Consolidated Kansas

[sharol]

My EE roo is a great protector and looks good, too. He has lots of personality and is not at all human aggressive.

I've decided I need a Rooster in my life. A really bold looking one like a Phoenix, or perhaps a Welsummer. What's the prettiest Roo ?

 

[medawinks]

Fern is adorable! I am so glad to read that she is on the mend and is wary of the road as well. I think you made a very smart move to spay her at the same time No more sick time!

It is so hard to hold these little lives as they depart. I hope you are feeling more comfort now.

Thanks HEChicken. I am going to try looking at is as the irregularity of the eggs makes it more exciting to egg hunt

Ah.... Alarms are blaring... Time to start the chauffeuring kids job then off to my paid one I hope everyone has a good week!

 

[Hawkeye95]

Hearing about your fair trips has been fun. We're going Tuesday, unless I have a sick kid or something similar. DH is taking the day off so we can go together -- yay! Our band girls are playing there Tuesday and then have a cross country meet after in Goddard. We'll have to split up for that one since I'll have kids coming home while the girls are at the meet. I'm really looking forward to seeing all the livestock and the quilts sound interesting too. I've been before and love looking at all the animals but don't always have the time to stop to see the quilts. I think I'll be able to this time. I hope!

medawinks, thanks for the compliment but I'm no hero. I'm not even particularly well organized but we manage to get through it all without too many snafus.
Sounds like a pleasant Sunday! Hope the A/C gets fixed. At least it's cooler than it has been, for sure.

I've been MIA for a bit while I scrambled to get my craft room finished up. For those of you who saw the craft room when I had my large brooder in it, you wouldn't believe how it looks now! Of course, it's missing any catfish heads in the decor, so that's not good LOL! What IS up with catfish heads on fence posts? Anyway, there are pictures on the walls, DH built more open cabinets and put them up, and all of them are painted. I've run the air purifier a ton as I dusted and cleaned. Our computers are wireless so I'm in the craft room as I type. I have a bit more organizing to do but everything is in it's place pretty much, and all the chick dust is gone, plus I have a TV! My little chicks are just on the other side of my east wall in their condensed version of the original brooder. I haven't put any flooring down and am not certain I'm going to, but we'll see. Still, now for weather extremes I'll have a place I can put birds other than my bedroom and bath. DH is so pleased.

I hope you do get down to the fair!! It will be really fun! I think you are a fantastic mom! I couldn't handle 8 kids, for sure! LOL I need to come back over and see your chickens and how you've got your setup going now! I bet you are excited that you got that room all worked out! Sounds great!

Hawkeye, thanks for the tip about the fair. My kids are going up tomorrow with their band and I'm half thinking I might call and see if there is room on the bus for an extra parent chaperone...

Trish, how old did you say the turkey hen is now? Is she about as big as she's going to get, do you suppose? DH has me worried that she won't even fit through my auto door to the coop. I think she will but if she gets very much bigger, it will be tight.

Medawinks, it does seem that the hens who lay the colorful eggs lay less often than those that lay light brown or white eggs. I have 1 marans and 1 EE and they each lay 3-4 eggs a week compared to some of the brown egg layers who will lay 5-6 per week. On the other hand, that means they will lay for longer as they won't burn out as fast.

If it's any help, Seymore, my Royal Palm could fit into ANYthing!! She could squeeze into holes I didn't think possible for her, and that was when she was fully grown. So I bet they will be able to use your new door with no problems! They get pretty tall, but they are still on the slender side and very agile.

One of my new chicks (broilers from Hoovers) wasn't growing at all and huddled in a corner. I went to check on it and it was chilled to the touch too... I noticed its eyes weren't even open yet. I took it into my hands and offered water from my palms.. it barely drank - it wouldn't eat either (I'm assuming it hasn't drank or eaten since they arrived Friday at 2 days old). This chick was half the size of the others too. I didn't know what to do but remember hearing how many chicks will suffocate when under a pile of other chicks. I thought the most humane thing to do was take the chick, wrap him in my t-shirt, and hold him in the palms of my hands and let him die. He died within minutes; I cried. I hope I did the right thing for him.

