Colorado

[bretski]

Hello all. We live just north of the city (Fort Collins), and have had our chickens for about 10 months now. We have four hens: a Welsummer, Barred Rock, Ameraucana, and a Rhode Island (or maybe NH) Red. My wife bugged me for years to get chickens, and I finally succumbed to the pressure last year. I'll try to post a picture or two of our flock and their housing. I tried to make their coop "stealth" to blend into the existing architecture of our house. It turned out pretty well. Their run area is underneath our deck, and faces South for plenty of winter sunshine.

We let them free-range a section of the backyard when we are at home, but the large number of foxes in the neighborhood prevent us from letting them range when no one is around. I've seen the foxes around here scale 5'+ fences like they weren't even there...

I do have a question for other Colorado folks: our Ameraucana hasn't been laying since early December. She appears to be molting, but was only about 8 months old when this started. Has anyone seen this in the breed before? I figured their first molt wouldn't start until much later this year...Thanks!

 

[coloradochick]

Morning Bretski!

My Easter Eggers or green tinted egg layers haven't layed since July. She turned 2 in October. Never a hard molt just a meager one. My other EE passed away in December while going through her 2nd hard molt, she was also 2 in Oct and she hadn't layed really since her first molt which was well over a year ago. Not sure what happened but she also was the hen who started crowing like a roo when we moved up here to Brighton last summer. I think Dottie had some definite hormonal issues. The EE's I had prior to these two were laying machines and I've currently got 4 that are just coming into laying age so we'll see. I guess it all depends. Hopefully when the sun decides to play nice a little more out here the girls will reciprocate

etoask: Is your girl a true Amerucauna or an EE

 

[bretski]

Well, when we got the chicks, we were told that she was an Ameraucana...but she could be a generic EE mutt.

She has mottled white and gray plumage, a tiny comb, and a nonexistent wattle. She laid her first (blue) egg on Sept 11, 2011, and quit laying sometime in early December (I didn't record the exact date). We noticed a lot of her feathers in the coop (starting in in Dec), and I assumed that she was just an early molter.

Here's a picture of Cookie that I just took a few minutes ago:

 

[coloradochick]

Ahh She's beautiful! Mine are all the standard brown with black interspersed. I've never seen one the color of yours. I think she's just an EE which is fine because they're very sweet girls and usually good layers. Maybe someone else will chime in and say different. Not sure on the molt part. I've only had 3 girls actually molt over the last 4 years that I've had chickens. So I'm not a molt expert other than is the degree can vary per bird.

 

[DenverBird]

Anyone familiar with Fulenweider Farms in Hudson and know whether their "dual purpose" birds are actually going to be heavier, dual purpose birds?

Thanks!

-DB

 

[P-Funk]

Hi from Franktown! My neighbor is ordering chicks soon and I'm going to get a few as well. Big R will have them by the 2nd week of March but you never know what they are for the first 4 months. I just want 2 Leghorns and 2 EE's. Does anyone else want to go in with us?

 

[dennarahl]

There's a place in elizabeth, called elizabeth country corner. Its a feed store that carries some gifft shop type stuff too. They've started to carry chicks this season. I got 2 barred plymouth rocks, and 2 silver laced wyandottes yesterday, and I'll be getting some silkies in 2 weeks. Id have gotten some light colored ameraucanas if they hadn't been sold out.

This is their webpage, but it isn't loading right now for some reason. http://www.ElizabethCountryCorner.com//index.cfm?Page=docs/Chicks and More!

Here's the add they put up at craigslist, it has a list of what they plan to have. http://denver.craigslist.org/grd/2833142103.html

 

[P-Funk]

Thanks so much for the link(s). I've been down here in the flatlands for years and never heard of this place. We (me and the puppy) will go check it out today. Preston

 

[coloradochick]

Preston let us know. I've always wanted to go down there or out to Kiowa to thier little farm store there. It's suck a trek for me though

They always order chicks that are a little different than we can get at the other places that have chick days.

 

[P-Funk]

So sorry fellow BYC'ers. There's a problem with my favorite saddlebred (Cheers) and he needs constant attention. He's 27 years old (not much younger than me), his show days are over, and he's stopped eating as of 2 days ago. It's so incredibly hard to watch a member of the family die right in front of your face. On a brighter note, all the chicks are fine. The EE and Black Star just started laying! They were supposed to wait 'till spring.