Bay Area BYCers!

[jeremy]

I FINALLY just won Ameraucana hatching eggs from Wayne Meredith that he has been listing on EBAY.

I literally have been trying to win these eggs since he has started listing them, like 2 1/2 months ago, all of the auctions would get right to the last couple minutes and people would start bidding like crazy. I could never get a bid to stick.

Until now!

The best part is I didn't even have to go over my "spending limit", I placed my high bid and it never was exceeded. I'm SO excited!

 

[kelseygirl707]

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Congrats Jeremy! If they were getting bids in the last seconds that would outbid you, it was probably because the other bidders were using a bid sniping program, like Auctionstealer.com . Sad, but you almost have to use one these days, becasue everybody else does too.

 

[PetRock]

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Congrats, Jeremy! What color are you going to get from him? Decisions, decisions!

 

[PetRock]

A sad note today, we lost our tiniest silver last night.

He was 2/3 the size of the others and the last one to catch on to drinking and eating. I was affectionately calling him Quasimodo until we decided on a final name. He was eating, drinking and pooping yesterday morning but sleeping more than the other two. Now that I look back on it, he just wasn't as alert and not preening himself like the other two. I tried the vitamin and sugar water but obviously it didn't work. I sat and snuggled with him after giving him another dose of water then put him down in the brooder on a soft sock. I had just gotten into bed when I heard the loudest chirping coming from the brooder way in the other part of the house. It kept going and going. My oldest daughter knocked on my door to tell me that she thought that Quasi was gone and that splay leg chick 3 was singing a death song over him. Sure enough, that little chick was standing two inches away from Quasi just chirping her little lungs out. And she was the quietest one of the group. I picked up Quasi and as soon as I did that, Chick 3 stopped chirping. I have seen a documentary about how elephants mourn the loss of one of their family but it is amazing to me to see a tiny chick only days old mourning the loss of a brooder mate.

This is the first chicken that we have lost and we are all sad today. We promised my 9 yr. old that we would have a funeral for him. I don't know whether it was failure to thrive or just too much stress for the poor little guy. Our other two are looking a little lonely today and not happy at all when they are left in the brooder alone. It's been a kind of bumpy start to the chick season for us.

 

[mmaddie's mom]

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Wow... this is a really active thread... what a great group!

I did try to bring eggs back from Ireland last September and Jeremy is correct... from country to country is almost impossible because of all the red tape.

But in the states I have been able to bring fertile eggs on the plane... by being all open and aboveboard. TSA agent and supervisor were great and we even had the supervisor walk the eggs around to meet my husband on the other side. I am hoping thing go as well when we fly home from Ca. If this works, I'm sure more BYCers will be flying with eggs!

Any help finding banty eggs to bring back would be appreciated.

 

[jeremy]

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Debi, I am so, so sorry.

I can bring you my one Blue Wheaten chick that I have had hatch today if you think it will help your girls cope with the loss. I know you won't be able to replace the chick they've probably already grown so fond of but it might help to have another little distraction in the brooder.

I really do think the delay in shipping was hard on the chicks, 3 were DOA, some had bad cases of pasty butt and now you've lost one of your little ones.

Let me know if you want to coordinate somewhere for us to meet today so you can bring the baby BW home, you have my number.

 

[jeremy]

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Blue Wheaten, of course!

I'm going to try and grow out as many chicks as possible this year to diversify my flock. I also wanted to see the difference in egg color among the breeder lines out there. Vibrant blue egg color is going to be one of my top priorities when working with these birds.

 

[PetRock]

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Debi, I am so, so sorry.

I can bring you my one Blue Wheaten chick that I have had hatch today if you think it will help your girls cope with the loss. I know you won't be able to replace the chick they've probably already grown so fond of but it might help to have another little distraction in the brooder.

I really do think the delay in shipping was hard on the chicks, 3 were DOA, some had bad cases of pasty butt and now you've lost one of your little ones.

Let me know if you want to coordinate somewhere for us to meet today so you can bring the baby BW home, you have my number.

Thank you for the offer, Jeremy! You have some more hatching for me soon, don't you? My two are lonely but I think that they will be okay for a few days. They are doing everything together including sleeping under the same arm of their teddy bear. Having lost one of the three is making me worry about the other two but they seem to be thriving.

 

[dedicateddourly]

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Petrock, I'm so sorry about your little Quasi. It must be hard, especially for your kids. You did everything that you could've done.

 

[jeremy]

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Debi, yes more should be hatched by this weekend. I candled last night and I think there are 8 viable eggs that go into lockdown on Sunday.