3.6m Omlet Chicken Run for sale, Brand New in Boxes, Milton Keynes (MK19)

[madchickenlady]

I thought it might be nice for us newbie hatchers to have a thread to discuss successes/failures with our first attempts. I hatched 3 pekin chicks at the end of July using a very basic incy, and all 3 were boys Luckily, I found them all good homes and they left me at 5 weeks of age On the whole, I enjoyed the whole process of hatching, and would do so again. However, having all of my chicks turn out to be dude's has made me more cautious about hatching on a regular basis. I knew of course that any chicks I hatched might have been male, but the reality of having them all develop combs and wattles was more worrying than I thought it would be. I had worked out with my vet that any boys would be culled, but the theory and the reality of having the cute balls of fluff in front of me made that a very difficult prospect. My boys have all gone to good homes where they will have harem's , but I'm in no rush to spend my nights awake worrying about homing! So I guess that what I've learned this year is that you might think you can be practical and dispassionate, but the reality can be different.

 

How was it for you?

[Blue-DiamondChick07]

I started this year. I was given just 2 Lavender Pekin Eggs from my local farm, as the Hen came off, thought it was unlikely that they would hatch, but they did! lovely mad chicks currently..

Then I bought 9 fertile eggs, but sadly only 1 made it a lavender frizzle. (I must attract Lavenders lol) I was then given another 9 eggs, which was a dotte and Buff Pekin mix, I hatched 3 laced dottes and 3 buffs . My final hatch, thats due in 2 weeks, are 4 Polands... Fingers crossed for an all Hen hatch

[Chuckov]

We hatched for the first time after our broody went broody a second time and we felt cruel denying her the chance to be a mum

 

So we took the plunge and bought some eggs off Ebay - we chose cream legbars (blue eggs) because you can tell from a day old whether they are male or female. We bought 6 (all were fertile), put them under our hen and 4 hatched, leaving us 2 girls and two boys!

 

I tried to rehome the boys, but after a week and a half we decided to despatch them instead, as the only person who replied to one of my many adverts for free male chicks to a good home only wanted one of the two and lived bang in the middle of a rather dodgy area - so we decided that rather than condemn the boys to an uncertain fate we'd rather despatch them ourselves. My hubby did the deed after studying on the internet on how to do chicks but won't talk about it - we both found it rather upsetting (at one stage I snatched them out of his hands and ran up the garden!) although we knew when we started hatching that we might have to do it.

 

I know Omlet doesn't allow you to rehome on the forums - but it'd be really helpful to have some kind of 'resource' or rehoming checklist, local chicken sanctuaries etc!

 

Then both the girls were injured - one got caught under her mum's feet and had a leg sliced open, the other got her head stuck through the Eglu bars having dug underneath the flat bits (the Small Bird Converter Kit includes panels for the sides, but not the flat 'skirt') and was pecked and pulled at by our hen outside the run. Thankfully I was in the garden at the time and managed to save her before her eyes were pecked out

 

Both recovered very well with a little help from Nurse Chuckov but if I hadn't been able to put them back with their mum, who chivvied them round the run getting them to behave 'normally' I think we would have lost them from shock.

 

There have been lots of plus points - the excitement of seeing them peck through the shells, their cuteness, the satisfaction of seeing something grow, the educational perspective for our two girls, and we're looking forward to seeing them mature and start to lay themselves and knowing 'we did that' Red, our broody, has been a truly amazing mum - couldn't have asked for better!

 

I think we might think about hatching again next year, but I think we will stick to breed that auto sex as couldn't let a boy get to the stage where we had to wait for him to crow before we could despatch

[jellykelly]

I was a newbie hatcher this year too.

I hatched three silver spangled hamburg chicks under a broody in June. Sadly I only have two of those left as I also had my first experience of culling a poorly one too . the two remaining chicks are now 12/13 weeks old and truly stunning. I have one boy and one girl.

 

More recently, I have hatched two orpingtons and eleven hubbards chicks. The hubbards are destined for the table and should be ready by the middle to end of december. The orpingtons were 'just for fun' hatches and will top up my numbers if both girls.

