Colorado

[trsturself]

@ ashdoes

If you wind up with extra cream legbar chicks come mid-April, let me know. My two EEs are both laying lovely green eggs, but I would love to have a sky blue!

I think Ashdoes eggs will be mixed with cochin so no blue eggs. Pretty sure she only has cochin roos now. I do have a breeding pair of CCL from her though and hope to have CCL chicks around that time.
That hen is one that I marked today so I can see if she's laying. All signs say she is but I want to see her egg for sure. As soon as my breeding pen is freed up I'll be putting the CCL roo over the CCL hen, the Welsummer, and BA (her egg is as dark as the welsummer) for some CCL and OE.
I'll also have a pen with a blue copper maran roo over a BCM hen, and EE. I'll have others in there as well for both of them but I won't hatch the eggs.
My last pen will be my silkie roos over my misc bantams.
Can't wait to get started on this!

 

[Mtn Margie]

Welcome Guy!

Alebuela - Your cookies will be worth waiting for with fresh eggs in them!

We are supposed to get 2 more feet of snow so I have an excuse to not garden or paint, but stocking-up the firewood is something on the list!

 

[uzisuzuki]

I think Ashdoes eggs will be mixed with cochin so no blue eggs. Pretty sure she only has cochin roos now. I do have a breeding pair of CCL from her though and hope to have CCL chicks around that time.
That hen is one that I marked today so I can see if she's laying. All signs say she is but I want to see her egg for sure. As soon as my breeding pen is freed up I'll be putting the CCL roo over the CCL hen, the Welsummer, and BA (her egg is as dark as the welsummer) for some CCL and OE.
I'll also have a pen with a blue copper maran roo over a BCM hen, and EE. I'll have others in there as well for both of them but I won't hatch the eggs.
My last pen will be my silkie roos over my misc bantams.
Can't wait to get started on this!

I can't wait to see your Silkie mixes!

Man, everyone talking about hatching and chicks and gardens and projects and spring can't get here soon enough!

 

[maggiemo]

The forecast is all over the place for the Boulder area. Different sources say we will get anywhere from 3 to 12 inches over the weekend.
I hope we get a good dump.
I am supposed to have chicks hatching tomorrow so I feel like I should try to stay busy going hiking or snowshoeing or something other than staring at the incubator.
I am just hoping I get two or three and I hope if I do get two or three they won't all be roosters!
Happy Friday!

 

[Hayduke27]

Hey Colorado peeps! I have a question about hatching from broodies. I have 2 hens that are currently begging to be mothers, one of which was broody for about 2 months last year. I have a rooster, and so was thinking about letting one or both of them set on fertile eggs. I have a couple of concerns, however. First off, it still seems mighty cold out for babies. I feel like maybe I should wait until the weather improves a bit... If I hatch a bunch of babies out in the next 3 weeks, I feel like they will all freeze. I mean, it's getting down to 0 at night still.

Second, is it absolutely necessary to move the babies and mom into a separate area from the rest of the chickens? I have 6 nesting boxes, and the two broodies have picked their places and don't really move or change nests. I think they would be fine hatching on the nests they are in. I was more worried about the potential for the older hens to attack the babies when they hatch. Is this a legitimate concern? Thanks, and good luck with the storm this weekend Front Rangers!

 

[Ashdoes]

@ ashdoes

If you wind up with extra cream legbar chicks come mid-April, let me know.  My two EEs are both laying lovely green eggs, but I would love to have a sky blue!

My eggs will be Cream Cochin mixes, but trsturself has pure Creams

 

[Ashdoes]

Hey Colorado peeps!  I have a question about hatching from broodies.  I have 2 hens that are currently begging to be mothers, one of which was broody for about 2 months last year.  I have a rooster, and so was thinking about letting one or both of them set on fertile eggs.  I have a couple of concerns, however.  First off, it still seems mighty cold out for babies.  I feel like maybe I should wait until the weather improves a bit...  If I hatch a bunch of babies out in the next 3 weeks, I feel like they will all freeze. I mean, it's getting down to 0 at night still.

Second, is it absolutely necessary to move the babies and mom into a separate area from the rest of the chickens?  I have 6 nesting boxes, and the two broodies have picked their places and don't really move or change nests.  I think they would be fine hatching on the nests they are in.  I was more worried about the potential for the older hens to attack the babies when they hatch.  Is this a legitimate concern?  Thanks, and good luck with the storm this weekend Front Rangers!

Broodies are your absolute best choice, theyll hatch more and take better care of the chicks then we ever can. Also, they are fierce and will go after anyone picking on the babies. But, if it makes you feel better, you can let the broodies hatch them and then take them away and brood them somewhere warmer. It's all up to you. Once you've had a broody, you'll see the flock dynamic and you'll know what choices to make. When it's cold, I just make sure the broody has extra shavings in her nest box. You'll also want to pull her eggs at night, and mark them, because other hens may give her extra and it can get confusing.

 

[suncatcher]

Wow lots of peeps from Colorado...
I'm in Cortez new to BYC and Co.

Guy

Welcome!!

