Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

Well grr.....I guess I'm going to have to pen my turkeys and I hate to do that. I have one hen who started to lay but it didn't seem like I was getting that many eggs. I have only 4 eggs laid in more than a week's time. I was letting her collect a clutch but then the weather turned cold and I didn't want them to freeze so I had to bring them in. I put a wooden egg in their place so she wouldn't think her eggs and been stolen and move the next to a hidden location. I checked today and no turkey eggs - and no wooden egg either!!! It is too early for snakes but I can't imagine what else could have taken a wooden egg. Where she was laying was under a hog shelter within my lagoon fencing. The dogs don't have access. We have seen musk rats in the lagoon but they haven't bothered us in the past. However I'm guessing that is what is taking the eggs.

So - I guess I have to pen the turkeys in order to not have the eggs stolen - poor girls

My turkeys are starting to lay and I just set the first eggs. I have a new girl that I had hatched last year and sold then later traded her for a tom. She got more attention from the boys and has a big rip in her side. But maybe for her own survival she has decided to sit on eggs. I don't really want the turkeys sitting so early cause I need to hatch for a few months. I may just try to encourage the others to lay elsewhere and let her sit on what she has. It would sure be easier on me if I could depend on the birds sitting and hatching the babies.
I too started with hatchery birds but the more I learned the more I found I could do much better. I spent tens of thousands getting to the point I am at now for quality birds and heritage birds. My barred rocks are from the same ones that HEChicken mentioned and so are Trish's.
The one thing I've discovered which I never expected is that my expensive import birds actually lay much better than the hatchery birds ever did. I do have some mixed breed birds I bred on purpose that were derived from hatchery white rocks and heritage New Hampshire. Their offspring are combinations of heritage barred rocks and various colors of English orpington roosters. They are excellent layers. I just let them raise a few clutches of babies each year and the female survivors are my eating egg layers. I kind of enjoy seeing the different colors and combinations that come out of these girls. When I was gathering eggs today I had thought I should incubate a couple of the green eggs to see if the offspring laid a more olive color or if they would just revert to a brown egg.
Posted by sharol
Sharol they look really great. I'm glad you've had such great success with them.

 

[sharol]

Posted by sharol
Sharol they look really great. I'm glad you've had such great success with them.

Thanks. I changed out the red heat lamp for a sweeter heater today, so they are having to adapt to less light at night. The temp is ok (about 88 under the heater, but if they get out from under it, they start yelling.

They seem to be doing really well. They hop all over my hand when I have scrambled egg in it, and they aren't terribly afraid of me. I have been intentionally spending time with them with my hand(s) in their space. Campines are a bit flighty by nature, and I really don't want them afraid of me. There are 3 of them with really brown heads, so we will see how they turn out, and there are several with the signature Campine markings (like the first and second pictures). It is so much fun to watch them change.

Now all I have to do is figure out what to do with them when they get bigger.

My grandchildren will be here for a week, so they will get some handling, I'm sure. Lina is really good with babies, and she tamed the Bredas and the Araucanas last spring when they had just hatched.

 

[lizzyGSR]

My chickens are now about two weeks old. I've got one, though, that's smaller than all the rest, despite me being fairly sure it was a speckled sussex. I started looking at it more (and talking with Danz) and discovered a swollen foot. We've come to the conclusions it's probably a broken foot, so I now have a chicken in the house. I guess it's time for ya'll to meet "Tiny", my house chicken (anyone got a better name??? Danz tells me Tiny is female...). Tiny will be in the house until her foot heals enough for her to be more mobile.

 

[chicken danz]

It's supposed to be really warm today. It sure hasn't made it there yet. That wind is blowing like crazy again. I need to get busy and move some birds around and figure out where I am going to put my new goslings for now. #3 that is pipped still has active blood flow so I am waiting impatiently for it. I need to check the other goose eggs that haven't pipped to see if they are still viable. Not many chicks for as many eggs as I originally set. This was the first batch though so it's not unusual for fertility to be off. Normally this time of year all the eggs get frozen so any is better than none.
I'm still way behind getting caught up after being gone two days. Sometimes I wonder why I have made so much for myself to take care of. I'm certainly not a young person any more and it's more evident every day.
As soon as I can get another water stand made I'm going to move some more chicks out to the brooder house. I have the older chicks in the green house right now. I'll need to sort those in a few days and get the ones whom are old enough put in outside pens.
It's a never ending wave of moving birds around. It would certainly help if all these girls would just lay fertile eggs at the same time.

