Colorado

[21hens-incharge]

Congrats on the littles!

Snowing like mad here in Loveland.

 

[maggiemo]

just a dusting here in Boulder. I live on top of Davidson Mesa and visibility is only a few hundred yards, so no doubt snow is on its way.

 

[alebuela]

Now that's a T-shirt!

I would definitely buy one of those!

 

[alebuela]

Two chicks hatched last night. One was one of the blue eggs from PC and the other I can't tell if it is a naked neck or one from PC, but it was brown.  I marked the eggs NN or PC and I can't see the shell, its broken.
The chicks are still wet. I woke up at 4am and looked and they were hatched at that point. I thought they were dead, but I 'bwack bwack bwacked' at them and they jumped up and ran around. So, I went back to bed. 
A few others are pipped and I can see movement, so yay!
Here comes the snow!

Congratulations! I learned so much from your postings and everyone's helpful replies. Thanks to all!

 

[maggiemo]

Congratulations! I learned so much from your postings and everyone's helpful replies. Thanks to all!

I am so grateful for all the help here too. I would be freaking out right now over how long it is taking for the eggs that have pipped to hatch and for the little ones who have hatched to dry.
But because of all the help here I know what is 'normal' and I am just

and

 

[COChix]

Wow so missed yesterday on BYC due to trying to complete chores before the predicted storm. 65 posts, I am off to read.

 

[21hens-incharge]

I am passing the time during the storm to come up with names for my up and coming chickies. Wondering what other folks think of them.

I am getting 6 BA and plan to name them after singers.
Patty, Dionne, Whitney, Gladys, Ella and Tina

3 Partridge rocks (naming after stones)
Sandy, Ruby, and Rose (Rose Quartz)

3 Dark Brahma thinking I want to name them after ladies in songs that also refer to the stars or sky somehow
Lucy (Lucy in the sky with diamonds), Cecilia (Cecilia and the satellite)
I am having trouble coming up with the last name though. I may end up just calling her Moon shadow.

If anyone wants to help me out I would like thoughts.


**edited by Staff**

 

[COChix]

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

Welcome to our CO family! What breeds and how many do ya got?

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!

Welcome to the BYC community. This is my first rodeo with chickens and we have had a cornish go broody twice since October and she is broody now. I am waiting to let her set until next month for various reasons. One deciding factor for me is the weather, we have a second coop in our enclosed run so that is where the broodies and chicks will go. I don't want any frozen nuggets.

It started out all blue and sunny this morning when I went out to feed the turkeys, chickens and goats, but now it's overcast with still a little blue peeking through... I was so enjoying the sunshine... oh well we can always use the moisture here in Colorado. We are going to be trying our first incubator hatch in March from our own eggs... am pretty excited to try it. Our girls are getting older and on the downside of their productive time. Am NOT looking forward to making chicken broth out of my sweet little friends! But DH says that's the only way we can afford to do the chicken thing.

Welcome to the thread, I hear you on processing your birds, but it is all apart of the process, in my opinion. The first is the hardest, so far we have processed three roo's from our flock we got back on 04/15/14.

My neighbor is going to rotate his flock and raise the roos for meat. My wife has a friend that wants 10 chicks also. In my second incubator i have an experiment of sorts going on. I set some whole foods eggs to see if they will hatch. The nice dark brown ones. I candle those Sunday. I will let you guys know how things go.

What is the experiment?

...

Well... I was supposed to come home with 6. I think I may have 'miscounted' Welcome we accept all forms of people inflicted with chicken math. Perhaps DK and Samr might be the most afflicted.

I only see 6. Chicken math is such fun. Technically according to my calculations you only have the potential of having one chicken. One food dish=one chicken however that chicken is still a chick and therefore cannot lay eggs so no eggs=no chicken. I do think you need to go back and try again to get a chicken.

