Future plans for 2025! Breeding for large meaties, barring, lacing and EE

[DemeterAD9]

6 days away from hatching! 28 eggs are likely to make it to lock down, one is iffy. Lockdown on Sunday and I’ll be working on coming up with some sort of sectioning off or makeshift hatch bags. Also getting together my banding system to keep the individual crosses identifiable.

Also I may, just may, finally have a broody hen. I’m not getting my hopes up just yet but I did select some eggs and give them to the bantam EE who was screaming and pecking my hand. She eagerly nudged all 7 under her. We’ll see if she sits through the night.

 

[DemeterAD9]

It’s happening! I have my first few pips and babies are chirping inside trying to get out. The white EE, one buff brahma and 1 grey OE have pipped. I haven’t checked them all as it’s difficult with the hatch bags but I know one of the dark brahma and legbar X have internally pipped. I am probably the most excited for the brahma chicks, their mothers were so darn cute as fuzz balls! I will be getting everything situated in the mean time, need to fill their feeder, fill a bucket with feed to bring inside, re-write the banding system and try not to fuss over the hatching process.

Side note: 1 the bantam was not going broody, she was just being a jerk like usual.

2: I need to stalk the brown EE, my serial nest hider, as she seems to be laying elsewhere again. The dark brahma may also be doing the same.

3: I’m seeing some feather damage to a handful of hens now, specifically the “easy” ones. The smallest BJG has skin showing but it isn’t raw. BJG roo spurs are still rather short and blunt but Pretty Boy blue copper may need his blunted a bit.

 

[Amer]

Laced/barred pullet's second egg. I was hoping she'd lay colored eggs but oh well. I had to kick her out of the garage a few times and throw treats into the run to lock her in, she was looking all over and squawking to find a good spot. Skin tone egg covered in white dots, pretty none the less.
View attachment 3972636View attachment 3972635

I will also note I saw one BJG squat for the blue copper maran.

This hen looks like a barred silver quail maybe.
Her color is a little light on the neck so she may be only heterozygous for Ml.
Quail is typically caused by a melanizer (like Melanotic) and Columbian on a Duckwing base.

The pencilling in Brahmas is caused by the Pattern gene on a Partridge base.

Lacing in Wyandottes is more complex. It has Partridge, Pattern, Columbian, and Melanotic.

 

[DemeterAD9]

About half the chicks have arrived! Lots of black/blue/grey chicks but it looks like the large fowl mix is going to have all white based chicks! I would expect the bresse chicks to also be white but still waiting on them to hatch. You can see a few have white/yellow on their heads, these are what I assume are males as they are from the legbar X and grey OE. Even the barred/laced hen produced one with a spot and one without. Waiting on 2 more of her eggs.

The first OE egg finally hatched, another is pipped and the other two I’m not sure about.

 

[DemeterAD9]

24 good looking chicks (one has crooked toes) and 1 egg left, a bresse, who has pipped. 3 chicks died (one buff, 2 OE) before they could pip the shell, only one ever internally pipped. The rest are figuring out the food and water.

Now for my sex linked results. Of those 9 eggs (2 legbarX, 4 barred/laced, 3 grey OE) I got 9 chicks and it looks like an uneven split of 6M/3F.
Barred/laced

Legbar X (2 right) and grey OE (3 left). Both the hens have a head tuft so some of these one might too.

I have another thread that shows the entire incubation process, just didn’t want to flood this one with the details when it should be focusing on the results.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...rom-my-own-flock.1654742/page-5#post-28499860

And now I wait for the shipment from Meyer that should arrive early next week.

 

[DemeterAD9]

25 chicks, the last bresse egg hatched a tiny little thing.

Several chicks are growing real feathers in their wings already, they grow so fast.

Brooder is already looking crowded with the big heat plate in it. I’ll make it bigger soon as the Meyer chicks get here and settle in. The plan is to raise my for-sure male chicks with the Cornish cross outside in the shed till they are feathered then toss them in a 10x10 growout. The rest of the chicks will be raised inside till feathered then tossed into the newly added section of the chicken run (still a work in progress).

 

[DemeterAD9]

Fluff balls getting bigger every day. I really need to remember to take my allergy pills on time, the dust is getting to me.

