Meyer Hatchery Chicken pics anyone??

[COChix]

@Beer Can can you post a pic of your cornish? We have 5.

 

[Beer can]

@Beer Can can you post a pic of your cornish? We have 5.

I don't think I have a pic. The poor thing was eaten by a predator along with the buff polish roo and one of my wellie pullets when I was freeranging them. They were roosting in trees so I think a racoon. I stopped freeranging for awhile and now when I let them out they do come back into the coop before dark. I was thinking she was a barnvelder, but then decided on dark cornish.

 

[trsturself]

I wondered if any of you who have polish in your flocks could answer a few questions for me pretty please? I'm thinking of adding some polish to my Meyer chick order for April. Firstly, I am in central Ohio- do yours have issues with cold? It says on the Meyer website they do poorly in cold, but when I was chatting with a Meyer rep, she said she personally knew of people around our area (Meyer is only 2 hrs from me) that had them and didn't have issues. Secondly she suggested if I get them to get two so they don't get picked on... Is this true? If I just got one would it be bullied on more than the other 3-4 chicks I will be adding to the flock at the same time?

I got one golden laced polish in leanns adopt me, I didn't want to keep her because of our winters but my kids fell in love with her. She's doing fine and we've had many days of -15F. I think the biggest problem is their heads getting wet from drinking.

We have an SLP, as do my friends. They don't get picked on at all. Yes, the cold worry is that their crests will freeze if they get wet in cold weather or if there is too much humidity in your coop. One day last year her crest was little icicles that hung down from her getting it wet when she drank. She survived just fine though. We are going to add a Buff polish this spring. We love them.
They aren't good for free ranging though as they can't see above them well.
It sounds like this won't be your first addition to the flock so it might go smoother. Every addition we do is smoother and smoother.

 

[NanaLynn]

I wondered if any of you who have polish in your flocks could answer a few questions for me pretty please? I'm thinking of adding some polish to my Meyer chick order for April. Firstly, I am in central Ohio- do yours have issues with cold? It says on the Meyer website they do poorly in cold, but when I was chatting with a Meyer rep, she said she personally knew of people around our area (Meyer is only 2 hrs from me) that had them and didn't have issues. Secondly she suggested if I get them to get two so they don't get picked on... Is this true? If I just got one would it be bullied on more than the other 3-4 chicks I will be adding to the flock at the same time?

We have just one polish, Buffy, the Buff Laced Polish. She was the only one in my last order. At the time I was adding 16 chicks to 6 grown hens. I had them separated within the coop and run for awhile and no one ever singled out Buffy. She seems to get along with all of them and I see her pick on others but no one picks on her. She's pretty tough. She squats for us too and likes to fuss at me. We're glad we got her. I don't think you "need" to get two but you may "want" too since they are just so much fun to have. She lays a little less then the other white layers but is pretty regular with laying and was one of the first to start back after molting. Needless to say, everyone in the family wants more polish of different varieties.

We had a Golden Laced Polish with our very first order of chicks and she did not survive after the 1st day, I had read that they are not hardy chicks. I got another order a few months later and got another GLP and she was turning out beautiful, but sadly she was one of the ones killed in our dog attack that nearly killed our entire flock. Other then the one that we first lost from shipping the other two seemed very healthy with no complications.

I do not live in as cold a climate as you, but I think using a nipple water system helps with keeping her crest dry. We did get into the single digits last winter and we did have a open waterer then but she never had a iced over crest, but I can imagine it would happen in colder climates.

 

[trsturself]

We have an SLP, as do my friends. They don't get picked on at all. Yes, the cold worry is that their crests will freeze if they get wet in cold weather or if there is too much humidity in your coop. One day last year her crest was little icicles that hung down from her getting it wet when she drank. She survived just fine though. We are going to add a Buff polish this spring. We love them.
They aren't good for free ranging though as they can't see above them well.
It sounds like this won't be your first addition to the flock so it might go smoother. Every addition we do is smoother and smoother.

I should clarify that her frozen crest was when we had over a week of -10+ weather. I had to put a heat lamp directly above their water just to keep it liquid during the day. Every surface outside was covered in ice, the fence, their coop, etc. So it may have even just been the water in the wind that did it, not the drinking bowl. She has been just fine this winter even though it got down to -33 wind chill over the holidays.
I read that the feathers on the head don't have as much blood flow to them so they freeze easier. She wasn't the worse for wear but I can see if you have that kind of weather more than a week in the winter it could be a problem.

