California - Northern

[Happy Chooks]

Nice light Linda! Rattlesnakes love those rocks.

 

[tommysgirl]

Nice light Linda! Rattlesnakes love those rocks.

Get some Peacocks on that property and snakes won't be an issue!

 

[chiqita]

Does David the free peacock have friends?

 

[tommysgirl]

Does David the free peacock have friends?

If he doesn't I have oodles free for the pick up!

 

[Ali707]

Chicken related, I got this at a little boutique in occidental

Can I have one???? That is so cute! I have a bee and a lady bug that hang off of my purse, I would add that one for sure!

Ali!!! any eggs? I have 4 of 10 April girls laying. 2 White Egg layers a Ca Grey and my Polish/Dorking, My choc Rock Girl and Willa the OE from Deann. In addition Harriet who was hatched 3/31 by Ron from eggs from Kim has been laying for about 3 mos. So I am still waiting on my Speckled Sussex, Both EEs, Both Icelandics and Norma the mutt. I have suspicions about the Icelandics. They have been too red for too long and I think they may have nests somewhere on the property. Everyone is locked up today so maybe they will produce something in the nest box. I am tempted to not let them out until they do or at least for a week so that I can satisfy myself that they aren't being sneaky.

They are both available if anyone would like them. They are pretty and I enjoy watching them but I don't need more white egg layers and I am not tickled with them like I am the others. If no one here wants them I will probably hang on to them through the winter and sell them late summer/early spring with all of Beakface's chick. I need to take pics of everyone so I will post them tonight or tomorrow.

Bahhhh! NO! I have been watching them too, but I am not sure they like the nest boxes I put together. I did the Home Depot bucket idea, but I don't have them really secure so they might not like the moving they do when they step in to them. I suppose they won't be able to cross their legs and keep the egg in just because they don't like the nest boxes, but it is a thought.

Actually on the way in to work today, I thought about how lots of chickens don't lay with less hours of light and I thought to myself.... is it possible for them to start the whole squatting thing and not lay an egg? That would just be a mean trick.

On the bright side one of the mean girls (a Welsummer) has been very curious and all I have to do is lean in her direction and she gets all freaky and squats. She is kind of funny now. They are more curious than mean now too.

So my one Orp and one Welsummer are showing the signs and have been for about 4-5 days now....... I keep thinking any day, any day..... but NOPE nothing!

I kind of don't mind as they are all kind of skinny and need to recover from the move and all.

 

[ronott1]

Can I have one???? That is so cute! I have a bee and a lady bug that hang off of my purse, I would add that one for sure!

Bahhhh! NO! I have been watching them too, but I am not sure they like the nest boxes I put together. I did the Home Depot bucket idea, but I don't have them really secure so they might not like the moving they do when they step in to them. I suppose they won't be able to cross their legs and keep the egg in just because they don't like the nest boxes, but it is a thought.

Actually on the way in to work today, I thought about how lots of chickens don't lay with less hours of light and I thought to myself.... is it possible for them to start the whole squatting thing and not lay an egg? That would just be a mean trick.

On the bright side one of the mean girls (a Welsummer) has been very curious and all I have to do is lean in her direction and she gets all freaky and squats. She is kind of funny now. They are more curious than mean now too.

So my one Orp and one Welsummer are showing the signs and have been for about 4-5 days now....... I keep thinking any day, any day..... but NOPE nothing!

I kind of don't mind as they are all kind of skinny and need to recover from the move and all.

There is still hope for them to start laying at this time of year. Maybe not the Welsummer though. Pullets are usually delayed from reaching Point of lay by several weeks but usually start.

Sending happy egg laying thoughts!

 

[tommysgirl]

Last year my stragglers (5/13 hatch) didn't start laying until December. I had given up and decided they weren't going to lay until spring when my DS sent me a photo of the nestbox with 7 eggs from 7 girls. THAT was a big exciting day but still I look forward to seeing what color eggs those EEs produce!

I am hoping my EEs get sweet again when they start laying. as chicks they were two of the sweetest then they went all skittish on me.

