was missing something. Not that I can tell... but we'll see!

It's tempting to try another batch, but this gives us all the layers we'll need! I may set half a dozen pointy, narrow eggs, timed to hatch when the first batch of Cornish X chicks are being delivered... I can use 6 extra cockerels for dog food.

I'll be interested in seeing if I'm just crazy... I haven't feather sexed chicks before, but it's pretty obvious when you compare them.

And one more discovery... we have two roos, a Slow White and a nice, Partridge Rock cross. Both 1 year old. 28 of the chicks are white... I can tell who rules the roost!

Summerthyme
Click to expand...
I've heard that about the pointy eggs being males. I may try that when this batch hatches. Thank you for sharing!
 
TxGal

TxGal

Day by day
Wow, that's great! I'll have to remember that egg shape difference, could be a huge help going forward.
 
W

Wildwood

Veteran Member
I've heard that before too but never tried it. I've done three hatches with my Bielefelders and have had at least 80% pullets or more every time. I'm sure it's just coincidense but many of their eggs are so round, it's near impossible to find the pointy end.
 
W

Wildwood

Veteran Member
philkar said:
I have never heard of this! Thanks for the enlightenment! I honestly never incubate. I have one good broody hen.
Click to expand...
I'm trying to find a few buff orpington hens. They were the broodiest chickens I ever had. I have over a dozen hens and not a broody in the bunch.
 
P

philkar

Veteran Member
Last year I had a wellsummer that beat my silkie to all the eggs. She hatched out 17 chicks. Even took herself to the hatching pen to set. Never dreamed she had so many eggs under her fluff!!
 
W

WalknTrot

Veteran Member
Whoa. Interesting. And I haven't checked into the feather sexing thing. Yup..be interested in the outcome down the road if you hatch more. Congrats on the excellent hatch rate!

Hadn't really planned to incubate eggs this spring, but may have to, just to experiment. Of course with pure Cuckoo Marans (rooster and most of the hens in the flock) it's pretty obvious after a few days anyway.
 
S

summerthyme

Administrator
_______________
WalknTrot said:
Whoa. Interesting. And I haven't checked into the feather sexing thing. Yup..be interested in the outcome down the road if you hatch more. Congrats on the excellent hatch rate!

Hadn't really planned to incubate eggs this spring, but may have to, just to experiment. Of course with pure Cuckoo Marans (rooster and most of the hens in the flock) it's pretty obvious after a few days anyway.
Click to expand...
Go for it! Yes, I was really happy with the hatch rate... the eggs were up to a week old, and had just been left in the shop (which gers up to 80 degrees because of the woodstove) They weren't rotated or otherwise treated like hatching eggs are supposed to be.

Plus, I'm usually happy to get 50% live hatch. I don't always get around to candling them, so finding and pulling the infertile eggs helped. But to only have 2 out of 35 not hatch, and one of those might have been salvageable if I'd helped (I don't, generally, but in years where the hatch was bad or we needed every possible chick, I'd watch slow hatchers, and break them out of their shell if they stopped progressing... with about an 80% success rate) was pretty darned good.

It may be partly due to both roosters and most of the hens being young... last year's hatch.

I loved the Cuckoo Marans because they were mostly self sexing by 10 days old. In times when feed is scarce, eliminating excess cockerels when you get might be useful, if you can tell them apart. But vent sexing truly is a skill for an expert... and someone with a LOT of patience. I can easily sex rabbits... chicks, not so much!

Definitely something I'm going to experiment with more. But maybe not this year, except to give half a dozen pointy eggs and the incubator to my youngest grandson, who wants to try hatching. We've got 300 CornishX chicks ordered, 7 weeks apart, and they are going to take up every space we've got for chicks this year!

Summerthyme
 
Last edited:
S

summerthyme

Administrator
_______________
I should mention there are several good videos on YouTube that show feather sexing in detail. It's not difficult... but they do grow quickly, and it's easiest to learn on birds that are all the same age.

Summerthyme
 
S

summerthyme

Administrator
_______________
Border Collie Dad said:
My Cornish Crosses are supposed to come next week from McMurray

That's quite a few chicks!
Click to expand...
Yep... and all sold already, except what we want to keep. $15 per bird, averaging around 5.5 - 6.0#

I'm trying to talk DS into advertising chicken butchering for @4-5 each. We've got the (rather expensive) equipment... the plucker, temperature controlled scalding tub, stainless steel cutting table, coolers...

He's always looking for a way to make a few extra bucks on the farm, and this could do it! We *easily* butcher 30 birds an hour, and are getting faster all the time. When all four of us are working (there are still lots of breaks for baby tending and dealing with kids!) we can do 50-60 in an hour.

