Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[upthecreek]

have you thought about using a 'starter' or starter/grower with the layer feed and BOSS (safflower-just a small amount of it daily)(soaked oats) (boil liver and crumble it and add soup and crumbled liver to starter-maybe once a weekor more often if no problem) make up like as doughy biscuits, these things have really helped mine.
If this is to much i apologize .
All the other stuff you are doing and using sounds good .

Mostly grower, although they have access to some layer feed as well. I have both out because I have mixed layers/non-layers. Some scratch and BOSS. Some scraps from the house, mostly bread crusts that my kids don't eat... Lots of FRESH water.

ETA: I don't think it's their diet because all the others are doing well and they seem fine otherwise...

 

[Christie Rhae]

have you thought about using a 'starter' or starter/grower with the layer feed and BOSS (safflower-just a small amount of it daily)(soaked oats) (boil liver and crumble it and add soup and crumbled liver to starter-maybe once a weekor more often if no problem) make up like as doughy biscuits, these things have really helped mine.
If this is to much i apologize .
All the other stuff you are doing and using sounds good .

Oh I can just imagine the smell of liver boiling...

But I like the idea. I am always trying to think of ways to get more protein into my girls. I will give them a can of cat food once in awhile but worry about all the other stuff that is in there that they probably don't need. When my husband catches fish I give them the scraps, always pressure cook my thanksgiving turkey carcass (edit: and give it to the chickens)... but sometimes don't know what to give them for an extra protein boost. A big ol fat boiled liver sounds great... for them. gross lol

 

[BarnGoddess01]

Ok, question... I have 4 Lav hens that were born last April. No eggs from any yet. FREELOADERS. Been cold and dark here lately... (Maine). Lately I have caught one of them(same one I know because her comb is redder than the others) in the nest box. She will stay in there for some time but when she leaves, nothing Is it common for them to stake out a nest box prior to begin laying? I have never noticed any of my other breeds doing this.
Thanks,
Steve

My late-laying (31 to 36 weeks) Marans scoped out the boxes prior to laying and even did the egg song prior to laying. Crazy ladies prepared those nests for a week to ten days prior to laying an egg! But once they started laying, they were committed! Big eggs and regular.

 

[enggass]

My late-laying (31 to 36 weeks) Marans scoped out the boxes prior to laying and even did the egg song prior to laying. Crazy ladies prepared those nests for a week to ten days prior to laying an egg! But once they started laying, they were committed! Big eggs and regular.

Exactly what my Lav is doing - song and all - but no eggs yet. Soon I bet. My Barnies went about 38 weeks before laying, and now they are the only ones laying consistently while the others have shut down or are molting...

 

[dak]

The Lav splits I made last year using my Shaffer Lav cock over my Smith Black hens are laying like crazy with no lights. I have set about 35 eggs to hatch out 25% Lav chicks, hopefully with some better feather quality.

I am also hoping that I will get faster results this way, breeding split to split, than split to Lav.

I will be setting eggs every week until I am happy with the number of Lavs I have to grow out. My Brinsea 190 should be earning its keep.

 

[ParadiseFoundFarm]

I have Wheatens. They are laying great! My flock is on Purina Grower 4 scoops, Layena 4 scoops, and BOSS 1 scoop with kitchen scraps and broccoli and grapes weekly. They had stopped laying on August 31st and started on Christmas day ( nice gift). We do not supplement light out here in the boonies and it gets very dark. Now in the 3rd week of January, we cannot get out there fast enough to collect the daily 2-3 eggs before they freeze

. Funny though - mine do no egg song.

 

[CRYSTALCREEK]

The Lav splits I made last year using my Shaffer Lav cock over my Smith Black hens are laying like crazy with no lights. I have set about 35 eggs to hatch out 25% Lav chicks, hopefully with some better feather quality.

I am also hoping that I will get faster results this way, breeding split to split, than split to Lav.

I will be setting eggs every week until I am happy with the number of Lavs I have to grow out. My Brinsea 190 should be earning its keep.

Hi Clare, sounds like an awesome plan. I'm going to make some more splits too after I get some pure blacks grown out. If you look at those chicks at day 12, the fast feather females will have about an inch of tail growth and you can select for that too, while you're at it. If you already have the fast feather, let me know what those male offspring look like at various stages of development because I haven't keep anything that doesn't have an inch of growth, to avoid confusion. Keep us posted!

If you don't mind hatching on different days of the week you can set every nine days. When you set the new eggs, the last set is ready to candle at nine days, and the set before that is ready for lockdown at 18 days; easy peasy and less fiddling with the incubator. I keep mine 14 days on the kitchen cabinet without paying much attention to temp or humidity without any loss in hatchability, so nine days of storage is no problem.

In horses, when you have one line that crosses well on another and produces outstanding offspring, it is called a "nick". Mr Yella Fella nicks on Obvious Conclusion daughters, as an example. I think the Shaffer birds nick on the Smith hens. Just a little theory I have...nothing scientific or anything....

 

[Shaffer]

. I think the Shaffer birds nick on the Smith hens. Just a little theory I have...nothing scientific or anything....

CrystalCreek,
They should click with the Smith birds because the original blacks I used in the lavender crosses came from either directly from Smith;s birds or indirectly from his birds.

 

[CRYSTALCREEK]

Harry I didn't know that--no wonder.

I have two daughters of two birds from my original hatch from you that are laying blue eggs without any hint of green this generation. One of those pullets is really big, too. I need to weigh that girl. Anyway, my plan is to put them with a pure black Smith bird once I get one grown out to tighten up the feathers.

I can send you some eggs if you need to replace your predator losses, just let me know. I'm glad to see you back. I was afraid you wouldn't have a fast enough connection to get on this new platform.

 

[Shaffer]

CrystalCreek,
Thanks for the offer of the eggs but I still have 12 birds and can work with them. I still have the original hens that your birds came from I believe. It does take a lot of time and it is very hard to get on here with this obsolete computer. Very slow and many problems with this site now.