Egg grading!

I've learned how to grade eggs! It's so neat! I'm waiting for the links for the videos I watched, but when I get them, I'll post them here.
kk



Here they are! (NOTE: These aren't just links to videos about grading eggs though. They'll take you to YouTube channels about different chicken things.)

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8EF4EA2FBD2AC88A

 

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBC1F15C670609AEC

 

Enjoy!

kk

Scientific classification of the Domestic Chicken

A rooster (left) and hen (right)
Conservation status
Domesticated
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Galliformes
Family:	Phasianidae
Subfamily:	Phasianinae
Genus:	Gallus
Species:	G. gallus
Subspecies:	G. g. domesticus
Trinomial name
Gallus gallus domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms
Chicken : Cock or Rooster (m), Hen (f)

Fertilized eggs

Obviously, eggs aren't fertilized if there is no rooster with the hens. (Even if there is one present the eggs are still fine to eat* as long as the hen hasn't been sitting on them too long.) I like to crack them open to check. If you have a surplus of eggs and can tell who's egg it is you have, then this works great, and you can attempt to hatch her next eggs. Here's how you can tell once you crack it open...


There is a light spot on all yokes. If it is a donut or round shape then the eggs is fertilized.


If it's just a splotch then the egg is infertile.

* "QuestionsAnyone?" post 9 has more on eating fertile and infertile eggs

kk

Beaks and Spurs

This is Nugget! She was very cooperative for this picture. This is so you can see a beak up close. The tip is lighter(kind of clear). That is what you would trim if it gets to long. Hers is actually really good right now. When trimming we use nail clippers and a nail file.

This is Lily! Girls aren't supposed to have spurs, which is the big nail on the back of her leg, but she's just special. There's nothing wrong with it, however, they typically don't have them. Roosters use them to fight. When they attack they jump feet first. We like James to be able to protect himself, so we don't trim his. We probably will when we have more males in the flock. We don't let them get to long though. Lily keeps hers since she never attacks anything. To trim these we use nail clippers and a nail file, just like when doing their beaks.

kk

New background

What do you think about the new background? It's last year's young flock, so all of the chicks we got. I'm not sure how old they are, under 6 months though. It won't let me un-tile it though, do you thinks it's too crazy? I wasn't sure.

kk

ChickenBreedChart

http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html

This is where I research breeds. It doesn't have them all, but it's a pretty good start for beginners. Also, so far they've been right about the breeds that we've purchased.

kk

Chick names

So, we came up with our chicken names(all of our chickens are named):

Since I don't know whether the 3 Buff Brahma bantams are boys or girls yet, I just marked each of their legs with a sharpie. 1 pink, 1 blue, and 1 green. I decided to just name them something with the colors. Here's what I got... Pink Floyd, Green Bean, and I don't know what to do with the blue so for now it's just Blue. Any ideas?

My Ancona is Michelangelo or just Angie for short.

The Welsummer is the Marvelous, Magnificent, Mad, Madam Mim! Or just Mim.

Gwen is my Blue Adalusian.

My little brother's twin Red Stars are Cherry and Licorice.

Sparkles is my sisters Silver-laced Wyandotte.

And lastly there's fuzzy little Milly the Columbian Wyandotte.

What do you think???

kk