Veterans get extra points on the application process so yes, they usually get the jobs first. My friend works for the FDA and she said right before they hired her (she is not a veteran) they had to hire this guy that was a veteran. They said they could hire him (even though he wasn't qualified for the job) and hire 2 more people to make up for him, or not hire him and not hire anyone. She said it's a complete joke. Everything is done by seniority not by how well you do the job. So just stick it out and eventually you'll be at the top. No offense meant to anyone working in a gov't job. She was just very surprised by some of the stuff she's seen working there. She's still there though.

I did the coloring on the vent trick today for our CCL and BLRW. I'm pretty sure they are both laying but I want to see which is their egg. I remember when I got a dozen of the CCL eggs to hatch I put one of our EE eggs in there and I couldn't tell it apart so I think that may be happening here. We'll see. Sorry I didn't get any pictures taken, I pulled my phone out and it was dead.

DH and I spent quite a bit of time in the run today. We held the two head roosters and let poor Carter come out of the coop for awhile. He hasn't been on the ground in a long time. He was really nervous at first but after he realized he wasn't going to get attacked he started scratching in the new straw I put down today and even mounted our little bantam EE. Our CCL roo is attacking him now too. Poor Carter is missing 2 toenails now.

We also made plans for some window coverings (about 4'x6') that will be able to be lifted to make shade in the summer and lowered to protect against rain/snow/wind. And talked about how to turn a small fenced off area in the goat pen into a place for meat birds.

I've been working on my garden plan slowly and got some seeds started inside. We are lucky and have a ton of raw space to work with but it's almost too much space, it's overwhelming trying to plan it and get it ready before spring is here.

We are supposed to get a big storm this weekend. I think I'll go out Sat morning before the snow starts and make sure everyone has enough food/water to last until Monday so I won't have to go out in the middle of the storm. We'll have the Sunday's eggs freeze but I'd rather that then go out in it. lol

We worked on our laundry room this morning. It used to have 2 sets of small cheap mismatched white cabinets in it. We took those down and put up the kitchen cabinets from our flooded basement kitchen. It gave us enough room to get the shelving unit we had in there out and it feels so much bigger now. We're hoping our next litter of puppies will be able to be kept in there instead of our kitchen. Eating and having a puppy poop right next to you is not the ideal thing. lol

I got our beehive and got that put together. Just need to paint it and it will be ready for our bees in a couple months.

Now I have some toddler boots to crochet, a dresser to paint, a garden to plan, a couple rooms to paint, and I need to pack for my trip next week.

Wow, you are busy!!! Yep, is a joke that the Government instead of hiring someone who can do the job right, hires the least qualified for the job. Guess that is why the Obamacare roll out web site was such a mess, and I have read they hired the same company to start up other websites, it just doesn't make sense! Government is the only place you can fail your way up!! lol

Yep, getting ready for the "big" snow here too, will have extra water jugs inside the coops, so I don't have to haul water, and plan on topping off their big feeders. They have new straw in their boxes, so hopefully some will be inclined to continue to lay eggs!

I had to take our one aggressive rooster out of the main coop, he is in his own pen now, had the same thing going on here with just two roosters. Guess I will do different breeds and crosses at different times this spring and summer. Integrating did not work for me with these two guys, my one rooster, probably Carters dad is not a fighter at all!!!

Hay, On the broodies, depends how far up the pecking order the broodie is, most broodies will take care of her chicks, but if she is way down on the pecking order, or you have lots of hens in the flock, is best to separate them, at least for the first week. Just my two cents worth!

 

[trsturself]

Weather report says we'll get a foot of snow starting this evening through sun evening. Guess I'll give everyone lots of food today and hope there's a calm point that I can go out and refill everyone sometime saturday or sun morning without freezing my butt off.

I haven't gotten to experience a broody raising chicks yet. I had a broody that I put eggs under last year and it was a complete failure. Not her fault but the nest got wet multiple times and the other birds kept trying to lay their eggs in the same nest box and stepping on the eggs and breaking them.
I'm hoping I get another broody when the time is right so we can try again.

My friend's BO is broody right now and she's mean. I can't get the eggs out of there without her attacking me. I have to grab her butt and pull her out of the nest box. My broodies have all been nice to me so far. I don't like a mean broody. lol

 

[uzisuzuki]

Weather report says we'll get a foot of snow starting this evening through sun evening. Guess I'll give everyone lots of food today and hope there's a calm point that I can go out and refill everyone sometime saturday or sun morning without freezing my butt off.

I haven't gotten to experience a broody raising chicks yet. I had a broody that I put eggs under last year and it was a complete failure. Not her fault but the nest got wet multiple times and the other birds kept trying to lay their eggs in the same nest box and stepping on the eggs and breaking them.
I'm hoping I get another broody when the time is right so we can try again.

My friend's BO is broody right now and she's mean. I can't get the eggs out of there without her attacking me. I have to grab her butt and pull her out of the nest box. My broodies have all been nice to me so far. I don't like a mean broody. lol

I keep waiting for my broody to go mean since that's what everyone says to expect, but so far her velociraptor impersonations are enough to make me keep the entire flock in front of me so I'm not ambushed. I saw Jurassic Park. I know how that one ends.

I know we need the moisture and all, but I'm not looking forward to more snow and cold weather. Hope y'all stay warm and safe!