Full Mottle(d) Jacket.. - my journey to a colorful coop...

[AbL]

how many pullets and hens do you have? And how many roosters and cockerels do you have?

In January I was down to one rooster (the sole survivor since 2021) and 2 hens. You don't find adult Japanese bantams around here, especially in colores not common.
So I decided to get fertile eggs from breeders in Germany and France. From 52 eggs finally 9 hatched and are alive.
My own couple raised 9 chicks, I kept the two oddly colored.
And recently I found 4 adult hens in black, chocolate and golden neck. Knowing how fast you can loose birds I bought them to have a "stock"
I want to have a millefleur/godenneck/mottled group and a black/chocklate/Lavender group.

So far I have 1 rooster, 6 hens (all colores combined) and 11 chicks (2-6) weeks where are surely 4 cockerels.
I'll keep one millefleur, the old rooster (5y now and because he's just to nice) and finding me a black or blue rooster in a few months. And 8-10 hens in total. Fortunately I have a lot of space.

 

[Farmgirl283420]

In January I was down to one rooster (the sole survivor since 2021) and 2 hens. You don't find adult Japanese bantams around here, especially in colores not common.
So I decided to get fertile eggs from breeders in Germany and France. From 52 eggs finally 9 hatched and are alive.
My own couple raised 9 chicks, I kept the two oddly colored.
And recently I found 4 adult hens in black, chocolate and golden neck. Knowing how fast you can loose birds I bought them to have a "stock"
I want to have a millefleur/godenneck/mottled group and a black/chocklate/Lavender group.

So far I have 1 rooster, 6 hens (all colores combined) and 11 chicks (2-6) weeks where are surely 4 cockerels.
I'll keep one millefleur, the old rooster (5y now and because he's just to nice) and finding me a black or blue rooster in a few months. And 8-10 hens in total. Fortunately I have a lot of space.

Having a lot of space is always good!

 

[AbL]

Having a lot of space is always good!

Or fatal Initially I was not into "having many chickens"... just 2-3 for the eggs... on the upside, they are easier to keep than my horses

 

[AbL]

There are those happy days...and then are the other days...
Went to the vet with JC, thinking having her euthanized, because she was deteriorating. The vet proposed to treat her with Vitamin injections for a couple of days, maybe that will do the trick. Now I have to mount the courage to inject a needle in this tiny wildly flapping chick...lol
On th other hand, she's alive.

We had a tempest yesterday evening and for once the little MFs had been outside the coop. The rain came so fast, I wasn't in time to make sure they are inside. I found four of them huddled together in the driving rain (grabbed them and took them under the brooder), than I searched for the fifth one, the tiny with the hanging wing, found it dead outside, stumbled over, I don't know what happened to it. Did it got trampled by the older hens when trying to get inside? Was it dead before the storm? Besides it had a very enlarged crop I didn't notice in the morning when I opened the coop.
Those things happen unfortunately.

Now I'm stacking up cages with young chicks in my kitchen, they announce other tempests for the next days. Looks like a zoo

 

[Siana]

So I decided to get fertile eggs from breeders in Germany and France. From 52 eggs finally 9 hatched and are alive

Hi, I have been reading your thread with great interest! May I ask you how long or far the eggs traveled and what is your incubator? I have had a really poor hatch rate in my NR360 this year with eggs that traveled just 250 km by car. The next hatch (from my hens) was much better, so I am thinking maybe those purchased eggs weren't stored and handled properly or the ride was too rough.

Your millefleurs are the loveliest creatures!

 

[Siana]

There are those happy days...and then are the other days...
Went to the vet with JC, thinking having her euthanized, because she was deteriorating. The vet proposed to treat her with Vitamin injections for a couple of days, maybe that will do the trick. Now I have to mount the courage to inject a needle in this tiny wildly flapping chick...lol
On th other hand, she's alive.

We had a tempest yesterday evening and for once the little MFs had been outside the coop. The rain came so fast, I wasn't in time to make sure they are inside. I found four of them huddled together in the driving rain (grabbed them and took them under the brooder), than I searched for the fifth one, the tiny with the hanging wing, found it dead outside, stumbled over, I don't know what happened to it. Did it got trampled by the older hens when trying to get inside? Was it dead before the storm? Besides it had a very enlarged crop I didn't notice in the morning when I opened the coop.
Those things happen unfortunately.

Now I'm stacking up cages with young chicks in my kitchen, they announce other tempests for the next days. Looks like a zoo

I hope your beautiful JC recovers. And I am very sorry about the dead chick, unfortunately this happens a lot while they are young... I lost two of my precious chicks from those eggs that traveled and it was very sad. Now I only have eight out of 25.
Hope your other chicks will grow strong and resilient.

 

[AbL]

Hi, I have been reading your thread with great interest! May I ask you how long or far the eggs traveled and what is your incubator? I have had a really poor hatch rate in my NR360 this year with eggs that traveled just 250 km by car. The next hatch (from my hens) was much better, so I am thinking maybe those purchased eggs weren't stored and handled properly or the ride was too rough.

Your millefleurs are the loveliest creatures!

I had eggs who traveled 8 days via mail and 50% success, other who traveled 48h-72h and 10% success. All together I had around 25% hatching rate from mail ordered eggs.
But I received two batches from the same source where only 2 of 20 eggs were properly fertile. So I think he had a problem with his reproduction birds (and one of those is the vitamin deficiency bird, so maybe there was something not right from the beginning).
To compare, I put eggs from own hen and rooster in the incubator with 80% hatching rate and 100% when hatched under the hen.
So yes I think, travel makes up to 50% of loss and improper conditions of the egg source may aggravate the loss.

I got an Italian brand incubator covantutto24, manual egg turn, analog thermometer, but it's a really good machine. It is turning since Mars non stop (due to eggs arriving with 7-10 days gap) and never one I had a problem.

I was in desperate need of non related chicken (as there are already not many breeders of those available). Now I think I have sufficient birds to cross and breed and can concentrate on form and color.

 

[Siana]

So yes I think, travel makes up to 50% of loss and improper conditions of the egg source may aggravate the loss.

Thank you for sharing your experience! I was really concerned about that hatch rate (10 out of 25), but I could see the eggs were not good, because I removed eight on the 7th day (fertilized but not developing) and then I removed more. And still, I was so uncertain that I did another hatch with our own eggs: 76%.

I am glad that you have a nice flock now, I will be watching how they grow. They are just stunning!