I am putting in a plug here for Ca Greys. There is confusion about them because they guy who created them from Leghorns and Barred Rocks in the 40s, Professor Dryden out of OSU, never bothered or cared to get them approved by the APA. There is no standard for them but they are cool. My girl started laying the day before her 20th week and has produced a Medium white egg a day every since. The eggs are getting bigger little by little. She is sweet and not at all flighty and she gets along great with the rest of the flock, the older girls accept her and she is indifferent to squabbles in her own pen. If you want a reliable white egg producer who is not flighty in the skittish sense. I really recommend them. I am going to have her in with The General so we should get some Black Sex links from the two of them.

Do you have scruffy molters? This is my first real molt and poor Dotty...I think she is uncomfortable. She certainly looks horrible. With every step she takes a feather falls off and when she shakes she looks like a cartoon bird. A cloud of feathers flies off of her and you think that when they settle she will look plucked.


In other Delaware news Della is looking good and acting normal and laying mostly odd or thin shelled things on the tray but every now and again she gets one in the nest box. Who knows what has changed but I am happy.

 

[ChickNmamma]

I love the new coops. I have coop envy....

Ron for those Uof A Blues, what is the cross then? A Rooster Leghorn or a Pullet Leghorn and an Ameraucana?


Bahhhh! NO! I have been watching them too, but I am not sure they like the nest boxes I put together. I did the Home Depot bucket idea, but I don't have them really secure so they might not like the moving they do when they step in to them. I suppose they won't be able to cross their legs and keep the egg in just because they don't like the nest boxes, but it is a thought.

Actually on the way in to work today, I thought about how lots of chickens don't lay with less hours of light and I thought to myself.... is it possible for them to start the whole squatting thing and not lay an egg? That would just be a mean trick.

On the bright side one of the mean girls (a Welsummer) has been very curious and all I have to do is lean in her direction and she gets all freaky and squats. She is kind of funny now. They are more curious than mean now too.

So my one Orp and one Welsummer are showing the signs and have been for about 4-5 days now....... I keep thinking any day, any day..... but NOPE nothing!

I kind of don't mind as they are all kind of skinny and need to recover from the move and all.

U of A blues are not a cross anybody made recently - it was made by the University of Arkansas - and they used an Araucana and a production Leghorn - a LONG time ago. No clue which was what - but they have perfected it and they all lay blue eggs. More interesting information here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/624359/blue-egg-layers-from-unversity-of-arkansas

Yes, to be squatting and NOT give you any eggs before they decide to quit for the winter would be a cruel trick. Hopefully they won't play that one for you. You might have to go find what they do like to lay in though - some of my birds do NOT like those buckets - they will only lay in the boxes. I used drawers from a dresser, put a piece of plywood at the front of the drawer and leaning on the wall behind for privacy and put them up on a shelf. They like that. If they don't like the buckets they may put them in odd places - careful where you step....

 

[ronott1]

U of A blues are not a cross anybody made recently - it was made by the University of Arkansas - and they used an Araucana and a production Leghorn - a LONG time ago. No clue which was what - but they have perfected it and they all lay blue eggs. More interesting information here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/624359/blue-egg-layers-from-unversity-of-arkansas

Yes, to be squatting and NOT give you any eggs before they decide to quit for the winter would be a cruel trick. Hopefully they won't play that one for you. You might have to go find what they do like to lay in though - some of my birds do NOT like those buckets - they will only lay in the boxes. I used drawers from a dresser, put a piece of plywood at the front of the drawer and leaning on the wall behind for privacy and put them up on a shelf. They like that. If they don't like the buckets they may put them in odd places - careful where you step....

I went through the whole life of that thread and found out that they came from Whiting Farms. Dr. Bramwell from the UofA was working with Whiting Blues as a project for his Graduate Students. The cross that made them were from Whiting--He makes fishing lures but also sells chicks too. It looks like The project was to get them to Blue, Black and Splash only.

He also has a Green egg laying breed that he created.

He sells them for local pickup:

 

[Happy Chooks]

Do you have scruffy molters?  This is my first real molt and poor Dotty...I think she is uncomfortable.  She certainly looks horrible.  With every step she takes a feather falls off and when she shakes she looks like a cartoon bird.   A cloud of feathers flies off of her and you think that when they settle she will look plucked.

Oh yes, most of mine get really ratty looking. This was my BR hen last year. She looked much the same this year, but thankfully she's filling in quickly.