California - Northern

[casportpony]

Quote: She sounds like my hens, lol. How many are alive?

-Kathy

 

[chiqita]

Well she has 2 or so weeks to sit still but I dont think shes gonna fix the air cells. I think it is because she waited so long to sit and they were sideways in the nest. Next time im going to steal the eggs and buy bait eggs for her to get excited about. Some of those eggs were really old! She saved eggs for several weeks sitting a bit pre incubating every few nights .

Yes but I read it again anyway. All the eggs are under mothers I decided to take advantage of spring. I will flip the eggs under mother duck completly at night maybe and see if that helps..

 

[Wishing4Wings]

Quote:
I'm about halfway between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe, up in the foothills. I don't know if you incubate (if you don't already............run.................it's a disease). Anyway, my Cream Legbars are laying heavily right now, 6-8 eggs per day, and I can ship eggs.
Do you have any CL chicks hatching? I would love to get 2 pullets to give to my broody Australorp.
Congrats on the AC hatchlings! How cool is that?

 

[caychris]

Very nice housing! Is that small one a unit from Costco? I really wanted one for a grow out pen. Missed my chance.

Yes its the one from Costco. It say its houses 4 chickens but I think it probably would only be good for 4 bantams and if you could let them out to free range.

 

[tommysgirl]

I got my Dorkings confused and as a result the Del eggs Jamie Lee Curtis has been on went "un sat upon" for a bit over 3 hours between 4 ish and 7 ish

They were on Day 8 at the time of the incident. The night before I pulled a few from under her and there was all kinds of dancing and carrying on inside those eggs. I think they will be fine but am looking for some reassurance/anecdotal evidence that all will probably be well. When I touched them they still felt slightly warmer than air temp. Should I look in them tonight?

Thanks!

Congrats on the two mottled babies @Audio51

@debs_flock Yay for two AC babies being OUT!!! agree that without pics it didn't happen

Beakface continues to taunt me by doing the puffed up bucking broody thing whenever she is ranging but then showing no signs of broodiness beyond that.

 

[caychris]

Well there are several different breeds that lay a nice clear egg. I've owned CL, Araucana and Ameraucana. I like them all, but I prefer the CL. They have the advantage of autosexing, they also make a very nice and tasty eating bird. Plus I love their looks, the crele markings and the crest. I find them to be friendly and have never had a problem with any of the roos I've owned.

It did take them a while to start laying, but once they started they lay nearly every day and their eggs are quite large.

A couple of people on here have mentioned they had problems with them in heat, that hasn't been my experience. I get way too many 100+ days in a row here and never had a problem with the legbars, despite I have lost some other birds to the heat. Anyway, they are a good dual purpose bird and great to look at in your yard.

When you say clear egg what do you mean by that.

My wife is quite happy that the new chicks are beginning to get used to her. One will snuggle up and sleep in her lap. The others now come to the hand in the box and a few will start climbing her arm. Took these 4 a little longer to get used to people than the others did. My daughter brought the older 2 out to the cage outside to introduce to the dels and after realizing they were not going to be let out or given treats the dels couldnt have cared less. Need to get the new coop up and running for the dels so I can clean to little one for the Orps to be introduced outside. I wish the weather would make up its mind though.

 

[Audio51]

poor picture but here are 4 new Empordanesa

Adorable!!

Ok, I had a complete " oops moment"! I forgot that our 4 ducklings were out free ranging this evening and didn't put them back into the brooder. I just remembered at 9:30pm

I rushed outside to find the ducklings sleeping with our 2 labs on the dog beds in the pump house. I am glad our dogs are so tolerant of poultry!

Trisha

Aww...that must have been so adorable!

Quote: Thanks for that link.

The Bronze Keet chicks look very similar as do the chocolates.....so they could easily be any of those....

Okay, TA DA!!!

Two Ayam Cemani chicks this morning, pictures to follow.

There's still a bunch of other chicks in there mid-zip at the moment.

Woo Hoo!!!! Still waiting for pics though.....

Quote:
I bought one at TSC that is just the pen part...meant to attach to a coop/pen combo. I an using it for my meat birds. It also would easily tip so I am using the big "U" shapped staples for keeping landscaping cloth in place to secure it to the ground. Works pretty well and keeps the dogs from tipping it.

Sorry - this post will take on epic proportions that will put you in mind of a 13-yr old's diary.

Well my poor husband got a taste of the harsher side of farm life this last week. He is gone again - week 10 now. We hate this. Hoping this job is over soon! The people keep adding on more and more and more and more (you get the point) work.

It's all my fault because week before last I was feeling pretty good about things and actually said OUT LOUD, "Nothing has died recently, I think we must have finally gotten past that." Never say those words out loud.

So a week ago Sunday we were doing chores and found a dead Basque cockerel. DH has missed out on all the previous shocks. This time he fetched him out of the coop and got the full brunt of the shock. BTW, Davis said no explainable cause. Perhaps it was the infamous heart failure that effects some birds at 7 - 10 months.

