What have you got in your incubator?

[Elizabeth Delaney]

Hi all!

Just curious to see what everyone is hatching out.

Hatched 24 meat chicks on Valentine's Day, and

just refilled the 'bator with laying hens and ducks.

I'm hatching out:

 

Khaki Campbell ducks (my girls)

Ameraucanas

Silver-Laced Wyandottes

Golden-Laced Wyandottes

Leghorns

Meat Chicks (our cross)

 

[Claire Hope Fox]

I wasn't planning on using an incubator this year, since my Muscovy ducks are starting to breed, and I was hoping to sneak in a couple of extra duck eggs into the hen's clutch. Does anyone have a couple of fertile Khaki Campbell duck eggs to sell for hatching purposes?  I live in Ithaca.

 

 I am teaching a science class about birds that ends in mid-March, so we decided to fire up the incubator after all, since the Muscovies had not started laying yet. Next week we will start incubating a random assortment from my friend and fellow science teacher Shannon O'Connor at Daring Drake Farm. They have many different breeds so it is always interesting to see what emerges from the cross breeding.

 

On another note, a predator got to our Speckled Sussex rooster. I shudder to think of what strange offspring would result from our Speckled Sussex hens and the one remaining rooster, a white Bantam Silkie! :) Does anyone have a rooster to spare that might make a decent cross with a Speckled Sussex? Maybe a Black Orpington - a dual purpose bird that is hardy and friendly?

 

good luck hatching!

Claire

[Amanda Auerrell]

I have midget white turkeys cooking

cayuga ducks

and some mixes

aracana/americana

Tell me about your meat bird mutts.

[Elizabeth Delaney]

We cross a few breeds to get a stronger-legged meat bird.  Cornish, of course, with some Barred Rock, New Hampshire and Australorp thrown in!  How do you like the midget whites?  I like the idea of smaller meat turkeys.  Do they get to a good weight quickly?  Are your Cayuga ducks good layers, and hardy?  Love my Khaki ducks!  We have lots of Ameracaunas and a few Aracaunas too - sturdy and smart birds!  We didn't lose any of them over the winter.  I love my bantams too!

[Amanda Auerrell]

and silkies.