Hudson Valley NY *chat thread*

[JerseyHen]

One of my EE is acting awfully Rooster-ish. Is this normal? She is about 7 weeks old....

perhaps it is a rooster? It is nearly impossible to sex an easter egger until the feathers are fully in. I had 7 a few years ago and I couldn't tell male or female on several of them until they laid and egg or crowed (and, oddly, I have had hens crow from time to time too). Can you post pics of the comb, waddles, saddle and hackle feathers? It might help us to tell male from female for you.

 

[JerseyHen]

Today I got to meet Barb! Yay! It is so nice to meet other local chicken people! She left with a very friendly brabanter and a russian orloff. We also discovered that I have a potential feather picker in the brooder. Thank goodness they go into the outside pen this week (assuming I can get it put together).

We all need to have a get together!

 

[Brznwench]

It was a pleasure to meet you Christine! The orloff and brabanter are keeping hubby company while I get the dog crate ready to introduce them to my other girls. And thank you for the eggs! I checked and I am supposed to have the incubator by tomorrow evening but will wait to see what else you come up with. So far I have met 3 HVBYC members. Would love to have a hen party sometime! Cheers! Barb

 

[JerseyHen]

Well, you can put those 6 in and I will bring you the green eggs, when you check them in a few days for development, you can pull the duds and put the green ones in. It should work as long as you get them no more than 3 days apart.

 

[JerseyHen]

OMG!!! I have known of the horrors of getting blue cote on yourself for a long time, so I thought I would try that spiffy new spray bottle instead of the dauber or pump. If you have pondered this as well...DON'T! It leaks all over your fingers and the overspray is out of control. I mean, it is a great idea not to have to pump or keep dipping the dauber, but it JUST DOESN'T WORK!!! Both of my hands are covered in the stuff. Any the noise freaks out the birds. Geesh... what an ordeal.

On a positive note, my DD said "it is a really neat color of purple, but why did you color your finger tips purple mommy?". Kids, gotta love 'em. AND she loves that her chick is purple.

 

[Brznwench]

Who boy, I learned about blue kote recently.used gardening gloves but it still got my new white watch band and my shoes!

Here are the new girls I got from JerseyHen safely inside the coop in quarantine where the will stay for the next week or two. Going to blue kote them today.

 

[Serenity Lane]

SEVEN of my eggs hatched while I was at work tonight! And 7-8 more pipped!

I know, I know, don't open the incubator during lockdown.. But due to the lack of extra space in the incubator, I figured it would be best to take the 6 dry chicks out. The humidity in the spare room (where my incubator is) is pretty high so I took my chances. Plus, that gave me a minute to put the thermometer/hydrometer back in the incubator. I had to take it out last night to give the eggs room to hatch.
Funny, I expected to see somewhere between one and three chicks when I got home. I never imagined that 7 would hatch tonight! They're not due until Sunday morning. Oh well, I'm a happy camper!

 

[Serenity Lane]

I went and picked up a new chicken from BarnMom today. I think she likes me One of the first things she did when I got her home was fly up and perch on my shoulder..

Then she sat in my lap and took a little nap..

 

[Brznwench]

Hope she settles in and does well!

 

[Brznwench]

Eggcited! Just set 6 eggs in our new mini incubator this morning. Thank you Jerseyhen for this new adventure and answering all my endless questions. Crossing fingers! Now should I really be weighing these eggs or just let nature take its course?