California - Northern

[ronott1]

In your guys opinion what is the best hatchery to get rirs from? Any good/bad experiences? Trying to help a friend out, she's clueless and first time owner soon! I'm done hatching for the uear

For something close to Heritage, Horstman has nice ones. It is late in the year to get Heritage breeds. Most of the Breeders have broken up their breeding pens.

For Hatchery Quality, I have nice ones from Ideal--I picked them up from Higbys in Dixon.

 

[Miss Molly]

I have Bresse chicks hatching today! It is day 20 later today but one was looking up at me this morning when I checked the incubator! It is just sitting there in the bottom half of the shell! I have 4 or 5 more eggs that have pipped!

Congrats !

 

[tommysgirl]

Changes in diets need to be life style based and sustainable. Well over 90% of those working towards losing weight gain it all back within 3 years.

Little changes are much better.

Edited to Add: I am going to convert a Three egg cake into a Blackberry wine cake this weekend. I will eat one slice of it and not feel bad at all.

My mother was a school nurse so it is a life-long thing with me. I am fortunate that I was raised closely connected to our food sources. I wouldn't feel badly about the cake either...wheat sugar eggs grapes...alll had roots or a mother.

 

[ronott1]

My mother was a school nurse so it is a life-long thing with me. I am fortunate that I was raised closely connected to our food sources. I wouldn't feel badly about the cake either...wheat sugar eggs grapes...alll had roots or a mother.

I will share the results and the recipe!

I do use good ingredients, especially the eggs.

 

[debs_flock]

In your guys opinion what is the best hatchery to get rirs from? Any good/bad experiences? Trying to help a friend out, she's clueless and first time owner soon! I'm done hatching for the uear

I'm still hatching from my RIR. Let me know if you're still looking. I don't know if I have any in the incubator right now, but I recently hatched some out.

I got all my original birds from Dick Horstman.

 

[CALI CHICK]

Hi ChickNmamma, I just had a chance to check BYC and saw your reply about the silkie chicks. What part of California do you live in? I'm here in the Rio Linda/Natomas area. If you could PM me it would be helpful because it is a real challenge to find posts on my phone and our computer is down.

Hey all interesting discussions (sorry to hear of the chicken illnesses, and that guinea hog looks interesting, I think I saw an ad on Craiglist for some!) Got a newbie question here-- How does one submit a chicken for testing at UC Davis? ( I drive thru the area a couple times a week ) Is there a phone number or a website? Am new to this chicken business! Basically we bought some books, grandpa built us a coop last summer when he was out here visiting, and just relied on random past experiences with baby birds and a parakeet... and so far our first year of chicken keeping is going OK.(We have our first broodies-- 2 hens are trading off on a clutch of eggs, but they wont move out of the nest box, and its day 18 which means its lockdown I think I know what that means)... Anyways...Glad to have found this thread, we are up in the Grass Valley area....

Hello and Welcome to BYC Hopefully you won't need the services of UCD for a long time. But if you have unexplained deaths, or you want to check your chickens poop for parasites or worms because they quit laying or do not look happy - they are a great resource.

Does anyone on here have fertile eggs for hatching in the following breeds/colors? Blue, black or splash silkies White silkies Partridge silkies Plymouth barred rocks I'm looking for good quality in the silkies and just backyard layers in the barred rocks. My silkies are either broody or only laying once a week....so I really want more eggs to incubate rather than 4 at a time! I live in Rio Linda and would love to meet up to get more hatching eggs.

I have 4 Momma silkies.. so no eggs. However I did just hatch 3 Black Silkie chicks from my BQ Partridge pen, one vaulted skull. They look great so far but I am not planning on raising Black SQ Silkies. I have two PQ (4 toes :/ ) White Silkie chicks that also hatched from the broodies, I think those were the two eggs I left in from another hen. Let me know if you want any chicks to slip under those broodies.

Good news!! Penny came home yesterday morning. At 2:30 am we heard scratching and whining at the front door. DH went out to check, and there she was. and, I think I got an egg from a Cornish X. It is double yolked (my first double yolk). How can I tell if it's fertile?

I am so glad you got them both back! She looks tired. And yes - I can see bullseyes in both of those yellows (one just above the reflection on the LH one, and the other almost dead center and full left on the RH yolk). Look for large whitish concentric rings - or sometimes it will have a darker yolk ring around the white dot. Those are both fertile. I wouldn't set any double yolkers though, the chances of both chicks surviving to hatch is very slim.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote: You did and I talked with Mary about it. But Mary wasn't ready at the time. And you had an escape artist and we both wanted them pure.

Quote: See, told ya. ANY breed you want and it's a pretty safe bet that Deb has it.

 

[Ali707]

Too many to quote today.... Forks over Fingers.... haven't heard of that one yet. Did see the Forks over Knives. Thought it was a little extreme but we are on to something.

