California - Northern

[ronott1]

Wow, marathon day. Woke up to frozen and cracked pipes in two chicken coops. Repaired those, packed up birds for Cheryl and Molly and eggs for molly. Hitched the trailer. Car wouldn't start. Finally got it to start, realized tags expired. Went to DMV. Long drive down I-5 with long talks with Mike, Elite Poultry, and marathon convo with Miss Molly... lots of GFF rants!! Raced down to meet up with Cheryl and did massive equipment and chicken collection for many hours at her home (with very interesting turn around with a trailer and a very small dead end street) and the ranch, along with some very nice chicken chatter! lOh, got to meet Cheryl's son and fiancee. congrats! Left with a car fully loaded of some amazingly beautiful birds!!! Then brief stop for dinner with my daughter....ooops we missed lunch. Stop in Davis to pay a bill. Stop at Greenback Safeway to meet Molly and Hubby and watch the prisoner transfer. another ha ha!. Thanks for the beautiful blanket for my baby!! Picked up my very handsome silkie roos from Cali Chick, Darla. Then began the long journey back to Redding. Got home, unloaded somewhere around 18 chickens and got them situated in their temp homes. Put away all the ridiculous chickens who didn't make it to their coops. Drained all the water systems so I don't wake up to more cracked pipes tomorrow. (PS-- weather service on my iPhone.... YOU STINK!!, you always predict it's gonna be 2-3 degrees above freezing and the last 4 times it has been close you have been wrong and it has been well below freezing. Better to err on the side of overpredicting a freeze to help us poor farmers out. OK PS finished). So unloaded hatcher. Realized they were probably a ton of eggs since I was gone all day. Didn't want them to freeze so, collected about 15 eggs... whoa! girls you are finally getting what this is all about. Oh yeah, put my daughter to bed. moved chicks out of the hatcher. Feed some chicks that looked like they were gonna eat my hand. Now here I set wired on caffeine after the equivalent of about 9 shots of espresso today. Ahh, it's good to be home. Now, if only the chickens and children would sleep in until about 10am I'd be all set.

What a day. Thanks chicken people friends for all the chicken talks today!

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Congratulations on the great chicken adventure!

Ok, I remember growing up my Dad said, Use metal for pipes! I suppose it is more expensive, but they do not break when it freezes.

Also, Dude you live in Redding! It is going to freeze all the time up there!

Another alternative is a heated wrap for the pipes. If course with all of your coops you probably have miles of pipe out there

 

[Miss Molly]

ok so has anyone used purina chick start for new chicks? feed store was out of the ground stuff so just had this. it is a crumble chick start.
anyone use it? will day olds eat crumble? must be softer than the other crumbles?

I do use purina ..the chick start I use has always been crumble.. What else is there? I didn't even know there was anything else? Every once in a while I will get chick start and the crumbles are a little big for day old chick, so i will take a little, put it in a zip lock and break it up..
Congrats on your hatch....

 

[Miss Molly]

Last night (about 9:30 pm) 2 of the silkie eggs had pips!!   At 4:30 this morning all 4 had pips!!!! 
As of 7:30 am one chick has hatched and is chirping loudly for the other 3 to join her on the outside world.  The first one looks like a splash but will be sure when it dries off and fluffs up. 
The other 3 pips aren't doing anything, but I'm trying to be calm because today -HATCHDAY- isn't over yet.  One egg worries me because the chick pipped the middle of the egg (some of the membrane looks bloody) and broke off the shell toward the bottom..........I just hope it doesn't try to hatch at the wrong end.  I keep telling myself to stay away from the bator, but I'm glued! :/

Congratulation on the new babies.. So exciting!
Jeff gave me a few silkie egg last night. I'm going to try to hatch a few for my niece ... Looking forward to watching a silkie grow up. I have hundreds of chickens but, no silkies.

 

[CALI CHICK]

Congratulation on the new babies.. So exciting!
Jeff gave me a few silkie egg last night. I'm going to try to hatch a few for my niece ... Looking forward to watching a silkie grow up. I have hundreds of chickens but, no silkies.

I hope they all hatch for you.

You'll fall in love with them. They are like kittens (at least mine have been). I protect mine from my big girls by sectioning off a silkie-only area. Although I'm considering letting my always broody Buff Orpington hatch some of the silkie eggs this spring. That should be interesting to see how they would integrate into the LF flock. But I'm not positive I want to risk it.

It's too bad we couldn't have met up at my house yesterday. It would have been nice to meet you. I'm just 5 minutes from that Safeway.

