California - Northern

[ronott1]

Very pretty. I am definitely interested in breeder stock but at this point Ill stick to the hatchery ones till I get a better footing on what Im going to do. The little fuzz balls just make me want to have a ton.

Barred Plymouth Rocks from the feed store are fairly nice. I had three of them and sent two of them off to live with a couple in Davis that lost 3 to a raccoon. They were still laying. The third one passed last fall at 3 years old.

They are smaller than breeder stock but lay longer than productions reds with less issues. Mine were kind of bossy though.

 

[tommysgirl]

I actually have a pen full of them right now and they are on my down-sizing list. I'm not planning to get rid of all of them, but take down the numbers. Today is going to be chicken sort day. Figure out who is laying (several hatching egg requests), who can go (too many girls category)........................and who can go in the excess boy pen. The lady that buys chickens and lambs from us is wanting to come this week.

I hope you still have some in the fall when I am ready. At that point I will have my numbers down to the point where I can add a couple of girls. I am down 5 right now but pretty sure with all the hatching going on around here that Tom won't see it that way until broody season dies down and chicks have been dispersed to new owners.

 

[PetRock]

Ohhhh goody!!! Whatcha got this morning??? I am going to try to move Norma tonight if that doesn't go well either I will just cross my fingers and camp out in the coop to try to prevent any chickacides.

I would think that while the eggs are hatching both mamas would be preoccupied by that and that by the time the chicks are ready to pop out from under mam I would be aware of their presence but who knows. I will come home at lunch on friday and cancelled my plans to play Bunco with my girl friends that night so I can be on call for the chicks if they need rescuing. Both ore due to hatch on Sat but the history of my hatches..even broody ones is that they come about 12 hours earlier than expected

Just went and checked on my broody mama. I saw 2 chicks, felt 2 whole eggs, and pulled out one dead squished chick that was halfway out of its shell.

I hope that me messing with Annie last night didn't cause that to happen. There should be one more egg/chick under her but I'm going to keep my hands off until she is ready to leave her nest.

 

[ronott1]

It was so funny! I had the first egg ever hatch out of my Brinsea Octagon 40. I move them to a Genesis 1588 for hatching, but missed one of the UofA Blues!

I was checking on the other chicks hatching in the Genesis and heard chirping coming from the wrong place!

I looked over at the tilted brinsea and there was a chick there! leaning against the lid. I had my oldest dd hold the brinsea a bit towards level and lifted the lid--the little thing flopped out onto the table.

The chick is in the brooder under the eco glow with one side removed so the it can easily touch the heater if it wants to keep warm.

For those keeping track of humidity, the brinsea is set at 35% and the chick was not stuck at all.

The UofA Blues are very healthy chicks!

 

[PetRock]

Barred Plymouth Rocks from the feed store are fairly nice. I had three of them and sent two of them off to live with a couple in Davis that lost 3 to a raccoon. They were still laying. The third one passed last fall at 3 years old.

They are smaller than breeder stock but lay longer than productions reds with less issues. Mine were kind of bossy though.

My first chicken was a hatchery barred rock. Her name was Pet Rock hence my BYC name! We loved her so much that we went out and bought another one at the feed store. Pet passed away this past year at 4 but Memly is going strong and laying eggs like crazy. I keep hatching them thinking that they are Pita Pinta eggs. I have a bunch of Pita Pinta/Barred Rock cross chicks running around here if anyone wants some. We found BRs to be personable, friendly, and loud! These PP/BR crosses are sure to be friendly, dog like chickens!

 

[lawatt]

I am going to try an experiment. I have two Red Star girls. Both laid like champs for just a bit over a year then really dropped off which I expected. Now I get an enormous egg from one of them every 3 days or so and they are often so soft shelled...in spite of lots of free choice shell and Vit D enriched water that they often break in the nest when one of the other girls follows her. The other girl lays about 4-5 days a week still.

So I have the ingredients for making red stars. A NH roo and a couple of Del hens and I have been saving Del eggs for a week hoping I would get a broody in time for the Cinco de Mayo HAL. Some of the will be pure others will be Red Stars. I think that the ones that I hatch from my crew will probably have a longer laying life but probably won't be the daily layers my hatchery girls are.

I also think that I want to hatch more sex links and sell the boys as meat chicks and the girls as layers. I think that the local market here would appreciate and support that. I also think that a barnyard mix of sex linked hatching eggs would sell on ebay.