Congrats on losing the weight. I need the willpower to go off sugar and coffee. I have been working on it for a while now and keep failing. Miserably. My problem is that I use food and drinks as a reward. I can't find a reward replacement.

So a green and red rhubarb makes me think that the red isn't all the way ripe? Maybe it is a hybrid. I would like to get some from you one of these days if you are willing...... Right now I need to focus on securing the chicken coop.

I was reading another post that one person took their homegrown peppers (Habanero, Jalepeno and the like) and boiled them down with onion, chili pepper, cayanne, etc and used that as a spray around her coop.

I don't have any other pets so that wouldn't be an issue and she said the chickens ignore it but she did have the satisfaction of seeing a Raccoon run off sneezing and rubbing its nose one evening. She was specifically trying to find something to deter the Raccoons.

What do you all think about that idea? She also said she doesn't seem to be having any issues with rodents or squirrels or anything else.....? She just reapplys every few days.

 

[gryeyes]

I am intrigued by the various dietary changes y'all have mentioned. "Intrigued" is about as far as it goes with me, though. I likes my crap foods.

However, for the first time in a few zillion years, I am below 200 lbs. At my check-up last week, I weighed 198 in my clothes and Crocs on the Major Scary doctor's Scale. When I moved here almost two years ago, I weighed 240. Last September I weighed 213, and in November had dropped to 209. I always move the scale weights myself and was confused when I couldn't get it to balance. The gal moved my hands and slid the big, bottom weight back to 150 with a clunk. "Lets try this," she said, sliding the top weight across the bar..... Wahoo!

I attribute this to the dearth of fast food restaurants up here; the closest is in Placerville. I eat something before I go to Placerville for shopping so any crap foods I bring home are packaged foods, not JITB or Micky D's or BK. I like cherry PopTarts, Jif "Chocolate Silk" To Go small servings, ramen Bowl Soup packages (add sliced hard boiled eggs, chopped green onions to 'em, or even cut up hot dogs and it's a filling meal).

I changed from eating bread to flour tortillas. (Just about anything spread thinly on the tortilla and then rolled up is a great snack - but apple butter is killer!) I walk up a bit of a hill to Gray's Corner to buy my cigarettes and diet pepsi.... Sometimes I get an "It's It" ice cream I do eat more fruit. I like to eat pre-packaged salads made in the Holiday Market deli section; I buy bagged salad greens when they are on sale to give to the flock because I never think to buy salad dressing or make a salad out of it for myself.

I knew my clothes were more loose; one pair of pants won't even stay up over my hips, so I knew I was losing weight. HHandbasket MADE me buy some new shorts and a couple of cute tops.

I am sure if I made a deliberate attempt to eat better and walk further and more frequently I would lose more weight, but I don't wanna put that much effort into it. I am what I am.

But I am under 200 lbs now! Heart healthy, lungs clear (despite the smoking), low cholesterol, and the various maintenance meds I take are keeping the peripheral neuropathy symptoms to a dull roar, dulling the RLS at night, mostly managing the fibromyalgia except for a "breakout pain" or impenetrable lethargy day or two now and then, and the reflux a distant memory.

I simply don't have the discipline to actually diet or start a physical exercise program.

Goodness, I rambled! Sorry. Y'all are doing so many better things for yourselves! I just had to offer a different perspective,

 

[Happy Chooks]

The recipe calls for canned pineapple, but I'm sure you could substitute fresh.

Apricot Pineapple Jam

20 pitted, peeled and crushed ripe apricots (I used a potato masher)
6 TBS strained fresh lemon juice
1 cup drained crushed pineapple
5 3/4 cups sugar


Combine and cook over medium heat until gelling point is reached. Wait 5 minutes to can to keep it from separating in the jar. Process in a water bath for 10 minutes.


I haven't tried it, but there is an Apricot Plum Jam as well.

Here is a sauce that doesn't have a lot of sugar. I haven't tried it yet. Mangoes are high in natural pectin, so you don't need it. (and I don't use pectin anyway) There is also a Tropical Sunrise Jam with the same ingredients, though more sugar, if you want that.

Tropical Sauce

5 cups pitted, peeled and crushed ripe apricots (about 4 1/2 pounds)
1/4 cup strained fresh lemon juice
2 cups pitted, peeled and crushed ripe Santa Rosa (or other red) plums (about 2 1/2 pounds)
2 cups pitted, peeled and crushed ripe Mangoes (about 4 medium mangoes)
1 (20 oz can) crushed pineapple packed in juice
2 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup mango-passion fruit juice cocktail or water

Combine apricots and lemon juice, stirring until apricots are well coated. Add the plums, mangoes, pineapple with its juice, sugar and juice cocktail, stirring gently after each addition.

Over medium heat, bring the fruit mixture to a simmer, stirring frequently. Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring gently for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and skim off any foam.

Ladle the sauce into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles if necessary. Wipe rims with damp, clean cloth. Cover with hot lids and apply screw rings. Process in a water bath for 20 minutes.