California - Northern

[tommysgirl]

Deann, hysterical video on "cow drinks from hose". Too cute!
I got my first two small Premier plates today! Counting down... Tuesday March 17th, St Patrick's Day Hatch!
Chick names anyone?
Guiness
Blarney
Shamrock
Waterford
Leprechaun
????

Maeve Sioban, Shannon, Erin, Kathleen, Katie, Ronan, Megan,Tara, Kelly, Limerick, Kerry Keenen Kiernan, and for the sneaky one in the bunch...Sligo...My last name is O'Rourke so own kid's names are hidden in there.

I would like to share photos of my brand new joys of life: chicks : ) I would like to thank "DIDolan" for the beautiful eggs from her lovely hens, and delightful experience. When we first started to communicate, Dawn sent me some photos of her Blue, and Splash Marans eggs where the color was dark and quite impressive, but, they were much impressive and prettier in person. The eggs had 100% fertility, and the hatch started very early hours of the 21st.day, and was completed within 15 hrs. To my surprise, the first chick took only 3 hours from pip to hatch. Well, looked like all the chicks were in a big hurry to get out of their eggs. So nice to have fuzzy little chicks to love, and play with rather than doing my work...

Lual

Oh...they are lovely!!! So excited I hope to get 8 eggs from Dawn later in the season too

My 13 yr old loves all things Irish. She suggests Declan, Pub, Lucky, Finnian, Finnegan, Clover, Emerald, Donegal, Cork, Dublin, Kildare, Galway, Limerick, Tipperary.

Yay!!!!!! More Good Ones!

Awesome choices! I'll use this list for my Marans and OE, but probably it would not be good to name the (British) Cream Legbars off this list!

Absolutely...you can't waste a good Irish name on a Brit

Wow, Lual! Thanks so much for the recommendation! I am glad that the work I have been slowly (like a snail!) doing to get the egg color up while keeping to the standards (now that Marans are an approved breed in the SOP, although not my beloved Splash color) is paying off.
Here's what I have set to hatch in ten days, if all goes well.. Candled last night and all fertile!



The biggest eggs are around 75-83grams, and that girl puts a lot of calcium into her egg--you can see two that are pretty chalky. It doesn't seem to affect hatch, but I always worry about it. I mark all my eggs with a number so I can track it if the "chalkier" ones do/don't hatch, which hens have the best rate, etc... Statistics geek, I know!

Those are beautiful chicks, and the leg feathering seems clean and even, which I like! Dawn

Looking forward to picking some of these up. I was in Healdsburg...out by J winery, dropping off a cockerel with a family last Saturday. I have successfully rehomed 3 cockerels in the last month. Normally they would be in the pot but these were special and I am so pleased I could find them all places.

Isn't it great the effect we can have? We don't even know how we touch a child's or student's life until much later. I gave up teaching elementary school sixteen years ago, but still jump at opportunities to mentor college students when I can now! Once a teacher, always a teacher, whether you are a 4-H leader, Girl/boy Scout leader, French club mentor, FFA leader, soccer coach... It is a cool feeling to work with students of any age that have minds open to learning. I feel strongly that life-long learners have a richer, more interesting life right to the end.

Absolutely! I have been a teacher for 24 years and I can't shake the desire to tell people things...heaven forbid they ask me a question lol. I am known for giving more than thorough answers

@fowlman01 @fortyfivefarm I was a 4-Her from 9 to 18...Sheep and Horse mostly but it is also where I learned to sew and to cook. I think of/draw upon my 4-H experiences frequently and I credit the adult leaders with helping me to grow up. More than my school teachers, there was a permanence with my 4-H leaders and those connections were invaluable to me as a kid and therefore as an adult.

 

[tommysgirl]

I am going to order a Brinsea Mini Advance on Friday

I am feeling the need to be able to check fertility with my NH and my Bantam pens and I haven't had sufficient broody cooperation. I have one girl right now and if tradition holds she will shortly be joined by her broody partner but I am holding them off with golf balls waiting for my Urch Houdan chicks.

Plus you people are always so generous when you ship eggs, you send me more than a girl can handle so I need a spot for the overflow...7 egg capacity is perfect.

Just thought I would share that news...knew hardly anyone else would get it!

 

[One Chick Two]

Hi lawatt and Alchemist farm! I am in Healdsburg! Are you going to the Spring Fling at SRJC's Shone Farm? If anyone on this thread is interested, this is what DVM Jessica Baldwin, one of our local "chicken" vets posted:
Shone Farm, SRJC- Sunday April 19th! Dr Dan [Famini] was trying for a Saturday, but they are pretty much all taken already.