I will be able to offer black sex links, red sex links and depending on what Godiva makes...possibly Chocolate sex links. I further learned that you can make a BLUE sex link by putting a purebred blue or splash roo over a Del or CA Grey girl. Hello Isbar from @lawatt !

Since I don't plan to show and this is just a little fun hobby this stuff excites me...you guys are the only ones who might understand though That's why I bore you with uhhhh..... share my ideas with you.

sounds cool! i MAY have an extra pure blue isbar boy this spring, but i'd like him to grow a bit more to decide whether to keep him or my original isbar rooster -- i definitely will have some spare isbar/SFH crosses of both genders, in blue, black, and splash, if anyone is interested! also a few marans & campines.

moved the last batch of baby chicks outdoors (hooray to have them out of the house!) a little early, at 3 weeks, but the weather's been fairly warm and they seem to be integrating in fine with the older chicks of various ages. once they've all settled in for a week ago, i think i will try to separate the boys from the girls.

and i now have two broodies, but the first one's eggs, which she's been on for three weeks, don't seem to be hatching (she got confused about which nest was hers several times, and they got cold at least twice, so not surprising) -- so trying to decide whether to give her more eggs, or to get a couple of feedstore chicks for her?

and the incubator is finally off, too -- my last shipment of isbar eggs all ended up as quitters, so i'm taking a break from hatching for a while. don't have room for all these chicks!

 

[lawatt]

@caychris This is excellent advice! Have you seen SPR? I got this pic online. But in additon to strikingly beautiful they are rumored to be sweet, productive and potentially broody. In addition SPR are far more unique and less popular. For me that is an additional draw. I hope to get a couple from Deb in the fall since I have wanted them for about s year and a half now. Re the Delawares, My Del girl from Kim is more beautifully marked and lays a much larger egg than my hatchery Dels. You won't be sorry for going with breeder stock.

I have two SPPRs that I got from Cheryl's flock before she sold it two years ago -- last year both went broody twice, and one is the non-hatching broody i have now. beautiful, lovely birds.

 

[CackleJoy]

I have UoA Blues, Partridge Penedesenca and UofA x Crele Penedesencas hatching.

I also got a couple of pictures of the Splash UofA and the Crele Pene x UofA Blue 4 week old chicks that are keeping my Cross Beak Delaware company.

Partridge Pene Chicks, look like 2 pullets, 1 cockerel and one that is likely a cockerel:



This us a 4 week old UofA blue Splash chick. This one decided to fly into the towel cupboard:





This is a UofA x Crele Pene 4 week old chick. There are peas in the comb which is associated with the blue egg shell gene. This one will be a nice OE cockerel. It had a nice white spot on it's head at hatch.

I forgot the UofA blues are BLUE How wonderful - I really like blue birds. That sounded cornier than I meant. Thank you for sharing the photos.

 

[PetRock]

It was so funny! I had the first egg ever hatch out of my Brinsea Octagon 40. I move them to a Genesis 1588 for hatching, but missed one of the UofA Blues!

I was checking on the other chicks hatching in the Genesis and heard chirping coming from the wrong place!

I looked over at the tilted brinsea and there was a chick there! leaning against the lid. I had my oldest dd hold the brinsea a bit towards level and lifted the lid--the little thing flopped out onto the table.

The chick is in the brooder under the eco glow with one side removed so the it can easily touch the heater if it wants to keep warm.

For those keeping track of humidity, the brinsea is set at 35% and the chick was not stuck at all.

The UofA Blues are very healthy chicks!

Love strong healthy chicks that hatch themselves!!! I have a tray of eggs in my incubator that I set but forgot to mark on my calendar. I'm just guessing on the start date based on the dates written on the eggs. I may have some chicks surprise me by hatching "early"!

 

[CackleJoy]

It was so funny! I had the first egg ever hatch out of my Brinsea Octagon 40. I move them to a Genesis 1588 for hatching, but missed one of the UofA Blues!

I was checking on the other chicks hatching in the Genesis and heard chirping coming from the wrong place!

I looked over at the tilted brinsea and there was a chick there! leaning against the lid. I had my oldest dd hold the brinsea a bit towards level and lifted the lid--the little thing flopped out onto the table.

The chick is in the brooder under the eco glow with one side removed so the it can easily touch the heater if it wants to keep warm.

For those keeping track of humidity, the brinsea is set at 35% and the chick was not stuck at all.

The UofA Blues are very healthy chicks!

That is a great story Ron! How funny

Love hearing about healthy chicks!