California - Northern

[chrissyr]

The new babies!!!

Soooo cute!! What kind are they? Sorry if you mentioned it before, this thread moves fast and I didn't see what type they are.

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Free snow. Come and take all you want. Lol

Pretty!!!

 

[chrissyr]

FIRST. PULLET. EGG
(You all understand my elation)

My Bresse started laying!!
Now for that Splash Marans pullet to start

 

[tls_ranch]

 

 

 

My current hatch is done as of this morning.. 12 hatched out of 18.  One pipped but died before it even started to zip.  It was the largest of the BCM eggs.  Chick was very large and a bit mushy, but seemed to have absorbed all the yolk.  It's head was tucked under the right wing and the egg tooth was barely visible.  Another (not a Marans) was not quite as far along and had not absorbed all the yolk when it died.  It has not pipped.  Ended up with 3 very light colored chicks, 2 bluish and 1 black from unidentified brown eggsand 6 Clean legged BCM.    I am using the "Modified heat plate brooder" and I have to say I really like it!  I didn't have anyway to make the tapered legs so I am just using 3 stacked plastic cups like they serve drawn butter in at Red Lobster,  They are turned upside down and placed at the 2 corners of the highest end.  The other end is on the floor.  The heating pad is long enough that it hangs over the ends so no draft.  The little things seem very comfortable with it and I may switch to it as my primary brooder.

Congrats and that's exciting to hear about the brooder.  I broke a heat lamp bulb this week and regretted that I hadn't ordered the heating pad to make one of these.  I will say, don't ever go to a pet store to buy a heat lamp bulb.  They are 3 times more expensive than the ones online at Ace Hardware and twice as expensive as the ones at the feed store.

For heat lamp bulbs, I have been using " red landscape / spot light bulbs" that are 100 watt. Works pretty good. You can find them at homedepot

Good idea!  I will have to look for those.  I thought they would be higher wattage so haven't even looked for them.  FYI for anyone using higher thatn about a 60 watt...make sure you use a ceramic base on your brooder cover.  75 W and up can melt the plastic ones.

The 100 watt red bulbs seem to last awhile too. Thicker glass and less likely to break. They don't put out as much heat as 250 watt heat lamp bulbs. But, they seem to work good for smaller brooders or older chicks that don't need too much heat. My 3 week olds are outside in brooder with one of the 100 watt landscape bulbs and seem to be doing fine. But, my chicks seem to do fine on less heat than usually recommended.

 

[juststruttin]

[/URL]

Free snow. Come and take all you want. Lol

 

[OR4-hmom]

FIRST. PULLET. EGG 
(You all understand my elation) 

My Bresse started laying!! 
Now for that Splash Marans pullet to start 

Congratulations on the first egg, they are so special!

 

[capayvalleychick]

.

I think bantam Co Chins may be the way for me to go anyway.

Get an exhibition quality Cochin bantam frizzle, so that I can see some pretty pictures of one every once in a while. I have an odd fascination with them, lately.

The new babies!!!

Nice colors! I'm sorry that I wasn't able to help with the transport. I went to the show in the afternoon, but ended up visiting with family in Chico & Oroville over the rest of the weekend.

t pics up again tonight to see if I can get help sexing my Delawares. They are all beginning to look the same again so I think its just an age thing with these 4 One is probably just a bit older.

I have questions about leg color. The chicks had orange legs but they are starting to yellow on 3 of the Delawares. Is this an indication of anything? The only threads Ive read indicate that the leg color changes over time and possibly when laying.

PATIENCE. It's all a guessing game with Dels until they are old enough to crow. Chick leg color will change to yellow or even sometimes greenish. The males will sometimes have brighter, thicker, yellow legs, when they are getting mature. Corn, alfalfa, greens, etc. can make the legs a bit more yellow, if they have the genetics for it. As hens lay and age, they start losing the yellow in their legs.

 

[ronott1]

FIRST. PULLET. EGG
(You all understand my elation)

My Bresse started laying!!
Now for that Splash Marans pullet to start

Bresse lay early and lay a lot of nice eggs!

You will have to wait a while on the Splash if they are the same age as the Bresse.....

 

[PetRock]

My problems with the heat lamp bulbs is they are 250 watts. I ordered some 100 watt "Red" incandescents from someone on Amazon and tried to use it with my clamp lamp. I almost immediately started smelling fumes ans after I turned it off (so as NOT to kill the chicks) and it cooled, I took it out of the fixture and noticed it had been painted. There was red coloring on the base. I should have been suspicious when the boxes they came in said they were plain old white light bulbs. Now I am afraid to use them. I am going to go on Amazon and try to get some info about them. They may be going back!

You can get reptile ones that are 150 watt but you pay big bucks for them. (Voice of experience talking.) I also bought a ceramic heat bulb which only gives off heat, not light. I use it with the older chicks. I like that they start getting used to sleeping/being quiet at night! I did just order 2 of the 250 watt ones from Ace Hardware online. I liked the $13 total for 2 and free delivery to the store. I do have to go pick them up but I like shopping while I'm there and it saved me around $6 off the amazon price. My brooders are deep and I need the higher wattage for the first two weeks. All 3 of my lamps have ceramic bases and I double secure them. My DH thinks that I'm nuts. He hung one in an outside brooder and looked at me like I was crazy when I wanted to double wire it. I think that he thought that it was a comment on how secure his wiring job was rather than me being OC/DC about my chicks!

 

[Audio51]

Quote:
I'm not 100% sure on the breeds (an theither is the person I hatched them for). There should be 6-7 BCM. 3 hatched from blue eggs and 3 from green/olive eggs. This was her "recollection of what they were : "The chocolate brown eggs all came from a pen with the BC Maran rooster. (But she doesn't say what the hens were--assuming BCM since they were chocolate ) The green eggs could have come from his pen too or they could have come from a pen that had a Americana Rooster." The light ones hatched from blue eggs, the grayer ones are from brown eggs.

 

[caychris]

Get an exhibition quality Cochin bantam frizzle, so that I can see some pretty pictures of one every once in a while. I have an odd fascination with them, lately.

Nice colors! I'm sorry that I wasn't able to help with the transport. I went to the show in the afternoon, but ended up visiting with family in Chico & Oroville over the rest of the weekend.

PATIENCE. It's all a guessing game with Dels until they are old enough to crow. Chick leg color will change to yellow or even sometimes greenish. The males will sometimes have brighter, thicker, yellow legs, when they are getting mature. Corn, alfalfa, greens, etc. can make the legs a bit more yellow, if they have the genetics for it. As hens lay and age, they start losing the yellow in their legs.

Kim I happened on your farm website a while ago but just made the connection based on your signature.

How old would that be that I should expect something like that.