California - Northern

[Audio51]

Hello all! New here so am a bit lost! I'm in Sacramento area looking for local(ish) breeders of guineas & colored egg layer chickens. Any advice or info? Was looking @ hatcheries, but don't want 25 of either. Thank you

Hi everybody!

I'm not sure if I am northern or southern CA...? Anyways I'm looking for a non-feather-footed silkie pullet, preferably black, blue, splash, or whatever as long as she's not white. I used to have one years ago, the best buddy chicken ever. She was culled from a breeder because of her legs.

Welcome to the group, @marcyflock @JecaRaven ! You have found the best thread on BYC! We have lots of great folks here who I am sure can help you both out.... They sure have helped me since I have been here! JecaRaven....as we all like to say here..."Northern California is a state of mind, not a geographic location" so everyone is welcome here!

 

[Kaylish]

Well I'm totally bummed out right now

and officially need a lock for my home office...(Warning: rant to follow

)
I've had my Brinsea on top of an old dresser full of my craft and sewing stuff in my office/craft room since I got it last spring (no one ever gets into the dresser but me). My last hatch was 35 out of 37 from my own eggs.
2 weeks ago I set 24 Orp eggs in the Brinsea and another 20 a few days later in a borrowed Farm Innovators; of course, I set the ones I really wanted in the Brinsea. This is the first hatch I've done since I'm now back in the office 45+ hours a week so am not home to keep an eye on humidity; temp, etc. I did a quick candleing (just stuck the light on top of a few eggs) on day 4 and was very excited to see quite a bit of nice veining. However it is the 3 year old (now being watched by DH) that I didn't factor in.

...somehow between day 4 and day 10 my brinsea was bumped hard enough to cause a spiderweb crack on the BOTTOM of one of the eggs and must have detached the embryos on some others.

(DH doesn't know what happened) So Day 10 I pulled 3 clears and 2 bloodrings and had 8 more that didn't look right. This morning I confirmed that those 8 are dead. So I'm down to 11 out of 24, including 1 cracked egg that probably won't make it

...rant over...Guess I'm spending my lunch hour buying a locking door knob...

 

[sewandgrow]

Hi everybody!

I'm not sure if I am northern or southern CA...? Anyways I'm looking for a non-feather-footed silkie pullet, preferably black, blue, splash, or whatever as long as she's not white. I used to have one years ago, the best buddy chicken ever. She was culled from a breeder because of her legs.

Welcome, Northern, Southern..... we don't care welcome anyway. If you don't get a response on your clean legged Silky you can try calling your local Ag office & ask for the poultry 4H leaders name & number & maybe you have a local 4Her that raises Silkies that can help you. I had one lone Silky chick I raised in a box in my front room years ago & she was an excellent companion too.

 

[PetRock]

Well I'm totally bummed out right now

and officially need a lock for my home office...(Warning: rant to follow

)
I've had my Brinsea on top of an old dresser full of my craft and sewing stuff in my office/craft room since I got it last spring (no one ever gets into the dresser but me). My last hatch was 35 out of 37 from my own eggs.
2 weeks ago I set 24 Orp eggs in the Brinsea and another 20 a few days later in a borrowed Farm Innovators; of course, I set the ones I really wanted in the Brinsea. This is the first hatch I've done since I'm now back in the office 45+ hours a week so am not home to keep an eye on humidity; temp, etc. I did a quick candleing (just stuck the light on top of a few eggs) on day 4 and was very excited to see quite a bit of nice veining. However it is the 3 year old (now being watched by DH) that I didn't factor in.

...somehow between day 4 and day 10 my brinsea was bumped hard enough to cause a spiderweb crack on the BOTTOM of one of the eggs and must have detached the embryos on some others.

(DH doesn't know what happened) So Day 10 I pulled 3 clears and 2 bloodrings and had 8 more that didn't look right. This morning I confirmed that those 8 are dead. So I'm down to 11 out of 24, including 1 cracked egg that probably won't make it

...rant over...Guess I'm spending my lunch hour buying a locking door knob...

So sorry that happened! I hope that all the rest hatch! I accidentally crunched the top on one of my Pita Pinta eggs when I was moving them in the incubator. (I incubate in a cabinet hatcher so have to manually raise and lower the trays to turn the eggs.) I put melted candle wax on the crunched area and the chick is still moving. Hopefully, I didn't break the membrane and it will continue to grow. You might try putting melted wax on the cracked part of the egg. I figured that I had nothing to lose by not trying.

 

[caychris]

Maybe the Silkie people here can answer. Do silike hens crow. Ive heard other breeds will do this but Neal just called me and he has a small silkie pen with 2 hens and a roo and is getting 2 eggs a day from the pen on occasions. However yesterday one of the hens was crowing in unison with the roo. He was so blown away by this that he was going to call up the University in Maryland where he took his poultry science classes and ask them about this.

