California - Northern

[HighNDryFarm]

Thanks Ron - Sunnydawn, want to weigh in here?! (I'll also check the Brinsea site)

She's been on vacation and having Internet problems, if you don't hear from her. I'll tell her you have a question.

 

[Meg2000000]

For guinea fowl the males have slightly larger helmets and wattles.  The easiest way to sex them is by voice though.  Both males and females will make the one syllable "Chi" call but only the females can make the two syllable "Buckwheat" call.  Young guineas are usually quite vocal and I hear my young females making the buckwheat call multiple times per day (starting at about a month old).  If you haven't heard a particular bird make that call then it is most likely a male.

Jen

That's so interesting! How cool!

My Dorking that may be mixed and may be pure laid her first egg today.

This is a picture from last week or so:

This is a picture of the eggs I collected today. The Dorking egg is the perfect white one in the egg basket:

e

Ron

Gorgeous hen! And congrats on the first egg from her!

I should hear this week if the bank accepts our offer then I better start building. I need 4 of them right away.

New house? That's exciting! Where you moving too. (Sorry if you already posted about this and I missed it!)

I got a pullet egg from one of my young silkies today Pretty! its sooo small. She has been sitting in one of the baby broody coops for days and all the other hens decided she must have a great idea and have been kicking her out. and finally this convinced her to lay! If she starts to sit on all those eggs instead of laying I may  have to do something drastic, lol.

Pretty got her  name because everyone who came  to buy chicks from me  tried to buy her instead  "OOOHH SHE IS SOO PRETTYYY!"  She was supposed to be sachis girl, rip little sachi.

Lot one more tiny showgirl today  but everyone else seems to be fine, think we beat it.  Yay for drugs!

Congratulations!! I can't wait for my pullets first eggs. Pretty sounds pretty! Lol

just found a dead jubillee orp chick in my brooder at two and a half weeks old. I'm really surprised. so sudden, hadn't noticed anything with any of them in the last week or so. gonna take preventative measures anyway...

Bummer Jeff! Sorry that happened. What are you going to treat the other chicks for.. Cocci?

Just wanted to update on the hatch. Well 6 of the 14 eggs have completed their hatch. No other eggs have pips in them. The first one hatched last night somewhere around 11pm and the last hatched about 5pm today.
They look nothing like Rhode Island Reds. I guess they look Like their daddy (Dorking/Americuana)
Here some pics before the last egg hatched.

Sorry the pics are Soo blurry the window on the incubator was a little foggy. I'll get better ones when they come out of the bator.
Hey Jeff, sorry to hear about the little jubilee chickie. I pulled a stomped out chick from the brooder this morning. One of my buff brahmas. It was a chick who was fighting pasty butt and was a little slower than the rest. I'm building a separate "medical" brooder for any weaker chicks I might notice.
But anytime you need my help, I'm right down the road. Anytime!
Hey Ron, you said the chicks from Drae' should be green? I might want to keep a few of them and grow them out if they will.

Aww they're so teeny! I forgot how small chicks are since mine are like baby elephants now! Ha Congrats!

looks like so far most of my eggs are developing. on day 10 and 11

Everybody has great news today! That's awesome Jason!

 

[Meg2000000]

My daughter went to see my SIL on his break from the fire, he's been gone for over a week and they have two young kids. She said he's exhausted. He said with this fire, in the 24 hour shift they can barely grab their water bottle and a snack the fires so crazy.
We buy wine from on of the wineries in Manton. I sure hope they're safe.
You should wear a mask out working on all those pens! Stay safe everyone and if someone near the fires needs help, I'm willing to help move animals.
Congratulations on all the chicks! I'm at 16 best I can tell! These two broodies are determined to hatch out every last egg! They started Wednesday and are still sitting!

Go mamas go!!

Sending good thoughts your way for your daughters family. Hopefully they get a break soon!

 

[MonsterClucker]

Thanks Meg! This was my first hatch with a basic still air LG. Just wanted to test my "incubation hands" a little ya know? lol. I used the dry incubation method. ir was super easy! I had a few temp fluctuations but 6 out 14 almost %50 on my first run, ill take that!

Yea I think I'm going to keep a few to see what happens. It'll be nice to see the past and future generations of our chickens!

 

[Hangtown Farms]

That's so interesting! How cool!
Gorgeous hen! And congrats on the first egg from her!
New house? That's exciting! Where you moving too. (Sorry if you already posted about this and I missed it!)
Congratulations!! I can't wait for my pullets first eggs. Pretty sounds pretty! Lol
Bummer Jeff! Sorry that happened. What are you going to treat the other chicks for.. Cocci?
Aww they're so teeny! I forgot how small chicks are since mine are like baby elephants now! Ha Congrats!
Everybody has great news today! That's awesome Jason!