 

[capayvalleychick]

Mimi is a SG Dorking and they are just different. She only goes into the coop at night when it is raining. When I had Corwin here, he would try to roost in the plum tree at night. For being such an old breed they are really kind of wild in some ways.

I only feed mine at night, to make sure that they all come back to the coop. I think mine may be hiding eggs in the olive grove. They've been hanging out in there and eating the fallen fruit. I need to go on an egg hunt to see.

(PS-- weather service on my iPhone.... YOU STINK!!, you always predict it's gonna be 2-3 degrees above freezing and the last 4 times it has been close you have been wrong and it has been well below freezing. Better to err on the side of overpredicting a freeze to help us poor farmers out. OK PS finished).

The best way that I have found to get an accurate forecast is to go to the National Weather Service and enter the longitude & latitude of your property. Bookmark it. forecast.weather.gov

Cheryl, I'm so sorry for you, but so glad that you have breeders willing to carry on for you. I know that you will be back in the future!

will day olds eat crumble? must be softer than the other crumbles?

A master breeder on BYC said that chicks are even able to eat pellets, if they have a broody hen to help them. I tried it with the last broody hatch. They did just fine eating pellets. So, I think they would probably have no problems with crumbles. I actually haven't used chick starter for years. I was using turkey starter for a long time, when it had fishmeal in it.

I love the name Cooper's Coops! I'm sending my best positive thoughts/energy/prayers that your White Emps will hatch! I know how important that is for you.

I am going to get a new incubator in February and I am trying to decide between the Dickey or the Brinsea Octagon 40 Advance. They will both cost about the same. The Dickey holds a lot of eggs, which could be a problem for someone that is limited to City Chicken rules.

Get the BIG one! I want to hatch hundreds of chicks this year! *insert evil laugh here*

 

[juststruttin]

ok Ron Deann.
spots on head boy or girl?
Three hatched and others breaking through.

Boy. congrats!! you should have a great hatch. For some reason the CL X CP crosses hatch much better for me than the purebreds of either breed.

I have a 11 week old CL X CP cross rooster. Trying to decide if I should keep him and start a g2 pen, or just cross the Olive eggers I have now, back to a pure CL rooster. Thoughts?

 

[ronott1]

Quote: Thank you Kim! I was hoping to hear back from you on that!

I am going to get a Dickey Incubator in February!

 

[chiqita]

I only feed mine at night, to make sure that they all come back to the coop. I think mine may be hiding eggs in the olive grove. They've been hanging out in there and eating the fallen fruit. I need to go on an egg hunt to see.


The best way that I have found to get an accurate forecast is to go to the National Weather Service and enter the longitude & latitude of your property. Bookmark it. forecast.weather.gov

Cheryl, I'm so sorry for you, but so glad that you have breeders willing to carry on for you. I know that you will be back in the future!

A master breeder on BYC said that chicks are even able to eat pellets, if they have a broody hen to help them. I tried it with the last broody hatch. They did just fine eating pellets. So, I think they would probably have no problems with crumbles. I actually haven't used chick starter for years. I was using turkey starter for a long time, when it had fishmeal in it.

I love the name Cooper's Coops! I'm sending my best positive thoughts/energy/prayers that your White Emps will hatch! I know how important that is for you.


Get the BIG one! I want to hatch hundreds of chicks this year! *insert evil laugh here*

Ok 2 things
android> Iphone. this is one of the reasons, mwahahah
How do I find out my exact lat and long? Id love accurate weather forcasts, we are in an odd area here and get hotter, colder and wetter then down 4 streets below. I feel like we are our own microclimate, so Id love that. I'm ready to bookmark in a hot minute!

And Ron, for you id get the binsea. The sportsman will get you in trouble and the brinsea is supposed to be the best out there. And you can see them hatch. Over is a better view then from the side, i think you like watching. ( not in a being there kind of way, just a chick in the egg way. I cant say that phrase without hearing Peter Sellers)

 

[juststruttin]

ok so has anyone used purina chick start for new chicks? feed store was out of the ground stuff so just had this. it is a crumble chick start.
anyone use it? will day olds eat crumble? must be softer than the other crumbles?

Purina Crumble is pretty big compared to some other brands. I personally would mash it. I got stuck with purina crumble once and put it in my coffee grinder. Worked well. At 1 week old, they can probably eat the crumble.

 

[ronott1]

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Do both!

Seriously, it depends if you want more blue in the eggs or if you are happy with the color.

Check the chicken Gene thing and see if you need to breed the F2s to one of the other parents.

Let me know what you find out. Since I have these and will be hatching some CPs I may work on this cross too.