For those who do not know Neal he is a retired gentleman who posts occasionally here under @1zooman12 . Being a bit on the older side of the scale his computer monitoring is minimal so if he raises questions to me I come here for answers because as mentioned earlier this is the best thread on BYC.

 

[fowlman01]

Maybe the Silkie people here can answer. Do silike hens crow. Ive heard other breeds will do this but Neal just called me and he has a small silkie pen with 2 hens and a roo and is getting 2 eggs a day from the pen on occasions. However yesterday one of the hens was crowing in unison with the roo. He was so blown away by this that he was going to call up the University in Maryland where he took his poultry science classes and ask them about this.

For those who do not know Neal he is a retired gentleman who posts occasionally here under @1zooman12 . Being a bit on the older side of the scale his computer monitoring is minimal so if he raises questions to me I come here for answers because as mentioned earlier this is the best thread on BYC.

Hens can turn into what looks like a male and crow. (saddle and hackle feathers etc). Occasionally you will see a female trying to crow. That's about all I have seen.

Walt

 

[chiqita]

I agree with that contagious part. Today, I have 4 more pullets who have decided that motherhood is for them, too!

My ducks have all gone INSANE. I have 4 broody girls, leaving 2 to deal with the 2 drakes. last year all were broody at the same time and the drakes really bonded, sleeping with each others heads tucked together and doing a great imitation of the roxbury brothers from saturday night live if a hen got off the nest. I am missing one nest, so I expect the last girls to go broody wherever they have hidden that soon, wherever it is. Sorry people who put off egg order, lol.

Hi everybody!

I'm not sure if I am northern or southern CA...? Anyways I'm looking for a non-feather-footed silkie pullet, preferably black, blue, splash, or whatever as long as she's not white. I used to have one years ago, the best buddy chicken ever. She was culled from a breeder because of her legs.

welcome! silkie hens tend to be hard to find, since it takes so long to sex them. I have some feather culls, but i sell them as chicks, since its easy to see.

Maybe the Silkie people here can answer. Do silike hens crow. Ive heard other breeds will do this but Neal just called me and he has a small silkie pen with 2 hens and a roo and is getting 2 eggs a day from the pen on occasions. However yesterday one of the hens was crowing in unison with the roo. He was so blown away by this that he was going to call up the University in Maryland where he took his poultry science classes and ask them about this.

For those who do not know Neal he is a retired gentleman who posts occasionally here under @1zooman12 . Being a bit on the older side of the scale his computer monitoring is minimal so if he raises questions to me I come here for answers because as mentioned earlier this is the best thread on BYC.

I have not had any silkie hens crow, but its certianly possible. usually we have the opposite issue effeminate boys who don't breed much.

 

[dldolan]

I agree - the Mediterranean class of chickens (Andalusian, Ancona, Legs, Minorca, WFBSpanish, Catalana, etc.) are outstanding for their prolific white egg-laying. I adore Leghorns but sadly had to rehome our two because they became bullies toward the gentle breeds in our mixed flock. But if you have lots of space or isolate the Meds from gentle breeds you can't get more fantastic large-xl size white eggs except from the Meds. There are a lot of fantastic brown egg breeds but the Meds are the best producers of white eggs. We too are now without a white egg in our basket since re-homing our Legs so we ordered a gentle Breda for white eggs. It was a toss-up between the gentles - Polish, Houdan, or Breda - for white eggs and we decided to try a Breda. We won't get the xl prolific white eggs like the Leghorns but at least we will get SOME white eggs without having to deal with the aggressive Mediterranean class of chickens.

My friend has Appenzeller Spitzhaubens (from Switzerland) and although a light LF, they lay a large white egg, are curious and friendly (if handled a bit). I just hatched two to add to my flock as I didn't have any white egg layers, either. The chicks are gorgeous silvery little things!

 

[dldolan]

So, my sister and i were in my upper coop, and Penny, my OE (CCL x Spl. Marans) jumped up to see what was going on. I snapped these as it was so funny.
My caption: "After perusing the coffee cup for several minutes, Penny was unclear about whether this was a chicken-approved lid."



Debi, this is the bird you were petting in the pasture! She is a social butterfly and/or attention hog!!

 

[chiqita]

So, my sister and i were in my upper coop, and Penny, my OE (CCL x Spl. Marans) jumped up to see what was going on. I snapped these as it was so funny.
My caption: "After perusing the coffee cup for several minutes, Penny was unclear about whether this was a chicken-approved lid."



Debi, this is the bird you were petting in the pasture! She is a social butterfly and/or attention hog!!

thats frigging awesome!
9 out of 10 chickens poop at starbucks...