Lol

Quote:
I have an IncuView. There's a really informative thread here about it, so I decided that was the one I wanted. I had a Brinsea Eco 20 in my Amazon cart and the price increased by $40.00 in the week I was waiting to get paid. So Ok it was at the top of what I could afford anyway, so I went with this one... had to send it back 'cause there were 2 broken parts on it, but their customer service is phenomenal. Want to hatch in March. Will be hatching out Buff Orpingtons, Barred Rocks, EE's, Astrolorps, Wellsummers, Delaware, mommies with a Blue Laced Red Wyandotte or 1/2 BLRW and 1/2 Barred Rock daddy. So they'll be barnyard mixed breeds.

We will be hatching out all barnyard mixes, we have a BO Roo and he will go over Dark Cornish, Barred Rocks, Welsummer's, EE, Delaware and RIR. I might have forgotten a breed, I am still drinking my tea.

Two chicks hatched last night. One was one of the blue eggs from PC and the other I can't tell if it is a naked neck or one from PC, but it was brown. I marked the eggs NN or PC and I can't see the shell, its broken. The chicks are still wet. I woke up at 4am and looked and they were hatched at that point. I thought they were dead, but I 'bwack bwack bwacked' at them and they jumped up and ran around. So, I went back to bed. A few others are pipped and I can see movement, so yay! Here comes the snow!

. Way to go Maggie,how cool is hatching? OMG you all are killing me, so I am at the point in my recovery when I am going to loose my mind. I got my soft cast off this past Monday, but am on the no pulling, pushing, lifting anything more than 2lbs. Here is the kicker my restrictions will be in place until the end of March! I feel pretty good but the arm is a bit sore still. I did spend a few hours with the gang yesterday - cleaned out their coop and refreshed straw in run, adjusted some of the tarps on the run for better wind breaks and moved the feeders/waterers around, topped everything off and gave the gang some greens and BOSS. Woke up to just a dusting. i think we have three broodies right now and our egg production is all over the place,we had numbers like this,this past week. 8/23 18/23 10/23 15/23 Don't understand them right now, maybe adjusting to the roo shake up? Or I have been wondering if I need to worm.they have never been de-wormed and they will be a year old in April. I am not seeing a lot of yellow or runny poops, but they are definitely scruffy. I am seeing that some of the girls with barebacks are starting to get some downy pin feathers coming in now that we are down to one roo.

 

[jgoldy2]

It is still snowing we got aroung five inches in Arapahoe County

 

[Latestarter]

Happy Saturday all. Nothing much here on the snow front. Expected to wake up and find a few inches on the ground. No such luck. Barely a dusting and the clouds/sky aren't looking that thick dull gray expected when heavy snow is imminent... perhaps the "threat" from this storm has been "over stated"? barely even flurrying right now. Either case, hope y'all are doing well so far.

Fed the group FF for breakfast this am, but forecast highs for the next couple of days are sub freezing so they'll be getting a dry mix for the next couple of days.


So I went to collect eggs when I got home from work yesterday and discovered "wet" straw in 2 nest boxes, one from each of 2 enclosures, no eggs there, and what was left of 2 egg shells in one box, 1 in the other, flattened and empty... It appears that I have several egg eaters

. Have to evaluate the feed mix I'm giving, maybe it needs a higher protein content, & get some fake eggs for the boxes. Not a happy camper about this.

Also did an "after roosting" egg check and found 2 BO pullets sleeping in separate nest boxes... They're not broody as they aren't in there during the day. I guess they are just sleeping in there for some odd reason. So trying to decide/determine if this is an issue that needs to be addressed, or just leave it be. They don't seem to be defecating in the nest boxes... Of course this is the same group that aren't using the nest boxes to lay in either... they prefer to lay/bury their butt nuggets in the deep litter on the floor

silly birds. I am coming to the conclusion that having a back yard flock is not a simple, cookie cutter, "by the book" experience. Always something else happening that requires evaluation and possible adjustment. What fun

**edited by Staff**