The most important part of breeding any species of birds is the egg. The following guidelines apply to both the hobbyist and the commercial breeder and will enable you to get the maximum hatch rate possible
Preparing your eggs
Fertile eggs must be collected at least once a day and stored in the coolest room, out of sunlight and wind. They can only be stored in two ways. Point down. . .
Or flat!
A hen turns her eggs many times a day, even before she starts incubating them. Her body contains antibacterial oils which are rubbed on them every time she turns them, killing harmful bacteria on the porous shell
In addition the egg has thousands of little veins which carry nutrients to the embryo. These, if not turned would eventually stick to the inside of the shell starving the chick
To succeed, we must imitate nature as best we can and that's a tough act to follow
Fertile eggs can be stored for between seven and a maximum of 10 days before incubating. This will allow you to build up enough eggs to fill your incubator. Fertility drops off dramatically after this
I noticed that my guinea fowl would lay up to 21 days before starting to incubate! And they usually achieved 99 % hatch rate!
The above eggs - chicken and Jumbo quail - are angled at approximately 45 degrees and need to turned twice a day. In other words, the eggs that are on top of the tray in the morning must be turned to the bottom in the evening
Modern Incubators either roll the eggs or tilt them
The rolling method is not used very much these days
Its very important to label your eggs with the species and the date they were laid. Even more important is to use only a pencil, as some of the inks - especially felt pens - can poison the embryos !
Do not wash dirty eggs you find in the nest!
When laid, the eggs come out with a protective coating which prevents excessive moisture from escaping. This will even affect your eating egg's lifespan reducing it down to as low as a single week, instead of staying fresh for between three and four weeks.
To reduce dirty eggs on the homestead put a thick layer of dry grass in the nest boxes
In series 2 I'll continue from here with breeding guidelines on incubating fertile eggs and rearing healthy chicks
My intention is that this series will, in time form a complete book enabling the user to breed with confidence for home or commercial use
Thank you for contributing your knowledge to help others! This post has been added to the Sotall.org Directory of Self Sufficiency & Survival posts. One of our goals is to provide access to the knowledge of our fellow Steamians, that will still be seen, long after the 7 day period is passed. If you write any future articles with instructions on how to do any tasks related to a homestead or survival, to ensure they are added to the directory, please submit them. They will be added as soon as possible.
Good morning, thank you so much! I will submit them
Chat later
Hi,
I tried many times without success submit my name to @Sotall.org. It keeps telling me "Not permitted"
Can you help?
I am sorry you had this problem. Could you tell me exactly which part you were trying to submit? The actual URL would help tremendously. I just tried the 3 places where something could be submitted, and all 3 worked fine.
Also, if you could let me know if you are on android, windows or IOS. It is possible something is conflicting.
If may have just been the server resetting too, so it would not hurt to try again.
Good morning,
I use windows and this is the address I sent https://steemit.com/homesteading/@quailbreeder/what-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg-a-training-series-of-how-to-successfully-breed-chickens-quail-guinea-fowl-etc
Thanks for the help
Hi @fernowl just to let you know I posted another "Breeding guidelines"
Great post. Upvote and followed!
Thanks a lot. More will follow
Thanks man!
Very cool! I learned a lot. That's why I only let the hens do it so far, but now I can help!
Awesome stuff Dad really really very good.. keep em coming, PS: You need to make a @dtube video ASAP ;) Luv cab!!
You got a 2.09% upvote from @postpromoter courtesy of @quailbreeder!
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