California - Northern

[Olamina]

Price depends on a lot of things. I have paid anywhere from $10. to $125. depending on age and quality. Some go up from there even depending on the breeder and if you are wanting top show quality. If you buy young the cost is usually a lot less. Young boys are usually a bargain I have three beautiful Partridge boys right now that I am asking $15-$25 for .Chicks are usually , in the day old to few week old age ,$5-10. As far as quality goes... well, the better stock they come from usually the nicer the chick. There are a few things obvious from birth like correct number of toes and foot feather, correct comb. I actually love the roosters. They always end up being my favorites. If I lived where it was easier to keep a lot of them I would be over run

as it is Im trying to limit myself to 4 .

.

They should look a lot like their dad when they mature

Thanks for the info! Do you ever ship chicks? Eventually down the road I am interested in entering a show with all my fowl but that won't be till next year at least. I guess what I am looking for is quality chicks with the potential to be or to breed showbirds at some later stage ya know? Yours are so cute! This guy is a partridge variety?

I looked on their website and couldn't even find their silkies to see quality. You know Fort Bragg where Feathersprings is located is a lovely drive west on Hwy 20! I think it would take you a couple hours.

Yeah their website is pretty lame and unprofessional, I tend to distrust any placethat doesn't have photos of their stock. Which is why I asked here about them! I've decided no hatchery silkies for me though!

I'm not sure where you are located, but I almost always have silkie chickes/adults available as well.

I am in Yuba City which is in the Sutter/Yuba County area. Do you ever ship chicks? And Thanks for the offer!





Videos of my tween ducks, they are starting get their feathers and their quacks in!






Forgot to ask if anyone in the Yuba/Sutter/Sacramento area have or know anyone who has meat rabbits for sale? I've been looking for two months now and all I can find is Craig's list leads who never ever respond when messaged or called. Thanks for any and all help

 

[chiqita]

Good Evening; Most of you have probably gone to bed for the night getting ready for work tomorrow. But I wanted to ask a couple of questions on what I was seeing when I candled my eggs tonight. Of course my problems are mostly from the shipped eggs, and one egg I had to "stack" because my turner is too full. This one was stacked on top of the other eggs and seems like it laid on its side too long. Is this fixable or is it going to be doomed to failure? This one has what I would guess others have called a "blood ring", but I have no idea what that means, but I also see some light veining in the yolk above it....... Comments? Throw it away? Is it okay? The eggs all look OK. Yo might have a quitter or 2 there but unless you need space I don't throw them out until they don't hatch some catch up. I ummmmm was too excited to set my eggs and I didn't candle the shipped eggs before I set them.

I probably should have. What the heck happened to this one? I have about 7 of the shipped eggs that look like this and they all have veins in them.... Do I throw these out? I can't imagine these are going to develop right? Okay this one is kind of hard to see on here.... (Ha look you can see veining in my fingers!!! ) okay sorry.... Anyway, this egg is in thirds.... the top half has veins and is developing down to a line and then there is a section of what looks like clear yolk and then the clearer part of the egg below that. These were candled with a new 500 lumen flashlight I found at Costco and they work pretty darn good. They will blind you for sure (I know because I did it not once, but 3 times), however, I haven't retrofitted them with anything for candling yet, so please forgive the fingers. Any and all comments are appreciated. I am most concerned about the horseshoe shaped ones. I am assuming I will have to get rid of those.....

Try going to osh and getting a plumbing par plastic that has one end the size of you flashlight and one 1/2 inch or 3/4 depending on egg size. They are for joining different sized pipes. Works fantastic to turn flashlights into candlers.

Thanks ... I just looked at some youtube videos of Marek's & she's doing the same thing .... I guess I'll just keep her comfortable as possible.

I'm so sorry. That is such a scary disease I hope she pulls out of it Law, I wait for a chick to be out, then move one broodies and the pipped eggs away from the other broodies . If you move them before there is a chick many Times the abandon the nest. Is there room for a milk crate or dog crate somewhere farther away in the coop? I leave it up with a small food and water in it for 3-5 days and then turn It so she and the chicks can get out. Otherwise she will get out and leave the chicks and they will freeze. But doing that at night has worked well for me. I have had serial broodies 4 in one box, 2 in another 3 in another etc... and have been peeling them off to give them 3 days worth of chicks as things hatch. I ha e peeled off 6 so far this year. The eggs have been madness because everyone kept laying in the nests. But its working so far!

