Wow! I just looked at the time. I came on here to surf a few pages and make a quick post but I've got to get outside, make my rounds, and make sure the birds are all tucked in for the night. So in the interest of saving time, here's a post I just made on another thread. Hope to spend more time on this thread now that things are settling down a little...
Well, I haven't been getting anything in my email so who knows what all I've missed on here. Thought I'd make a quick post to maybe start getting them again and to say that I just saw the weirdest egg I've ever seen.
You should have seen the egg that the wife cracked open on Sunday night. It was one of those nights where we decided to have breakfast for supper. After cooking up the biscuits, sausage & gravy and frying up some bacon she went to cook me some over-easy eggs. Well, one of them was a duck egg and out came a normal looking egg along with a much smaller but perfectly formed egg - shell and all - on the inside as well. Here's a little bitty blue egg sitting in the white of the other right next to the yolk. Now how about that?!
The inside of the smaller egg was just egg white except for some small whitish stuff that was probably either the chalaza or the germinal disc.
On a side note, for those thinking about next year already, it looks like I will have a real surplus of WBS Ameraucanas. I hatched out over 150 this year and still have 25 in the brooder with several more in the two chickhouses and in the lower coop below. I plan to raise all these up before making my final cuts for the breeding pens. Thus far my only disappointment has been that the male/female ratio is about 50/50. So I'll have lots of excess cockerels for anyone wanting to get started with the WBS variety or wishing to make their own EE's. I'm pretty happy with the boys I've got now so I'm not putting too much focus on males this year as I plan to keep them unless I get a significant improvement in the their progeny. And I hate to spend the $$ to keep feeding them on the hopes that I'll get something phenomenal that I just can't pass up. In fact, I've already picked out several that I want to get rid of ASAP in case anyone wants them. Otherwise I'm probably going to just put them down now because they won't be worth the $10 which is what I get if I keep feeding them. And I've still got plenty in the freezer. But I'll keep all the females for now though and make the final big cut next year - unless I see something really pop out like I did with the two I sold today.
The Barnies and Wellies are doing well too. As of now, I'm keeping all of them. I did make some significant improvement in leg and skin color. Moreso with the Wellies than the Barnies. From what I can see, I haven't lost anything from last year but it's still a little to early to see what the final result wll be.
The Barnies have kept their lacing and the sheen is as good as it was on the pullet that did so well at the show last March. The males are looking pretty good too but all of them need improvement in leg and skin color. Given that I whacked everything but my best trio last year, I'm pretty happy to have just what I've got. And I'm pretty happy with most of what I'm seeing in most of the males and females. Still, I've got several years ahead of me to correct a few things.
I've got 3 really nice Welsummer cockerels but I'm starting to see some fluff peaking out at the bottom of two of their tails. My best male I will keep for breeding but I can't show him as somebody (probably Goliath) took a bite out of his comb and one whole point is missing from the middle. As for the females, some of you know that I decided to move the hackle color on my birds more to the "copper" side vice the "yellow gold" side of the spectrum. Both are acceptable according to the SOP but I like the darker hackles more than the yellowish and I also felt this will be a way for me to distinguish my line from many others who seem to prefer the more golden mantle on the females.
That's pretty much it. I've still got a few birds for sale, mostly EE's, Black & Blue Orps, maybe some BJGs and Buff Brahmas but for the most part I'm stuck with feeding a bunch of birds for quite a few more months before I decide what to do. Oh, btw, I do have a lone Lavender Ameraucana. I had planned on working with the Lavenders to help get them accepted but now with just the lone male I may decide not to. I've either got to get a couple of Lavender pullets or get rid of him. So if anyone can help with either of those, email me please.
God Bless,
Well, I haven't been getting anything in my email so who knows what all I've missed on here. Thought I'd make a quick post to maybe start getting them again and to say that I just saw the weirdest egg I've ever seen.
You should have seen the egg that the wife cracked open on Sunday night. It was one of those nights where we decided to have breakfast for supper. After cooking up the biscuits, sausage & gravy and frying up some bacon she went to cook me some over-easy eggs. Well, one of them was a duck egg and out came a normal looking egg along with a much smaller but perfectly formed egg - shell and all - on the inside as well. Here's a little bitty blue egg sitting in the white of the other right next to the yolk. Now how about that?!
The inside of the smaller egg was just egg white except for some small whitish stuff that was probably either the chalaza or the germinal disc.
On a side note, for those thinking about next year already, it looks like I will have a real surplus of WBS Ameraucanas. I hatched out over 150 this year and still have 25 in the brooder with several more in the two chickhouses and in the lower coop below. I plan to raise all these up before making my final cuts for the breeding pens. Thus far my only disappointment has been that the male/female ratio is about 50/50. So I'll have lots of excess cockerels for anyone wanting to get started with the WBS variety or wishing to make their own EE's. I'm pretty happy with the boys I've got now so I'm not putting too much focus on males this year as I plan to keep them unless I get a significant improvement in the their progeny. And I hate to spend the $$ to keep feeding them on the hopes that I'll get something phenomenal that I just can't pass up. In fact, I've already picked out several that I want to get rid of ASAP in case anyone wants them. Otherwise I'm probably going to just put them down now because they won't be worth the $10 which is what I get if I keep feeding them. And I've still got plenty in the freezer. But I'll keep all the females for now though and make the final big cut next year - unless I see something really pop out like I did with the two I sold today.
The Barnies and Wellies are doing well too. As of now, I'm keeping all of them. I did make some significant improvement in leg and skin color. Moreso with the Wellies than the Barnies. From what I can see, I haven't lost anything from last year but it's still a little to early to see what the final result wll be.
The Barnies have kept their lacing and the sheen is as good as it was on the pullet that did so well at the show last March. The males are looking pretty good too but all of them need improvement in leg and skin color. Given that I whacked everything but my best trio last year, I'm pretty happy to have just what I've got. And I'm pretty happy with most of what I'm seeing in most of the males and females. Still, I've got several years ahead of me to correct a few things.
I've got 3 really nice Welsummer cockerels but I'm starting to see some fluff peaking out at the bottom of two of their tails. My best male I will keep for breeding but I can't show him as somebody (probably Goliath) took a bite out of his comb and one whole point is missing from the middle. As for the females, some of you know that I decided to move the hackle color on my birds more to the "copper" side vice the "yellow gold" side of the spectrum. Both are acceptable according to the SOP but I like the darker hackles more than the yellowish and I also felt this will be a way for me to distinguish my line from many others who seem to prefer the more golden mantle on the females.
That's pretty much it. I've still got a few birds for sale, mostly EE's, Black & Blue Orps, maybe some BJGs and Buff Brahmas but for the most part I'm stuck with feeding a bunch of birds for quite a few more months before I decide what to do. Oh, btw, I do have a lone Lavender Ameraucana. I had planned on working with the Lavenders to help get them accepted but now with just the lone male I may decide not to. I've either got to get a couple of Lavender pullets or get rid of him. So if anyone can help with either of those, email me please.
God Bless,
