California - Northern

[lawatt]

FOA, is this your grandbaby who is sick? Hope he's better soon.

Laura, so sorry for all your troubles.

I don't have climate control in my house. It can get very hot or cold and temps vary in the day & night during storage of eggs. I wonder if that might be one of the things that caused the large number of quitters in my hatching eggs?

DH sent me photos of the planes dropping retardant on the Rim Fire, yesterday morning. He texted me last night to say he was being sent into an area with no cell coverage.

I wonder too -- my house has pretty good insulation, so it doesn't vary HUGELY each day, but I don't have A/C & don't use the heat unless the interior temp gets below 62 or so -- I was definitely surprised the the Rcom people said they've designed their incubators to work best in ambient temps of 71-75, haven't they heard of the need to conserve energy?

and hope you DH stays safe in the fire zone -- the area where my mom's place is (just east of the town of Groveland, mom's house is on an inholding surrounded by Forest Service land, just off of Hwy 120) never has any cell coverage! but from the news it sounds like the fire might have moved away from the highway & into wilder areas, she recognized some of her favorite backpacking spots on the maps...

 

[lawatt]

New Polish chick with their bantam buff Columbian Brahma broody momma~ The one I thought was blue when it was wet, looks like maybe a crele? and it looks like there are 2 pure buff laced and 3 mixed color chicks. They are so spunky and fun to watch

Maybe juststruttin can help identify the color on the dark one since she has been working on the creles. Most likely this chick is buff laced x WC blue hen that has some cuckoo markings.

so cute! i'll try to get photos of my new marans chicks today, but so far there's still only one each -- and one of Bella's other two eggs looks like it broke overnight & only contained liquid (big damp clump of pine shavings + a broken eggshell), so i wonder if the others never got going? the shells are so dark, i had no success trying to candle...

 

[tommysgirl]

In coop excitement here: Harriet, the Del pullet I got with Ozzie from Kim, has started to lay. Got two perfect adorable pullet eggs from her so far

Ozzie is learning to treat the big girls and they are now happy to hang out with him.

Della the suspected internal layer, is still not laying. It has been months since she produced a usable egg though there have been about half dozen thin shelled/shelless. I wish I could figure out what to expect from her but no one seems to know.

Oh and wait until the first adult molt! Feathers will be everywhere LOL!

Going through that now with my two original Del girls, Della and Dottie. Both look atrociously ratty. Della is still laying 5 -6 eggs a week though. I give them canned makerel or scrambled eggs several times a week and BOSS daily as well as a 20% protein feed so I think that helps.

Try grass hay and top that with shavings. The hay makes it harder to kick the shavings out. When they scratch the shavings go under the hay. I have one coop of girls that have OCD and are determined to kick all bedding out of nest. They hay lasts longer.

I do that too ^^^ the 5 week old chicks get in there and scratch and eat the seeds. Those chicks have been taught to be great little foragers by Beakface. She is a dream of a mom! Looking forward to her starting to lay again but now know I can give her some special eggs in the future and she will take great care of them

I like the birds well enough, the hens are a little stand-offish and I've never seen any sign of aggression from the boys.

Mine have not been consistent layers. They are currently taking a break while molting, but they have not been daily layers. Their eggs are small compared to the size of the bird in my opinion. They aren't a huge bird, but I think comparatively my lakenvelder & campine lay a larger egg and are about the same size. The lak & cam of course are also daily layers. Personally, I like the color of the isbar egg (mossy green/brown speckles), but I've seen some people refer to it as muddy looking.

There have also been people having problems with vitality, probably because of the small gene pool. I did lose a couple of chicks when they were young, but haven't had a problem since.

Overall I enjoy them because I like the look of the bird.

This is good information Deb. I have stadnoffish...the Icelandics and the OE in particular...but I like them for other reasons. They can't all be lap chickens right??

i'm convinced eggs stay cleaner with shavings than with straw -- my neighbors have straw in their nesting boxes and their eggs are always a bit grungier than mine. but maybe they just have messy chickens.

