California - Northern

[tommysgirl]

Silkie people, I am on another thread with a gal who, like me, has less than two years experience with chickens. She hatched 9 wk old silkie chicks gave away the "cockerels" and kept the "pullets." She has not had silkies before and I thought they were nearly impossible to sex that young even for experts. I am just wondering if she is in for a surprise when one of ther little girls starts to crow.

Also @HappyChooks the Wyandotte breeder from whom I bought the hatching eggs agrees with you. 2 cockerels....Bah! I could try to CL them, folks who know say they look good at this point, but I think I will grow em out and eat em.

 

[ronott1]

Silkie people, I am on another thread with a gal who, like me, has less than two years experience with chickens. She hatched 9 wk old silkie chicks gave away the "cockerels" and kept the "pullets." She has not had silkies before and I thought they were nearly impossible to sex that young even for experts. I am just wondering if she is in for a surprise when one of ther little girls starts to crow.

Also @HappyChooks the Wyandotte breeder from whom I bought the hatching eggs agrees with you. 2 cockerels....Bah! I could try to CL them, folks who know say they look good at this point, but I think I will grow em out and eat em.

That is what I would do too!

 

[chickee]

Silkie people, I am on another thread with a gal who, like me, has less than two years experience with chickens. She hatched 9 wk old silkie chicks gave away the "cockerels" and kept the "pullets." She has not had silkies before and I thought they were nearly impossible to sex that young even for experts. I am just wondering if she is in for a surprise when one of ther little girls starts to crow.

Also @HappyChooks the Wyandotte breeder from whom I bought the hatching eggs agrees with you. 2 cockerels....Bah! I could try to CL them, folks who know say they look good at this point, but I think I will grow em out and eat em.

My Silkie chicks are going on 7 weeks old and I can tell the girls from the boys by their combs, but I have been told the Catdance Silkies are easier to sex at a young age. Also I have hatched a lot of chicks and grown out tons of roosters, so I have a lot of experience with comb development.

 

[chiqita]

So glad it was a happy ending!

The good thing is you know what caused it. So sorry for your loss. For me, it's hard not to know because how can you avoid it in the future? Hard to lose any of them. Especially when yours look so wonderful and are truly spoiled.

Which vac was that? You said there was one you would never do again. Is that the one you were talking about?

Ib/Newcastle vacc. I think it permently damaged some lungs.

Silkie people,  I am on another thread with a gal who, like me, has less than two years experience with chickens.   She hatched 9 wk old silkie chicks gave away the "cockerels" and kept the "pullets."  She has not had silkies before and I thought they were nearly impossible to sex that young even for experts.  I am just wondering if she is in for a surprise when one of ther little girls starts to crow.

Also @HappyChooks
  the Wyandotte breeder from whom I bought the hatching eggs agrees with you.  2 cockerels....Bah!  I could try to CL them, folks who know say they look good at this point,  but I think I will grow em out and eat em. 

While there are a few you can comb sex my experience is you can't tell who are girls. My comb, wing, and feet guesses have been a little more then 50% accurate. I won't gu

 

[chrissyr]

Was wondering who was the Brinsea EcoGlow Brooders. Are you happy with them? They just seem kind of flimsy and wondering how well they work. Do they tip over often? Wondering about the fire hazard they would cause in this?
Thank you!

And I just got my Brinsea incubator in

. Won't fire it up until maybe Feb though. Then I'll have a bit more room.

 

[ronott1]

Was wondering who was the Brinsea EcoGlow Brooders. Are you happy with them? They just seem kind of flimsy and wondering how well they work. Do they tip over often? Wondering about the fire hazard they would cause in this?
Thank you!

And I just got my Brinsea incubator in

. Won't fire it up until maybe Feb though. Then I'll have a bit more room.

I have two ecoglow 20 brooders. They are great! They are 15Volts DC so not fire hazard. They are a contact heater and do not get very hot. They do not heat the brooder but heat the chick as it pushes up into the heat surface.

 

[Happy Chooks]

I think the higher protein is better for them and may be necessary for some heritage breeds.

Absolutely the case for the large breeds, like heritage BR's.

Was wondering who was the Brinsea EcoGlow Brooders. Are you happy with them? They just seem kind of flimsy and wondering how well they work. Do they tip over often? Wondering about the fire hazard they would cause in this?
Thank you!

And I just got my Brinsea incubator in

. Won't fire it up until maybe Feb though. Then I'll have a bit more room.

LOVE them! I have an EcoGlow 20 and a 50. They don't tip over, and you don't have to worry about fire - they don't get hot enough for a fire. The chicks are much more content under them too. I won't go back to heat lamps. Add to it the $$$$$ savings on the electric bill.

 

[CackleJoy]

How old is he? My rooster lost his crow before he passed of really old age last spring...he was 10+ so that probably isn't what is bothering your boy.

He is 10 MONTHS, so technically a cockerel.

What, no pictures?

Any other symptoms? It could be gapeworm.

I havn't been able to see anything but I've been dreadfully busy and unable to just watch for long. He runs up and follows me around the yard, gets on the pullets, does all his goofy tricks begging for treats, just no crow. Gapeworm? Is that common?

