California - Northern

[AmyPaperlady]

How long should I let Frieda set before giving her eggs? Y'see, I had arranged with Ron for Arkansas Blue eggs whenever I next had a broody. However, Frieda's broodiness just happened to coincide with Ron's hens taking a break. He'd had one still laying, but she's stopped now, too, I guess. Frieda's been broody for two weeks now.

 

[chiqita]

How long should I let Frieda set before giving her eggs? Y'see, I had arranged with Ron for Arkansas Blue eggs whenever I next had a broody. However, Frieda's broodiness just happened to coincide with Ron's hens taking a break. He'd had one still laying, but she's stopped now, too, I guess. Frieda's been broody for two weeks now.

how fat is she? you worry about sitting too long if they don't eat and drink, i've had silkies try and kill themselves that way. You could give her chicks now, but eggs are iffy if shes skinny.

 

[PetRock]

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 a speckled Sussex hen who crowed a few times last year. I had my Pita Pinta rooster Zorro here in town for a while until DH became too concerned about the neighbors. It was within the first week or so of the rooster absence that Skittles decided that she would try out crowing. She got up as high as she could and proceeded to belt it out. I stood and watched her otherwise I wouldn't have believed it. She crowed 3 or 4 times in a row and I've never heard her do it again. She is a bossy thing and I think that she was seeing if she could take top spot in the flock. My black Australorp Precious put her back in her place!

 

[lualshannon]

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 you lost some of your eggs. I hope your remaining eggs hatch. I had cracked eggs several times and they hatched, which most likely yours will as well. Every bad experience can turn into positive when we learn from them. Look at the good side that not all eggs were damaged, and the ones that hatch, will be very special, beautiful babies.

Lual

 

[Kaylish]

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.

Thank you. I attempted to fix the crack with candle wax when I discovered it; there was no leaking so I have it in the bator...only time will tell.

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!!

To funny - I'm a Dutch Bros gal myself...

 

[Kaylish]

So sorry that you lost some of your eggs. I hope your remaining eggs hatch. I had cracked eggs several times and they hatched, which most likely yours will as well. Every bad experience can turn into positive when we learn from them. Look at the good side that not all eggs were damaged, and the ones that hatch, will be very special, beautiful babies.

Lual

Thank you. You're right, I still have 11 potential cuties so all is not lost.

But I've sure learned that I need to keep my office locked when I'm not home!

 

[PetRock]

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!!

What a pretty girl! Thank you so much for the tour you gave us on Sat. I have your Marans eggs loaded in the incubaotr. Fingers crossed that the hatch will be good.

 

[lualshannon]

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 an Orp., hen who has started to make crowing like sounds. It sounds like a badly tuned, loud French Horn, She is 2 yrs. old, very healthy hen, and lays eggs, but, lately got into the habit of it. She is one of the alpha hens.

Lual

 

[lualshannon]

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!

They are very pretty chicks, Dawn. The video of your new chicks are very nice. The brooding plate looks very convenient, safer than heat lamps. Well, chicks must be feeling safer when they can hide under it. Lual

 

[lualshannon]

A friend of mine called devestadet over the death his chickens which were killed last night. They were kept in a large coop with chain link, lined with chicken wire. Somehow, Raccoons ripped the chicken wire, reached in through the chain link, and which ever chickens they could reach, tore them apart.
He walked into a blood bath this morning. Some were still alive, but, beyond saving, so he had to end their suffering. Many of his beloved chickens are dead, and he is beyond consoling. My heart goes out to him and his poor, lovely chickens who had a horrible death.
It is breeding time for many predators, and they are on the prowl. Raccoons have no problem ripping the regular chicken wires. I hope this horrific incident doesn't happen again.

Lual