Colorado

[gardendufus]

So anyone have any experience with this segregation thing. I'm thinking 2 maybe 3 weeks?

 

[Pozees]

Coloradogal, I decided to read the BYC page on Cream Legbars since you have some (hopefully) hatching - they sound really neat, now I'm very excited for you! Sounds as if they are related to the Silver Leghorns I was just asking about LOL I must have sounded rather silly to you

Any pipping?

 

[coloradogal]

Coloradogal, I decided to read the BYC page on Cream Legbars since you have some (hopefully) hatching - they sound really neat, now I'm very excited for you! Sounds as if they are related to the Silver Leghorns I was just asking about LOL I must have sounded rather silly to you

Any pipping?

No pipping in the CL yet. The silvery-ish one looks more lavendar now, which is cool as the lavendar color is autosomal recessive. So knowing that, the marans roos turned out to be sort of neat afterall. Doesn't matter as 2 of the 3 will go into the soup pot this Sunday unless someone on here suddenly takes an interest in a cuckoo marans rooster. I have their babies now to add to flock genetics and that's all I care about.

Sort of makes me a little sad as these two roosters get along wonderfully together. I just don't like them. They both tried yesterday to run up on me and thunk me. Both of them, at the same time.... not cool.

update: So far, 3 have come. Two from my green eggs. One is lavendar and the other is black. One from the marans egg. That one is mostly black with just a little white throughout. I have pipping in 2 marans and 1 green egg left. No pipping in the CL eggs. These guys will just hang out in there for another day and stay warm.

 

[coloradogal]

Coloradogal, I decided to read the BYC page on Cream Legbars since you have some (hopefully) hatching - they sound really neat, now I'm very excited for you! Sounds as if they are related to the Silver Leghorns I was just asking about LOL I must have sounded rather silly to you

Any pipping?

Looking at your timestamp... 5am on a Saturday. I thought I was the only one up so early on a Saturday morning and then I remembered, this is a chicken site. We all get up early to let our chickens out.

 

[Pozees]

Looking at your timestamp... 5am on a Saturday. I thought I was the only one up so early on a Saturday morning and then I remembered, this is a chicken site. We all get up early to let our chickens out.

LOL our cats refuse to let us sleep in - during the week the electronic alarm goes off at 3:45, and it is rarely needed, the cats' alarm goes off anywhere from 2:30 on ... weekends they sometimes let us sleep until 4 but not a minute later.

The chickens actually get upset with me now when I let them out before I leave for work between 6 and 6:15 because it's still dark, and I scared them one day this week, must have been too loud or fast for them. Once I get them moved into the new coop I will start considering an auto door for next year ... maybe. Problem would be the evening visit during which I give them fresh water and late snack. Summer no problem, winter might be - I don't get home until at least 5:15 and in the middle of winter I leave and come home in the dark. Most weeks it's only 4 days, I work from home on Fridays and usually only half a day, but those 4 days they are not going to be happy with me when it's dark and cold every time they see me.

I think Rooster Thunking has possibilities ...

Very much yearning to see your new chickies, wish I had gotten this darn coop done already. Oh well. Lavender sounds really pretty! That came from the Cuckoo Marans and EE combination?

 

[coloradogal]

Very much yearning to see your new chickies, wish I had gotten this darn coop done already. Oh well. Lavender sounds really pretty! That came from the Cuckoo Marans and EE combination?

It did unless the silkie roo has gotten some action but he's still fairly young. This little gal has feathered legs, not that that helps me figure out who the daddy is as all the marans have feathered legs. I'll take pictures when they come out. I'm not opening the incubator until the end of the 22nd day, which is tonight. I'm giving lots of time for late bloomers.

edit: came from a marans...whether it's the black or cuckoo, I'm not sure. they both have feathered legs, reddish undertones on the legs and single combs. Hmmm, so far, it looks like the comb on these guys are the single variety. I'll take pictures when they come out.

 

[Pozees]

It did unless the silkie roo has gotten some action but he's still fairly young. This little gal has feathered legs, not that that helps me figure out who the daddy is as all the marans have feathered legs. I'll take pictures when they come out. I'm not opening the incubator until the end of the 22nd day, which is tonight. I'm giving lots of time for late bloomers.

edit: came from a marans...whether it's the black or cuckoo, I'm not sure. they both have feathered legs, reddish undertones on the legs and single combs. Hmmm, so far, it looks like the comb on these guys are the single variety. I'll take pictures when they come out.

I would give time too - hoping to see a message from you today that pipping started on your CL eggs. Do you candle during incubation? I only hatched a few in an incubator in my first life as a chicken owner, had a very basic styro 'bator that had to be opened to turn the eggs by hand, and I always thought that limited my hatching success because of the cooling down and re-warming of the eggs. Because of that I rarely candled, which limited the usefulness of it.

I look at these big cabinet setups with so much of the process automated, and am amazed. It isn't something I'm worried about for the immediate future since DH cannot see the purpose of having a rooster (translates to, I don't want a crowing rooster!), so unless I decide to buy hatching eggs it won't be an issue. Some day, though, I would like to become involved in helping perpetuate a rare breed, which will mean I'll have to have at least one rooster, and will probably have to erect housing further from the human house - not that he won't hear the rooster, but not having it right behind the house might help. Maybe. Hearing is the first thing to go, right? LOL

 

[coloradogal]

I would give time too - hoping to see a message from you today that pipping started on your CL eggs. Do you candle during incubation? I only hatched a few in an incubator in my first life as a chicken owner, had a very basic styro 'bator that had to be opened to turn the eggs by hand, and I always thought that limited my hatching success because of the cooling down and re-warming of the eggs. Because of that I rarely candled, which limited the usefulness of it.