Interesting...I switched from shavings to hay for my laying hens but haven't noticed a difference. I have pine shavings in the white/colored hen house and hay in the brown layers' place none of the white/coored layers are laying yet. I like the hay because it seems to pad the boxes better.

home again, and have gotten my Rcom set up for incubating -- took a photo of the isbar eggs first in their carton, so here they are:


the eggs are a bit on the small side, but a really lovely range of mossy green, minty green, and a light turquoise.

Those are LOVELY! who is your source? Hope you get a great hatch!

Second exciting thing is my Polish chicks are hatching!

When I closed the chickens in for the night I checked under the bantam buff Brahma broody hen and there was one yellow chick tucked up under her wing and a couple of the other 5 eggs had pipped and I could hear chicks peeping in the unhatched eggs

The chick is so healthy looking! So much better than incubating them in an incubator. Can't wait until tomorrow to see how many chicks have hatched!!

I hear ya on broody v. incubator. I can't imagine I will ever go with an incubator in the future unless a hen quits on her eggs. I have requested a Brinsea Mini Advanced for Christmas/my birthday

Just transfered pics from fair. DD in her comfort zone:


Then not so comfortable:

These are GREAT!!! Black pants no hat or scarf? Is this open division or do you do things differently up there? White pants for livestock shows is absurd. Black is way more practical!

 

[Flowers of Abba]

FOA, is this your grandbaby who is sick? Hope he's better soon.

Laura, so sorry for all your troubles.

I don't have climate control in my house. It can get very hot or cold and temps vary in the day & night during storage of eggs. I wonder if that might be one of the things that caused the large number of quitters in my hatching eggs?

DH sent me photos of the planes dropping retardant on the Rim Fire, yesterday morning. He texted me last night to say he was being sent into an area with no cell coverage.

Not my grandbaby ( thank G-d) he is only 1 month. My baby who is really a toddler;-) two years old, is print to respitory problems. So I oiled him up. Oregano, breathe ( a blend), frankincense , lavender, on guard( a blend) and acv foot bath... He slept all night and now he is chasing the dog!

We have several friends on the rim fire setting back fires ( not sure what their called) so intense seeing our YOUNG men suited up fighting such am unpredictable force! Thankfully they are with seasoned confident firefighters. We received word our friends will be on location the full 14 days ....

 

[tommysgirl]

I was just watching Della and she was repeatedly and intentionally pick up dried leaves and then stretching her neck back towards her tail then flipping her head so that the leaf landed on or was tossed over her back...any thoughts?

Also, I have a Delaware cockerel and a New Hampshire rooster now. Sometime in the future I would like to have a Dorking roo and a Roo that carries the blue egg gene so that I can get as much variety as possible in my egg basket. Using your experience, please rank these guys as all around flock masters for free ranging birds and add any I may not be remembering. Thanks

CL
Araucana
Ameraucana
U of A Blue

 

[Happy Chooks]

Each chicken molts differently and some are quicker than others.  Most of mine average around 3 months.  Increasing their protein will help them through the molt.

Do you have any protein suggestions?

I feed mine game bird starter, which is 30% protein. I also give them any meat scraps we have (except chicken), scrambled eggs if I have extra, mealworms are great protein treats, any meat juices from a crock pot, even bacon grease goes to the chickens. Mine also get raw goats milk occasionally.

I was just watching Della and she was repeatedly and intentionally pick up dried leaves and then stretching her neck back towards her tail then flipping her head so that the leaf landed on or was tossed over her back...any thoughts?

Also, I have a Delaware cockerel and a New Hampshire rooster now.  Sometime in the future I would like to have a Dorking roo and a Roo that carries the blue egg gene so that I can get as much variety as possible in my egg basket.  Using your experience, please rank these guys as all around flock masters for free ranging birds and add any I may not be remembering.  Thanks

CL
Araucana
Ameraucana
U of A Blue

That is nesting behavior.