 

[Beer can]

I've heard of people using heated nipple waterers not only for crested breeds but for the big wattles on roos that get frostbite if dipped in their water. We have had many nights of -15F with
-25F windchill. My coop is large, dry and well vented. 8'x16' and 9' tall, vented at the eaves. I only have eight pullets and one roo in it. I use the deep litter method also but I don't think it is adding any heat because I cleaned it out last spring. No heated water either, I use a rubber pan from TSC
and nock the ice out a couple times a day.

 

[NanaLynn]

We've had a great weekend here in NC. We made it up to 60 degrees even! Got a lot done around here. We finally raked up the last of the leaves and put most of them in the chicken run.

They love the leaves!


I also picked some Swiss Chard from the garden and they got the withered leaves and some parsley and oregano that was still in the herb garden.


We dumped a few bags of leave in the coop too. It was nice to be able to open all the doors and windows during the day and add the leaves since it was getting pretty stinky in there with them being locked up from the cold.

We got 8 eggs today, so it keeps picking up. The egg skelter was filling up so I washed a dozen and gave them to one of my sons.
I was so happy with the girls and really enjoyed finally being able to give some away. I like to share the eggs we get and garden goodies too.


I trimmed all our flowering bushes and while trimming them I noticed the daffodils are starting to bloom. This is way to soon, this weather is confusing the flowers now. We noticed a few trees starting to bud too. I hope it means that we'll have an early Spring but I have a feeling we'll be hit with another cold front or two again before Spring.

I felt very productive today. Especially since Wednesday and Thursday I had the flu and thought that I was on my death bed. It was the stomach kind, not fun!

I hope that all of you are well and avoiding the flu, I would not wish that on anyone.

 

[Dawn1058]

Well five days in and one chick died today. Went out to check on them and it was under heater on it side, tried to make it drink, went back out ten minutes later to try to give it some sugar water and it was dead. I gave them Ramon noodles today for a treat don't know if that's what did it. I have been giving them scrambled eggs but wanted to try something different. Its gizzard seems very tight and full, any suggestions? Oh well we will see how many make it tomorrow.

 

[christine9]

Well five days in and one chick died today. Went out to check on them and it was under heater on it side, tried to make it drink, went back out ten minutes later to try to give it some sugar water and it was dead. I gave them Ramon noodles today for a treat don't know if that's what did it. I have been giving them scrambled eggs but wanted to try something different. Its gizzard seems very tight and full, any suggestions? Oh well we will see how many make it tomorrow.

Don't know what happened, but I don't feed anything but chick feed until they are at least three weeks. I'm not suggesting it was the food, but if you think it's possible, I'd stick to chick feed.

 

[christine9]

We've had a great weekend here in NC. We made it up to 60 degrees even! Got a lot done around here. We finally raked up the last of the leaves and put most of them in the chicken run. They love the leaves! I also picked some Swiss Chard from the garden and they got the withered leaves and some parsley and oregano that was still in the herb garden. We dumped a few bags of leave in the coop too. It was nice to be able to open all the doors and windows during the day and add the leaves since it was getting pretty stinky in there with them being locked up from the cold. We got 8 eggs today, so it keeps picking up. The egg skelter was filling up so I washed a dozen and gave them to one of my sons. I was so happy with the girls and really enjoyed finally being able to give some away. I like to share the eggs we get and garden goodies too. I trimmed all our flowering bushes and while trimming them I noticed the daffodils are starting to bloom. This is way to soon, this weather is confusing the flowers now. We noticed a few trees starting to bud too. I hope it means that we'll have an early Spring but I have a feeling we'll be hit with another cold front or two again before Spring. I felt very productive today. Especially since Wednesday and Thursday I had the flu and thought that I was on my death bed. It was the stomach kind, not fun! I hope that all of you are well and avoiding the flu, I would not wish that on anyone.

Good for you. You did great this weekend. I had the windows thrown open and cleaning inside. The early spring makes me nervous. My forsythia was blooming last week. And two years ago, this happened and all my fruit trees bloomed and then we got frost. I got zero fruit that year. I'd love for it to just stay like this for a while!