California - Northern

[OR4-hmom]

Our Great Dane licks the feeder clean at every opportunity. We have to keep the door closed, she can aways reach them otherwise.

Living with big dogs can be a challange. I had an Afghan that stole a pizza off the top of the refridgerator once. I had weighted it with a cast iron skillet but he got it anyway.. He also got a couple of cheesecakes I had cooling on the stove. Raider was silver and black, everyone thought he was named for the football team, until they looked away for a second.

 

[chiqita]

OMG! Please do not kill me!

http://www.ebay.com/sch/vintagells/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686

This is the person from Lodi that I got the Bresse hatching egg from--12 of 13 hatched......If I had more room in the Bator......

 

I will be swimming in bresse eggs in about a month or less! I have a calibration question
How do you calibrate a thermometer yo can't put in water? I have only one of my 10 thermometers that will go in water and that one does not do.10 and it looks like every one is off. I have been incubating way low. We were troubleshooting the smoker bate last night after I tried to calibrate or thermometer s. We moved the water tray to increase the airflow, got it a different heat source and turned it up.

OK now back to reading.. I quoted early.

 

[PetRock]

I would get eggs from someone here. You could bring in disease by borrowing a rooster.
They are in for it now - I hatched 11 wellies and 8 are cockerels.

I have some Wellie chicks in the brooder. How long until I can tell if they are boys or girls? What should I be looking for? The OE's that are in with them are easy to see already. I'm pretty sure that I only have 1 girl maybe 2 and the rest boys. I split the order with a friend and Monet picked out which chicks to give to her. The friend only wanted pullets, of course, and Monet is really good at picking out pullets! She did put in one suspected cockerel otherwise we wouldn't have had any girls!

 

[OR4-hmom]

Will they fit into plastic bags and then submerge in ice water?

 

[chiqita]

So I have a weird question, and I need advice. Since I can't have roosters, and want free/cheap hatching eggs, would a loner rooster work? Are chickens shy about "one night stands", or if I borrowed a rooster for a couple days, would he be able to get the job done? If I had a rooster for, say... 2 days, how long would the eggs be fertile?

Just make sure you know where the roos have been. They bring there home diseases with em. If it works for your flock consider a silkie rooster that is quiet. Not all are but some are quiet. My new little Serena roo s crow is minascule, he is inside and I don't even hear him! When I have gotten eggs from people with visiting roosters the fertility ha been spotty, but if t is your eggs it won't be a huge problem.

YES I would LOVE maran eggs!

My incubator will be occupied till the end of the month, would I be able to get them after 3/25? I checked your profile and your birds are so pretty! I noticed too that you have cream legbars...

Is there any chance you have eggs from those birds to sell as well???

Btw, as a kid I used to have lots of Breyer horses too... but I played with them all the time and would always end up breaking legs off. So basically I had a bunch of 3 and 2 legged horses!

Omg yes me too!! Chopsticks and pen caps keep them up. My best friend and I USD to have the ones that were friends or married write letters to each other. We had a whole 2 leg horse society. Who was the fastest horse was very important there, lol. The cl are not experiencing great fertility so I'm behind on eggs and orders. At some pint I will.

So I found our cat in the brooder today eating... the chick's food!

My cat and dog both eat chicken food. Rufas prefers poop however.

 

[ronott1]

Quote: But she has Black ones!

The British Brinsea sells a spot check that comes with a calibration certificate. I can't find that one on the US site, but the spot check is $19.00. I would bet that you could use the spot check to calibrate your other thermometers. Both of mine are very accurate.

Brinsea also has a wet bulb hygrometer. I did not check the price--they recommend that I trust the humidity management system that came with the Octagon Advance.

Did you use the Smoking Rooter picture for decorating it?

 

[PetRock]

But she has Black ones!

The British Brinsea sells a spot check that comes with a calibration certificate. I can't find that one on the US site, but the spot check is $19.00. I would bet that you could use the spot check to calibrate your other thermometers. Both of mine are very accurate.

Brinsea also has a wet bulb hygrometer. I did not check the price--they recommend that I trust the humidity management system that came with the Octagon Advance.

Did you use the Smoking Rooter picture for decorating it?

Are the black Bresse preferred for eggs and the white ones for meat? I think that in choosing a breed for meat, I would prefer to have lighter colored birds. The black Langshans that we processed tasted good but it was a lot of work to pick out the black pin feathers at the final washing stage. They were my birds so I got the job of picking out the nubs. I would do it again if we had a few black birds but I don't think that I would choose to raise all black feathered birds for meat! I am hoping that we won't have that problem with our blue Langshans.

 

[ronott1]

Quote: The color of the skin and the black pin feathers Preference is cultural. Some cultures like them so if you were selling them in a place with that preference, you would do well with black chickens with white skin.

The white Bresse are for meat primarily but they are also Dual purpose. Chiqita has already found out that they lay early and they will lay a bunch. They Start laying as early as leghorns. The eggs should be a cream color that goes to white during the laying cycle. I think I read that the Black Bresse lay bigger eggs and will be slightly smaller in size.

They actually remind me a bunch of the Dorking eggs. Since the Romans brought the Dorking Ancestor with them, I would bet there is some of those genes in the Bresse.

 

[liz9910]

I had a hen last summer that had several explode under her. It was during that really hot spell we had. I cleaned out the mess best I could, added fresh shavings and put the eggs back under her. I was afraid to try to clean the eggs, but they actually get pretty clean under mom on they're own.
I cannot stand a constant barking dog! Our neighbors had one that barked all night and even though it was 10 acres away it sounded like that dog was sitting under my window!!! I finally went to thier house at 2am and there's the dog sitting on the front porch! I banged on thier door and yelled in the window to shut their darn dog up!! Wgen they would t come to the door, I left a note that their dog barked all night! Signed their sleepless neighbor!

I would get eggs from someone here. You could bring in disease by borrowing a rooster.
They are in for it now - I hatched 11 wellies and 8 are cockerels.

Yeah 8 should do the trick. That would be super loud! Nothing like the Stockton show in the large fowl barn though. Now that was loud! I loved it.

 

[Wishing4Wings]

Here are my babies sorry bad pic wouldn't hold still. I'm thinking the black one is a cockerel.

Thanks for posting. They are very sweet! Where did you get them? I can see the comb on the black chick. Luckily they have a tiny crow to match their tiny size. I think these guys are a little addictive!!! (You can tell a lame joke when it requires visual aides.

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