Sorry! More Questions ...

[Munch]

Our LS our now 18 and a half weeks old.

We have one boy and 5 girls. One of the girls laid the 1st egg yesterday, right in front of my OH!!

We also caught sight if Frank (said boy)....... erm.... lets just say......."having fun!!!"

At what point would you say it might be a good idea to save a few eggs for the inccy! (shhh dont tell hubby!!!) at the moment the eggs are going to be dinky (pullet size)

Will he be fertile?

And will they lay many eggs on growers? and will the eggs "ok" on growers?

(They are not going on layers as they are all supposed to be for the table!)

Thank you in advance

[RichmondHens]

First of all, is Frank her brother? If so, breeding siblings is not really recommended.

Secondly, you don;t want to breed from any hen until her eggs get up to normal size and this will take a good month or more. Also ideally you need her to get into a regular laying pattern for a while and this is going to take you into the shorter days when fertility is going to be reduced.

If these two are unrelated I would suggest breeding from them in the Spring instead, if you haven't eaten them by then. This gives them the winter to mature. And for strong healthy chicks you do need to change the diet to either layers or breeder pellets. Attempting to breed from related and immature birds is likely to result in weak embryos/chicks that are unlikely to do well.

[Munch]

Thank you.

While reading your post, it made me put my sensible brain in!! Doesnt happen often, spose I got carried away with the chick moment!

Yes Frank is their brother so, of course! they wouldnt make for good breeding.... what was I thinking!

I have a feeling he will be eaten my the spring anyway as I am not sure they neighbours will put up with his crowing!

I have just discovered Practical poultry too, and is that you Suechooks as Suechooks? Are the hubbards you are waiting on the ones from Simon Skinner? if so let me know how you get on, did they come in the post?

[Suechooks]

I have just discovered Practical poultry too, and is that you Suechooks as Suechooks? Are the hubbards you are waiting on the ones from Simon Skinner? if so let me know how you get on, did they come in the post?

Yes that's me on Pactical Poultry!
Yes the eggs are from Simon Skinner and Yes they did come by post. Had some off ebay of which 5 never got started and the other was DIS and they cost me twice as much as Simon's!

[Munch]

Well out of the 8 we bought on ebay 3 were not fertile and so far only one had hatched the other 3 havent even pipped yet

I had 4 orpington in there too and 3 have hatched the other is really struggling, I have helped a little bit but it just cant crack the shell, I have a feeling I am going to have another full help out situation. My last helpout, a Sebright is doing as good as the others so I guess I have nothing to loose. In actual fact if I didnt help out the help out sebright I would have 3 boys !!!

I might contact Simon Skinner myself for next year. Although the guy on ebay has said he will send me 6 more for just £4 so not sure what to do, its getting a bit late in the year to incubate some more I think.

[elizajay]

I have regretted most E**y purchases except those I have collected in person.

[RichmondHens]

[QUOTE=Munch;882300 ........ its getting a bit late in the year to incubate some more I think.[/QUOTE]

Certainly is for meat birds. They take much longer to grow on through the winter as anything consumed is used up keeping warm rather than laying down meat. Ideally hatch meat birds early Spring (so they get to table weight by the autumn and you can get all the slaughtering out of the way before winter comes) and reserve later hatches for egg layers, although I try and get some egg layers off early so they come into lay by September and then carry on through the winter, therefore covering the gap left by the older birds who are resting over winter. That's the theory anyway. Didn't happen quite to plan this year though as I hatched only two pullets (from four hatches) and enough cocks to feed the entire village!

[Suechooks]

I have regretted most E**y purchases except those I have collected in person.

Pretty much all my hatching eggs have been from the well known auction site and by post and to be fair they've been pretty good until this last lot. They've all been what it said on the tin and have had at least average development. Its all a matter of luck - I had some eggs from 2 miles down the road and nothing came out of those at all, and that was from a respectable local breeder with lovely clean premises and big grass runs.

.

[RichmondHens]

I've just hatched 3 out of 6 Exchequer Leghorns and they came by post, so I think not bad really. My husband pointed out that eggs from a long way away tend to get flown up, and the changing pressure can affect the eggs, which I hadn't taken into account when I bought some from Cornwall earlier in the year (only 2 hatched out of 12). By contrast, I took some of my own LS eggs to a friend in my car, set them myself under her hen and they all hatched (friend very chuffed, first time hatching for her). There's also parent stock health to take into account and all sorts of other factors like hens not sitting properly, incubators on the blink etc. This hatching business is a real lottery really and given what the eggs go through, being taken from A to B to C etc it's a wonder any hatch at all.

[petal]

I will never, ever buy e bay eggs again. Anything that has hatched out(not many!) has been rubbish and not worth keeping. The sellers annoy me- Post does not 'defertilise' eggs but does effect hatchability. Any eggs I sell to customers are replaced if they bring or send an infertile back - which has never happened!(as I actually have a COCKEREL in with my hens.....!!!)

[Munch]

We still only have 1 Hubbard and no signs of pipping.

But on a good note the little lavender orpington that was stuck was helped out and last night I put it under the lamp with the others. To be honest I was dubious if it would make the night, but this morning it was out checking out the chick crumb!!

It is smaller than the rest but it is alive