Opa, Will you have Wellie Chicks at Chickenstock? Might be worth a drive to Lansing.. though that's a long ways for me with high gas prices!! Probably less to just bite the bullet and order chicks from Estes??
I braved the hen this morning and was able to get under her and retrieve all the eggs and replace the ones she is SUPPOSED to be brooding. The other hen had popped into the box to lay her egg for the day and the broody hen was in front.
I used my sweatshirt sleeve and still got two hard long pecks, but no eggs were damaged. She had 22 eggs under her, 15 were MINE!
The Wellie eggs were all darker than the Barnie Eggs and the Lt Sussex eggs even though the markings are pretty much wearing off.
Those eggs are due to hatch around Sunday.....I don't want to disturb them too much as I really want the hatched chicks.
Not having a rear access to the nest is definitely a problem. After all, who would have thought they would choose the round 20 gallon tote on its side as their only nestbox!!
These 4 adult hens all came loaded with chicken lice near their tail vents. I tried soaking, washing with medicated shampoo, then treating the legs and the vent feather area with Tea Tree Oil soaked Vaseline. I only did it one time. Now I have put DE all over the roosting area, in the nestboxes, and pretty much dusted the whole coop down with it. I also gave them a couple of buckets of wood ashes to dust bath with, and they did. I am highly suspicious that they still have the feather lice in their below vent areas. Suggestions?? They are still indoors inside the pit greenhouse. I'm slowly building the outside run and have to do a complete repair on the 4x8 greenhouse window (all rotted out sill/sides).
Also looking for advice on getting good GLW? Been advised to breed up my own? GLW roo over SQ SLW hens? Suggestions on where to get a good roo or the SLW hens?? That really is NEXT YEAR's project. This year it is developing/raising up the Wellie flock.
Bonnie