Still settling on a time, but it will probably span lunch time again. BYO lunch or get something from the SRJC pizza oven, but probably a bring something to share dessert table open the whole time. Dan wants to decrease or put an end to lines of people waiting for food.

Tentative schedule will be a talk for all, then several smaller stations that people can go to in whatever order they want (eating happens during this time), then a second talk.

Ideas for stations Dr Dan and I talked about- necropsy, chicken first aid box, fecal (poop) lab, walk out the the SRJC demo broiler coop/run to look and discuss.

Other thought for stations? These would be set up as a table with someone at it like me or Dan ect with something to look at and talk about for about 10-15 people. We need some more ideas.

Other possibilities- basic anatomy & wing trim/nail trim- very basic stuff.

Static displays (no person standing there to explain) Dan's egg rainbow, I plan to set up a display of chicken edible garden weeds, repeat of egg contest for colors, spotted, biggest ect. Any more suggestions for displays?

One of the talks MIGHT be a retooled Dr Dan's talk on parasites he did at Frizelle-enos.

This sounds interesting.

How about trimming rooster spurs?

(Static) DIY non spill feeders or waterers.
Besides the egg rainbow, perhaps a Marans egg color display- They can be quite showy, and many birds create speckled works of art.

http://www.shonefarm.com/

SRJC Shone Farm
7450 Steve Olson Lane
Forestville, CA 95436
From Hwy 101:
Take River Road / Guerneville Exit. Go West on River Road to Trenton-Healdsburg Rd.
Turn right on Trenton-Healdsburg and follow it to the T-intersection at Eastside Road.
Turn left on Eastside Rd and then right into the first driveway. Follow the drive to SRJC ShoneFarm.

 

[tommysgirl]

This sounds interesting.

How about trimming rooster spurs?

(Static) DIY non spill feeders or waterers.
Besides the egg rainbow, perhaps a Marans egg color display- They can be quite showy, and many birds create speckled works of art.

http://www.shonefarm.com/

SRJC Shone Farm
7450 Steve Olson Lane
Forestville, CA 95436

HaHa Speaking of 4-H. Steve Olson...of Steve Olson Lane was who I bought my Dorset breeders from. He also was a 4-H sheep judge for years and years

 

[TheKeeper]

I finally have 3 pips on my muscovy duck eggs! Yay!
Go peepers!

 

[lualshannon]

Congrats on all the spring chicks everyone such cute babies! I need to get some more pictures of my chicks. They grow up so fast. So far this year, I've hatched around 70 chicks. The oldest are 5 weeks old and I just sorted them today. I'm keeping 10 cockerels and 13 pullets to grow out more. I have 40 chicks in the brooder that hatched last week. I also have another 44 eggs in the incubator due to hatch the 25th

This spring like weather has made it easy to get a head start on hatching this year. Though I do wish we would get some more rain. I had to turn on the irrigation system for the trees and also hand water the potatoes, onions and garlic in the garden.

Nectarine trees

Flock enjoying the sunshine

pullets

Some of the new chicks

Gorgeous birds shimmering with good health. The trees in full bloom are lovely. Out fruit trees are blooming as well, and am worried about the spring time frosts we have. I am hoping that we don't loose the blooms.

Lual

 

[dldolan]

How about trimming rooster spurs?

(Static) DIY non spill feeders or waterers.
Besides the egg rainbow, perhaps a Marans egg color display- They can be quite showy, and many birds create speckled works of art.

Great ideas, One Chick Two! I've passed them on to Dr Baldwin.

I, too, learned to cook and knit (skill lost to me now, but, oh well!), camp, and show our family dog in 4H in Waunakee, Wisconsin! I think I never got past the eating of the cookies in Girl Scouts, though!

 

[dldolan]

Maeve Sioban, Shannon, Erin, Kathleen, Katie, Ronan, Megan,Tara, Kelly, Limerick, Kerry Keenen Kiernan, and for the sneaky one in the bunch...Sligo...My last name is O'Rourke so own kid's names are hidden in there.

Same with me--Irish last name, but my grown children don't like me naming birds after them. They're worried about my social commentary, i think!

 

[sewandgrow]

I finally have 3 pips on my muscovy duck eggs! Yay!
Go peepers!

Good luck Lisa.

 

[Flowers of Abba]

Incubation question for all you pros.....

While using the octagon twenty (I suppose also any other bator)

When the temperature naturally rises from development do you unscrew the temperate gauge compartment and adjust or do you leave it at the original calibration?