California - Northern

lawatt said:

did you mean my (broken) hatching egg's yolk? egg yolk color is determined by diet, not genetics -- and the eggs were shipped from texas, where they're in the middle of an insane drought, so i don't expect the breeder was free-ranging her flock; probably not much to free-range on. has nothing to do with the quality of the egg itself, i.e. the likelhood that it's fertile or viable.

although it's funny, i posted the same photo on instagram/facebook, and was surprised by how many people assumed the pale yolk color was due to being force-fed hormones or housed in a gigantic corporate chicken factory or etc. -- which it most definitely was not. we really DO need to learn more about what we eat -- in a good way, i love that my friends had such good intentions, but they didn't realize that not all insane food-production practices are visible in the end product... and that some rather benign issues ARE visible.

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tommysgirl said:

I liked that! Is that you lurking in the background at the end?? So in a chicken show do the kids in the breed classes handle their own birds? Do they stand by the pen while the judge does?

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chiqita said:

Deb! Santa Clara county denies the old lady sports!

Everything from chickens to canning was for 18 and under. Bummer!

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MossyoakLane said:

The float test came back negative, but they said their "solution" may not pick everything up. . We are tempted to send a sample to UCD to have them test it. Is it possible for her to have a full blown case of cocci and have a negative float test?

It's weird because I am pretty positive she has cocci, All the symptoms were spot on.. She has responded to corrid, and is eating (anything in sight!) and pooping normally today. We may turn her back into the flock tomorrow.

Thank you all soooo much for your help.

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ronott1 said:

I give my chickens Kale, cabbage, nappa cabbage or something green each day. Good feed also has marigold extract that makes the eggs a darker orange. The fear with the light color yolk is the health of the flock which will lower hatch rate and hatchability.

Hopefully the flock was healthy and the color was not an indicator of poor flock health. It is a good thing that you give the chicks vitamins when they hatch. Like you posted above, the orange color does not always mean better quality since it can be manipulated by feed additives.

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lawatt said:

the eggshell of that particular egg was nice and thick, and of course that gorgeous dark marans color on the outside -- and they were sent by a reputable breeder (April Howington, i got her name from here on BYC) who seems to be winning lots of awards for her birds. i'm trusting that she cares for her birds well, and that the color is probably an artifact of it being the middle of summer in texas in a drought. i'm sure it would be expensive to buy grocery greens (like i do for my chickens, although not EVERY day) for the number of birds she seems to have.

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OR4-hmom said:

I was only commenting on the yolks color. Not knowing it came from an area where green is probably very scarce now. I can't imagine going to all the trouble of setting up breeder pens and shipping eggs and then not feeding them well. I've gotten spoiled on the color in our yolks, nice deep yellow/orange but mine would look the same if I wasn't able to provide greens for them.

I'm sorry if I offended, that was not my intent. I'm sure they will be healthy beautiful chicks.

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capayvalleychick said:

I keep forgetting to tell you all about a freak accident, and now I've heard about another risk for chickens.

Someone on anther thread just lost one of her young Delawares, because it fell into her PVC feeder and got stuck. It was the design with the y at the bottom.

My chicken accidents have all involved my adirondack chairs. There are gaps on the top backs of the chairs, between the vertical slats. The chickens fly up and perch on the chair backs. Twice, I have found youngsters hanging upside down, by the leg - caught between the stats of the rungs. Last time, a young pullet got her neck caught between the slats and was hanging by her throat. Luckily, I was right there and saw it or she would have died quickly.

So I wanted to warn those of you who free range around those types of chairs or who use the PVC feeders.

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OR4-hmom said:

Hope Della get things straighten out and working right.

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