California - Northern

[chrissyr]

Quote:
They haven't hit their heads....I noticed the head wounds when I picked them up out of the brooder (it is about 2 feet deep) so they were already there before I moved them into the cages. They are pretty agressive. I went out to check on them just now and saw that the scalped A&M was chasing the other one I had seen crowing earlier around. I moved it down to the pen the tuxes are in and it promptly jumped the rooster in that pen! I moved the A&M inside too. So now it looks like all 3 of the A&Ms are roosters. One of the 2 that hatched a few days ago is an A&M so maybe it will be a hen..
(edited to correct my stupid spelling)

Didn't realize quail could be so vicious!

 

[ronott1]

You guys will remember how one of my two Speckled Sussex, Darla, passed away a month+ ago. Necropsy said she had an infection of her reproductive tract, which must have burst somewhere because there were eggs loose in her abdominal cavity. Well tonight I went to close up the coop and I noticed my other Speckled Sussex, Penny, was not in there. That is not like her to not go to the coop at night. So I called out my family and we all searched the yard for her. It took about 5 minutes but we finally found her, underneath some bushes...dead. I picked her up and just cried with my entire family watching me. Her body was still limp which leads me to believe that she had just recently died, which means it probably was not the heat. Plus she survived a day of 113 degree heat, so I don't know why she wouldn't be able to survive the heat today. Anyways, tomorrow I'm going to send her off for necropsy. She's in the fridge right now. I'm heartbroken, she was one of my favorites, and my best friends favorite. She was my best friends chicken, because she named Penny(Penelope Turtle Rose) when she was just a baby. I'm down to 4 hens now.
Rest in peace Penny. An old picture, just before she hit POL.

She was so pretty!

I have had a couple that died in the evening on a hot day. It was liver rupture. It is common in hens that are good layers. A Necropsy would find the reason and let you know if things need to be changed to protect the rest of the flock.

Stuck soft eggs can cause peritonitis and then the heat stress will be enough to kill them from it.

Along with the heat and humidity there was a fire up there caused by a "farmer" of a certain plant vehicle exhaust. Catalytic converters are very hot so do not drive over dry grass that touches the bottom of the car.

 

[casportpony]

You guys will remember how one of my two Speckled Sussex, Darla, passed away a month+ ago. Necropsy said she had an infection of her reproductive tract, which must have burst somewhere because there were eggs loose in her abdominal cavity. Well tonight I went to close up the coop and I noticed my other Speckled Sussex, Penny, was not in there. That is not like her to not go to the coop at night. So I called out my family and we all searched the yard for her. It took about 5 minutes but we finally found her, underneath some bushes...dead. I picked her up and just cried with my entire family watching me. Her body was still limp which leads me to believe that she had just recently died, which means it probably was not the heat. Plus she survived a day of 113 degree heat, so I don't know why she wouldn't be able to survive the heat today. Anyways, tomorrow I'm going to send her off for necropsy. She's in the fridge right now. I'm heartbroken, she was one of my favorites, and my best friends favorite. She was my best friends chicken, because she named Penny(Penelope Turtle Rose) when she was just a baby. I'm down to 4 hens now.
Rest in peace Penny. An old picture, just before she hit POL.

Sorry for your loss, she was very pretty!

-Kathy

 

[SpringPeeper]

@BCollie Beautiful pictures! Do you have a good time in Hawaii? Sorry about the rough homecoming.

@Audio51 hope your quail heal up quickly; they sure are cute.


The heat was pretty bad today but the birds all did ok. Barely been able to keep up with the thread lately but I finally got the pictures of my lone TJ hatch and her buddy I picked up (an EE - if I knew I was only going to have 1 hatch I would have gotten a couple from BCollie before she left but...)

Here are my daughters "TJ" and "Friend", her names, and yes, they are HER babies. She claimed TJ as soon as she saw it in the incubator.

"TJ" in her original container

and
TJ on the right, Friend on the left.


Oh, and @SpringPeeper - TJ has a couple of small black spots, will be interesting to see how she feathers in.


Edited to fix poor typing

Cute little chickies! I'll have to get some pictures of how my TJs are feathering out.

 

[SilkiesForEver]

I'm kind of fed up with my layer hens. I have about 30 hens, all over 9 months old. I only get, at most, 6 eggs a day! My bantams lay better than they do! I thought I was going to get "super layers" by buying a variety of layer breeds from the feedstore. So far they have been nothing but "super feed consumers".
Can anyone reccomend some breeds (possibly auto sexable?) that make really good layers? Thanks!

 

[PetRock]

I'm kind of fed up with my layer hens. I have about 30 hens, all over 9 months old. I only get, at most, 6 eggs a day! My bantams lay better than they do! I thought I was going to get "super layers" by buying a variety of layer breeds from the feedstore. So far they have been nothing but "super feed consumers".
Can anyone reccomend some breeds (possibly auto sexable?) that make really good layers? Thanks!

My Cream Legbar and CL mixes are good layers. The purebred ones lay big blue eggs and the mixes lay lots of eggs but they are smaller. Pita Pintas and Bresse are also great brown egg layers. They aren't auto sexing like CLs but can usually be sexed by 4-5 weeks. All 3 breeds are good foragers and not super large breeds so don't consume as much feed. I do have some Pita Pintas and Pita Pinta/CL mix pullets that are close to POL if you are interested in getting older pullets.

 

[SilkiesForEver]

Quote: Awesome, thanks for your reply.

I have considered getting CL pullets, but gosh! They are so expensive! I want their beautiful blue eggs, but I do not want to pay that much for hatching eggs, or started birds. I've heard a little about Pita Pintas... could you tell me what is so great about them? Are they dual purpose?

 

[gander007]

You guys will remember how one of my two Speckled Sussex, Darla, passed away a month+ ago. Necropsy said she had an infection of her reproductive tract, which must have burst somewhere because there were eggs loose in her abdominal cavity. Well tonight I went to close up the coop and I noticed my other Speckled Sussex, Penny, was not in there. That is not like her to not go to the coop at night. So I called out my family and we all searched the yard for her. It took about 5 minutes but we finally found her, underneath some bushes...dead. I picked her up and just cried with my entire family watching me. Her body was still limp which leads me to believe that she had just recently died, which means it probably was not the heat. Plus she survived a day of 113 degree heat, so I don't know why she wouldn't be able to survive the heat today. Anyways, tomorrow I'm going to send her off for necropsy. She's in the fridge right now. I'm heartbroken, she was one of my favorites, and my best friends favorite. She was my best friends chicken, because she named Penny(Penelope Turtle Rose) when she was just a baby. I'm down to 4 hens now.
Rest in peace Penny. An old picture, just before she hit POL.

What a good looking lady so sorry about the loss of one so admired

 

[ronott1]

Awesome, thanks for your reply.

I have considered getting CL pullets, but gosh! They are so expensive! I want their beautiful blue eggs, but I do not want to pay that much for hatching eggs, or started birds. I've heard a little about Pita Pintas... could you tell me what is so great about them? Are they dual purpose?

@PetRock Will likely post too but I can't stop myself...

Pita Pintas are Dual Purpose egg layers. The Cockerels get big fast and have a nice size breast.
The are extremely friendly. This is in the description of them and from my experience with them.
They are very pretty
They lay a lot of eggs
They are good foragers
They do fine in the heat

To answer your other question, The auto sexing brown layer that is most available would be the Rhoedbar. I do not think they lay as many eggs as the Pita Pintas. @Papa Brooder has Rhodebars and likely @debs_flock

 

[Happy Chooks]

and likely @debs_flock

See Deb, I'm not the only one.