California - Northern

[debs_flock]

Quote:
I must have missed the original question, but that does not look like a silkie chick.

 

[ronott1]

Cute chicks! Do the UofA chickens have pea combs? (I thought they were straight?) Also, if you can get a splash UofA, does that mean you can also get black?

The UofA Blues are Aracauna x Leghorn. They are blue genetics, so they are Black, Blue and Splash. I have hatched out two Splash, several Blues and the rest are Black chicks for this hatch. The last one that will probably hatch for this hatch was pipped this morning. It is an OE, UofA X Crele Penedesenca.

Out of the eggs set, two have not hatched.

I will get pictures of the group tonight.

Edited to add: They have a combination comb with both peas and straight.

 

[tommysgirl]

Yeah for the embryos! Hopefully everything will work out for Petunia and her babies. We moved a broody out of the nest box and into her own private area last night. She settled right down on her eggs but was having a fit this morning when she couldn't get out of the door. We have a series of gates that can be opened or closed so we were able to let her out into a bigger area that was still separated from the other chickens. She ate some sprouted grain and mealworms then went right back to her nest. We were gone all day but when we got home she was happily sitting on her eggs. Tonight when I checked her, I could hear a chick peeping! We moved her just in time! So excited to see her chick/chicks in the morning!

Ohhhh goody!!! Whatcha got this morning??? I am going to try to move Norma tonight if that doesn't go well either I will just cross my fingers and camp out in the coop to try to prevent any chickacides.

I would think that while the eggs are hatching both mamas would be preoccupied by that and that by the time the chicks are ready to pop out from under mam I would be aware of their presence but who knows. I will come home at lunch on friday and cancelled my plans to play Bunco with my girl friends that night so I can be on call for the chicks if they need rescuing. Both ore due to hatch on Sat but the history of my hatches..even broody ones is that they come about 12 hours earlier than expected

You can get better versions from @debs_flock of, I think, Barred Rocks and switch the Partridge Rocks for Silver Penciled Rocks.

Productions Reds are good for one year and then quickly drop off in egg laying.

@caychris This is excellent advice! Have you seen SPR? I got this pic online. But in additon to strikingly beautiful they are rumored to be sweet, productive and potentially broody. In addition SPR are far more unique and less popular. For me that is an additional draw. I hope to get a couple from Deb in the fall since I have wanted them for about s year and a half now. Re the Delawares, My Del girl from Kim is more beautifully marked and lays a much larger egg than my hatchery Dels. You won't be sorry for going with breeder stock.

 

[debs_flock]

Quote:
I actually have a pen full of them right now and they are on my down-sizing list. I'm not planning to get rid of all of them, but take down the numbers. Today is going to be chicken sort day. Figure out who is laying (several hatching egg requests), who can go (too many girls category)........................and who can go in the excess boy pen. The lady that buys chickens and lambs from us is wanting to come this week.

 

[AlpineButterfly]

The blood red moon lunar eclipse is supposed to start at 10:58 tonight and be total at 12:06 AM. Mars is also the closest to earth that it will be for 26 months. DH told me that it will be close to the moon and should look orange. It is times like this that I wish that I had a telescope!

I watched the eclipse last night! We were worried it was going to be a bit hazy, but it ended up being pretty clear over the moon. I'm going to be tired today though... up way past bedtime!

 

[caychris]

@caychris This is excellent advice! Have you seen SPR? I got this pic online. But in additon to strikingly beautiful they are rumored to be sweet, productive and potentially broody. In addition SPR are far more unique and less popular. For me that is an additional draw. I hope to get a couple from Deb in the fall since I have wanted them for about s year and a half now. Re the Delawares, My Del girl from Kim is more beautifully marked and lays a much larger egg than my hatchery Dels. You won't be sorry for going with breeder stock.

Very pretty. I am definitely interested in breeder stock but at this point Ill stick to the hatchery ones till I get a better footing on what Im going to do. The little fuzz balls just make me want to have a ton.

 

[PetRock]

I actually have a pen full of them right now and they are on my down-sizing list. I'm not planning to get rid of all of them, but take down the numbers. Today is going to be chicken sort day. Figure out who is laying (several hatching egg requests), who can go (too many girls category)........................and who can go in the excess boy pen. The lady that buys chickens and lambs from us is wanting to come this week.

What kind of lambs do you have? My DH and our farm friends are wanting to get some dorper sheep. DH bred and raised sheep for 4H during his youth and is wanting to get back into it.

 

[tommysgirl]

I am going to try an experiment. I have two Red Star girls. Both laid like champs for just a bit over a year then really dropped off which I expected. Now I get an enormous egg from one of them every 3 days or so and they are often so soft shelled...in spite of lots of free choice shell and Vit D enriched water that they often break in the nest when one of the other girls follows her. The other girl lays about 4-5 days a week still.

So I have the ingredients for making red stars. A NH roo and a couple of Del hens and I have been saving Del eggs for a week hoping I would get a broody in time for the Cinco de Mayo HAL. Some of the will be pure others will be Red Stars. I think that the ones that I hatch from my crew will probably have a longer laying life but probably won't be the daily layers my hatchery girls are.

I also think that I want to hatch more sex links and sell the boys as meat chicks and the girls as layers. I think that the local market here would appreciate and support that. I also think that a barnyard mix of sex linked hatching eggs would sell on ebay.

I will be able to offer black sex links, red sex links and depending on what Godiva makes...possibly Chocolate sex links. I further learned that you can make a BLUE sex link by putting a purebred blue or splash roo over a Del or CA Grey girl. Hello Isbar from @lawatt !

Since I don't plan to show and this is just a little fun hobby this stuff excites me...you guys are the only ones who might understand though That's why I bore you with uhhhh..... share my ideas with you.

 

[PetRock]

Ohhhh goody!!! Whatcha got this morning??? I am going to try to move Norma tonight if that doesn't go well either I will just cross my fingers and camp out in the coop to try to prevent any chickacides.

I would think that while the eggs are hatching both mamas would be preoccupied by that and that by the time the chicks are ready to pop out from under mam I would be aware of their presence but who knows. I will come home at lunch on friday and cancelled my plans to play Bunco with my girl friends that night so I can be on call for the chicks if they need rescuing. Both ore due to hatch on Sat but the history of my hatches..even broody ones is that they come about 12 hours earlier than expected



@caychris This is excellent advice! Have you seen SPR? I got this pic online. But in additon to strikingly beautiful they are rumored to be sweet, productive and potentially broody. In addition SPR are far more unique and less popular. For me that is an additional draw. I hope to get a couple from Deb in the fall since I have wanted them for about s year and a half now. Re the Delawares, My Del girl from Kim is more beautifully marked and lays a much larger egg than my hatchery Dels. You won't be sorry for going with breeder stock.

I have a SPPR rooster and 3 hens but they aren't separated for breeding yet. They came from Cheryl's flock. They are very sweet birds in addition to being beautiful!

 

[debs_flock]

Quote:
Ummmm, we raise dorpers, LOL

Although, we now have two groups, DH really liked his black sheep, so he kept a few black ewes he's been breeding with the pure dorpers. He sold off a bunch of the dorpers and is now going back towards more blacks.

On my recent travels to the UK, I was introduced to a new breed of sheep that is widely used over there and now I'm hot for them................texels.