Araucana thread anyone?

[smoothmule]

I am setting, on average, 6 eggs every three or four days. Of that, I have been hatching 3-4 chicks twice a week. last summer I was really focused on getting a few good pullets. This spring I am keeping all the boys. I will grow out as many as I can and then keep only one or two of the best of the best!
Any one have any idea on how to keep the chicks from waisting so much food?! I use the mason jar screw on feeders and the little buggers will empty the jar into their cage in half a day. I use crumbled leaves from the fall as the litter. I clean out their cage once a week and dump it into the hens pen for them to pick through. I just hate waisting so much chick starter.

If you find a way, you will be rich

 

[smoothmule]

I am still baffeled, the cream one has no shine on feathers and they are more rounded but still alongiated, has the broader comb area, the red one has narrow alongiated feathers but has a narrow comb area. the dark one has both long feathers and broad comb area. I am getting ready to ship these to some one but I need to find out the sex, I am putting them with a different batch of chicks now and watch the behaviour.

No way to be sure on the sex sometimes till they're 6 months old or more. The patterned chicks like duckwings are not as hard to sex early but if you have mixed up colors, you can get some big surprises.
If you're selling chicks, you really need to just tell buyers flat out that they are straight run....otherwise, those pullets that finish out as cockerels will make buyers very unhappy. If they know they are getting unsexed chicks, what they get is what they get. I've had cockerels appear as pullets till they were grown. Some cockerels are very slow to mature. Some of them have red combs early on and are pretty easy to be sure of. In general, cockerels can present themselves pretty young but never guarantee pullets to anyone unless they have laid

 

[dcba flock]

I am setting, on average, 6 eggs every three or four days. Of that, I have been hatching 3-4 chicks twice a week. last summer I was really focused on getting a few good pullets. This spring I am keeping all the boys. I will grow out as many as I can and then keep only one or two of the best of the best!
Any one have any idea on how to keep the chicks from waisting so much food?! I use the mason jar screw on feeders and the little buggers will empty the jar into their cage in half a day. I use crumbled leaves from the fall as the litter. I clean out their cage once a week and dump it into the hens pen for them to pick through. I just hate waisting so much chick starter.

I was having/have the same problem but I started fermenting and that seems to really be stretching it a lot further with very minimal waste. It does take a couple extra minutes a day to stir, add additional water, AVC, food etc.

 

[Rumbull]

I was having/have the same problem but I started fermenting and that seems to really be stretching it a lot further with very minimal waste. It does take a couple extra minutes a day to stir, add additional water, AVC, food etc.

Can you give more detail on this? Are you talking about sprouting grain or actually fermenting with yeast like beer?

 

[poularde]

I believe she is talking about fermenting sort of like beer. There is a great thread about it. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/644300/fermenting-feed-for-meat-birds I feed fermented feed and grains to my birds and I am very happy with the result. They eat more of their feed and I have far less waste. This will be my first year feeding chicks fermented feed. So far so good.

 

[BohoKnitterChic]

I recently got my first chicks, some mixed breed chicks (the flock were EE, Marans, Araucana, and RIR) and this one I'm pretty sure is an Araucana/Maran (rumpless, lightly feathered legs). Her name is Sadie and she's a little over 3 weeks old now. She seems like a she, her chirp is so sweet and she's much more mellow than the other chicks, so that's what she is until she or someone else says otherwise I really love her coloring. I'll get pictures of the other chicks soon.

 

[Ray_n_Debi]

I just listed some Araucana eggs in this thread ending tonight.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...-egg-auction-and-bin-thread/340#post_10863580

 

[happyhensny]

I am setting, on average, 6 eggs every three or four days. Of that, I have been hatching 3-4 chicks twice a week. last summer I was really focused on getting a few good pullets. This spring I am keeping all the boys. I will grow out as many as I can and then keep only one or two of the best of the best!
Any one have any idea on how to keep the chicks from waisting so much food?! I use the mason jar screw on feeders and the little buggers will empty the jar into their cage in half a day. I use crumbled leaves from the fall as the litter. I clean out their cage once a week and dump it into the hens pen for them to pick through. I just hate waisting so much chick starter.

I put one of those feeders in a frisbee. Catches most of the dropped feed and they tend to pick it up from there too.

 

[Extra Java]

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[dcba flock]

Thoughts on this little one? Slowest to feather of all my different breds, long feathers around the neck think mullet? Is he/she considered blue?