California - Northern

[Meg2000000]

Hi Guys,

My two remaining chicks are getting nice and big and seem happy! They now come running to the side of the brooder when they hear Johnny or I shaking a bag of dried worms. They're so cute!

I noticed yesterday that one of the chicks has a small patch missing above his/her eye. Johnny and I are constantly watching them and haven't noticed any pecking going on between the two so I don't know if that's what's happening. It also has a tiny patch missing from its neck but it looks like it's worn off (kinda like how hair doesn't grow that much on the back of your knee because it's always rubbing). You can only see it when he/she cranes its neck. The other chick has a similar thing to left of its eye. Here's a pic of the first little guy. Is this normal??

 

[Papa Brooder]

Quote: Moving to redding in about six weeks. Actually hauling all my 4-8 week old chicks up there this weekend as I have finished a couple of coops up there and have a neighbor willing to feed and water.

 

[Papa Brooder]

Quote:
Sorry about that. I did not find any King Feed Dealers up there for you.

How are the chickens. Did you get a clean report?

Ron
still awaiting the final word. Doesn't look good for the backyard flock (my "teenagers"). Looks like the orps may have brought in ILT. At least that is the suspicion of vet doing the necropsy. sadly, they may all become dinner in a month or so. I'm looking into vaccines, etc. Good news is it hasn't cross contaminated anything in the garage or in my brooders. I took multiple deaths (we had a house sitter who I suspect neglected to feed and water one day while it was quite warm because I had 5 chicks die over two days with no apparent cause and they all had empty crops but no sign of ILT. I should have the final results by friday or early next week. I'm looking into vaccinating the rest of the flock just in case and will likely cull some of the slow growers or extra roos just to make sure nothing has snuck into the garage flock. I am still considering keeping the jubilees putting them in a closed coop on the other side of my redding property and vaccinating the hatching eggs or chicks so i can hopefully raise up a replacement flock that does not carry an active version of the virus??? I thought I read that somewhere on here that there was a way to get offspring that would not infect other chicks. Still need to research but anyone with any info would be helpful. It would be a pain and I would literally have to lock the coop to keep the kids out but for what I paid for the jubilees it would be worth it to me to build a small coop, have separate pair of shoes and keep them locked up. :-( sorry chickens. I would also be losing 3 amazing SFHs that look beautiful, all my BLRWs, a legbar, most my ameracaunas, and my silver hamburgs. thankfully though all my GFF rhodebars, legbars, basques, gold laced orps and brahmas are symptom free and have been protected because they are still in brooders in the garage. They will be excited to get a huge coop up in redding this weekend.

 

[Papa Brooder]

still awaiting the final word. Doesn't look good for the backyard flock (my "teenagers"). Looks like the orps may have brought in ILT. At least that is the suspicion of vet doing the necropsy. sadly, they may all become dinner in a month or so. I'm looking into vaccines, etc. Good news is it hasn't cross contaminated anything in the garage or in my brooders. I took multiple deaths (we had a house sitter who I suspect neglected to feed and water one day while it was quite warm because I had 5 chicks die over two days with no apparent cause and they all had empty crops but no sign of ILT. I should have the final results by friday or early next week. I'm looking into vaccinating the rest of the flock just in case and will likely cull some of the slow growers or extra roos just to make sure nothing has snuck into the garage flock. I am still considering keeping the jubilees putting them in a closed coop on the other side of my redding property and vaccinating the hatching eggs or chicks so i can hopefully raise up a replacement flock that does not carry an active version of the virus??? I thought I read that somewhere on here that there was a way to get offspring that would not infect other chicks. Still need to research but anyone with any info would be helpful. It would be a pain and I would literally have to lock the coop to keep the kids out but for what I paid for the jubilees it would be worth it to me to build a small coop, have separate pair of shoes and keep them locked up. :-( sorry chickens. I would also be losing 3 amazing SFHs that look beautiful, all my BLRWs, a legbar, most my ameracaunas, and my silver hamburgs. thankfully though all my GFF rhodebars, legbars, basques, gold laced orps and brahmas are symptom free and have been protected because they are still in brooders in the garage. They will be excited to get a huge coop up in redding this weekend.
well good news is that it is not actually transmitted to eggs. So, looks like a locked down coop and frequent testing may allow me to keep my jubilees. Not gonna do that with the other birds too much work to worry about more than one isolated coop. Also my backyard flock clearly has the very mild version of ILT if it is confirmed as I only had one mortality in 28 chickens, and only 7-8 showed any symptoms. Still hoping that my results will come back negative. I guess there's always a chance. hope, pray, hope, pray. we will know if a few days. In the meantime I have a big weekend ahead of me moving about 50-60 chickens to redding this weekend. busy ,busy.

 

[WasabiChicki]

Ron, Thank you so much for bumping my post. It had gotten buried behind other questions & posts. And everyone voted the same as my suspicions.

Yes, it is great news that those 2 are pullets. We said from hatchday, we hoped "Angel" was a keeper

and "Ebony" is a beautiful black EE.

Maybe one will give us a blueish egg and the other a greenish/blue egg. I love variety and can't wait to get some FBCM pullets in the autumn after we move!

Still hoping someone will buy the little cockerels for their flock before I have to just give them away (most likely for someone's dinner). I only paid $1 per egg, but they eat like cows! If I could get an average of $3 per chicken, that would at least buy a bag of start & grow for the other babies around here!

I could poss buy an EE cockerel... just picked up EE day olds from the feed store & they are all supposed to be female... I already have a large number of roos... whats one more? I'd love to be able to breed them! Does anyone know if they are good setters??