There are now a few getting tail feathers and the feather legged ones are also getting real feathers on their legs. I’ll have to remove their bands soon which I hope is easier than getting them on. The two chicks I helped hatch are doing well, the brown one’s curly toes resolved just fine.

My current favorite but of course I’m still not getting attached to any of them.

And I’m starting to see the boys getting chunky legs as compared to the girls. These two are sex linked babies from different mom. Female is the orange band, male is red.

The meat bird grow out pen is well under way. It is about 10x10 with the shack as the coop.

This is the addition to the original run, adds another 20x30 section. I plan to let the young pullets and possible replacement cockerels grow here a while before introducing to the main flock. Needs a clean up and chicken wire added around the perimeter.

The coop got some more nest boxes and another roost bar as well.

 

[DemeterAD9]

Babies arrived from Meyer! I had my sister go get them as I was at work. All are alive but I’ll have to clean a couple pasty butts. All are eating and drinking from what I can tell anyways.

Freebie meal maker, slight feathered legs and muffs so likely EE. Cute baby whatever it is. I'm assuming pullet seeing as the other non-meat birds I ordered are also pullets.

BBS wyandotte, looks like I got lucky and this one is likely to be blue or splash.

This should be the buckeye, it is the smallest of the bunch so I hope she does okay

Partridge cochin, this one has a poopy butt.

Barnevelder

Golden cuckoo maran

My "homestead helper" freebie, looks like a male RIR (or similar) same as last time.

And finally one of the 10 cornish cross

I'll be shuffling around the chicks a bit once I'm sure these new ones are off to the races. The new pullets will be raised with the rest of the bunch whereas the boys will be brooded with the meaties and get that extra protein from the meat bird feed. If all goes well I hope to move the meat birds outside into a larger brooder in a few days.

 

[DemeterAD9]

New chicks seem to be in the clear, everyone appears to be eating and drinking. Only have to worry about the cochin who has pasty butt. I've noticed the buckeye pullet is a little aggressive despite being the smallest chick. She was pecking at eyes and grabbing the fluff on the heads of whichever chick was closest and not letting go all while peeping away. I'll be keeping an eye on that.

Also removed the bands on all the ones I hatched. I more or less have an idea of who is what and some of the bands were getting a little tight. I probably should have grouped them up and taken photos to help me keep track instead of relying on memory but it's not that big a deal. Once they feather out a bit and their combs develop some I shouldn't have any issues figuring out who is what.

Meat birds are drinking and eating like mad. They are almost the same size as the older chicks. Here one is next to a large fowl X chick.

 

[DemeterAD9]

One week old today and the CornishX have officially surpassed the older chicks in weight. 5.6oz is the largest chick while the smallest was 3.6oz. The RIR assumed rooster chick sent with the others as my freebie only weighs in at 2oz. Same age and over double the weight. I knew Cornish cross are monsters but geez. The little brooder I was using for them was getting smelly fast despite frequently adding a top layer of dry pine shavings. They along with the 6 sex linked cockerels I hatched just got booted outside to a brand new, larger, relatively heavy duty brooder courtesy of my dad repurposing a shipping box. I just dumped them in and they started their chirping fest. I hope to see them more relaxed in a hour or so. Temp directly under the heat lamp was holding at 90 last night but it’s since gotten colder outside so it dropped to about 85. This was before adding shaving and chicks so I’m hoping with 17 little ones and the shavings they will be warm enough. If not I’ll bring out the brooder plate. I cannot lower the lamp unless I leave the lid open, right now the lamp sits on the wire screen window cut into the lid.

I also weighed the sex linked cockerel chicks just to get a base line. I do not know which chicks are which anymore as I’ve removed their bands but that’s okay when it comes to the cockerels. Smallest was 2.9oz while the largest was 4.3oz. Any more straight combed cockerels that pop up will also be added to the meat bird group.

Little partridge Cochin still gets pasty butt and it doesn’t seem to be growing well. Just weighed it today @ 1.2oz. I’ll be keeping track for the next few days and see if it is gaining at all. It eats and drinks but it is so still so tiny. I think I’m going to move it into the meat birds old brooder with a couple other small chicks and give them some extra TLC.