California - Northern

[sewandgrow]

Hello fellow CA chicken lovers,
I just realized that there are state related subgroups of BYC. I'm in Merced, CA and decided to follow the Northern CA group because our climate here is close to that of the northern, rather than the southern part of our state.
We have a few laying hens now, and some 1-5 wk old chicks, and 30+ eggs to hatch this weekend.
I've been buying chicks & eggs for hatching and have a few little roos I'd like to sell or trade locally. Other than CL, is there another website anyone here has used successfully? I don't have enough posts to list them on BYC yet.
Also, what should I ask for 5 wk old BC Marans or OE and EEs of the same age.?
I'd love to keep them all, but it just isn't practical as we are raising hens for eggs.
All helpful advise is appreciated.
Thank you (=

If you are on Facebook there are poultry groups there too that get alot of activity. California Poultry is one of them & there is at least one more that has Flock in it I think.

 

[EZFarms]

sorry ive been away for so long,been busy, so heres the update. gave up on the serama eggs. the birds are just genetically screwed i guess but a lovely lady gave me 6 barnyard mixes and out of 6 one died, one is chirping now in the shell and the other four have yet to make any noise so hopefully ill atleast a chick tomorrow, then on wednesday the second of march i have hatchery chicks coming in

 

[attimus]

Hello fellow CA chicken lovers,
I just realized that there are state related subgroups of BYC. I'm in Merced, CA and decided to follow the Northern CA group because our climate here is close to that of the northern, rather than the southern part of our state.
We have a few laying hens now, and some 1-5 wk old chicks, and 30+ eggs to hatch this weekend.
I've been buying chicks & eggs for hatching and have a few little roos I'd like to sell or trade locally. Other than CL, is there another website anyone here has used successfully? I don't have enough posts to list them on BYC yet.
Also, what should I ask for 5 wk old BC Marans or OE and EEs of the same age.?
I'd love to keep them all, but it just isn't practical as we are raising hens for eggs.
All helpful advise is appreciated.
Thank you (=

one of the closest byc neighbors yet. Welcome. I'm just up the hill in mariposa. You should consider taking the time to acrue enough posts. This is a great place to talk chicken and there's always bound to be someone looking for chickens. Best of luck and I'll keep you in mind if I hear of anyone asking for your breeds

 

[KernH]

Hello fellow CA chicken lovers,
I just realized that there are state related subgroups of BYC. I'm in Merced, CA and decided to follow the Northern CA group because our climate here is close to that of the northern, rather than the southern part of our state.
We have a few laying hens now, and some 1-5 wk old chicks, and 30+ eggs to hatch this weekend.
I've been buying chicks & eggs for hatching and have a few little roos I'd like to sell or trade locally. Other than CL, is there another website anyone here has used successfully? I don't have enough posts to list them on BYC yet.
Also, what should I ask for 5 wk old BC Marans or OE and EEs of the same age.?
I'd love to keep them all, but it just isn't practical as we are raising hens for eggs.
All helpful advise is appreciated.
Thank you (=

So nice to meet you guys again! Hope your new Ameraucanas grow up super beautiful! Kern

 

[One Chick Two]

Hello fellow CA chicken lovers,
I just realized that there are state related subgroups of BYC. I'm in Merced, CA and decided to follow the Northern CA group because our climate here is close to that of the northern, rather than the southern part of our state.
We have a few laying hens now, and some 1-5 wk old chicks, and 30+ eggs to hatch this weekend.
I've been buying chicks & eggs for hatching and have a few little roos I'd like to sell or trade locally. Other than CL, is there another website anyone here has used successfully? I don't have enough posts to list them on BYC yet.
Also, what should I ask for 5 wk old BC Marans or OE and EEs of the same age.?
I'd love to keep them all, but it just isn't practical as we are raising hens for eggs.
All helpful advise is appreciated.
Thank you (=

Hi!

What is CL?

There are some good specialized groups on FB. One of them you can sell Marans on is, "Marans Central." As a Marans owner, I recommend also joining the sister site (which you cannot sell on) "Marans Mania."

What to ask for 5 week old Marans...depends...

What are the lines- have they been kept pure and not crossed? And how long have you been line breeding? What egg color are you getting by the Marans egg color chart?

Have you been breeding toward the SOP? Have you seen any sprigs, Coronation comb, blonde or white chicks, yellow shanked chicks or wild type chicks? Any genetic issues like rumpless tails/ missing or double toes/ twisted keels? Have you shown, and won any shows?

It all depends on how well the line is coming along, established the line(s) are and how dark the eggs are.

For the OE and EEs, try California Poultry People. You have to know a member to join, but, it is a good group to sell nice fowl.