I'm really sorry. But I think you did the right thing, too. He wasn't going to make it. I've had several silkies hatch and just be weak and not come around. They will last a few hours or even a couple of days. It's best to just get it over with.

I've decided I need a Rooster in my life. A really bold looking one like a Phoenix, or perhaps a Welsummer. What's the prettiest Roo ?

Peh, phoenix, schmenix! SILKIES!! That is what you need!! Hey, I have one for you, too. You can have him FREE!!!! hehehe! He is real spunky, but a sweetie if you just want to hold him and snuggle him. He's right about 4 months. LOL

My EE roo is a great protector and looks good, too. He has lots of personality and is not at all human aggressive.

OH! He is gorgeous!!!!

 

[Hawkeye95]

Cherwill, I think it was you that I was writing to last night and was going to suggest planting honeysuckle along your back fence. It gets really dense and you can train it to grow really tall. I have trained mine to grow about 9 feet tall so far! I just keep tacking up the shoots higher and higher. It takes quite a bit of dedication at first, but then it starts growing out either side and gets REALLY thick. The birds love to get in it. I don't think kids could throw rocks thru it and it would be hard to see thru. Also, mine stayed green last winter.

 

[HEChicken]

Cherwill, that honeysuckle sounds like a great solution. I had meant to comment about your issues with the alley but if I don't hit the multi-post thing, I seem to forget everything I've just read by the time I start replying. Do you ever need access to the alley yourself? If not, is the situation conducive to putting up a 6' high wood privacy fence along the back? It would be a little expense up front (although I don't think wood panel fences are that expensive) but would completely block the view of your flock from anyone passing through. It is awful to think about them planning to throw rocks and only stopping because you were there, since you can't be there all the time.

MarcAustin, I lived in the city for years and was unable to have a rooster and one of the huge joys for me now that we are able to have roosters, is Cyrus. He is an EE roo who is super colorful and doing a great job with his flock. I got him at 5 months of age and he was already HUGE by then. Although he had not had his own flock up til then, it is so instinctive to them to know what to do, which I find fascinating. I took him home to meet my hens and every last one of them challenged his authority. Poor guy had to go up against all of them once to let them know he is in charge. He was really gentle about it though, using only as much strength as he needed to get them to back down. No one was injured and after one little "spar" with each hen, one by one the hens decided to let him be the boss. Once that was settled, he started to dance for them. I have never seen him grab a hen who wasn't willing - he still woos them every time. After he'd been here an hour or so, he found his way into the coop, where he discovered the feeder, and immediately started calling out to them that he had found treats. They were unimpressed - the feeder is always there, after all - so he no longer announces the feeder but since then he has done such a good job of finding them treats. Even when I put egg shell down for them - something he doesn't need himself - he will call them over because he knows how much they like it. When my parents were here visiting, my mum was really impressed with him because she had taken them down an apple core and instead of eating it, he called the hens over to get it. After he'd been here about six weeks, he did try to flog me. I think the hormones really kicked in at that point. Now about every two weeks we have another little sparring match. He has never hurt me but he does get it in his head that he is the boss roo and I have to show him he's wrong. I spar with my hands, batting him backwards until I've backed him up a bit, then I pin him, pick him up and walk around a few times to make sure ALL the hens see me holding him. After that he keeps a respectful distance until the next time. I really think he will outgrow this stage, and he's never done it to anyone but me, so it really doesn't bother me. This picture doesn't really do him justice because it is dark in the coop - in real life he is much more colorful.


Sunflower, sorry about the little chick. I hope the rest are healthy and grow fast for you.

Hawkeye, that is funny about Seymore fitting into anything. Okay, I will stop worrying now! One of the door companies I looked at had two different size doors - one for chickens and one for turkeys. The company I went with only had the one size but since the other company made two different ones, I did start to worry that a standard door wouldn't suffice. I bet the turkey door the other company made is designed for the big commercial birds, not these smaller, heritage turkeys.