 

[gryeyes]

Icy, mountain roadways sure are deceptive in their danger. I totaled my '99 Nissan Quest today. I am extremely lucky I was driving slowly and carefully - just not enough of each.

Seat belts are designed to keep one from being flung about. You get out by pressing the button thingie at your side, where the metal buckle needs just a bit of movement to release the latch. That latch is NOT designed to release easily when the straps are supporting a hefty driver from falling to the roof when the floor has become the roof.

Hanging upside down makes the inside of the passenger compartment look really different. When the the roof is closer to the floor because... Well... Stuff crumpled and the windshield shattered... It skews one's perspective even more.

All my weight was pulling on that blasted seat belt latch. I couldn't figure out how to rise, or crouch in suspension, or do whatever I could to GET OUT of the seat belt. I also imagined it would hurt when I dropped ... Oh, I dunno, four inches, perhaps? Which I imagined was a huge fall..

I got the button depressed and fell out of the seat to the inside roof, now floor. There were all sorts of things in the front with me, strewn about. Most befuddling. Those empty egg cartons - what were they doing in my way? Like in a movie camera angle, I watched through the space where there used to be a side front passenger window at an approaching pair of upside down legs and work boots.

The nicest people in the world live & work in the Foothills, lemme tell ya. That pair of legs belonged to an AT&T worker who pulled me out of the Quest. He blocked approaching traffic because the Quest was perpendicular across "my" lane of Mt Aukum Rd/E-16. He hadn't seen the accident occur (because most of the SMART, local people weren't out driving around, anyway - he had to be up here on the job) so he approached, calling out, "Is there somebody in there? Is somebody in the car?"

When I answered in the affirmative (saying rather stupidly, "I am" as if he should -of course - know my voice and identity) he asked how I was and if I could move "everything" okay. Okay and yes - I just wanted to get out of the car.

Shortening a long story : No injuries at all except a seat belt abrasion on my neck. That's it. I can even turn my head/neck further to the left than I have been able for some weeks! Oh, well, there was a major case of shakes and really apologetic and colorful language. Really freaking inconvenient, definitely costly, and my poor flock needed feed! It's the only reason I left the house, anyway.

Slow speed rollovers are not so bad, even for hefty 60 year old folks like me. Either that or I have earned a few Karma points and had a sufficient number of them to encase me in a bubble of protection.... The tow driver - just happened to be going that way and was the second vehicle to arrive - he was NOT dispatched to the scene - will let me pay after the first. His wife happened to be following HIM in the family car and she gave me a ride home while her husband uprighted the Quest and towed it to my street. Friends picked up feed and delivered it so my home flock won't starve.

 

[ronott1]

Icy, mountain roadways sure are deceptive in their danger. I totaled my '99 Nissan Quest today. I am extremely lucky I was driving slowly and carefully - just not enough of each.

Seat belts are designed to keep one from being flung about. You get out by pressing the button thingie at your side, where the metal buckle needs just a bit of movement to release the latch. That latch is NOT designed to release easily when the straps are supporting a hefty driver from falling to the roof when the floor has become the roof.

Hanging upside down makes the inside of the passenger compartment look really different. When the the roof is closer to the floor because... Well... Stuff crumpled and the windshield shattered... It skews one's perspective even more.

All my weight was pulling on that blasted seat belt latch. I couldn't figure out how to rise, or crouch in suspension, or do whatever I could to GET OUT of the seat belt. I also imagined it would hurt when I dropped ... Oh, I dunno, four inches, perhaps? Which I imagined was a huge fall..

I got the button depressed and fell out of the seat to the inside roof, now floor. There were all sorts of things in the front with me, strewn about. Most befuddling. Those empty egg cartons - what were they doing in my way? Like in a movie camera angle, I watched through the space where there used to be a side front passenger window at an approaching pair of upside down legs and work boots.

The nicest people in the world live & work in the Foothills, lemme tell ya. That pair of legs belonged to an AT&T worker who pulled me out of the Quest. He blocked approaching traffic because the Quest was perpendicular across "my" lane of Mt Aukum Rd/E-16. He hadn't seen the accident occur (because most of the SMART, local people weren't out driving around, anyway - he had to be up here on the job) so he approached, calling out, "Is there somebody in there? Is somebody in the car?"

When I answered in the affirmative (saying rather stupidly, "I am" as if he should -of course - know my voice and identity) he asked how I was and if I could move "everything" okay. Okay and yes - I just wanted to get out of the car.

Shortening a long story

: No injuries at all except a seat belt abrasion on my neck. That's it. I can even turn my head/neck further to the left than I have been able for some weeks! Oh, well, there was a major case of shakes and really apologetic and colorful language. Really freaking inconvenient, definitely costly, and my poor flock needed feed! It's the only reason I left the house, anyway.

Slow speed rollovers are not so bad, even for hefty 60 year old folks like me. Either that or I have earned a few Karma points and had a sufficient number of them to encase me in a bubble of protection.... The tow driver - just happened to be going that way and was the second vehicle to arrive - he was NOT dispatched to the scene - will let me pay after the first. His wife happened to be following HIM in the family car and she gave me a ride home while her husband uprighted the Quest and towed it to my street. Friends picked up feed and delivered it so my home flock won't starve.

I am happy that you are OK!

The Snow and ice is very treacherous up there.