California - Northern

[Meg2000000]

I want to introduce you to the 2 newest chickens in my coop!







These are my 2 youngest grandkids, Adele & Lucas! They love my chickens and their coop! It is against the rules for them to be in there but the 2 year old especially loves climbing the ramp and walking around in the coop. I guess that it is just her size plus she is at the age where she just can't resist breaking one of Nana's rules!

Aww Deb! How on earth are you a Grandma?! They are adorable!

Ijust hatched two Blue Wandotte bantams. One has a bum eye.

Send a pm if interested:

This buff chick is one of the Bantams you can see the bum eye:

Sweet baby. You know, my favorite hen has a bum eye. We call her Rita and she is the best!

OK proof sometimes they just want to live. I just had one of the silkie eggs abandoned by my last broodies set ( they of the 30 eggs)
Hatch.upsidedown. in the smoker bator. At like 35% humidity.

I think she shall be named miss Scarlett....

Woohoo! Don't you just love that extra cherry on top of your hatch? Congrats!

In the "In the shell" chicken news...there isn't any, no rocking rolling or peeping. I haven't given up it's only day 20 but I feel right now that anything that does hatch will be a happy surprise.

In, the "In the mail" chicken news My hatchery girls are coming. I was on Deanne's page yesterday and I saw what was there about sexing birds at the hatchery. It's awful....I won't order sexed pullets again unless they are auto sexing...but I am happy to be welcoming these new little girls home this one last time.



In out of the shell chicken news I think Ray is dying

His comb flopped over the weekend, his crow was hoarse a few days ago and he has slept in the nest box the last 4 nights like he is too sore to get up on the roost. I had to lift him out of the coop this morning because he was just sitting there. Normally he likes to start his day by chasing the girls around and trying to get a little action but he just sort of stood there. I think his age and the ferocity of his frequent peacock fights are getting to him.

He was rehomed to my uncle 10+ years ago then rehomed to me this fall and he is such a good boy. He is a gentle caretaking guardian and I am sad.




Trisha happy for you with your new babies! That's wonderful. The full moon always keeps me up too.

I'm so sorry to hear about poor Ray. He sounds like an adventurous rooster and you gave him a happy home!

I think I just cooked my chicks. What is the highest possible temps they can withstand?

My incubator temp guage and my spot check have been EXACT every time I have checked. So I haven't used the Spot Check a whole lot.

I have brought the temp down a little in the last couple of days because it seemed the incubator was having a tough time keeping things in the set range. That should have been my FIRST clue to do a spot check.

Well, I watched it after I lowered it a little, and this morning, when it should have been on the cooler side, it was reading high, so I did a spot check at egg level at it was 101.8...... I am having to assume it has been like that for the last two days at least since I started seeing issues with the temp.

I thought the incubator was doing it's job and it would get up ot 100.4 on the Genesis and then it would cool it back down to where I had it set at 99.7. BUT, this morning when I decided to make sure, it read 101.8!!!!

This is day 18..... Now I don't know if I should try to stabilize the temps and wait until day 19 to do lock down? Or since they have been on the hotter side of incubation maybe if any survived they will hatch early and I should do lock down today?

Uncertainty is my enemy. I get sad, then I get angry, then I get insecure! lol psycho case!

Any suggestions from the hatching pros? Do you think they are all dead? I had 37 eggs developing........at what day do they generally start making ANY noise? I am tempted not to put them in the cartons at lockdown just so I can see if any move. Waiting 3 more days to see if I killed them all SUCKS!

I wanted BABIES. Watching everyone with babies has been torture. Now the hatchery babies aren't good enough. They have to be mine! Buying hatchery babies now feels like I cheated to get to the end of the game.

You should be ok! You'd be surprised how resilient these little fuzzy butts can be. I just finished my first hatch of my own and OMG talk about a psycho case! haha

It looks like I will be having a really good hatch....every single egg has pipped. It was getting crowded, so I quickly took out the chicks that had fluffed up and grabbed a bunch of eggs shells out too. Already there are some more zipping, by the time I got back from settling these chicks to the brooder. Lots of girls in this bunch so far

Trisha

Wow what a great hatch! Congrats on these gorgeous little ones!

For those of you that sell eggs for eating, I'm curious if you wash and refrigerate them first. Also, do you ask new customers what their preference is?
I had been carefully washing them for my customer(s) and then once forgot to and popped them right in the carton..........I later explained that they hadn't been washed and my customer said she'd prefer it that way. (And so do I because they are safer with the bloom still on & it is much quicker-hehe) She kind of figured out they were extra fresh when a little feather floated out of the carton.

My boyfriend always rinses off eggs that are dirty but if there's only a small speck he leaves it. I've heard to just leave them alone unless they're have lots of poop on them but he's the one that sells them to his co-workers so I turn a blind eye ;-)



Welcome to the thread 8machines!! What kind of chickens do you have?

I can't remember who asked this but - We leave eggs on the counter for up to 6 weeks... they don't refrigerate the fresh eggs in Spain so I figure we can do the same

 

[gryeyes]

Deb - what breed of goslings?

I am considering ordering two, sexed female Toulouse goslings to give my two ganders a goose apiece. Metzer Farms is sold out, but Ideal has some hatch/ship dates available. I got my first two (a sexed pair) from Ideal but the female didn't thrive. (I thought it was the male, hence the gander named Kate. Angus was a Craig's List score.)