 

[lawatt]

Try going to osh and getting a plumbing par plastic that has one end the size of you flashlight and one 1/2 inch or 3/4 depending on egg size. They are for joining different sized pipes. Works fantastic to turn flashlights into candlers.
I'm so sorry. That is such a scary disease I hope she pulls out of it

Law, I wait for a chick to be out, then move one broodies and the pipped eggs away from the other broodies . If you move them before there is a chick many Times the abandon the nest.

Is there room for a milk crate or dog crate somewhere farther away in the coop? I leave it up with a small food and water in it for 3-5 days and then turn It so she and the chicks can get out. Otherwise she will get out and leave the chicks and they will freeze. But doing that at night has worked well for me. I have had serial broodies 4 in one box, 2 in another 3 in another etc... and have been peeling them off to give them 3 days worth of chicks as things hatch. I ha e peeled off 6 so far this year. The eggs have been madness because everyone kept laying in the nests. But its working so far!

thanks for the advice! the "transit lounge" is an option for putting one of the broodies in once the chicks hatch (it's down on the floor of the run instead of up in the henhouse, but has a little nesting box inside plus space for food and water, and can be closed) -- just am not sure whether she'd want to stay in there with the chicks by the time the next ones hatch?

gave everybody some yogurt this morning, and it looks like there's "only" one additional broody, Daisy the australorp -- Speedy the CL was faking, apparently. at least that makes things slightly simpler!

 

[chiqita]

Thanks for the info! Do you ever ship chicks? Eventually down the road I am interested in entering a show with all my fowl but that won't be till next year at least. I guess what I am looking for is quality chicks with the potential to be or to breed showbirds at some later stage ya know? Yours are so cute! This guy is a partridge variety? Yeah their website is pretty lame and unprofessional, I tend to distrust any placethat doesn't have photos of their stock. Which is why I asked here about them! I've decided no hatchery silkies for me though! I am in Yuba City which is in the Sutter/Yuba County area. Do you ever ship chicks? And Thanks for the offer! Videos of my tween ducks, they are starting get their feathers and their quacks in! Forgot to ask if anyone in the Yuba/Sutter/Sacramento area have or know anyone who has meat rabbits for sale? I've been looking for two months now and all I can find is Craig's list leads who never ever respond when messaged or called. Thanks for any and all help

If you are in the area of sac, get chicks from Sherri in Lincoln. She as amazing babies. My husband goes up to Sacramento about once a quarter ad could take some for you to pick up if I have older chicks, but mine are to small for a day of car driving ATM. But if you ant her number pm me.

 

[cherylcohen]

Is there a chance anyone is traveling from the East Bay to Sacramento/Vacaville/Redding area this week. I have some chickens that need to hitch a ride to PapaBrooder! Please PM me, THANKS

 

[chiqita]

thanks for the advice!  the "transit lounge" is an option for putting one of the broodies in once the chicks hatch (it's down on the floor of the run instead of up in the henhouse, but has a little nesting box inside plus space for food and water, and can be closed) -- just am not sure whether she'd want to stay in there with the chicks by the time the next ones hatch?  

gave everybody some yogurt this morning, and it looks like there's "only" one additional broody, Daisy the australorp -- Speedy the CL was faking, apparently.  at least that makes things slightly simpler!

Once they have had a week with their babies only a very determined broodies (also known as sparkles) will steal chicks from others, and as long as there is space the scuffling is at a minimum. The key is to not tempt the other mothers while the checks are 3-4 days old.

Sparkles is another story. She sees anyone sitting on eggs and she piles on stealing eggs and once she has hatched she will try and take all chicks. She has stolen all Josephine's chicks twice last year. And I Can give her chicks or about 10 days after hatch and she accepts them ( this is not a great idea however!) One year he coop flooded an I had to put her inside with the incubator that was hatching eggs. She went nus as the babies came out and I had to give them all to her. She wanted the quail, too.... she ended up with about 18 chicks and I had to put the with a heat lamp because she could not sit on them all and would not give them up....

