Recent content by ChickenHermit

I am have a hard day as a chicken keeper. I had a hen sitting on eggs; a calm japanese bantam. She was doing the broody pose and growls, but otherwise calm. She's on day 21 today, and right on schedule this morning, I heard peeping. I peeked under her and saw an egg hatching. When I went to...

This is awesome! And a useful thing to be able to link to. My local feed store gets goslings in once a year from Metzer (I believe) and always has a sign up that they will only sell a minimum of 2 at a time, which is awesome. And how I ended up with geese again... ;)

I have a dilute EE named Eclair! She's part of what we call the breakfast flock- all named after breakfast foods. My point is, pastries make excellent chicken names. ;)

With chickens and a kiddo in the mix, it might be good to get one of the calmer, friendlier breeds- perhaps pilgrims? They're a heritage breed, not too big, and pretty friendly. I've also had good luck with Toulouse being friendly. I have brown chinese and african right now, and they're...

What is in your flock now?

Mostly. Now and then (maybe once a week?) they vanish for a couple hours but come back.

If they're light sussex (white with black tails and black on their neck), then not with this fellow. For sex-linking with him, you would need a yellow or reddish hen- something like a buff orphington or a rhode island red.

His plumage looks like he's got lacing genes going on, and he's definitely silver. Because silver is co-dominant, you can actually produce sex-linked babies if you cross him with a red or buff hen- you would get all silver female chicks, and all yellow/"golden" males.

So glad you've been able to give them a good home, and they're responding to the food-bonding! My geese are both picky and spoiled, and will only eat *specific* types of lettuce. Ridiculous creatures! :rolleyes:

I was given an incubator for Christmas, and set a batch of eggs from my mixed bantam flock on Jan. 1. These were the results: I'm now having a lot of fun trying to figure out parentage. These are all results of a mixed flock of silkies, cochins, silchins, japanese bantams, and D'Uccles...

Yeah...I totally ended up camped out next to the brooder there for a while which the hatching as going on. :rolleyes:

Just to chime in again: 3 out of 5 of my chicks are half to three quarters silkie.

Mine didn't start pipping until day 21, and it took until day 23 to hatch. You're still on track! The waiting is the hardest part.

Just got portraits of my final two:

My final results are in! Of the five eggs I set, three hatched 1/21, two hatched 1/22, and the final hatched early this morning, 1/23. I'm amazed I got a 100% hatch for my first time with an incubator! Pretty awesome way to start my birthday, I've got to say. So happy! :celebrate:woot:wee