 

[TheKeeper]

Hi!

What is CL?

Craigslist, I'm thinking.

 

[pjnbill22]

Hi!

What is CL?

There are some good specialized groups on FB. One of them you can sell Marans on is, "Marans Central."  As a Marans owner, I recommend also joining the sister site (which you cannot sell on) "Marans Mania."

What to ask for 5 week old Marans...depends...

What are the lines- have they been kept pure and not crossed? And how long have you been line breeding? What egg color are you getting by the Marans egg color chart?

Have you been breeding toward the SOP? Have you seen any sprigs, Coronation comb, blonde or white chicks, yellow shanked chicks or wild type chicks? Any genetic issues like rumpless tails/ missing or double toes/ twisted keels? Have you shown, and won any shows? 

It all depends on how well the line is coming along, established the line(s) are and how dark the eggs are. 

For the OE and EEs, try California Poultry People. You have to know a member to join, but, it is a good group to sell nice fowl.

[B[/B]

CL is Craigslist.
We bought our Marans as straight run day old chicks from a local hatchery, so I don't really know much about the bloodlines. Since we are a very small operation, selling and sharing eggs only to friends and family, we aren't extremely concerned about having show bird quality, but we are learning about traits, genes, hatching, raising and disease prevention. So far, everyone on BYC has been very helpful. I'm making notes as we go, and your post is very informative.
I will check out the other groups you've mentioned.
We have 2 acres with about 1/2 -1 acre dedicated to poultry (Turkey eggs incubating now), and our goal is to have about 50-60 laying hens to provide fresh and colorful eggs to family and friends.
Thank you so much for your help,
PJ (=

 

[One Chick Two]

Craigslist, I'm thinking.

Thanks Lisa!

 

[One Chick Two]

[B[/B]

CL is Craigslist.
We bought our Marans as straight run day old chicks from a local hatchery, so I don't really know much about the bloodlines. Since we are a very small operation, selling and sharing eggs only to friends and family, we aren't extremely concerned about having show bird quality, but we are learning about traits, genes, hatching, raising and disease prevention. So far, everyone on BYC has been very helpful. I'm making notes as we go, and your post is very informative.
I will check out the other groups you've mentioned.
We have 2 acres with about 1/2 -1 acre dedicated to poultry (Turkey eggs incubating now), and our goal is to have about 50-60 laying hens to provide fresh and colorful eggs to family and friends.
Thank you so much for your help,
PJ (=

Hi PJ,

I hear you. Your Marans chicks should be sold as Backyard Pet Quality hatchery stock layers, as they do not have known breeder bloodlines, or how true they will breed. That said, perhaps try $5-7. each., and see if you can find some takers.

Marans as a whole haven't been in the US but a little more than a decade, so, there is much refining necessary, even on many well-established breeder lines. Buyers generally pay more for lines that have had some efforts put into them looking like Marans, especially if they come from very dark egg laying genes.

If you connect up with the FB Marans groups I mentioned you will see the efforts and steps people have made forwarding this breed. They aren't the easiest breed to get right. lol

 

[QueenMisha]

Anyone else here at the UC Davis Chicken Workshop in Shingle Springs? I'm not exactly a beginner but I like to go to these events to participate in the community (and talk to any beginners who haven't had their questions answered by the speakers!) and because I'm sure we can all use a refresher course every so often, myself included!

So far we've had two speakers on. The first, Richard Blatchford, PhD, I really enjoyed - he covered the basics and was very good overall. Although he did call Easter Eggers "Americaunas" and only mentioned the difference between "Araucanas" and "Americanas", not Araucanas, Ameraucanas, and Easter Eggers like would have been technically correct. I'm probably being nit picky about this but misidentification of Araucanas --> Ameraucanas --> EEs is a pet peeve of mine.

The second (Ken Takeshita, DVM) I was not a fan of. He was certainly knowledgable, but he focused on the wrong diseases (AI and SE - mostly commercial operation issues) and approached the subject from a commercial point of view. Since most of the people here want 4-10 birds and won't be commercially producing, this information wasn't very applicable to say the least. He did mention Quaratine, but glossed over how important of an issue it is, and he didn't mention parasites (external or internal). He also hardly spoke of respiratory diseases or Marek's disease, despite them being two of the most common diseases seen in small flocks.

I'll report back later after lunch. We've got someone doing a lecture on Egg Handling coming up, then Richard Blatchford will be on again, and finally our very own avian veterinarian, Jeanne Smith, who is surprisingly going to be speaking about Predator Exclusion, rather than poultry health. I'm still excited to hear her speak, though, she's a very smart woman!