Done Hatching

[Mike Gilbert]

Well, the last hatch of the year is now in the brooder.   It was 15 weekly hatches and a total of 555 chicks.   The Dickey worked pretty well for me this year.  Feels good to be done for another season, and the breeding flock has been reduced to about half to make room for growing birds. 

[John W Blehm]

Today was my last hatch of the season also.  I hatched for 17 weeks and shipped chicks for 15 of them.  I started too early and ended later than I should have.  Most breeders were sold 3 weeks ago and I've already sold over 100 started birds that didn't make the grade.  I've got the breeding pens all planned out for 2016.   

[Russ Blair]

Well if it makes you feel any better I am about to set my last batch tomorrow when I put that tray in lockdown. That should put me well over 500 and my wife extremely angry with the new Dickey . I may set some small batches of project birds (blue silver & blue Cornish bantams) along with a couple more call ducks (for my daughter). But I will be honest I am looking forward to wrapping it up, I think I have cured the hatching itch again for another year. Now comes one of my favorite times....seeing if I made the right matings and if they turn out like I expected

[Beth Curran]

I'm setting one more small hatch only because I have a buff hen that just started laying, and I really want to see what this pair is going to produce. Then I am SO done!

[Lee G]

LoL Beth, I can relate to being SO done, yet wanting to load the incubator with just a few more eggs... hehe

[John W Blehm]

I took the calculator out to the hatchery the other day added up the numbers.  The number of chicks hatched should have been much higher, but fertility was down in some breeding coops/pens...especially with the bantam buffs.   
3,054 hatched and 1,651 chicks were used to fill orders.  Most were Ameraucanas. 

[Russ Blair]

Lol that makes my 528 with one more due Thursday seem awfull small lol

[Mike Gilbert]

I took the calculator out to the hatchery the other day added up the numbers.  The number of chicks hatched should have been much higher, but fertility was down in some breeding coops/pens...especially with the bantam buffs.   
3,054 hatched and 1,651 chicks were used to fill orders.  Most were Ameraucanas.

So you are raising over 1,000 chicks???   Or did you cull an awful lot right off the bat?

[John W Blehm]

I raised many hundreds and sold many day-old ones locally each week that didn't have the phenotype I wanted to see or traits they shouldn't have.  With the bigger numbers I could be extra fussy.
Of those I raised to two to four months of age and sorted thru a few times already I've sold a few hundred and will sell another hundred or more before fall.  Many of them were Chanteclers and my Asian customers really love the buffs.