ThanksMegan,
just up the hill a little higher. Still Placerville zip code

I am just happy to know my incubator seems to be working

 

[lawatt]

I'm not really sure. Eating off the heads and leaving the rest of the bird is pretty consistent with a skunk, but you'd think there would be some residual odor with that much activity. Two birds killed. The head chewed off one and left lying there by the body in the middle of the pen. The second, the head removed and eaten, the comb lying there by the body. The body was pulled up to the wire, one wing pulled through the fence, but obviously they couldn't get the bird through, so they gave up and left. A third bird had a few injuries around the head and neck, but otherwise unhurt. Although I felt bad, when I went into the pen that bird came and stood next to me. The fourth bird was untouched. All four birds had been moved into that pen the day it all happened.
I had a trap ordered within hours of finding them. It should be here before Friday, last night everyone was okay.
The pen is made of cyclone panels, 8 x 22 feet. There is 2 x 2 wire 4 feet up all around the bottom. The pen is 6 feet tall. The top is totally covered by 2 x 2 inch wire. The only place they could have entered is around the upper corner where the panels come together. There's at most a 4 x 4 gap because the panels are rounded in the corners.

if it was a REALLY small gap, then your culprit may have been a weasel -- i have read that they will usually just bite the heads off, & would be slim enough to get through a teeny gap that a chicken then wouldn't fit back through...

there are definitely weasels in my neighborhood, along with all the other predators (there's even been a goat killed recently perhaps by a mtn lion), which is why i used all hardware cloth on my coop, so the largest gaps are 1/2" (the size of the mesh) -- more expensive, but i think worth it.

 

[ronott1]

Quote:

if it was a REALLY small gap, then your culprit may have been a weasel -- i have read that they will usually just bite the heads off, & would be slim enough to get through a teeny gap that a chicken then wouldn't fit back through...

there are definitely weasels in my neighborhood, along with all the other predators (there's even been a goat killed recently perhaps by a mtn lion), which is why i used all hardware cloth on my coop, so the largest gaps are 1/2" (the size of the mesh) -- more expensive, but i think worth it.

A couple of weekends ago, an elderly lady at church(well older than me-in her late 60's. I am not too far behind her...) told me that when she was growing up, they had chickens. She said it was sad when the weasel killed them because they did not have eggs for eating or baking. They were poor and could not afford to buy eggs.

I doubt they fed the chickens layer feed either.

Good job fixing up the gaps to both of you.

Ron

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote:
I'm thinking Raccoon too. So sorry Deb.

 

[debs_flock]

there are definitely weasels in my neighborhood, along with all the other predators (there's even been a goat killed recently perhaps by a mtn lion), which is why i used all hardware cloth on my coop, so the largest gaps are 1/2" (the size of the mesh) -- more expensive, but i think worth it.

All of my coop/run combos are made from hardware cloth and have 2 x 2 wire buried all the way around the perimeter and 2 x 2 tops, so pretty safe. This was a run set up with cyclone panels for a cull pen and just had smaller bottom wire to keep them from putting their heads out. There had been 8 large dual purpose and 4 campine cockerels in there for about a month until we got to processing them all. The pen had been empty for two days, we moved in 3 campines and 1 lakenvelder, so more smaller chickens. The lakenvelder took the worst of it, but he was a bit feisty.

I'm thinking Raccoon too. So sorry Deb.

Hopefully we'll find out soon enough. The trap is due to deliver tomorrow. You have to love the speed of Amazon!

Deb

 

[MonsterClucker]

All of my coop/run combos are made from hardware cloth and have 2 x 2 wire buried all the way around the perimeter and 2 x 2 tops, so pretty safe. This was a run set up with cyclone panels for a cull pen and just had smaller bottom wire to keep them from putting their heads out. There had been 8 large dual purpose and 4 campine cockerels in there for about a month until we got to processing them all. The pen had been empty for two days, we moved in 3 campines and 1 lakenvelder, so more smaller chickens. The lakenvelder took the worst of it, but he was a bit feisty. Hopefully we'll find out soon enough. The trap is due to deliver tomorrow. You have to love the speed of Amazon! Deb

That is horrible!!! I hope you are not too sad. You are more than welcome to these chicks I just hatched. They are RIR x Dorking/Americuana! The rooster was given to me by Ron.It was my first hatch. I hatched 6 yesterday. if you would like them, NO CHARGE I'd be more than happy for you to have them.