 

Next year I'm unsure as to whether I 'll continue hatching. I'll see how the table birds go. If that is successful over the coming months then I'll certainly consider continuing.

[craftyhunnypie]

I'm not a new hatcher, but would like to say congratulations to all the newbie hatchers this year. We all have to start somewhere & I remember being excited & also anxious when I first got into hatching. Sometimes newbies get given a hard time & it's not very nice. I admire anyone who has had a go & brought a little life into the free range world!

You never stop learning with the world of chickens & I love it!

Emma.x

[CallyChook]

I was a newbie hatcher this yr

 

started out with 6 white silkie eggs, 6 lemon millefleur sablepoot, and 6 mixed but pure colour poland banties. All bought off ebay and hatched using a novital 16 incy.

 

the 6 white silkies were complete fails, no sign of fertility, not impressed obviously but hey - they had been in the post so maybe not the seller's fault, gave neutral feedback!

the 6 lemons - 2 non starters and gradually the other 4 died throughout the hatch at about days 4, 7 and 16 I think. The day 16 was was really upsetting. I only candled those three times.

the polands - I got a chamois, a silver laced, a gold laced and a white crested black, all gorgous!! pics on the main chicken forum 2:2 male:female, and I'm keeping them all no matter what!! The boys actually seem to be best of friends with a very firm pecking order. I bought another chamois girl to add to them too, and supposedly 2 white girlie silkies - both of whom are now looking like boys and will have another week before i make my mind up and ring the breeder to exchange/refund.

 

 

Then 4 days before those hatched, my original incy finally arrived after 4 weeks of waiting, a maino mps18. This one looked less pretty but was a forced air incy so more reliable. Started off with 6 blue silkie, 6 partridge silkie and 6 mixed pot luck polands. I made a bad start by dropping one of the blues and smashing at day 2 while turning - thank goodness it wasnt later in the hatch or I think I would have serious issues with how I killed a baby.

 

All the blues were fertile, 5 of the partridge, and all six polands. This time by day 18 I had 12 still going and plainly active in their shells, so I tried to get the humidity right (using a panel hygrometer, £14.99 from ebay) and left well alone. Eventually I got 2 blue, 1 partridge and 2 polands out of them - the rest DIS. I was horrified at myself - I think I can only have had the humidity too high as they were all drowned looking fully formed chicks. When I reached day 24 I didnt want to, but I did open them all up to see if I could see where I went wrong, it was upsetting but essential I think? I still feel guilty that I "let" 7 chicks die through my mistake.

 

I bought another 3 blue silkie babies at day old from a local breeder as I really wanted more birds than that for my huge shed. Unfortunately, these never really thrived - as my own ones were feathering up, they just stayed the same size and fluffy. At 2.5 weeks Storm died after a day of lying still, then another 2,5 weeks along Mist died suddenly overnight. Cloud is stil going but is less than 50% the size of the ones I hatched out. He/she is looking healthy though inthe sense that it runs madly round the garden, eats and drinks well... maybe there's hope. The hatchlings from my lot have all thrived, at least I have that to smile on! Now 11.5 and 9 weeks respectively, they're all out together in the shed and garden and developing characters.

 

Any males from the blue/partrige/later hatched polands and we'll see how it goes, they may have to be rehomed/dispatched (by a local farmer, not me, I just cant bring myself to do it, yet another source of guilt).

 

Next yr I plan to reassess, see how my little flock do over the winter and what ratios I have of girls/boys eventually, then maybe hatch out from a couple of the non related birds and increase the female contingent. I would be going into that knowing that any boys would be highly unlikely to find new homes, being crosses, and most likely I would be going round to the farm with the boys in a box to go to the big coop in the sky... I have all winter and spring to think about whether I can do that though.