I look at these big cabinet setups with so much of the process automated, and am amazed. It isn't something I'm worried about for the immediate future since DH cannot see the purpose of having a rooster (translates to, I don't want a crowing rooster!), so unless I decide to buy hatching eggs it won't be an issue. Some day, though, I would like to become involved in helping perpetuate a rare breed, which will mean I'll have to have at least one rooster, and will probably have to erect housing further from the human house - not that he won't hear the rooster, but not having it right behind the house might help. Maybe. Hearing is the first thing to go, right? LOL

I don't mind hearing the roosters. I sleep 20 feet from them and in the last 3 weeks now...they have woken me up several times at 3am. 2 times there has been a dog/coyote casing their enclosure. There is so much casing of the joint going on that my battery operated motion detector no longer has any charge left. So I guess for me, I like hearing them crow. The 'oh-****' somethings wrong crow is much different than 'look at me strut! I look good!' crow. I'll be down to one mature roo tomorrow afternoon.

I did candle at day 17, right before going in. With the darker eggs, it's hard to see much with my candler. Seeing the size of the air pocket right before lock-down give me a good idea of what's going on. Of the 6 CL eggs I received, only 2 went into lock-down. The eggs were very porous so I wasn't expected a huge success anyways. Porosity and elevation are egg killers. sigh. It's ok though. I don't expect much out of shipped eggs.

I guess I'm weird in my desire not to have a pure flock. I guess I pay homage to my ancestry in my love of mutts. Mutts can have a separate look to them and still carry unique traits from the many breeds they were mixed with. Besides, every breed started out eventually as a mutt that someone loved enough to keep working on. In 50 years, I'll be ripe old age of ancient and perhaps people will seek out mayahs mutts for their hardiness and uniqueness. It'll be Wendell's Doms and my mutts.

 

[Mommato5]

So, my EE runt, who was a favorite and BYC said was a boy crowed yesterday for the first time. *sigh* Thankfully we already have a home lined up for him. He's going to a teacher at my kid's elementary school! I did not hear him crow this morning, though, so I guess there is no rush.

Hubby has next week off work and coop building will begin! I have been trying to design it. We plan to buy supplies tomorrow! It will be 10x6 and raised ~18-20" off the ground. Because it'll be raised (to provide shade and preserve square footage in the run) it can only be 4' tall inside so it's not over the fence. This bothers me. I think it will be hard to clean being so short. I don't know whether I should do poop boards or deep litter although I think I'm leaning towards the latter so it doesn't require as much maintanence. However, I would like to use the space under the roost so poop boards would be nice. *sigh* I just don't know. We also plan to completely cover the run area (10'x25') to hopefully keep out most of the snow. Last year we used a tarp and that didn't work! It flapped around in the wind and eventually just tore and blew off! Hubby is not sure how to make it more stable. He tries, but he is no great carpenter. I would appreciate any advice from the wonderful woodworkers on this thread!

 

[Pozees]

I don't mind hearing the roosters. I sleep 20 feet from them and in the last 3 weeks now...they have woken me up several times at 3am. 2 times there has been a dog/coyote casing their enclosure. There is so much casing of the joint going on that my battery operated motion detector no longer has any charge left. So I guess for me, I like hearing them crow. The 'oh-****' somethings wrong crow is much different than 'look at me strut! I look good!' crow. I'll be down to one mature roo tomorrow afternoon.

I did candle at day 17, right before going in. With the darker eggs, it's hard to see much with my candler. Seeing the size of the air pocket right before lock-down give me a good idea of what's going on. Of the 6 CL eggs I received, only 2 went into lock-down. The eggs were very porous so I wasn't expected a huge success anyways. Porosity and elevation are egg killers. sigh. It's ok though. I don't expect much out of shipped eggs.

I guess I'm weird in my desire not to have a pure flock. I guess I pay homage to my ancestry in my love of mutts. Mutts can have a separate look to them and still carry unique traits from the many breeds they were mixed with. Besides, every breed started out eventually as a mutt that someone loved enough to keep working on. In 50 years, I'll be ripe old age of ancient and perhaps people will seek out mayahs mutts for their hardiness and uniqueness. It'll be Wendell's Doms and my mutts.

LOL Mayah's Mutts - has a certain ring to it! You are right though, every current breed started out as someone's mutts that had characteristics that made them desirable. I read one person's blog about a cross she did that resulted in a darned near perfect dual purpose hen that laid fairly reliably and was a nice hefty bird, but not so breast-heavy that she couldn't walk around and forage. Can't remember what it was now, seems like it was a BR roo but can't think of the other breed.

I can see the advantage to both pure breeds and crosses. With pure breeds you have a set of expectations that are almost always met, and characteristics you can usually get to pass through to offspring - so if you are trying to improve egg laying in a breed in development, you can add in a leghorn, for example. The breed in development is the mutt of today, and to me there is always room for improvement, whether you have a great layer that you wish was calmer for ease of handling and lower stress, or a really docile bird you wish was more colorful, whatever the goal, having pure breeds gives you a better chance at adding the trait you are seeking. Keeping any breed too pure will often weaken it by limiting the gene pool if there are not enough foundation lines, and outcrosses, whether admitted or not, are found in any "pure" breed of any species.