Meyer Hatchery Chicken pics anyone??

[autumnhearth]

Here's some pictures of my 2 wellies

Clove. As you can see she has already perfected her "stop interrupting my nap for pictures" stink eye. She doesn't look like that all the time! She's actually quite sweet, and has the longest neck ever- I think she's in that long, lanky stage right now.
Rue. Oh Rue, I still question if you are a she or he. Feathers say girl all the way but some days her face looks red (never the comb itself but the surrounding skin. Her waddles are also a teeny bit bigger than Cloves. Guess time will tell!

They free range with my big girls and all my babies are always out foraging for food, so I expect them to be grow up to be good backyarders. Rue especially likes chasing bugs. Both are pretty tame, Rue runs to me and Clove doesn't run from me so that's a big improvement from when she was younger

now if I could get the Cochin to be less of a scaredy cat, I'd be good to go.
How do you like the brabanters? You don't hear about them much, but they sure are cute!

Oh I knew there was something else I wanted to respond to! Red faces! On Saturday when we brought the girls in a noticed that 3 out of 5 of them looked quite pink in the face. Sun burn? Pecking? No, broken skin... Allergic reaction? I took pics. But by the morning the pinkness had gone down. Yesterday I noticed when I was picked up Morgaine that her face was red again, but after having her on my lap for awhile and petting her it got lighter and lighter. I think she might have just been excited, increased blood flow or something.


Baby Buff, was particularly worried about the red skin behind her ears


Amelia, our big ginger


Morgaine the Marans

Victoria the Dorking and Clara the EE didn't look the least bit pink but they both have more feather coverage on their faces, white and black. Anywho I'm pretty certain none of mine are boys

 

[christine9]

Sweetest roosters ever greeting me this morning! Love them!

Awwww!

 

[jeremyhodges]

One week from today I'm getting my second order of Meyer Hatchery females. Last year I got a black silkie, a splash silkie, a blue ameraucana, a black copper maran, and an easter egger. Next week I'm adding a blue laced red wyandotte, a silver laced polish, and an olive egger. So excited to get the newest additions to my flock!

 

[MamaShell]

Oh I knew there was something else I wanted to respond to! Red faces! On Saturday when we brought the girls in a noticed that 3 out of 5 of them looked quite pink in the face. Sun burn? Pecking? No, broken skin... Allergic reaction? I took pics. But by the morning the pinkness had gone down. Yesterday I noticed when I was picked up Morgaine that her face was red again, but after having her on my lap for awhile and petting her it got lighter and lighter. I think she might have just been excited, increased blood flow or something. Baby Buff, was particularly worried about the red skin behind her ears [COLOR=B42000] [/COLOR] Amelia, our big ginger Morgaine the Marans Victoria the Dorking and Clara the EE didn't look the least bit pink but they both have more feather coverage on their faces, white and black. Anywho I'm pretty certain none of mine are boys

I had red somewhere that the red face, coming and going, had to do with hormone surges. The red behind the ear is the ear lobe which should turn red, as well. If your hens are laying or about to start within the next few weeks, that could explain the redness. My 13 week old girls are starting to get red in the face in varying degrees. I take that as a good sign that they are maturing. I hope I am not wrong about that. Here's a photo of "Jed" who I thought was a rooster, but, now think she is an early maturing pullet because she doesn't have the stature or attitude of a roo.

 

[MamaShell]

One week from today I'm getting my second order of Meyer Hatchery females. Last year I got a black silkie, a splash silkie, a blue ameraucana, a black copper maran, and an easter egger. Next week I'm adding a blue laced red wyandotte, a silver laced polish, and an olive egger. So excited to get the newest additions to my flock!

From your photos, it looks like you have an all white Easter Egger. What color egg does she lay?

 

[autumnhearth]

I had red somewhere that the red face, coming and going, had to do with hormone surges. The red behind the ear is the ear lobe which should turn red, as well. If your hens are laying or about to start within the next few weeks, that could explain the redness. My 13 week old girls are starting to get red in the face in varying degrees. I take that as a good sign that they are maturing. I hope I am not wrong about that.

Here's a photo of "Jed" who I thought was a rooster, but, now think she is an early maturing pullet because she doesn't have the stature or attitude of a roo.

Good to know. Mine are 10 weeks, so a bit early and it comes and goes. Yep, your "Jed" looks like a "Jem"!