 

[WasabiChicki]

Oh goodness. So far we are only raising ducks but next year should be adding on a few hens and a roo to our little 'stead. With all this mites and virus talk I am terrified of working with chickens. My husbands uncle has chickens (where were currently buy our eggs for eating) and he's already had to deal with mites. The thought just exhausts me after reading how much work it is to eradicate these problems. And poor Jules having to cull her whole flock. I would be a mess.

Since I have a year or so to get ready- should be decide to move forward with chickens (no more than 6: 4-5 hens and 1 roo) for egg laying in far Northern Cali (Redding. our climate is funkier than down more southern)- any breed suggestions that might be less prone to disease. Also any recommendations on housing, or tips to possibly help prevent 'issues'. Although I totally get that sometimes this stuff happens. I am always paranoid when I get new hay for the ducks (mold), checking their feed (mold), making sure the plants they have access to are ok...but I know that sometimes things will happen. So I'd love to hear what breeds tend to do especially well in our area not requiring a lot of special tlc during our wet chilly winters. I simply adore the look of the breed of red hens/roos. I don't know much about chicken breeds yet but it's the typical breed you see in farm 'pictures'. I'd love to have a breed that is totally different in color to my ducks so I can easily spot them roaming around. But not necessary. I will likely just select one breed. When the chickens are done laying it's quite possible we will eat them- so if they are a decent meat bird that could be a plus (not worried about how clean the 'carcass' is). We started out thinking we'd eat duck (hence the Pekins in our flock) but have all agreed as a family we couldn't. LOL So the same might end up happening with the chickens. But we'll see!

We will build a fresh coop (there is an old existing one on our property but I think we should just rip it down? the outer shell although ugly still seems quite serviceable but the pay boxes def need to be redone). If anyone thinks the shell could safely be salvageable I would happily post pictures. It's been unused for more than 2-3 years at the least. We'd like to free range them during the day ideally but house them at night. How in the heck do you get chickens to go to their house at night though? I know with the ducks I managed to train them through routine and peas.

Thanks in advance. Sorry for all the questions. I have a friend who will be lending me all her chicken books so I will have some reading over the next year too.

I'm in Northern Mendocino County... It was almost 100 degrees today! Just wanted to add my opinion about breeds for your area because I believe its a similar climate (we only get occasional snow fall in winter, but below freezing often & until April usually... 100 + in summer). I have RIRs ("the little red hens") & Barred Rocks (black & white speckled) & Sexlinks that do great AS LONG AS THERE IS SHADE.
One wall of my coop is all chicken wire & the top half of the wall across from that is also wire... I just wrap clear green house plastic & staple gun it to the wire wall when the weather starts to stay below freezing. The Leghorn I had didn't make it thru the first winter; I dont think they are as cold hardy. I just got my first Buff Orpingtons & hear they are great in this climate as well. All of the breeds I mentioned (beside the leghorn) considered dual purpose & winter hardy.
Below are some picks of the coop... but that only houses the 4 old layers currently: My husband is building the palace for our 30+ chicks that I have in a brooder right now.
(I am officially addicted!) The bottom of the coop is open year round, I have pretty awesome dogs & have never had predator problems...


There is a yard we added recently that runs behind the coop & along my garden fence. The girls usually free range all day & go to roost at dusk (I don't remember ever doing anything to teach them that). But that yard is easy to close off from their main run so I am picking up pullets tomorrow & it will be the "teenagers" hang out yard.

 

[WasabiChicki]

Had to add a pic of the babies cuz their so **** cute!!
BTW: we are totally off the grid so I am not keeping the day olds under a light 24/7 (4 days old today)... I boil water & put it in mason jars wrapped in wool or cotton as a heater for them at night (Thats what you see in the brooder w/ that Brahma perched on it) & then I have them outside in the sun (w/ partial shade) during the day. *It is super hot here right now!
If I need light it is on only in the cold mornings for a couple hours to wake them up. I've noticed that having the regular sunset lighting already helps them to get in position/roost for night. (The night time huddle is shown in the 2nd picture that I snuck in & took w/ the flash on.)

 

[WasabiChicki]

Oh ok, I'll just add the rest of the chicken news in my neck of the woods:
Below are pics of my awesome man building the new coop that the babies will be in soon!

Ok thats it... I'll post the rest of the pics in the appropriate forums now!
LOVE Nor Cal <3<3<3

 

[ronott1]

Quote:
You never know about EEs. It depends on what they are crossed with. Hatchery chickens usually go Broody less. The best thing to do is hope one goes broody but have an incubator handy just in case.

If you do start breeding EEs you will have an easy time selling them. Lots of folks are intrigued by the colored eggs.

Ron

 

[ronott1]

Hi Guys,

My two remaining chicks are getting nice and big and seem happy! They now come running to the side of the brooder when they hear Johnny or I shaking a bag of dried worms. They're so cute!

I noticed yesterday that one of the chicks has a small patch missing above his/her eye. Johnny and I are constantly watching them and haven't noticed any pecking going on between the two so I don't know if that's what's happening. It also has a tiny patch missing from its neck but it looks like it's worn off (kinda like how hair doesn't grow that much on the back of your knee because it's always rubbing). You can only see it when he/she cranes its neck. The other chick has a similar thing to left of its eye. Here's a pic of the first little guy. Is this normal??

Hi Meg,

You should start seeing some little fluffy feathers in the brooder. They get pretty ugly when they Molt. They go through several and really look like monsters between 5 and 7 weeks. They go through another one before laying at around 15 weeks or so. They will look beautiful when the new feathers come in.

Give them some extra protein. Cook them up some beans or give them some scrambled ore hard boiled eggs.

Ron