Colorado

[megshenhut]

I had two silver Ameraucana eggs hatch on day 20 yesterday evening.

There are six more in the incubator, but so far no pips. These are shipped eggs from Illinois. I am anxiously awaiting more pips.

 

[Pozees]

I had two silver Ameraucana eggs hatch on day 20 yesterday evening.

There are six more in the incubator, but so far no pips. These are shipped eggs from Illinois. I am anxiously awaiting more pips.

Ooh, silver? I don't think I've ever seen that color Ameraucana before, sounds beautiful!

 

[Mtn Margie]

Wow! Congrats on all of the new chicks everyone. I have been busy still trying to get the last of the garden in (we are a little slow up here) and I need to get a jump on the chicken house expansion.

Hope that fire is done with its worst! The next 5 days or so are supposed to be dry again...
Mayah, how are you doing in all of this?

 

[suncatcher]

Nice the Silkies are "helping" with your hatching! Hope you get at least a breeding pair of CL! Are the CL an auto sexed chicken? Can't seem to recall now.......... I am sure Wendell will share his expertise with the Dominiques!

Wanted to congratulate Shylee on her Champion and two Reserve Champion wins at the show this last weekend!!!!

Way to go Shylee!

We had tons of rain early evening yesterday, hope everyone else did too! Guess we are making up for less snow this last winter.

ETA Mountain Marge what do you grow in the high country?

Congrats on your Silver Ameraucana hatching meghenhut! Were they shipped eggs?

 

[wsmith]

Plenty of room for Wendell's eggs. I can always fire up another incubator if needed, but between the broodies and the currently running incubator there is room aplenty.

I am excited at the prospect of those gorgeous black and white striped birds complementing my flock Anything that hatches that Wendell wants/needs back is his, no question. I will be thrilled to have a pullet or two to add to my layer flock. If a nice trio ends up here, I am happy to be a partner in his breeding program. I know essentially nothing about Dominiques - I've read a bit, but will rely on his expertise to select any keepers if I get a hatch. Too fun!!!

Sounds fine. If you get a good looking cockerel, I may have to borrow him. I think I'll be set for pullets.

Speaking of Dom pullets, I think I have one that is 6 weeks old that has a hollow comb. This is a dimple-like condition on the otherwise rose comb. Doesn't pose a health problem at all, and she will lay lots of nice eggs, but I won't be using her for my breeding program. Once she gets a little older, I will probably offer her for sale........

 

[wsmith]

Got a great light show with some wind last evening, but only a tiny bit of rain at the house. Maybe this afternoon we will get more, as more thunderstorms are forecast.

 

[wsmith]

I already put out a small blurb about this on the FB page...

So yesterday afternoon I spent a little time in the grow-out pen, and noticed that the 7 week old Bronze turkey poults were being quite aggressive with the Dom chicks that they room with. Lots of posturing, and when the poults are nearly three times the size of the chicks, it is quite intimidating for the Doms. So I decided to give the poults a little of their own medicine. If they wanted to act all big and important.......

So I had Hannah throw out some meal worms and opened the gate, letting the poults into the big yard with the big turkeys and the laying hens. Things went fine until one of the B poults decided that he was way more important than the Narragansett poults, which are about 3 1/2 months old, and twice as big as my hens. One of the B poults grabbed hold of the wattle of one of the N tom poults, and started pulling, letting go, head butting and chest butting, then grabbing the wattle again. That didn't go over well. The N poult got loose, and pecked at the B poult's head until the B poult backed off. The N poult followed and soon the B poult was running away, with the N poult right on his tail. This happened two or three times, and then the B poult went into a corner and hid his head. After about 20 minutes, both B poults had been sufficiently humbled, and were cozying up to the big turkeys in a very submissinve way. They were soon all laying down together. All the hens would have to do was to look at them sideways and the poults would run off.

At dusk, I found the B poults in a corner of the yard, so I helped them go into the hen house, where they found a nice soft corner and went to bed. As long as they know where the food and water are, and stay out of the way of the hens they will be fine. None of my hens are overly aggressive, but they don't put up with nonsense from younger birds who have no standing in the flock yet. The Dom chicks needed to establish their own pecking order anyway, and are doing just fine without the B poults in with them.

 

[wsmith]

I had two silver Ameraucana eggs hatch on day 20 yesterday evening.

There are six more in the incubator, but so far no pips. These are shipped eggs from Illinois. I am anxiously awaiting more pips.

I hope you get some more that hatch. I have had two batches of shipped eggs from lower elevations, and both had hatch rates between 25-30%.

 

[Ashdoes]

We got a lot of rain last night, I'm hoping it moved North and helped.
We had excitement yesterday too. While doing evening chores we found some babies under our Silkie broody! I've seen two this morning now, and she has five more eggs. Any eggs that weren't Silkie were added a day or so after she started sitting, so we could have some stragglers.

 

[wsmith]

We got a lot of rain last night, I'm hoping it moved North and helped.
We had excitement yesterday too. While doing evening chores we found some babies under our Silkie broody! I've seen two this morning now, and she has five more eggs. Any eggs that weren't Silkie were added a day or so after she started sitting, so we could have some stragglers.

Very cool!