New Jersey

[kahlua]

Thank you - that is one of my favorites. His colors are so vibrant, it makes for great pictures!

 

[LilNugget]

Hello my BYC friends!! We are moving forward with our coop and run now my husband wants silkie and polish babies for his birthday. Where to find them?? Btw Marsie is still alive and happy and our babies (well 12 weeks now) are grown and more than ready to go out!! Just need to complete the run. It's partially finished here

 

[kahlua]

When is his birthday? I should have some silkie chicks soon. They'll be black, some showgirl and some not. They are really nice quality.
Your coop looks great!

Remember that black jersey giant that got injured? Well, that wound got really nasty and she lost a huge chunk of skin. She finally healed up, grew feathers back, I was thinking I should try to sell her soon.
Well..the next day I noticed that she was limping badly...She can move her left leg but won't put weight on it.
So now I have to nurse her again...She is one accident prone little chicken!!!

 

[SparkleChic]

Lil nugget,

Nice coop! It reminds me a little of mine. Lol! I think yours is bigger though and mine is made out of a kids swingset. I think www.jerseychickens.com has silkies and polish. You can put your order in now.

 

[SparkleChic]

Hi Kahlua, looking at your orloff pics and they are really cool looking birds. What's their temperament like and do they lay well?

 

[kahlua]

Hi Kahlua, looking at your orloff pics and they are really cool looking birds. What's their temperament like and do they lay well?

Thanks - I like them a lot!
They are not known for being great layers...I just got my first Orloff egg yesterday, the pullet/hen is 10 months old! But a lot of my birds are starting to lay very late, I guess due to the lighting...

I have one that is super friendly, she's always underfoot and I can pick her up. She's the one who laid the egg yesterday. The others aren't especially friendly but they are not nervous or flighty birds. They're really good foragers. I let them free range a lot when they were younger - they survived really well. I kept the nicest, they live in the coop now so they are safer, but they free range as much as I can allow.

My rooster is HUGE - but he's a big baby, my (smaller) EE roo bosses him around and the Orloff doesn't even think about challenging him.

My other roo was killed by that hawk - but he wasn't as nice as the big boy. He was smaller and his type wasn't as good.

 

[SparkleChic]

Thanks for the info. I would like to add two more hens to my current flock this year and not sure what breeds yet as I love variety. It keeps it very interesting. Looking at BR, Marans, or speckled Sussex , then I just saw yours and thought ...their nice too! Decisions, decisions. I'd also like to get or build another small coop and put a few bantams in there. As you can tell I'm looking forward to spring. Congrats on the egg! Mine weren't laying either but we put a low light in with timer and they haven't stopped since. All are laying now, but I definitely will give them a break next winter and not use artificial light.

 

[kahlua]

Thanks for the info. I would like to add two more hens to my current flock this year and not sure what breeds yet as I love variety. It keeps it very interesting. Looking at BR, Marans, or speckled Sussex , then I just saw yours and thought ...their nice too! Decisions, decisions. I'd also like to get or build another small coop and put a few bantams in there. As you can tell I'm looking forward to spring. Congrats on the egg! Mine weren't laying either but we put a low light in with timer and they haven't stopped since. All are laying now, but I definitely will give them a break next winter and not use artificial light.

I also have 3 wheaten marans...one of my girls just started laying (they are 7 months old), the other shouldn't be too far behind. Their eggs are beautiful. I just put my trio in their own pen so I can hatch out some chicks in a few weeks. If you're looking for marans...LOL

I think speckled sussex are also really pretty, and they may be better layers than Orloffs, but I love the look of the Orloffs more, so I went with them.

Next winter I might try a light in the coop - but my coop is pretty far from the house, I would need a LONG extension cord!!! But it might be better than NO eggs...

 

[SparkleChic]

I also have 3 wheaten marans...one of my girls just started laying (they are 7 months old), the other shouldn't be too far behind. Their eggs are beautiful. I just put my trio in their own pen so I can hatch out some chicks in a few weeks. If you're looking for marans...LOL

I think speckled sussex are also really pretty, and they may be better layers than Orloffs, but I love the look of the Orloffs more, so I went with them.

Next winter I might try a light in the coop - but my coop is pretty far from the house, I would need a LONG extension cord!!! But it might be better than NO eggs...

Oooooh, wheaten Marans, love that color! Do you have pics of those? I think I want one! Lol! Seriously tho, I would be interested. Let me know.

 

[kahlua]

Oooooh, wheaten Marans, love that color! Do you have pics of those? I think I want one! Lol! Seriously tho, I would be interested. Let me know.

I do have some pics, but none that are too recent. They were going through an ugly fluffy stage in these...LOL Their color has also changed, I can try to get some new pics this week...
They came from Cree Farms in WA state, shipped as day-old chicks.







The EE on the right (Pheonix) is in the pen with the wheaten marans. She lays mossy green eggs, I want to hatch some olive egger chicks from her and my marans roo.




These are the eggs I've been getting - they are a little darker in person. Pheonix lays the green, the one marans lays about a 6+ on the color scale. The other hasn't started laying yet...but hopefully soon!
The other eggs are my silkies and the Orloff - the silkie eggs are pink in person, the Orloff is was light beige. Pheonix laid the two green eggs and the greyish egg on the top, to the right of the marans egg. And the two blue-er eggs are from my other two EE's.




I've had my marans pen set up for about a week - once the second pullet starts laying, I will fire up the incubator.