Transporting poultry

Thanks Dino,
As that silly man on "Flogit" says "quality always sells", well, lets hope so.
I have hatched and raised some truly beautiful birds, my daughter in law says "a bit of breeding and all your loving nuturing does the trick". Kind of her, but she is coming to lunch with the brood today!
 
Am candling tonight, amazing how quickly a week can pass isn't it.
 
The good news on the eggs is that all 12 are fertile and alive, the bad news is that the air pockets are a lot larger than I would expect. I normally go low on humidity in the first week and it has always worked well but perhaps I will now have to compensate in the next couple of weeks to prevent the chicks being too weak to hatch.
 
I am about to embark on another RIR incubation of 12 eggs, hope to get just a couple of pullets out of it. I shall also incubate any pure Pekin eggs
my lot produce.
I've decided not to incubate any of the hybrid Pekin eggs - slightly larger and different colour, as the couple kept from last year, golden yellow girls, who are unbelieveably tame and chatty are monsters to their purebred sisters in the same run. I did have them up for sale, had loads of enquiries, but decided not to let them go as they were naturally so tame. On your lap, in your arms sharing your lunch and generally being totally delightful.
I always let them out when I am in the garden even for a few minutes as they are so tame. The sight of my Pekins tails is so sorry though, I am thinking again about their departure. I should not have let sentimentality sway me. Beautiful little golden devils with a taste for tail feathers.
 
Can't believe how time flies, it's day 18 already!. Have pushed the humidity up and now it is just a case of keeping fingers crossed, hopefully we will be seeing chicks before Good Friday.
 
Well we have had pretty good results, 8 hatched on Thursday, another 2 early this morning leaving us with 6 OEG and 4 Ko Shamo. Took photos of a couple of chicks, the Ko is the blonde one, the OEG the brown. What I can't believe is that the OEG already has wing feathers at 1 day old!, normally takes at least 3 days. Look closely at the middle photo and you will see them.
 

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Thanks Marigold. Seems like all of the OEGs, never hatched them before so perhaps it's a peculiarity of the breed.
 
Dino,
lovely, lovely and lovely.
Can see wing feathers and a fluffy rounded bum but no sticky up feathers on it. "They" say very early wing feathers indicate a girl. Interesting to see if it is a boy, my RIRs are due on Thursday.
I'm not too happy with the incubator I bought last year, have a much better hatch in my old Brinsea.
The new one is very smart, easy to clean, but I'm not at all sure about the turning of the eggs, has never given a great hatch to date.
One of the reasons I saved the Brinsea for the Croad eggs as I trust it completely. May sell a few things on ebay and invest in another.
 
Well lets hope your both right, will let you know in 5-6 weeks time. The Ko's are the smallest chicks I've hatched, think pekin and then reduce the size by a third. I hatched these in a brinsea octagon with the turning cradle which has been a very good machine for me always get a decent hatch rate. I started with the really basic version of the brinsea mini and wasn't very impressed with it.
 
Just candled my 12 Croad eggs, the shells are so thick that I cannot really see through them clearly. There is development though in all 12, I think. I would say, no blanks.
I face the day, a little bit excited to say the least.
Next stop to Rokers for chick crumbs, RIR hatch due on Friday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
I find Araucana eggs impossible to candle, can't see a thing but if in doubt leave them in I always say. Hopefully you will have a good hatch of healthy chicks, good luck.
 
Not well, Dino.
Only 6 in all, one sickly that may or may not make it. I'm very disappointed and did my best, but something went wrong all the same.
4 out of 11 RIRs that were all fertile is bad, also one of the chicks is not a RIR. My last hatch - the Anconas last year, 5 out of 5 hatched.

I've done enough hatching to be reasonably competent. 7 RIRs pipped very early and then gave up, so maybe it was the eggs, from a commercial seller
of loads of types of eggs. I think you are better off with eggs from a small breeder who really cares for his hens.

Cooking nicely, as far as I know, are the Croads, from a breeder who does love his birds. It will be interesting and my fingers are crossed for that hatch!
 
Hello M.,
the Croads are due to hatch on Wednesday 13th April. They are in my Brinsea, and they came from a very good source. I have high hopes of them.
With any luck I will have several Croads by the end of the year, the lady who is Secretary of the Croad Society and lives about 15 - 20 miles away, now has eggs, and the lady from Suffolk who collected two cockerels I hatched last year, promised eggs as payment, which I simply could not refuse!
I hope to have a closed flock, all home hatched, I do not not seem to have the health problems I had when I was introducing birds in to the flock when I first started chicken keeping about 7 years ago. All of my bought in birds are now quite elderly.
It is the reason I sold on my speckled Sussex I bought last year, made the decision and am trying to stick to it.
 
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