California - Northern

[HighNDryFarm]

Quote:
I may be interested for sure, but let me give you something to consider. I breed Polish and they are kept in their own pen. This breed does better in an area with boundries, especially with the size crest mine have. I let them out to free range this time of year, except I've put them back until the two JR cockerels are gone (sold another cockerel yesterday

and one two weeks ago, so only two left) because they're teenage boys right now and tormenting anything that moves! There always seems to be a couple who can't figure out how to get back in at night. I've had to trim two crests on my 8 weeks old because their crests are so huge they can't see anything! I mention this because I have a hard time not letting chickens out to free range but this breed actually does well with it.

I also breed EE's using my Ameraucana Roo bred to my laying flock. They're my second generation EE and then I added 4 more brown egg layers and all the chicks from my second generation EE's I bred and these 4 brown layers have ALL produced green or blue egg layers, no brown egg layers. One is exceptionaly dark, mossy green! SOOOOO, that's when I decided to add the Marans. I won't have to make a special pen for them because I want Olive Eggers and pure Marans and by letting everyone free range and share a coop, I'll get both. So you let both the Orpington and the Marans run together w/o building another enclosure and work on both OE and Orps because you'll get both pure Marans and Orps, plus OE's and EE's. If you want more of one, leave those chickens in a run during the day to ensure more of the one's you're shooting for.

You haven't gotten any Marans eggs yet right? You did get one pullet Marans right?

 

[ronott1]

So ducks lay about the same time as chickens- between 18-26 weeks generally. If I get some hatching eggs now that puts them into laying age around March/April right? Or is safer/smarter to wait until early Spring to get hatching eggs? This same thinking can be applied to chickens...I would like to hear from you all since you have been doing this for a while and this is our first year. Thanks guys!

If you hatch some now, they will be laying in early Spring. They will probably molt in the Fall though.

The Ups and Downs...

Ron

 

[zooweemama]

I may be interested for sure, but let me give you something to consider. I breed Polish and they are kept in their own pen. This breed does better in an area with boundries, especially with the size crest mine have. I let them out to free range this time of year, except I've put them back until the two JR cockerels are gone (sold another cockerel yesterday

and one two weeks ago, so only two left) because they're teenage boys right now and tormenting anything that moves! There always seems to be a couple who can't figure out how to get back in at night. I've had to trim two crests on my 8 weeks old because their crests are so huge they can't see anything! I mention this because I have a hard time not letting chickens out to free range but this breed actually does well with it.

I also breed EE's using my Ameraucana Roo bred to my laying flock. They're my second generation EE and then I added 4 more brown egg layers and all the chicks from my second generation EE's I bred and these 4 brown layers have ALL produced green or blue egg layers, no brown egg layers. One is exceptionaly dark, mossy green! SOOOOO, that's when I decided to add the Marans. I won't have to make a special pen for them because I want Olive Eggers and pure Marans and by letting everyone free range and share a coop, I'll get both. So you let both the Orpington and the Marans run together w/o building another enclosure and work on both OE and Orps because you'll get both pure Marans and Orps, plus OE's and EE's. If you want more of one, leave those chickens in a run during the day to ensure more of the one's you're shooting for.

You haven't gotten any Marans eggs yet right? You did get one pullet Marans right?

Sadly I do not have any pure Marans pullets. I had 2 but lost both to the mold issue. I have one mix- she is a Marans and Black Orp mix. She is stunning and I hope she will give me lovely warm brown eggs (I assume darker than normal Orp eggs but no where near as dark as Marans eggs). Her daddy was a Black Orp and mama a FBCM.

Since I do not have any BCM pullets - we made the hard choice of just not doing Marans. So we are getting rid of all our Marans roosters (which out of 10 chicks we had gotten 2 pullets and 8 roosters lol). We've decided to try Welsummers for dark eggs. We flip flop though- we do not want anymore broody breeds at all. I think the Buff Orps are going to be in a constant state of broody between the 7 of them. lol We want another heritage breed (we want 2 total) and now that we have decided to have 2 heritage breeds and then also egg layers (for colorful eggs their breed less important just lost of colorful eggs) I am not quite as concerned with the second heritage breed being a dark egg layer. So I have flirted with the idea of some Mille Fleur Leghorns or another cool Mediterranean type breed for our other heritage breed.

I find all this fun though so that's good! LOL Upside too- I have plenty of people willing to buy my eggs which I can turn around and buy more feed.

 

[zooweemama]

If you hatch some now, they will be laying in early Spring. They will probably molt in the Fall though.

The Ups and Downs...

Ron

Yuck. I do want some layers in the Fall. Maybe I will wait until February/March.

 

[ronott1]

Quote:

I solve that problem by hatching all year long....

 

[zooweemama]

I solve that problem by hatching all year long....

bahaha! I really am seeing the upside to the whole mold thing (or I could be depressed lol). It's decreased my flock size but now I have room to add on more and stagger their ages which I hope helps in the egg laying department with everyone not going broody or molting at once. I am considering buying some Silver Appleyard hatching eggs and begging one of you all to hatch them for me.

Duck math works similar to chicken math.

 

[zooweemama]

Oh and I put down Dry Den in the chicken coop...smells SO darn good in there. I like it much better than wood shavings. I do wood shavings in the boxes, Dry Den on the floor and Sweet PDZ on the poop board (I sift it daily right now like a cat litter box. Takes me maybe 1 whole minute). It worked so well in the duck coop I had to try it in the chicken coop too.

Sorry for being a post hog.

Can anyone tell me how to get a Golden Feather membership? I know what it does but what I cannot find is how to get it/buy it.

 

[ronott1]

Quote: Do you have hatching eggs? These look like great "Dual Purpose" Ducks. I will have space in a bit over two weeks.

Oh and I put down Dry Den in the chicken coop...smells SO darn good in there. I like it much better than wood shavings. I do wood shavings in the boxes, Dry Den on the floor and Sweet PDZ on the poop board (I sift it daily right now like a cat litter box. Takes me maybe 1 whole minute). It worked so well in the duck coop I had to try it in the chicken coop too.

Sorry for being a post hog.

Can anyone tell me how to get a Golden Feather membership? I know what it does but what I cannot find is how to get it/buy it.

You have to buy the Golden Feather membership. Go to the Store here. I just bought a year membership last week.

Thanks for posting this morning!

Ron

 

[Miss Molly]

I solve that problem by hatching all year long....

Thats what I do!

 

[HighNDryFarm]

Quote: But if you keep one Marans roo and you get some colored egg layers, you could get your OE layers.

Just a thought.