 

[daniellea2912]

Daniellea- Clove and Rue are have such beautiful coloring. A Welsummer is at the top of my wishlist, I really wish I had been able to convince the husband to add one to our original order.

Does anyone else look at their flock aesthetically and think for example: "If I only had a red hen and a partridge feathered hen" they would look rounded out? That's where I'm at right now. We've got silver duckwing, black copper, and buff, our EE is black-gold penciled on brown and our sex-link is more gingery orange and white than red. I think our Dorking and EE would look great next to a Welsummer and our Buff Orp and Golden Buff would look great next to a RIR and our BCM will look great with everyone. Is that wrong?

Nope, I do that as well! I chose my cochin in blue for that reason- I liked the partridge coloring also but I have one EE that has the partridge brown and yellow and then the 2 welsummers have the same colors as well. I love making sure the colors of my flock are varied- next year I need to add some white or lavender hens and some girls with neat feather patterns (some fancy laced feathers, silver pencilled, etc)

Also, what does that noise mean when the girls sort of purr or make a throaty sound that pretty loud? They were in the run and one did it and I thought it was kind of a warning because they all stood still and then another one did it and it lasted a good 5-10 minutes. And then they were doing it in the coop last night before bed time. I've heard it before but just never asked. It's such a cute sound but I don't know what it means. Anyone?

Is it a purr-y sound? Mine make it for two reasons (its taken like a year to figure this out).
1. When they are calm and content, which they tend to do a lot once they are all roosted and situated at night, and one will start it and all the rest seem join in or reply. I figure it must be some sort of a chickeny way of saying goodnight to each other maybe?
2. Sometimes they will do it as a more sharp, loud sound and that seems to be more of an alert sound because my babies always hightail it under a bush when that happens. It sounds from a purr to a whistle depending on which hen does it.

Oh I knew there was something else I wanted to respond to! Red faces! On Saturday when we brought the girls in a noticed that 3 out of 5 of them looked quite pink in the face. Sun burn? Pecking? No, broken skin... Allergic reaction? I took pics. But by the morning the pinkness had gone down. Yesterday I noticed when I was picked up Morgaine that her face was red again, but after having her on my lap for awhile and petting her it got lighter and lighter. I think she might have just been excited, increased blood flow or something.


Baby Buff, was particularly worried about the red skin behind her ears


Amelia, our big ginger


Morgaine the Marans

Victoria the Dorking and Clara the EE didn't look the least bit pink but they both have more feather coverage on their faces, white and black. Anywho I'm pretty certain none of mine are boys

Yea I would agree with this, sometimes Rue looks really red in the face, sometimes there is no red at all. I've just always wondered about her bc she feathered in half as fast as Clove, her baby feathers looked different than Cloves (now that shes starting the grow "real" hen feathers, not those juvenile feathers they are now starting to match Clove's), and because she was scared of nothing when she was a baby and would run up to anyone or anything to investigate, I have always worried she could possibly be a roo. And of course I unknowingly named her "Rue" which sounds just like roo when she was 2 days old so I have always hoped I didn't jinx her!
I think she still looks more pullet like than roo for now, so hopefully it stays that way. Plus I've looked up 8 week old welsummer roo pictures and they look completely different so fingers crossed! Yours all look like pullets to me.

 

[jeremyhodges]

From your photos, it looks like you have an all white Easter Egger. What color egg does she lay?

She lays a light mint green egg. We were actually excited to get one of the Easter eggers that everyone else seems to have received from Meyer, but she ended up being completely solid white/cream.

 

[MamaShell]

Quote: Me, too. I wanted a typical wheaten colored EE but got a pure white one and a grey one. Although they are not what I expected, they are both beautiful! My white one hasn't started laying, yet. I am expecting green, but, hoping for blue!

 

[limaro]

My Meyer chicks, delivered yesterday! 2 Buckeyes and 3 Easter Eggers. A very colorful batch of birds! Such a relief because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to tell one from the other.

So far all seems to be going well. I had planned to name them all after female 80's pop/rock singers. Then the kids got involved. So the Buckeyes are Pat Benetar and Joan Jett. The EE's are Debbie Harry (she's the Blondie) , Gerald - The Chicken Formerly Known as Cindy Lauper and Fernando - The Chicken Formerly Known as Ann&Nancy Wilson.

"Why is my family so weird?" DH was heard to quietly mutter under his breath.

They are ridiculously cute!