California - Northern

[ronott1]

Okay, is this for real or a big BYC April Fools joke???????

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...ken-broodiness-by-up-to-48-with-aluminum-foil

Last year there was an April Fool about merging BYC with Face Book!

 

[chowmaine]

I'll sort through my pens and see what can go and post a list. My first project is to get my taxes done and filed, running out of time on that one but I only got back on Sunday.


Deb

Thank you vary much!

 

[PetRock]

Makes me glad I went with james Marie jumbo. They are so calm and sweet. Not even a flutter when we enter the Avery. We scoop them up by hand and put them in their apartments in two minutes and move on to locking up the coops.

The Bobwhites are cute but man can they fly! I was excited to have them because I remember hearing Bobwhites early in the morning in Iowa when I was very young. We had a neighbor whose name happened to be Bob White and I thought that it was so cool that the birds called his name in the morning. DH built the coop for me but hasn't had anything else to do with the quail. He didn't realize how flighty they are and that's why we lost one pair out the door of the pen. They both flew up onto the roof of the house. DH grabbed the ladder and was going to get on the roof when they flew into our giant Siberian Elm tree. Our resident scrub jay must have a nest in there because he attacked one of them and they both flew over the fence into a neighbor's yard. George heard them say, "Look! What's that in the tree?" I don't think that they will survive for long with all of our resident predators. They did fly into the yard with all kinds of trees and green grass so it will be paradise while it lasts.

 

[juststruttin]

Here comes the heavy snow

Yeah, keep it coming! I am taking my boys to Tahoe on Thursday. I can't wait to ski in Fresh Powder.

 

[PetRock]

Sorry Debi, but the picture you just painted cracked me up! Reminded me of my neighbors....one of them decided to hatch quail...he had 25 in his garage! Anyway, one apparently got out and fled to the shrubs under the front window of our other neighbor. I pulled into my driveway, home from work, to see about 5 behinds! They were all bent over the bushes trying to catch the poor little thing! The neighbor inside the house was plastered to the window pointing down at the location of the little escapee! It was pretty funny! They are fast!

Fortunately, we were in the backyard and not out front putting on a display for the neighbors! I have lost a couple out of the pen before but they landed on the fenced in patio and were not that hard to corner and catch. This pair flew up onto the roof and I knew that it would be almost impossible to get them back. DH was hoping that they would be smart enough to return to their pen.

 

[PetRock]

Last year there was an April Fool about merging BYC with Face Book!

I was busy reading it and thinking, really???!!! Then I remembered what day it was!

 

[PetRock]

Processing quail is the easiest thing ever. I can do four in about 15 minutes. As opposed to chickens which takes me about two hours for three (I'm OCD about pin feathers). But I skin quail

This is the demo I followed.

Deb

Thanks for posting this video. The Bobwhites just seem so small to use for meat. But we may end up processing the remaining 6 boys. I have someone interested in them from craigslist but he keeps wanting to come pick them up after dark. He has contacted me twice in the evening and asked for my address. Hmmm....nope! Not going to give it to him. I offered to meet him somewhere close any time today as long as it is light out. My 6 ft. 4 in. son is off work today and I'm going to ask him to go with me. He is a detective for Marshalls and is good at identifying shady characters!

 

[lizanne]

I do not recommend Bobwhites! They are cute and I love their call but they are crazy, not good layers, and monogamous. (I'm a big proponent of monogamy but not in domesticated birds that you want eggs from.) I received "free" Bobwhite quail eggs with my new incubator last year and hatched out 19 of the cute little buggers. Dh was so kind to build me a double decker 3 x 8 ft. quail pen that still wasn't big enough for the amount of quail we had. 7 died of cocci before I realized what was going on and I ended up with only 3 females so 3 pairs. They hatched last April and I have yet to get an egg from them. I listed them on craigslist and sold 2 pairs this past weekend. The third pair literally flew the coop and went over the fence into the neighbor's yard. Goodbye quail! You should have seen us trying to catch them. My DH even climbed up into the pen with a net to catch the rest of them. He couldn't believe how strong they are for such small birds. He said that he would rather catch chickens any day! They also shed copious amounts of feathers when they are stressed. We had to transfer the two pairs from a cage to a box for the buyer and our entryway looked like a feather pillow had exploded in it. I am left with 6 boys and I have one person interested but he keeps wanting my address to come over after dark and pick them up. Um...no, I don't think so. We thought about processing them but they are not very big and it just seemed like more work than it was worth. Quail are cute but I'm not planning on raising them again. I'll just stick with chickens, at least for now. The good thing is I will be able to use the $400 quail pen for outdoor brooder pens!

Last year I decided I wanted to try quail. I hatched 2 button quail last year(out of 20 shipped quail eggs). I had them for a couple weeks. One flew out and away when the brooder was opened to give them water, the neighbor's cat ate that one. The other got away about a week later. So I decided quail hate me, and I'll stick with chickens.

They don't fly away.

This was a picture of the two button quail and the two chicks that hatched the same day.

Some not great pictures but I wanted to show off these muffs. Oh these are the most darling chicks! The muffs are bigger than on my pure AM's! (Shh don't tell!

)
The black EE's are from our Brabanter and a blue egg laying EE so the eggs will still be blue.

Brabanter x EE Can you say jowls?

Hoping for a crest too!


Don't know where the redhead came from, probably one of the really red EE's and the Blue Wheaten.



The Brabanter and Wheaten offspring.


Did I mention jowls?

These guys are so cute! I'll be excited to see if they get "hats". That's what I love about mixed chicks. It's so fun to see the variety.

 

[sewandgrow]

Are there any Orpington breeders in NCA? I am going to wait for getting a show chicken and start out with a pet. I love their fluffyness and friendlyness also, saw some chicks at the feed store and out of all the chicks they didn't runaway from side of the cage like all the others breeds. Also I don't think I want to clip wings just yet and all the books I read say they don't fly/don't fly well.

Jim & Bonnie Sallee have very nice Buffs. I got mine from them & one is broody now & I gave the 4 I just hatched out in a test run to a good "chicken Lovin'" friend of mine. I have B/B/S Orpingtons here in Turlock & Carrie Stroble in Arnold I believe has them too.
You can PM me for the Sallee's number if you want it.
Karen in Turlock

 

[Audio51]

Quote:
My problems with the heat lamp bulbs is they are 250 watts. I ordered some 100 watt "Red" incandescents from someone on Amazon and tried to use it with my clamp lamp. I almost immediately started smelling fumes ans after I turned it off (so as NOT to kill the chicks) and it cooled, I took it out of the fixture and noticed it had been painted. There was red coloring on the base. I should have been suspicious when the boxes they came in said they were plain old white light bulbs. Now I am afraid to use them. I am going to go on Amazon and try to get some info about them. They may be going back!