California - Northern

[Hangtown Farms]

Heres à few pictures of My Bielefelders AKA " Thé Biebs" out of thé coop for thé first time exploring...








Just wanted to share with you guys.

wow nice. will have to look them up.

 

[Hangtown Farms]

so I got my darkest egg so far from one of my white empordanesa. Rooster is 5-6 months old so a little young to

mate. but fingers crossed.

 

[zooweemama]

I was going to add La Bresse, but I read that we are not supposed to call them that if they are not hatched in France. It's probably a French law but I do not want to be tried in Absentia...

I wonder what you would call it then?

They were teasing about them not being chickens.............. And in the orient, they are highly prized for their meat. Black skin, dark colored meat/bones (not black like cemani). They are supposed to have medicinal qualities (like rhino horn and a million other things), but they taste like chicken, LOL

I have a few that if they don't rehome soon..............I'll let you know how they taste.

Deb

I am curious too. They are a delicacy in other area of the world. I think most Americans would gag if it were on their plate rofl!

Ok, you have 2 different sets of genes here! this confuses EVERYONE.
Frizzle can occur in any type of chicken. It is shown as AOV and judged on the standards of the chicken it is ( Cochin, silkie, etc..etc..etc..) They will never be a separate breed because it is not repeatable. You breed frizzle to non frizzle and get 50/50 IIRC. A frizzle is a gene that causes the feathers to curve up. 2 of these genes cause the feathers to curve REALLY up ( waititout, do you have a picture of your little polish?) Like breeding showgirl to showgirl, this can cause unpredictable results and some chickens that cant survive, so we don't do that. ( some people now do breed showgirl to showgirl now, but we can talk about that more later)

A SIZZLE is a silkie that has SMOOTH ( non silked) FRIZZLED FEATHERS You can get a SMOOTH NON FRIZZLED SILKIE from these crosses ( guessing that's what you have zoo) and they are considered, according to the last breeder I talked to "perfectly acceptable" You breed smooth to frizzled the next generation and get the same mix of offspring. All other characteristics ( toes, earlobes, skin color, etc,, etc, etc ) is silkie. Because of that........ they will usually carry at least 1 of the hookless gene.

What does that mean??

The HOOKLESS gene is the gene that causes silkies feathers to be silkie. You need one from each parent for it to express itself as silkie feathers. So if you had a silkie parent, you will have offspring that have at least 1 hookless gene. If you get 2 hookless genes, you have what is called ( on occasion, and sometimes not, JUST to confuse us) a frilkie, a frizzled silkie, and silkie sizzle, or other names I have not yet heard of.

These birds carry 2 hookless genes, and one "curved" frizzle gene. They look like silkies having a bad hair day.

((Now your Showgirl roo, Zoo, is an even more confused and interesting example. his father had 2 silked parents, but had smooth feathers himself. He passes this single hooked gene on to ONLY boys ( at least out of all the chicks we had last year, so sample size was about 75-100??) I do not know if he passes the hookless genes onto boys. I just know it looks like he does not pass it onto girls. So technically they are not showgirls even though they have all silkie and showgirl grandparents and can have showgirl and silkie children))

Does that now make sense? The reason there is a smooth feathered gene in there at all is the frizzled gene was passed on from Cochins and people like the look of that and bread for it.
Silkies are chicken angles. A more advanced civilized chicken as it were!
I got 2 ecoglows used from a guy at the university of Berkeley who used them to raise ducks for his thesis. They both stopped working in 3 mths, I had better luck with a seedling matt with a cover over it ( I used one of those hollowed out logs you get for reptiles because I had one laying around) Or reptile heating pads with same. You have to use a brooder that has a think non flammable bottom however. We use fish or reptile tanks and the whole set up holds heat and keeps air circulating really well. Works until they start to fly, and by that point they don't need as much heat.
< Insert preteen shriek here> BIEBSSSS!

I know I missed something this morning. Welcome back Mike, good to see you again and glad you are sharing pictures with us!
chickNmamma, how is Owl doing? his original mother emailed me today asking about him, I am going to chat with her tonight, she was very excited to hear he was is a mini slice of chicken heaven ( the non chicken went to heaven in a pot kind)
Bresse seems to be ok, Or Americian Breese. la bresse or la brese (long french word that starts with g) is protected, from what I understand. The ones that were smuggled out of france to the rest of Europe are called bresse from what I gather. But, who knows!

Speaking of Bresse, does anyone know if caponising is legal in California? I thought it was not, but A friend tells me she cant find the actual law people were referring to and thinks it is just frowned upon. She had someone who could teach it, and I was thinking it might be good to learn, if Mario is up to it and we can not kill the poor wee things.

It is one of the things traditionally done to get Bresse to taste the way they taste. Capa, we are going to try and imitate some of the feeding techniques used in France. We do not have as much land, so I am expecting to provide them with fodder and Black soldier flies and mealworms for a fair bit of the diet. I do not know If I have the stomach to leave them in a box in the dark for weeks. Or months. ( depending on the type of bresse, hen, roo, capon)

A large part of the taste is diet. I know someone else who was intending to finish them with goats milk and hazelnuts, and some people who are not doing anything. I think it will not get the same reputation here with all this variation in styles.

we finished early today so I snuck home. It is nice to get to see everyone at home again rather then be absent for 4 days.

