What to do with all these chicks!!

[Anonymous]

This is my first year really breeding birds with a purpose.
I am focusing on my project birds, but breeding a few others as well.

caveat: these are English Orpingtons not game birds.

My question is: what the hell do you do with all these chicks!!

I have a table top incubator, one I use as incubator and other as Hatcher. Incubator for 2 week, then Hatcher for 1 week, then re-load the incubator. Repeat.

I am doing single mating. So we are talking about 20 chicks every 2 weeks.

I have a barn stall with 3 pens, each group gets rotated to a different pen every 2 weeks, then on their fourth rotation they head outside.

I have a large area with poultry netting and several coops for chicks to choose from. I have them separated with a small fence and separate area of my big coop for them to go in, so when their 2 weeks is up, they will go in the main coop. It was worked well so far. But only 2 groups, 8 – 10 birds each with early hatches.

I realize it is variable. But for a single mating in step 1 of founders program, with Adam and Eve, how many chicks do you hatch. I know ‘as many as you can’ but I’m looking for numbers. Are we talking 20 or 120?

Much thanks!

[Kenny Troiano]

lol,

I will give the number I always give – “As many as you can manage and afford.”

The more chicks you start with, the better. This will allow you to cull hard and still have a good number of birds to continue the line.

The larger number of chicks you have, the better will be your selection. Having the ability to produce, recognize and select the standouts is the best way to improve a strain.

Not sure it was the answer you are looking for, but hope it helps.

 

[Anonymous]

Haha! I’m gonna push a little. I don’t give up easy!
So if space and money is no issue, how many chicks do you want in a season?

or I’ll ask a better way.  In a season where you focused on one pair of birds, what was the most chicks you hatched from a single pair?

[Kenny Troiano]

Ok, I’ll accept the challenge. lol

The first consideration is, how many chicks can you hatch from a single pair? Let’s assume breeding season is from January to June. Some chickens may lay more or less, depending on the breed. But, remember, summer and fall are not the best time to hatch and grow chicks.

If you use the hen to hatch and raise her chicks, you will be lucky to get 2 or 3 clutches of chicks, which can be 8 to 12 chicks per clutch, and equal 16 to 36 chicks per breeding season. Even if she can manage to produce twice that many, you are not left with very many chicks. If you cull hard, as you should, and weed them down to the top 10%, you will only be left with 5 to 10 birds for the next breeding season. Remember, you only want to breed to the standouts. And, when you only hatch a smaller number, your percentages of standouts will be lower.

If you use the incubator to hatch chicks, you can expect, depending on the hen, 12 to 24 eggs a month, which equals 60 to 125 eggs per breeding season. After culling and selecting the top 10%, you will only be left with 15 birds, at best.

The second consideration is unexpected issues, such as weather, disease or predators. What if you lose half of your new generation to some unexpected issue?

This is why I like to say, hatch as many chicks as you can manage and afford. In other words, Hatch as many as possible! The more, the better. You can only progress your strain if you have birds that have the quality and ability to take your strain to the next level. This is very difficult to do with only a few birds.

that was fun,

I hoped that helped. If not, let me know.

[Anonymous]

Yes! very good. That is exactly what I wanted. I am a numbers/data/science guy.

I feel good about what I am doing. Using an incubator to get the most I can out of this pair.

Thanks as always!

[Author]

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