California - Northern

[ronott1]

Cuties. I like Maranda/o.

Kim

Thanks!

I really hope she is Maranda. She hatched out of a very nice chocolate speckled egg. She is very friendly and gets along fine with the EE's. The feathers on her feet are cool too

Ron

 

[capayvalleychick]

Is she an EE or a Maran cross?

Will you have pullets for sale at all this Spring? I could refer people to you. I'm getting lots of calls.

Kim

 

[ronott1]

Is she an EE or a Maran cross?

Will you have pullets for sale at all this Spring? I could refer people to you. I'm getting lots of calls.

Kim

She is a straight Marans. I will be selling Pullets. I can sell two of my EE's now and later I will have some of the Dorking and Partridge Rock Pullets to sell. If someone wants a Rooster from them, I will sell some of those too.

The EE's will be seven weeks old this weekend, so are ready to go outside; no brooder needed. Also, I handle them nearly every day, so they are fairly friendly.

My plan is to hatch:

Basque hens
Blue Australorps(these will be a mixture of Blue, Black and Splash)
Either BC Marans(Linda Hammid-Davis) or Silver Birchen Marans(Thistledown Farms-Davis)

I can also hatch a batch of eggs from the Elvirta Feed store. She has the Marans, EE's, Meat Chickens(assume Cornish X). She also has others including Game Bantams. She sells the eggs for a dollar each. The Marans eggs cost the same as the EE's. I would guess she does Olive Eggers(cross EE with Marans) too.

If a 4-H kid needed something hatched and thy brought me eggs I would do that for free. My Mom was the Community leader for the Elcamino 4-H in Tehama County for several years. I was in 4-H from fourth grade(could not join sooner then) until High School, I have a soft spot for them.

Since I am only suppose to have 6 hens, I need to limit the number of chickens I have. I plan on having mostly Black Australorps, Basque Hens, Dorkings, EE's and Partridge Rocks. I am thinking about hiding a rooster in a hutch in my Garage, letting him out in the Afternoon. If it works out, I can figure a way to hatch some of my own eggs.

Ron

 

[ronott1]

Eggcartons.com had a sale on front roll out nest boxes--75% off, so I bought a 4 hole version. They said there may be blemishes and wrong parts, but they would work with you to correct it. Still at 75% off, it was cheaper than buying four wooden next boxes from TSC. They were delivered last Saturday and had a couple of bent flanges at the top and the kit was missing three screw and nut sets. Not a problem though. I bent the flanges and got out my spare hardware bin and replaced the screws and nuts.

I attached it to the wall of the coop and the first thing my chickens did was go through the new nest box to lay eggs in the home made roll out nest box that they have never used. I installed it in the Fall, so several months of no eggs there and then two in one afternoon. I removed it and added a screen. Sunday and Monday they laid eggs on the coop floor. Tuesday there were no eggs on the floor but there was one in the new nest box. The other eggs were layed in the nest box of the small coop. This morning there were two eggs in the new roll out nest box. Funny chickens--they do take some time to get used to new things

Yesterday I ordered nest pads. The nest holes did not have any with it. I am also going to put a shade screen over the new vent that is at the back of the nest boxes to make the nest holes darker. I may also try to put a curtain screen in front, but since they are starting to "get it" I may not have too. Since it is a roll out nest, I plan on using velcro to put wooden eggs or golf balls in the nests too.

Ron

 

[ronott1]

The Nest pads were delivered yesterday and they make a big difference! Already had an egg in the roll out nest box this morning. I hope this will keep them from breaking eggs on rainy days. What to you do with your chickens on rainy days? Do you let them out of the coop or leave them locked in?

I will me setting up fencing and a gate so that I can move my 7 week olds outside this weekend. I need to make room in the brooder for a chick order.

Ron

 

[sewandgrow]

I go round & round about nest boxes too. I tried calling Eggcartons.com but they are all out of the deal you got. It was a shipment of damaged ones they rec'd. I did however order clear plastic egg cartons from their close out specials & some quail egg trays all with free shipping & 40% off. I am such a bargain hunter & we usually make all our boxes etc, but I thought at 75% off with rool out tryas i would take a look.
I need a way to find out in a pen of pullets who is laying what. The trapnests are too expensive to even think about so I am trying to make up some for us to do ourselves. I bought grates for the door but just haven't worked it out or worked on them yet. I want to keep my best dark egg layers with my best rooster but need to know which ones they are.....LOL

 

[ronott1]

I did get lucky with the 4 hole roll out nest boxes. There was an add for it on the right side on this new site. I have turned that off to see if it would make the site scroll faster on my Nook color tablet. It did not help. I have stopped using the tablet to go to this site. I used to be able to use it for BYC, but it is really bad now. Ironically, one of the stated benefits of moving to the new site was to make it more user friendly to Androids and other smart phone types of devices.

Oh well, I really don't need to use the tablet for this site. If we needed to move to keep the site up it's ok with me.

Watch the adds though

 

[capayvalleychick]

I got a Nook for Christmas. I thought it was just for reading books?

karen, I'm trying to figure out if my old hens are laying. I put them individually in a cage until they lay. I started a thread that no one replied to, about how long you should wait until you determine that they are no longer laying?

Ron, I got your email and will reply. I bet those chicks are/will be happy to get outside. So excited about our chick order!

Kim

 

[ronott1]

Thanks Kim! I got your email and will reply soon. I just got back from an eye exam. Yes I am still getting older and still need reading glasses. Soon I will need to get progressive lenses though....

I have the Nook Color, which is also a tablet running a version(From Barnes and Noble) of the Android OS. It has Apps and I can check email and do web browsing on it. It also plays games. There is one above mine--the Nook Tablet. That's the one Jane Lynch advertises. Mine is not the most powerful of these things though.

Sorry no one answered your post. I would wait until daylight gets closer to 14 hours per day. Give them lots of good layer feed! Of course ones that did not lay became chicken and dumplings when I was growing up

Ron

I got a Nook for Christmas. I thought it was just for reading books?

karen, I'm trying to figure out if my old hens are laying. I put them individually in a cage until they lay. I started a thread that no one replied to, about how long you should wait until you determine that they are no longer laying?

Ron, I got your email and will reply. I bet those chicks are/will be happy to get outside. So excited about our chick order!

Kim

 

[ronott1]

Western Ranch in Vacaville is a Dealer for King Feed. I called them to see if they had the Natural Soy-Free Layer Pellets and they said for King feed only the Rabbit feed had been selling, so they did not keep the Poultry feed in Stock. I had them order two 50 pound bags and they will call me when it is in.

I had the same thing happen with Higby's in Dixon and Modesto Mills feed. They now carry it because us chicken owners started ordering it. I suspect Western Ranch will start carrying the King Feed again if we order some from them. This feed sounds good. A lot of BYC'rs are using it in the Bay Area and most say the chickens don't waste as much and seem to not eat as much and are still thriving.

I will let you know what my chickens think of it

I hope they like it. A couple of weeks ago they told me it's Price was $17.99 for 50 pounds. Quite a bit less than the Non-Soy Modesto Mills(of course it is not Organic).