B.Y.C. Dorking Club!

[tgrlily]

Quote:
Sweet! I would've been tempted to keep a few of them to introduce the lavender gene.

But I'm crazy like that!

My SG hatch ended pretty poorly... out of a total of 38 SG eggs, I got 7 chicks. But at least I got 7. So -- I'm going to need more SG eggs or chicks if anyone cares to ship.

I getting ready to set a mixed color batch of Dorking eggs from Mary. Hoping something interesting will hatch!

She did an amazing job packing them!!! PO clerk asked if there were Ostriches in there.

I'm down to 6 Colored & 14 White eggs.

Did you have any luck with the ones I sent you? I wonder if you were a victim of the same over zealous X-Rayer in the post office!

I had 2 hatch from yours. Hatching shipped eggs is so hard! Five made it to lockdown. Nearly all the homegrown eggs hatched. But one out of two of my own Dorking eggs hatched... a boy of course! One chick from Texas has curled toes, so i'm doing vitamin therapy... tomorrow she'll get "orthpedic shoes" if the vitamin B alone doesn't fix it.

Mary only lives a few hours from here, so I hope hers will hatch well. I'll definitely try the tinfoil next time to deflect x-rays! I'm going to have to wait a week or so to send you some more.

 

[tgrlily]

Quote:
Yay! I'm so happy for you Raven, you've been waiting a while.

We've had a cold snap here and all my ladies are on strike.

I'm going to try and improve the lighting situation, I have no power out there but I'm thinking of picking up a bulk box of 10 or 12 solar garden lights. It might look weird but I'm hoping it will give them a bit more light before they go to bed.

I have been meaning to do something about a better winter house and I'll have to get building. DH has given permission to build 3, yes 3 new pens in the veggie garden.

I already have the mesh for hoop houses, concrete rio instead of the cattle panels usually suggested. Each sheet is 6m x 2.4m so... nearly 20' x 8'. Thinking that will make pens around 10' x 8' and high enough for me to walk around in. They will be on skids so I can use them to clear and fertilize the beds before replanting. I'm sure the chickens will love their job.

That sounds great! That's the 2"x2" reinforcing mesh? I really want to build a hoop house. Building them to fit over garden beds is a wonderful idea!

 

[Yellow House Farm]

Quote:
Did you have any luck with the ones I sent you? I wonder if you were a victim of the same over zealous X-Rayer in the post office!

I had 2 hatch from yours. Hatching shipped eggs is so hard! Five made it to lockdown. Nearly all the homegrown eggs hatched. But one out of two of my own Dorking eggs hatched... a boy of course! One chick from Texas has curled toes, so i'm doing vitamin therapy... tomorrow she'll get "orthpedic shoes" if the vitamin B alone doesn't fix it.

Mary only lives a few hours from here, so I hope hers will hatch well. I'll definitely try the tinfoil next time to deflect x-rays! I'm going to have to wait a week or so to send you some more.

One thing that can curl toes is too much space in the hatcher. I always restrict the walking space in the hatcher which helps to avoid toe curling.

 

[tgrlily]

Quote:
I had 2 hatch from yours. Hatching shipped eggs is so hard! Five made it to lockdown. Nearly all the homegrown eggs hatched. But one out of two of my own Dorking eggs hatched... a boy of course! One chick from Texas has curled toes, so i'm doing vitamin therapy... tomorrow she'll get "orthpedic shoes" if the vitamin B alone doesn't fix it.

Mary only lives a few hours from here, so I hope hers will hatch well. I'll definitely try the tinfoil next time to deflect x-rays! I'm going to have to wait a week or so to send you some more.

One thing that can curl toes is too much space in the hatcher. I always restrict the walking space in the hatcher which helps to avoid toe curling.

I've had this happen twice this year, both times from shipped eggs. My hatcher was very, very full last week & not quite as full when the other chick hatched. The commonality in my case seems to be that they were shipped. This is really the only "intervention" I do, other than cleaning off pasty butt if it happens. If it doesn't work, I'll have to cull it.

 

[RareBreedFancier]

Quote:
That sounds great! That's the 2"x2" reinforcing mesh? I really want to build a hoop house. Building them to fit over garden beds is a wonderful idea!

Thanks.

I planed the beds out last year when we moved here with rotating pens in mind but only just got DH to agree to more pens. The temptation of tasty home grown cockerels prevailed.