 

[PetRock]

Thanks

... I just looked at some youtube videos of Marek's & she's doing the same thing

.... I guess I'll just keep her comfortable as possible.

So sorry that you are going through this.

I have had 3 cases of Merek's in my flock. You just have to be willing to do what's best for your girl even if it is hard. My first chick to get it was around 6-8 weeks old when it started showing signs of paralysis. It was a FBCM chick that I purchased from a breeder and I'm not sure if it was vaccinated or not. I thought that he was a she so I tried all kinds of things to get him better. I put him in a dog kennel inside and hand fed & watered him because he was almost completely paralyzed. I ended up using a homeopathic treatment made from St. John's wort and vitamin E. It was a long process but it worked! I treated him for about 6 weeks before he was well enough to rejoin the flock. He kind of had an odd staggering gait so we named him Captain Jack Sparrow. He lived happily for several more months and then he crowed. I can't have roosters in my backyard flock and I wouldn't even give away a chicken that had Merek's or eat it so I made the hard decision to cull him at that point. My husband always does the deed for me while I cry. Hindsight, we should have culled him at the beginning when I was sure he had Merek's. .

My second case of Merek's overlapped the first case and was a 13 month old Speckled Sussex hen who I thought had peritonitis based on symptoms. She just wasn't acting herself, did not want treats which was very abnormal, and I was finding egg yolk in the nest box and soft shelled eggs under the roost. I treated her with Tylan but she didn't show signs of improving. I tried forcing her to heat and drink but she was not interested at all. Within a week, she quietly passed away in a nest box. I sent her in to Davis for a necropsy and the results came back Merek's. She was full of tumors, poor girl. She was a hatchery chick purchased from Concord Feed and was vaccinated for Merek's as a day old. So, the vaccination obviously didn't work for her.

We just resolved my third case of Merek's. I had an EE cockerel who was around 4 months old that started having a droopy wing 2 or 3 weeks ago. I looked to me like a split wing when I examined him. Then a week later, he started staggering a little bit and just looking not quite right. When I examined him again, I could not even move the droopy wing. It was paralyzed and then I knew that he most likely had Merek's. I separated him in an outdoor brooder area but chose not to do the whole homeopathic treatment. All of my indoor brooders and kennels are full of chicks so I didn't want to bring him in the house. He went rapidly down hill the end of last week and started showing signs of complete paralysis with a turned neck. We made the difficult decision to cull him. Making those kind of decisions is the hardest part of owning chickens. I knew it was the best thing to do for this bird but it was still hard.

Now I'm trying to figure out the best way to clean out that brooder area. Does anyone know if Oxine or Tektrol will kill the herpes virus that causes Merek's? I know that all of my adult flock has been exposed but I have a broody hen sitting on eggs and I need that space for her in another 2 weeks.

 

[PGRanch]

Has anyone ever had a chicken eat glass? I was cleaning off the side of the goat stalls just now and I found a pile off poop with a bunch of broken glass in it. I'm not even sure where they found the glass. It looks like tempered auto glass which I know we haven't broken any.

Haven't lost any birds in a few months so I really am a little shocked that they passed it.

 

[ronott1]

Quote: Mareks is everywhere. It is a race to get them inoculated before they get it just from the air. Wild birds have it too. Oxine might help though.

The best thing to do is get resistant breeds of get the birds from breeders that have been breeding for resistance. Culling and or not breeding the ones that show symptoms and live is what needs to happen.

One thing you can do is take the ones that are suffering to one of the UCD labs. They will euthanize the chick\chicken and send you a Necropsy report. Often that is the most humane thing to do for a suffering bird that will not eat or drink.

It is very sad but it is one of the things that happens with animals and pets.

 

[ronott1]

Has anyone ever had a chicken eat glass? I was cleaning off the side of the goat stalls just now and I found a pile off poop with a bunch of broken glass in it. I'm not even sure where they found the glass. It looks like tempered auto glass which I know we haven't broken any.

Haven't lost any birds in a few months so I really am a little shocked that they passed it.

Chickens eat everything! Mine ate broke plates. It is amazing that they make it in the wild sometimes.

I try to make sure there is nothing bad out in the yard. I can't imagine what they ate last year when the outside of the house was painted!