Also: Silkies, not that tasty. And scrawney!

I surprisingly grasped quite a bit of that. Thank you so much for taking the time to write all that. Bet it was a bugger but much appreciated it. So these silkies/sizzles/showgirls are like crested ducks. You can cross a crested with a non-crested to get some crested offspring. But breeding a crested to a crested is almost always fatal or at serious neurological side effects. Do I have that about right regarding the sizzles/silkie mixes?

I think we should all joint venture and write a Dr. Seus book called, "The Frizzled Frazzeled Sizzled Zazzled Silkie"

Here I will start......

The Frizzled Frazzeled Zizzled Zazzled silkie went with her friend Fredda Frilkie to the Razzle Dazzle Raffle wearing a Fiddly Faddley Frock while eating a Wiggly Waggly Worm...


Ok... next person.... take it from here.

I sat here for a good 5 minutes trying and I just can't. That was beyond clever. LOL!

I saw that too. The one that irritates me is every once in a while the basket ingredient is Araucana eggs. Then some nitwit contestant will talk about how they taste different.............................it's a shell people!!!!! Don't give information if you don't know what you are talking about!!!!

Deb

Oh this one makes me giggle silently. "Oh we buy the blue eggs because they are lower in cholesterol." "We don't buy white eggs anymore because the brown ones taste so much better and are more healthy."
The only truth in these could be if you were comparing them from store eggs to farm fresh eggs. But the brown eggs...that's the comment I get from family and friends that just buy store eggs. LOL

 

[capayvalleychick]

I cleaned out all my nest boxes in anticipation of collecting eggs to hatch. Collected eggs tonight and most of them are a little dirty. One hen even pooped and laid the egg on it.

Can they be incubated if they are dirty? I can't wash the eggs, right?

They aren't laying very many, so I need to collect them all, if possible.

 

[ronott1]

I cleaned out all my nest boxes in anticipation of collecting eggs to hatch. Collected eggs tonight and most of them are a little dirty. One hen even pooped and laid the egg on it.

Can they be incubated if they are dirty? I can't wash the eggs, right?

They aren't laying very many, so I need to collect them all, if possible.

Brush the egg off and it should be fine!

Should I warm up the bator?

 

[Hangtown Farms]

Brush the egg off and it should be fine!

Should I warm up the bator?

off course ! Ron the Crele are on fire. Both Emp's are laying daily as well. Just waiting for the Rooster to get ready he is maybe 6 months old

 

[debs_flock]

Quote:
They just give off heat. You can find them at any pet store in the reptile section. They are a bit pricey.

Quote:
Not a problem, the first chick is cruising around with my hatch. The second chick is still in the incubator. I'm going to float test the third egg tonight along with two others that didn't hatch.

I cleaned out all my nest boxes in anticipation of collecting eggs to hatch. Collected eggs tonight and most of them are a little dirty. One hen even pooped and laid the egg on it.

Can they be incubated if they are dirty? I can't wash the eggs, right?

They aren't laying very many, so I need to collect them all, if possible.

Just wipe off as much of the "whatever" as you can with a dry papertowel. Yes, you can't wash them. Once you've washed off the "bloom", your chances of the egg going bad grows. I did try that with one egg at my DH's urging, it's the only egg I ever had to remove that stunk

Deb

 

[Hangtown Farms]

They just give off heat. You can find them at any pet store in the reptile section. They are a bit pricey.


Not a problem, the first chick is cruising around with my hatch. The second chick is still in the incubator. I'm going to float test the third egg tonight along with two others that didn't hatch.


Just wipe off as much of the "whatever" as you can with a dry papertowel. Yes, you can't wash them. Once you've washed off the "bloom", your chances of the egg going bad grows. I did try that with one egg at my DH's urging, it's the only egg I ever had to remove that stunk

Deb

Cool. I need another bigger bator. I have 8 eggs on my shelf I have gotten in the last 2 daysfrom them. My empordanesa are laying daily. My rooster just needs to mature some more though.

 

[chickee]

Interesting. I have never heard of the ceramic bulbs. I Heat bulbs break way too easily, and sometimes burn out in the middle of the night which is really scary when the chicks are young. What is a ceramic bulb? Does it give off light or just heat?

They do not give off light, just heat. They last 3 + years (which makes them worth the price) I am still using one of my original bulbs that is going on 5 years old. I bought a couple new ones just in case this one burns out.

Here is what they look like ~ They fit into the traditional heat lamp shade. You do hang them lower (closer to the chicks) than a regular heat lamp bulbs.

 

[OR4-hmom]

They just give off heat. You can find them at any pet store in the reptile section. They are a bit pricey.


Not a problem, the first chick is cruising around with my hatch. The second chick is still in the incubator. I'm going to float test the third egg tonight along with two others that didn't hatch.


Just wipe off as much of the "whatever" as you can with a dry papertowel. Yes, you can't wash them. Once you've washed off the "bloom", your chances of the egg going bad grows. I did try that with one egg at my DH's urging, it's the only egg I ever had to remove that stunk

Deb

Are the fertile eggs from TJ's washed?

I don't wash mine either but I was just wondering if they had to wash them before selling them.