Many people want to raise their own birds, but have no interest... or clue how... in killing,,cleaning and plucking. I suspect many would be willing to pay to get it done.

Summerthyme
 
Last edited:
M

mecoastie

Veteran Member
summerthyme said:
Yep... and all sold already, except what we want to keep. $15 per bird, averaging around 5.5 - 6.0#

I'm trying to talk DS into advertising chicken butchering for @4-5 each. We've got the (rather expensive) equipment... the plucker, temperature controlled scalding tub, stainless steel cutting table, coolers...

He's always looking for a way to make a few extra bucks on the farm, and this could do it! We *easily* butcher 30 birds an hour, and are getting faster all the time. When all four of us are working (there are still lots of breaks for baby tending and dealing with kids!) we can do 50-60 in an hour.

Many people want to raise their own birds, but have no interest... or clue how... in killing,,cleaning and plucking. I suspect many would be willing to pay to get it done.

Summerthyme
Click to expand...
I pay a guy $6 a bird to process mine. It is one or two at a time. Soup hens and roos. It is cheaper to pay him then to take the time to set up and clean up for them.
 
S

summerthyme

Administrator
_______________
mecoastie said:
I pay a guy $6 a bird to process mine. It is one or two at a time. Soup hens and roos. It is cheaper to pay him then to take the time to set up and clean up for them.
Click to expand...
We paid the Amish ladies to do ours back home. They went up from a dollar a bird in 2006 to $1.50 a bird. Greatest bargain on earth! The birds weren't comingled... ours were cooled separate, etc.

But up here, there hasn't been anyone DS could find, plus they try to reduce stress on their meat animals as much as possible. There is a growing Amish community a few miles away, but with 4 adults and a mechanical plucker, it's just not a bad process. Not worth it for $1.50 a bird, though!

We do 50-100 in a day... with 300 birds this year, we're figuring in 4 major butchering days... of course that includes cutting them all up, deboning breasts, pulling filet tendons, etc.

And then we plan on one in the fall, culling out non laying hens (I taught my son to tell the layers by the space between the pelvic bones, and this winter, 1/3 "older than 2" year old hens and 2/3rds 1st year pullets laid about 80% through the winter.)

One hen, who looked fine on the outside, had a huge lump in her pelvis... we butchered her (and tossed the carcass later) and it looked like a softball size tumor... I sectioned it, and it had weird layers. I'm thinking an egg granuloma, but I couldn't find anything on the net to confirm it.

But she would have died miserably within weeks, as it was blockng everything. So finding it was good for her as well as us.

None of us LIKE butchering, but no one hates it. It's just a job, best accomplished early in the morning before it gets hot...

Summerthyme
 
B

Border Collie Dad

Flat Earther
summerthyme said:
Yep... and all sold already, except what we want to keep. $15 per bird, averaging around 5.5 - 6.0#

I'm trying to talk DS into advertising chicken butchering for @4-5 each. We've got the (rather expensive) equipment... the plucker, temperature controlled scalding tub, stainless steel cutting table, coolers...

He's always looking for a way to make a few extra bucks on the farm, and this could do it! We *easily* butcher 30 birds an hour, and are getting faster all the time. When all four of us are working (there are still lots of breaks for baby tending and dealing with kids!) we can do 50-60 in an hour.

Many people want to raise their own birds, but have no interest... or clue how... in killing,,cleaning and plucking. I suspect many would be willing to pay to get it done.

Summerthyme
Click to expand...
Even with a plucker and scalding pot I'm luck to do 2-3/hour.
$15/bird?
Don't you run into problems with the Health Dept or some other stupid regulator?
 
W

Wildwood

Veteran Member
Barry Natchitoches said:
The broodoest hens are silkies.

Alot of buffs will brood, but percentage wise, silkies have them all beat,
Click to expand...
I've heard that and even got a little silkie hen one time...she was more about courting than brooding lol. My mistake was buying a little matching rooster. She never once got broody but those two couldn't stay away from each other. He got so mean, we had to get rid of him. Within a couple days, she died.

To be honest, my roosters are so big and aggressive with the hens that I'm afraid of anything that small. I had the sassiest little cream legbar hen that I just loved and one of the dad blamed roosters broke her neck a couple weeks ago. They aren't near as small as a silkie.

I've had a very high brood rate with buffs and a high hatch rate too. I don't want to depend on an incubator if TSHTF. I've also never had a chicken lay in the winter like they did. I had some high falootin ideas about this kind of chicken or that and started getting them instead of replacing my buffs with more buffs.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top