 

My husband said why not just buy more girls ("if you have to, I mean, why do we really need more lady hens you have enough already??") as then there is no male problem. It made sense to begin with, but then I feel the benefit of my home bred chicks are that they're so friendly, they've increased my chickeny joy tenfold over the lovely but not-cuddly bog folk I have. Also - those girls from the breeder, they had brothers too, me buying them still started with the cull of the males and so just as many boys have died for me to get my girlies. At least if I breed my own, I know they have a great life before a simple death. Or so I keep telling myself.

 

 

If only silkies were easier to sex... Maud and Mildred are causing enough heartbreak at the moment, when my own ones turn out to be boys too...

[madchickenlady]

Thanks crafty! I understand why 'proper' breeders are sometimes unimpressed with us newbies. I have heard of 'home hatchers' releasing male birds in to woodland etc rather than cull The reality of culling is a tough one, and no matter how many people tell you it is, it's not until you're stood there with the bird in your hand that you really feel the weight of that responsibility. I was extremely lucky in that all of my chicks went to people I know, and who were looking to increase their breeding stock. However, the culling issue was one I had prepared for.

 

Cally, you make a very interesting point. Even when we go to a breeder to buy hens, males have almost certainly been culled along the way. I don't think it's a more 'moral' stance to only buy female birds, it's just moving the responsibilty for males one step on. I'm not sure if I'll hatch again unless I need to increase my own flock. I have learned that I couldn't breed purely to sell. I get too attached

[Redwing]

I've hatched about 160 ish chicks this year - its not my first year hatching but I did only start last year

 

I have to say my worst experience so far was hatching Cream Legbars - these are autosexing so the boy chicks can be culled on day 1 but the reality of coming home from work to be faced with an incubator of 6 boy chicks still wet from hatching was awful

 

I will never hatch autosexing breeds again - there is a lot to be said for not getting attached as they grow but I just found it all too distressing to cull day old chicks (although I dont have the same problem with older ones)

 

Finding homes for cockerels is never easy and sometimes you are only delaying their fate, I often see comments on here that 'a friend of a friend' will have them only for someone to post later saying they have been let down, also if your breeder takes them back they will almost certainly simply choose the good examples to keep and cull the rest so be absolutely sure you will know who will have your cockerels and what will happen to them!

 

I go to a lot of chicken sales and auctions and these are full of cockerels bred by pet owners who are too soft to decide their fate - these get sold for less than £5 and sometimes as low as £0.20p - off to some uncertain fate via a frightening and noisy auction

 

Unless someone specifically wants a pure bred cockerel my boys all hatch and have a happy if short life with me

[lotz2612]

Yer its my 1st year hatching.

 

1st attempt was disasterous. had 16 eggs in a new incubator which supposedly had a temp thermometer integrated. it did...but it didn't work properly...so i actually boiled my eggs instead of incubated them!

 

2nd time around we got it right...3/4 eggs hatched...but unfortunately we ended up with 2 black pekin cockrals and 1 gold partridge hen...we are still going to keep them though as a stupid fox managed to eat half of our coup a few months ago! Currently they are doing really well outside in their little run.

 

3rd time around a nice batch of 8chicks...4black, 2 silver partridge and 2 gold partridge pekins..currently 4weeks old and doing really well...going to move them outside from the brooder thsi weekend and put them in a run in our stable so they get used to the temp before we put them outside outside!

 

4th time around...now this is where i get angry! We have our incubator in our kitchen and it does make quite a bit of noise when the rotator is on. They were due to hatch this weekend. My Dad was on his mobile in the kitchen getting very angry at the builder on the other end of the phone. He couldnt hear what the builder was saying so in a stop turned the whole thing off and didnt tell anyone...and then forgot to turn it back on again when he had finished shouting at the builder. Subsequently the temp went down during the night and mum found it off the next morning. She topped up the humidity and turned it back on again..but if nothing hatches...i will be soooo angry at Dad. I get very attached to my chickalicks (i know you get casualties some times but this was Dad's fault!)...grrrr!

 

Not going to try anymore this year as its getting colder and dont want to push it..but will definitely try again next year.

