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Kitsune
Joined: 13 Mar 2008
Posts: 1312
Location: Manchester
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 Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 10:28 am Post subject: poor quality chicks |
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Well this batch of light sussex are not turning out as well as I'd imagined - they are just over 6 weeks and most are very sparsely feathered, one has cysts/tumours popping up all over the place and will undoubtedly be a cull in a few days.
I need light sussex for my uni project but would like to have a better quality of bird, especially because I plan to sell/breed from them eventually.
Unless these chicks improve drastically over the next few weeks all except the few that look good will be going to the table, I don't want to sell birds that are poor quality.
the silkie crosses are only a week older and have been outside for a week, I've only just taken the light sussex off heat inside and going on their feathering I'd say most look less than 4 weeks old!
Now I need to find another supplier of light sussex day olds by August |
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Pekinout
Joined: 29 Apr 2008
Posts: 1028
Location: Cornwall
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| Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 10:30 am Post subject: |
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| Light Sussex should be good chicks, which strain are you getting the layers or eaters? |
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Kitsune
Joined: 13 Mar 2008
Posts: 1312
Location: Manchester
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| Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 11:12 am Post subject: |
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| I'm not sure which strain these are - I wasn't even aware there were more than one strain! I just found a breeder who wasn't too far away and went with them... |
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Pekinout
Joined: 29 Apr 2008
Posts: 1028
Location: Cornwall
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| Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 11:18 am Post subject: |
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Well nowadays most new breeders don't realise there are 2 strains.
If you can find a proper pure breed breeder who knows about bloodlines and the different strains of the utility breeds that's the guy to buy the birds from, not from one of those 'lets go green and make a fortune from breeding chickens cos it's trendy' breeders you should be ok lol
There's a lot of 'new' poultry breeders these days who don't really know what they're doing, and finding a proper breeder is not that easy, try checking out the Poultry Club of GB and look at their list of breeders and maybe one of them may be able to point you in the right direction for a proper breeder near you.
Chicken keeping has become so trendy these days with backyard chicken, a lot of breeders these days just dont know what they're doing. |
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Kitsune
Joined: 13 Mar 2008
Posts: 1312
Location: Manchester
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| Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 11:21 am Post subject: |
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Thanks - I think that's definitely the best idea - I'll no doubt pay more for them but at least I'll be getting value for money!
*edit* Is there a breeders list on there - I can't find it if there is!
Last edited by Kitsune on Tue May 06, 2008 11:26 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Pekinout
Joined: 29 Apr 2008
Posts: 1028
Location: Cornwall
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| Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 11:22 am Post subject: |
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| You may not pay as much for them, or you may pay slightly more, but at least you'll know you're getting a proper table Light Sussex. |
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Henwife
Joined: 31 Jan 2006
Posts: 3202
Location: Monmouthshire
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| Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 8:00 pm Post subject: |
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| A Light Sussex is usually considered a utility bird, good for the table and a good layer. Perhaps your best bet would be to find somebody reasonably close to you who would be prepared to hatch some purchased eggs for you so you have your day olds at the time you need them. I'm too far from Manchester to offer, but I can recommend hatching eggs from Poultry Park as I have hatched some cracking birds from them. |
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Kitsune
Joined: 13 Mar 2008
Posts: 1312
Location: Manchester
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| Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 8:56 pm Post subject: |
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That would be a good idea - I have an incubator but it's not big enough for the numbers of chicks I need, and it's not ideal for chicken eggs as it's a reptile incubator (I didn't think it'd make a difference but I learned quickly!) I should have stuck with the old hovabator ones, they were cheap, worked well and I always had fantastic hatches with them - and they held lots of eggs!
For the price I paid for this one I'm not at all happy. |
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Pekinout
Joined: 29 Apr 2008
Posts: 1028
Location: Cornwall
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| Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 11:43 pm Post subject: |
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Some reptiles need the same incubation temperatures as chicken/waterfowl. The incubator you have should be fine.
There's some reasonably priced Hova's on Ebay at the moment. Saw one on there the other night for £50 Buy it now |
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Kitsune
Joined: 13 Mar 2008
Posts: 1312
Location: Manchester
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| Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 8:20 am Post subject: |
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the reason the reptile incubator is no good is that it has a 5 deg range over the area of the incubator - that lets you incubate two different temp requiring clutches at the same time - doesn't work well for chicken eggs though!
I'm quite loath to buy another incubator since this one is so new. I might send an e-mail and ask if I can send this one back and get a hovabator and partial refund. |
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Kitsune
Joined: 13 Mar 2008
Posts: 1312
Location: Manchester
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| Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 1:20 pm Post subject: |
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Well I've sent off the e-mail and they have replied saying that they will replace this one with a hovabator and refund the difference 
That will give my bank balance a nice boost too as this one was about £50 more expensive than a hovabator (which I naively assumed would make it much better!) |
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Pekinout
Joined: 29 Apr 2008
Posts: 1028
Location: Cornwall
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| Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 10:17 pm Post subject: |
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| Well done! Hovabators are pretty good incubators |
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CP
Moderator
Joined: 13 Apr 2005
Posts: 15394
Location: Hampshire
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| Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 1:08 am Post subject: |
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That's good news Kitsune.  |
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