Colorado

[mscoloradochick]

Newbie here in Arvada! My neighbor is also newly raising chickens and I thought I would join in on the fun! 1 brown speckled Sussex, RIR, and two black australorps. SO happy to have stumbled upon BYC - why a great resource!

 

[samsr]

Welcome Butterprint! 

On another note...
My blue and green egg layers seemed to have taken a hiatus from egg laying.  Anyone else?  Do I have a pack-rat with a blue egg fetish?   Age mates are still laying and I am so wondering about this development.  They do not get to free range that often but I guess I will be checking the raspberry patch now that the leaves are dropping. 
Any ideas?

First, welcome all new people that have joined in the past few weeks.

My blue egg layers are on a break too, i guess. I only have one at the moment, but she hasnt laid an egg in two weeks. Maybe its aliens coming around every day to steel the colorfull eggs.

 

[sacramento]

Hey everyone! Grand Junctioner here! I've got 3 silkies (2 on the way!!!), and 4 americanas, one bearded. They are all laying, except my sweet little silkie roo (see profile pic). Well I guess that's it! Anybody getting some cold fronts coming in? I know I do!

 

[maggiemo]

Welcome to all the newbies!
I just culled some hens so my production is down by choice. My blue and green layers are still going ok though.
I have three welsummers that are 6 1/2 months old and just now getting red combs.. No eggs as of yet though. I wonder if they will lay now or wait until spring? Has anyone had hens almost a year old before they lay? I don't supplement light, so I might have very few eggs this winter.

I have never had soft egg shells and suddenly I have someone laying a soft shelled egg. They have oyster shells available, and everyone else has really hard shells. I am thinking I missed one who should have been culled. I can't figure out who is laying the soft shell! Everyone looks and feels healthy, to me at least. What should I be looking for in a soft shell egg layer?

 

[Pozees]

Greetings all, new and not! Egg production is down here among adults, and I have RIRs who are 6+ months of age who have not begun to lay yet as well. I sometimes turn on the lights in the morning when I go out to check on them before I leave so they have occasional light supplement but not regular, meaning it probably won't impact egg laying. The Silkie pullets that just started laying a little more than a month ago continue to lay, bless them, and tonight I finally have candled fertile eggs from that pen - a huge relief to me, as I've seen the male mating unsuccessfully at times and have never seen him mate successfully. He is a pretty boy and his girls are just lovely, so I'm very excited to see if the eggs hatch, and what the chicks look like.

Anyway, it isn't a surprise to see production drop off this time of year, the days are shorter and many are molting.

My adult Silkie pen is raising 10 chicks right now, 5 I will be keeping - 3 are the Egyptian Fayoumi x Speckled Sussex crosses, and it looks right now like I have a cockerel and two pullets, 1 is a Cream Legbar pullet, 1 is a really pretty (to me anyway) splash Silkie, and the other 5 are all Silkies which should be blue or possibly blue partridge, 1 may turn out to be a splash - they are only 3-4 weeks of age so still hard to know what adult feathering will be. They will be available after next week if anyone is interested.

Next week I am going to Tempe, AZ for a class, so Bob will be left to care for the birds. I am not happy about being gone for 4 and a half days, and I doubt Bob is very happy about having to take care of the chickens for those days, but he's a lot more comfortable with them now than he was last year or even 6 months ago. He has learned to tell the breeds apart, the genders apart, and has gained a true appreciation for males, which last year he wanted NOTHING to do with. He admires the Egyptian Fayoumi cock bird in particular, and tells the younger males they are getting better and to keep on working on their crowing

I am so happy to see new members here, I hope you enjoy your birds - for me they are the most fulfilling creatures I've ever had the pleasure of knowing.

 

[Ashdoes]

We had a huge drop off in egg numbers as well. I was really worried it was worms or something, but I added some calf manna to the daily feed and that has really helped. The new feed we're trying has the extra protein for molt, so I'm hoping it helps as well. I finally got six eggs yesterday, and five today, when last week I got one egg on some days. Our Legbars are 18 weeks and two days, I keep going out there and demanding they lay me some blue eggs, but they still aren't listening.
Pozees...being NPIP can you take eggs from non NPIP? I wrote to the NPIP people and they weren't very eager to test my small flock. Actually I felt like she basically said, your birds aren't worth it. I still haven't written back to her, I'm not exactly sure what to say.

 

[Pozees]

We had a huge drop off in egg numbers as well. I was really worried it was worms or something, but I added some calf manna to the daily feed and that has really helped. The new feed we're trying has the extra protein for molt, so I'm hoping it helps as well. I finally got six eggs yesterday, and five today, when last week I got one egg on some days. Our Legbars are 18 weeks and two days, I keep going out there and demanding they lay me some blue eggs, but they still aren't listening.
Pozees...being NPIP can you take eggs from non NPIP? I wrote to the NPIP people and they weren't very eager to test my small flock. Actually I felt like she basically said, your birds aren't worth it. I still haven't written back to her, I'm not exactly sure what to say.

They are strange about that - they want to know why you want NPIP certification. If you want to be able to ship eggs and/or birds across state lines, legally, or if you want to show birds or sell to someone who wants to show, then you need the NPIP certification. The USDA and USPS are not exactly working together on this, so it would be rare that you would need to prove certification, but to ship to someone who is certified you need to supply them with your number. If you don't expect to have chicks or eggs to ship across state lines, don't need/want to ship to someone who is certified, and don't plan to show or sell to someone who shows, then there is little need for it. If someone who is certified wants your eggs or chicks, they can buy them and keep them separate from their flock until they can be tested. Considering you have some pretty nice Cream Legbars, which you will likely find someone from out of state wants, as well as anyone who is NPIP certified wants, I would think you would benefit from it. It will expand the number of folks who can buy eggs or chicks from you, but will limit those you can purchase from.

 

[Pozees]

Oh - and I did ask about buying eggs from non-NPIP certified sellers, and the response was that I "should" buy from NPIP certified sellers only. Technically it is a requirement, in reality it is a recommendation. Chicks and adult birds lean more toward requirement.

 

[Ashdoes]

That's what I tried to tell her, in my first email, that we wanted to sell the Creams....even if we just stayed in the state, a lot of people are getting NPIP now, and they wouldn't be able to purchase from us without being certified. Once I know how to nicely respond, which I've been told I'm not good at, I'll write her back and let her know we want to be tested and certified when they come back down here.
Thanks.

 

[Pozees]

That's what I tried to tell her, in my first email, that we wanted to sell the Creams....even if we just stayed in the state, a lot of people are getting NPIP now, and they wouldn't be able to purchase from us without being certified. Once I know how to nicely respond, which I've been told I'm not good at, I'll write her back and let her know we want to be tested and certified when they come back down here.
Thanks.

They should be able to schedule you for whenever they go to coloradogal's place this year, this past year they did her and wsmith on the same trip I think. Once they get there, they're very nice, very good at handling the birds, they are not allowed to have their own birds and always wear shoe covers and other protective gear so they don't cross contaminate flocks. All you really have to say is you want to be able to ship eggs and birds across state lines. I'm sure you will be very nice