[meezers]

My first time hatching this year. I put 6 eggs under a broody silkie in may. I wanted another faverolles , after losing my favourite chook last year, and as they are a dual purpose breed I thought they would be ideal to hatch - any boys I couldn't rehome would be dinner. I don't eat meat, but that's mainly down to not liking how it's raised and slaughtered, so it would be interesting to see if I could eat a home grown chook.

I was able to collect the eggs from a fairly local breeder( same one who sold me the broody silkie ) so didn't have the worry of posted eggs. They only had 5 faverolles eggs though, so gave me a white silkie egg to make 6, it wasn't until I was halfway home I thought ' what if the silkie hatches and it's a boy?', I really don't fancy eating silkie ! on candling at 7 days, 2 of the faverolles eggs were obviously duds - very thin and porous, but I left them under Muppet- just incase . My first attempt at candling, so I was only 99% sure

The 4 others I thought were fertile all hatched, one was a long time pipping, so I helped it out of it's shell. It was during the really hot spell we had ( remember summer, end of may ? )and I think the membrane got too dry. Anyway, for the first 12 hours the chick couldn't walk, kept falling over and wobbled when it stood. I had my first 'maybe hatching wasn't such a good idea ' moment, like Redwing, the thought of culling such a young chick wasn't nice.Muppet accepted the chick back for his first night, and luckily he'd improved the next morning- yes, he turned out to be my one cockerel

Think I was lucky that I had 3 girls and 1 boy.Dilbert is still with us,I keep postponing his culling date , he hasn't started crowing yet and OH and the boys have informed me they will not eat him - hypocrites ! ( they love sundday roast )He may still get a reprieve, a farmer friend is going to start keeping chickens again and I'm trying to persuade him he needs a cockerel

I might hatch again, but only dual purpose breeds- the worry over what I'd do with a male silkie wasn't worth it.And I've got to see how I'll cope with Dilberts demise ( if and when )before I decide for sure.

[craftyhunnypie]

I've always been quite lucky with my boys - I've kept or had homes for them.

Only one I have had to take to brother in law to cull, because of deformity - hardest thing I ever had to do. But had to be done. I hatch knowing that I have people that would cull for me if need be. I could not do it myself, but do face up to responsibility about boys.

I've got 6 bantam eggs I'm candling tonight. I so desperately want a red frizzle & also a frizzle boy. I need to build up my breeding stock for next year.

 

Emma.x

[lougarbard]

I too hatched for the first time this year - very exciting!!

 

One of my hens went broody, so I bought two batches of 6 mixed bantam eggs from E bay - I then decided that 12 was too many, so I gave 6 to my friend for her broody and kept 6.

 

I hatched 3 of mine and she got 5 from hers - its looking like I have ended up with one girl and 2 boys and she has 4 girls and 1 boy - so she was very lucky!

 

I thouroughly enjoyed the whole exerience, but its not something I will do every year....I dont think! lol (Only because of space and the 'boy' issue!

 

I also bought 4 day olds and reared, I think I actually enjoyed that more, as they are so tame now compared to the ones with the hen.

[karlotta]

While I hatched with an incubator last year, this year was my first (and second!) try at hatching with broodies. I found it so much better than incubator hatching (my incubator hatch this year was nothing but trouble... despite last years going ok).

 

It was so simple and wonderful to watch the babies grow up in a natural manner and learning natural behaviour from mum.

 

My first lot were a mix of pekins, 1 pekin x silkie and something else (was told it would be a dutch bantam, but she's huge!) and was pleased to get 4 girls and 2 boys (silver partridge pekin and silkie/pekin).

 

My second hatch (4 out of 6 hatched) are Polands and I've ended up with 3 boys (chamois, white crested black and gold laced) and a girl (gold laced). The chamois boy has gone to a new home already and the white crested black will hopefully find a nice home shortly. The Gold laced boy is the friendliest bird ever so will be staying for now!

 

I'd highly recommend hatching with broodies over incubating... The babies are lovely and friendly and have integrated really fast with the bantam girls.