Then this weekend was rough. Saturday morning he dispatched a failure to thrive (someone else hatched it) chick. He HATES that job.

Then while we were gone Saturday our LPD which has never hurt any of our chickens was found licking the broody hen. She was frazzled, missing feathers and shivering. There were feathers everywhere and no chicks. It must have been quite the fight. He ate all the chicks! Horrifying.

He didn't harm the broody mama at all. He was just licking and licking her. I saw the way she went after another chicken so I bet all the feathers were her trying to defend the chicks.

We gave her some new ones and she has settled right in.

Then Sunday morning the 2 four-week runts died. I had put the 4-wkrs outside and all are doing fine except the runts died. I was a little philosophical about it. Oh well, survival of the fittest and all. Unfortunately one wasn't quite dead and I when I hauled them out and let them flop on the ground it kind of screamed. My poor husband. He says, "I suppose I'll have to kill that one too". His parting comment. "I had no idea that chicken farming involved so much drama!"

So that was 9 dead chickens from Sunday to Sunday.

It's not normally that bad. What's really bad is that I'm almost laughing about it because my poor husband is in such a state of shock.

I cried the first time I had to dispatch a chick. He hugged me and told me to be a tough farm girl. While he's been gone, I've gotten tough and he's missed that process. I refrained from telling him to become a tough farm boy.

OH man! What a rought week fro anyone...enoen tough farm girls!!

Quote: I think even 4 banties would be tight for very long. I only use it for broodies until the chicks are old enough to hold thier own.

I got my Dorkings confused and as a result the Del eggs Jamie Lee Curtis has been on went "un sat upon" for a bit over 3 hours between 4 ish and 7 ish

They were on Day 8 at the time of the incident. The night before I pulled a few from under her and there was all kinds of dancing and carrying on inside those eggs. I think they will be fine but am looking for some reassurance/anecdotal evidence that all will probably be well. When I touched them they still felt slightly warmer than air temp. Should I look in them tonight?

Thanks!

Congrats on the two mottled babies @Audio51

@debs_flock Yay for two AC babies being OUT!!! agree that without pics it didn't happen

Beakface continues to taunt me by doing the puffed up bucking broody thing whenever she is ranging but then showing no signs of broodiness beyond that.

Thanks Tommysgirl... I will post pics soon

 

[debs_flock]

Do you have any CL chicks hatching? I would love to get 2 pullets to give to my broody Australorp.
Congrats on the AC hatchlings! How cool is that?

I didn't set any CL this time around. If you'd like, I could put some in today, we've just been eating them (four this morning, LOL).

The chicks in this new hatch, German NH, Heritage RIR, Tolbunt Polish, WCB Polish, Jubilee Orpingtons, BBS LF Cochin and there may be some Chocolate Orps.

What I mean is they are a true blue shell, inside and out. There is no brown overlay, which is what makes a blue egg look greenish. A green egg is just a blue shell with a brown overlay.

Hence, there is no overlay color (clear).

A brown egg is a white shell with a brown overlay.

 

[caychris]

I bought one at TSC that is just the pen part...meant to attach to a coop/pen combo. I an using it for my meat birds. It also would easily tip so I am using the big "U" shapped staples for keeping landscaping cloth in place to secure it to the ground. Works pretty well and keeps the dogs from tipping it.

Its not really that light the package weight in excess of 80 lbs I think it has 3 access doors and a hinged top to the nest boxes.

Of course I don't have anything trying to tip it over either.

I was planning on raising it up to on 4x4 boards and clamping it to them to give it a little more height and move the end door level enough to open into the open area under the big coop.

Since its going to extend into the run as well Im going to have to do something above its roof. Im thinking Ill build a shaded roosting are there too that I might be able to close off to also isolate and introduce new birds.

The run will be over 6 feet tall so I can walk inside and deal with things.

 

[caychris]

I didn't set any CL this time around. If you'd like, I could put some in today, we've just been eating them (four this morning, LOL).

The chicks in this new hatch, German NH, Heritage RIR, Tolbunt Polish, WCB Polish, Jubilee Orpingtons, BBS LF Cochin and there may be some Chocolate Orps.



What I mean is they are a true blue shell, inside and out. There is no brown overlay, which is what makes a blue egg look greenish. A green egg is just a blue shell with a brown overlay.

Hence, there is no overlay color (clear).

A brown egg is a white shell with a brown overlay.

Man now I have a problem. I want more chickens than I can have

. Should have space for 5 more as soon as Penny/Pete needs to go and the 4 Orps go off to their new home.(roughly 6 weeks) I really do want some blue eggs and CL's look nice. I

Can someone tell me at what age would process my Roo. I'm still trying to figure out what to do. I think I need to find someone with a farm close by where I can house a grow out pen and possibly some breeding roos.