Chicks are adorable.

Poults are adorable and oh, so dumb at first, but then really sweet.

Ducklings are astoudingly cute.

Goslings are so freaking adorable I can headily stand it. And they are SMART right off the bat!

 

[lizanne]

Good luck with the hatch!

Molly is not too far from you--Time for a road trip! Molly has lots of hatching eggs too.....

Thanks, I'll look and see what she has (I'll probably have to wait a couple weeks, until the rest of the eggs hatch). I'm thinking to go pick up some eggs from Papa Brooder, he has Lavender and Chocolate Orpingtons, and I think I NEED some!!

 

[chiqita]

IMO wait for Metzger. They made barely a hatchery and take good care of their birds and breed healthy. Celtic oak farms also sells geese.
What happwned to all my quotes??

Deb - what breed of goslings?

I am considering ordering two, sexed female Toulouse goslings to give my two ganders a goose apiece. Metzer Farms is sold out, but Ideal has some hatch/ship dates available. I got my first two (a sexed pair) from Ideal but the female didn't thrive. (I thought it was the male, hence the gander named Kate. Angus was a Craig's List score.)

Chicks are adorable.

Poults are adorable and oh, so dumb at first, but then really sweet.

Ducklings are astoudingly cute.

Goslings are so freaking adorable I can headily stand it. And they are SMART right off the bat!

 

[OR4-hmom]

I just looked up gosling prices at holderreads, boy what a price difference!

 

[tommysgirl]

Woo Hoo! Just moved the girls out of the house and into the coop! I couldn't take it anymore, so out they go. Yes, I maybe um need to finish some details on the coop, but at least peace has been restored in the house.
Now I guess I get to stay up all night worrying about how they do their first night outside. Eek. Is it wrong to sleep outside next to the coop?

Hahahaha. I remember that feeling just about 8 months ago. My husband was even worse. They will be fine and they will Love their new home with all that room!

I'm late to the party on reassurance, but those girls look featherd in to me. They will be styling and excited to live in the chicken mansions with exotic perches!

I just got off the phone with James Marie farms. What a knowledgeable guy. He changed my order around completely once I talked to him about what we do and what we want to do. I just followed along, ha!

It is so nice to see people whom still have a passion for what they do even after doing it for 20 years( and people who ship well after doing it for 20 years, bet my eggs will not be stuffed in sawdust but foam shippers!) . He had to warn me his eggs are too big for the little giant rails, lol. I think I got street cred when I told him I had a humidair.

He is sending me something he called snow Manchurians... They are silver breasted gold quail. He says they are still project because the color is only passed on 50%. He is also making the CCL of quails! Won't be around till next year, but I need to get on his waiting list I need autosexing quail!!! ( he produced sexlink quail, that's a start!) I even understood the genetics of what he was doing. And I didn't know flu shots were grown in chicken eggs!

It was so funny, I sounded like a little fan girl when he started talking about what he was doing. I have officially become an egg geek!

NEED MORE PENS!

So Great! What are you getting??

I sell eggs for eating. I do not wash my chicken eggs. I do wash my duck eggs- they get funky. Ducks have no egg laying manners at all. The males climb into the nest boxes and crap all over, the duck hens go inside and lay their eggs on said poop...lol. As I said- no manners. I try to keep the bedding fresh but those darn males. I build them up for about 2 days then wash and shove in fridge. I only use lightly warm water, wet paper towel and rub the dirty spots, towel dry and pop into fresh clean carton. If I am going to hatch or someone else wants to hatch my duck eggs- I do not wash them.

Funny...^^^^

My neighbor lady really wants to buy white Polish chicks or chickens. Do any of you NorCal peeps breed and sell white ones?

I may have dorking polish crosses that will be white...we will see what hatches

 

[chiqita]

Oh well they are gone. But!!! My seramas lays this afternoon. The egg is big... For a quail egg!

 

[Meg2000000]

Aww goslings are sooo cute! I wish I could bring two home but Johnny would kill me!!

Two of my Basque girls came home from the ranch today. They've been broody for two weeks without any eggs under them and haven't been eating or drinking much. Hopefully the move will change that!

Ugh I wish I was an amazing photographer like Amy Beth!

On a non-chicken note: I woke up this morning with a chipped front tooth! It's a small chip but right in the middle of my front tooth. How does that even happen?!?

 

[debs_flock]

Deb - what breed of goslings?

I am considering ordering two, sexed female Toulouse goslings to give my two ganders a goose apiece. Metzer Farms is sold out, but Ideal has some hatch/ship dates available. I got my first two (a sexed pair) from Ideal but the female didn't thrive. (I thought it was the male, hence the gander named Kate. Angus was a Craig's List score.)

Chicks are adorable.

Poults are adorable and oh, so dumb at first, but then really sweet.

Ducklings are astoudingly cute.

Goslings are so freaking adorable I can headily stand it. And they are SMART right off the bat!

A trio of American Blues and a pair of Brown Chinese. I was backordered on the pair of Brown Africans, they'll come with the ducking order.

I kind of want to leave them hands off for the night, I'll take better pictures tomorrow. They've been happily munching on minced spinach and dabbling in their water. I'm heading in to give them some feed in a few minutes. (Don't know why the photo is rotated from what I see.........)

 

[debs_flock]

A little fuzzy of a photo, but such cuties