 

[chicken danz]

My internet is running so slow this morning I can't get the pages to load. I can't even get the reply box to load up like it normally does at the end of the text. It's been awful for days now. Either down or not functioning right. We can't get a decent signal.
Josie if you get on here I referred a guy to contact you here about Seramas. He had found an old add someplace and called me. I also invited him to join the group. He indicated his wife might actually do it rather than him.
Hopefully in the next couple of days we will be pouring some concrete in the post holes to complete the pens for the peafowl building. When ever they happen to get finished the first thing I am doing is moving my midget white turkeys out there. I don't want to chance loosing any more of them.
I moved the remaining guineas keets after the storm to a bigger pen yesterday and they haven't been quiet since. Non-stop yelling. I have no idea why they are acting like that. They have a much larger space and plenty of food and water. Their mother was near their pen most of the time so maybe they are missing her. But they are plenty old enough they don't need a Mom around. When they get a little bigger I am going to tag the females and integrate them into the breeder pen. They just need to grow a little so they don't get picked on first. The guineas picked back up on laying but they should stop before long. I guess they had stored up eggs from the heat. I'd really rather not hatch too many in the fall cause that means I have to feed them all winter.
Marc I love my Pheonix rooster. I've had so many people want to buy him. He is a perfect gentleman to the ladies and has never been aggressive to me. Other than that the prettiest rooster around here is a Salmon Faverolle or one of the LF Cochin boys.
I don't know what kind of hens you have or if you are considering breeding or just want a boy around. I have a gorgeous cochin rooster who I would never get rid of if I weren't down sizing. He is a beautiful cochin but doesn't have good feet feathering. He is very calm and does a wonderful job of watching the ladies. He had been injured when he was just a young chick and we nursed him back to health. He is one of the few roosters I have named. Anyway if you were interested in him I would give him to you, as long as you promised not to butcher him. He is very gentle and always watches over the girls. Let me know if you think you are interested and I'll take a picture of him. Then hopefully I can get it to upload on this stupid internet connection.

 

[HEChicken]

Okay, genetics gurus, I have a couple of questions. First is about the blue (green) egg gene. Is that gene dominant or recessive? I.e. will an EE rooster over brown or white egg laying hens produce chicks that lay green eggs, white/brown eggs, or a mix of the two? Or, put another way, what is the likelihood of a particular chick from that combination laying green eggs?

And on yellow legs, is that a recessive trait? I hadn't really stopped to think about it until I read more about the Aloha project and went out to look at my flock and realized I have practically NO yellow legs. I have one hen who has kind of pinkish/yellow legs. They are not as bright yellow as some I've seen, but not pink like BO's pink either. Interestingly, of the 9 chicks I hatched, I have one chick that has quite yellow legs. I figure the mother of that one HAS to be the hen with the pale yellow legs, although the chick's legs are much more yellow than that hen. So it got me to thinking about how yellow legs come about too.

There is nothing at stake on the answers to either of these questions, except to satisfy my curiosity.

 

[chicken danz]

As I understand leg color is all dependent on whether it is a recessive gene or not. For instance white legs are a dominant gene in Orpingtons and Marans normally. Most likely if you look at the standards for the breeds you are combining and that breed should have white legs or yellow legs then that would most likely be a dominant color for that breed. If color of legs is iffy it could be a recessive color and not show up. I do believe a dominant white leg is one that is more likely to breed over.
Another thing to consider is leg colors often change from chicks to adults, so if a chicks legs look yellow it still could produce white legs as an adult.
As far as egg color goes It is my understanding that blue and brown are both dominant traits so most likely crossing the two would give you an olive colored egg.
Please don't quote me on all this. This is just what I have read and understand. Someone like KarenS probably has done a lot more research into this.

 

[chicken danz]

Heather, Just found this if you can weed through it.
http://sellers.kippenjungle.nl/page3.html

 

[HEChicken]

Thanks Danz. Yeah, I don't always fully understand that kind of stuff but I read through that page, skipping just to the leg/skin color and egg color sections and it sounds like you are right. I thought it was interesting that brown eggs are just pigment on the outside of the egg whereas blue permeates the shell. That kind of matches with what I've seen but I wonder why the difference.