 

[debs_flock]

Also, I have a Delaware cockerel and a New Hampshire rooster now. Sometime in the future I would like to have a Dorking roo and a Roo that carries the blue egg gene so that I can get as much variety as possible in my egg basket. Using your experience, please rank these guys as all around flock masters for free ranging birds and add any I may not be remembering. Thanks

CL
Araucana
Ameraucana
U of A Blue

I'd probably go with the CL, but then you slap crele coloring on anything and I'm in love. The CL would also be the largest of the four you mention. I've seen a couple of people here say that CL are louder and less heat tolerant. That has not been my experience in the least, so I can't speak to that issue. I don't know if their issue was a particular bird, I have quite a few and they've all been fine. The CL also would produce the largest egg of the four, by far. The eggs are HUGE and very quickly get to that size. So the boys would be passing along those genetics.

I have Araucana and find the boys to not be terribly tolerant of other boys, even if they were raised together.

I have Ameraucana also, pretty much the same temperament for me as the Araucana, maybe a bit more mellow.

I can't speak to the U of A, but they are a smaller bird and the Andalusian blue gene, so they would produce both black and splash, that could give you some variety.

I'd say for alertness, they'd all be about the same, but the first three would have more size to deal with trouble.

 

[tommysgirl]

That is nesting behavior.

Thanks Happy Chooks...the poor thing, she will spend hours in the nesting box and produce nothing and now this. She was doing it right by the gate which is where she has laid a couple of eggs before...not by sitting but while walking around like a penguin. That was back in June I think right before she got sick with sour crop or whatever it was.

I'd probably go with the CL, but then you slap crele coloring on anything and I'm in love. The CL would also be the largest of the four you mention. I've seen a couple of people here say that CL are louder and less heat tolerant. That has not been my experience in the least, so I can't speak to that issue. I don't know if their issue was a particular bird, I have quite a few and they've all been fine. The CL also would produce the largest egg of the four, by far. The eggs are HUGE and very quickly get to that size. So the boys would be passing along those genetics.

I have Araucana and find the boys to not be terribly tolerant of other boys, even if they were raised together.

I have Ameraucana also, pretty much the same temperament for me as the Araucana, maybe a bit more mellow.

I can't speak to the U of A, but they are a smaller bird and the Andalusian blue gene, so they would produce both black and splash, that could give you some variety.

I'd say for alertness, they'd all be about the same, but the first three would have more size to deal with trouble.

Thaks Deb. That confirms what I was thinking

 

[windandraine]

...

You might try PMing Harris5. She has blue copper, black copper and cuckoo Marans    She is near Colfax. 
Thank you.
[/quote

 

[lawatt]

in a break from fussing with the silly incubator, i have a moment of mild amusement: Bella the SPPR went broody about a week after her sister Frances, and instead of giving her just-laid eggs, i just moved some from Frances' nest over to Bella's, who is in a different coop from her sister. that means that when they started hatching yesterday, she was only two weeks into being broody, rather than three.

now, in the same coop as Bella is Amelia #2 and her six cross-breed chicks, who hatched a week ago -- and Amelia #2 hasn't taken them out of the henhouse yet, so they've been hanging around near Bella's nesting box all week.

up til today Bella has stuck tight to her nest, but once she hatched a chick, she's become completely confused as to which chick(s) is hers -- all morning today she's been jumping out of her nest to show the mutt chicks something, then hear the new chick crying & jump back in, and settle on the remaining egg... repeat ad nauseum.

then this afternoon while i was refilling food and waterers, the new baby tried to follow her out of the nest, and then couldn't get back in, and Amelia #2 was starting to look at it with an unfriendly eye... so i've moved the brand-new chick over to Frances' nest with the other one that just hatched, so they can grow up together (not clear any of the remaining 8 eggs will pip? giving them another day, as long as Fran is up for it), and Bella is now fussing over the week-old mutts as if they were her own. IF she seems to go back to the nest (I've left a few fake eggs in it, just in case), i'll give her the ones that were supposed to be in the malfunctioning incubator -- if not, she can co-raise the mutts with Amelia #2.

chickens!!!

oh, and comparing comb size on the 4-week-old silver campines to those on the two older pullets i have, all three of the chicks may be boys.