The holes in the rio are quite big actually, must be 6" x 6" but I have smaller, lighter mesh to cover it. The rio will be the bones of the pen, much lighter than a pen that size built of wood. The lighter mesh needs a solid frame or it would flop over.

I'd planed to get them built over winter or in early spring in time for use as grow out pens but as it turns out I need them now as I have a bunch of growers coming along. They are in my breeding pens at the moment and I have the breeders running together in the big pen so it will be nice to move the growers out into new pens and put my breeders back in their pens.

I'm glad I started thinking about pens early, with the number of chicks I want to hatch in spring I need to think about where I'm going to put them. I want to hatch a lot to get some good offspring and I'm thinking the advise 'stick with one breed' is sure ringing true right now. Hatching 100+ of one breed isn't too bad but the idea of having 100+ of 4 or 5 breeds is frighting

but hatching only 20 or so of 4 or 5 breeds wouldn't produce much progress. I want to have lots of pretty things but I need to stick to my plan of keeping my 'eye candy' collection strictly to the layer pen, I can't breed everything I like, that's for sure.

 

[tgrlily]

Quote:
That sounds great! That's the 2"x2" reinforcing mesh? I really want to build a hoop house. Building them to fit over garden beds is a wonderful idea!

Thanks.

I planed the beds out last year when we moved here with rotating pens in mind but only just got DH to agree to more pens. The temptation of tasty home grown cockerels prevailed.

The holes in the rio are quite big actually, must be 6" x 6" but I have smaller, lighter mesh to cover it. The rio will be the bones of the pen, much lighter than a pen that size built of wood. The lighter mesh needs a solid frame or it would flop over.

I'd planed to get them built over winter or in early spring in time for use as grow out pens but as it turns out I need them now as I have a bunch of growers coming along. They are in my breeding pens at the moment and I have the breeders running together in the big pen so it will be nice to move the growers out into new pens and put my breeders back in their pens.

I'm glad I started thinking about pens early, with the number of chicks I want to hatch in spring I need to think about where I'm going to put them. I want to hatch a lot to get some good offspring and I'm thinking the advise 'stick with one breed' is sure ringing true right now. Hatching 100+ of one breed isn't too bad but the idea of having 100+ of 4 or 5 breeds is frighting

but hatching only 20 or so of 4 or 5 breeds wouldn't produce much progress. I want to have lots of pretty things but I need to stick to my plan of keeping my 'eye candy' collection strictly to the layer pen, I can't breed everything I like, that's for sure.

I looked up "concrete rio" and didn't get anywhere.

Now I'm guessing it's panels made of rebar? Or thinner than rebar? Expensive? I'm trying to find something available in the US to compare it to for cost.

I would like to make a rooster house & small pen. Hoop houses seem sensible and it's something Noah & I could do without much assistance from my husband. I could also use them as grow-out pens & mini greenhouses.

I'm actually selling off 2 varieties of Ameraucana and debating whether to keep my Orpingtons or not. The silkies stay -- they have their own little compound and are some of our favorites. I'm adding White, Silver-grey, Colored & hopefully - eventually Cuckoo Dorkings. I also added Dominiques, which my husband really likes. I wish I had 100 Red Dorkings to hatch! Of course, next year I may be losing my mind with them!

 

[tazcat70]

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. If you find anyone willing to ship chicks let me know! I may try more eggs from Ed later, but not until I figure what the heck is going on.

 

[Yellow House Farm]

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Too true. Frightening, yet necessary, if our breed(s) is going to advance. What is so great about working to save the Dorking is that it is an effort being undertaken before it's too late, which is far too often not the case. With focus and dedication we can do much.

Edited to mask my embarrassingly poor typing skills.....

 

[Yellow House Farm]

So, today I was working on what Monte Bowen refers to as the great chicken shuffle. I was able to cull a few 5-6 week olds for sunken leader an some color issues. There were also a couple 7-8 wk-old pullets with off leg color.

My best looking cockerel, at seven weeks old, has a broken 5th toes. I checked it to insure that it's not simply misformed, and it is indeed broken. I didn't cull him but probably should have--Murphy being Murphy.....

 

[tgrlily]

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You know -- that Murphy really gets on my nerves!

He'd better hope I never catch him!!!

Seriously, though.... that really stinks! But if it's a break, that's first aid -- did you splint it?

When you grow out a chick that long before culling, do you then move it to a "to be eaten" pen?