 

[lizzyGSR]

It's supposed to be really warm today. It sure hasn't made it there yet. That wind is blowing like crazy again. I need to get busy and move some birds around and figure out where I am going to put my new goslings for now. #3 that is pipped still has active blood flow so I am waiting impatiently for it. I need to check the other goose eggs that haven't pipped to see if they are still viable. Not many chicks for as many eggs as I originally set. This was the first batch though so it's not unusual for fertility to be off. Normally this time of year all the eggs get frozen so any is better than none.
I'm still way behind getting caught up after being gone two days. Sometimes I wonder why I have made so much for myself to take care of. I'm certainly not a young person any more and it's more evident every day.
As soon as I can get another water stand made I'm going to move some more chicks out to the brooder house. I have the older chicks in the green house right now. I'll need to sort those in a few days and get the ones whom are old enough put in outside pens.
It's a never ending wave of moving birds around. It would certainly help if all these girls would just lay fertile eggs at the same time.

It's supposed to be a fantastic day here! 80*F and light winds! And then of course we've got a chance for snow tomorrow with temps falling through the day. That's spring in KS for ya though! I'm hoping to open up my chicken coop once the temps warm up today and let my little chicks get some sunlight and some fresh air before the frigid air moves in. This weather sure has been keeping me busy with adjusting the heat lamps and such in my coop!

 

[Trish44]

@lizzyGSR Yeah I agree with danz, that is a female Speckled Sussex. I showed my DH the other day about how to sex those, I had some females & males in my brooder. Once you see them side by side it's fairly easy to tell. I hope her foot gets better, poor little thing.

The wind is insane here too & is supposed to be that way all week,ugh I hate it. I'm really over in like a lion, out like a lamb already. I'm ready for just some nice low wind warm days, is that possible? I have things I need to do outside that I hate to try to do in that wind.

 

[HEChicken]

Sharol you are much better at doing chick pics than I am. Here's mine:



I am laughing pretty hard today at a bird who either outsmarted me or is smarter than I gave her credit for. I mentioned a few posts back that I put my bantams into my hoop coop so they can brood there when they want to, and won't encourage the LF hens to go broody in the main coop. So far, so good - no broodies in the main coop. None of the bantams had gone broody either but that's fine - as long as they're not broody, they're laying, right? A couple of days ago I went out to feed to find that a LF NH hen had broken into the hoop coop. I know how it can be done but it takes some effort (she has to fly up to the top of the coop, then drop down through one of the squares in the livestock panel that is not covered by chicken wire). I didn't think most hens would bother. But this NH hen not only broke into the hoop coop - she went broody in there! Its like she understood that is the place we're supposed to brood so when it was time, she moved right in.

This actually works perfectly for me. I have my incubator overloaded which means due to double stacking, I can't use the automatic turner and have to hand-turn instead. I am going to give her the double-stacked eggs which will allow me to turn on the auto turner for the rest of them, and give me one less thing to have to do myself everyday.

Speaking of the incubator, they are on day 4 so I candled and every one of them is developing again. However several eggs are kind of porous so I'm not expecting them to go all the way.

 

[chicken danz]

I'm trying to figure out where on earth to put my goslings that have hatched. I've moved things around and changed things so I really don't have a place to do it right now. I think I'm in a brain fog with too much to take care of right now and can't seem to come up with solutions. I had two goose eggs where the goslings had died. One was fully formed and the second had died some time earlier. I still have three eggs to hatch if they do so from this batch.
I keep wishing my incubating and brooding area was finished so I could move all this to the building. I really am tired of living in never ending chick dust.
At least today was warm enough I could open the windows and get some fresh air in. It didn't help the dust but at least I felt I could breath.

 

[lizzyGSR]

@lizzyGSR Yeah I agree with danz, that is a female Speckled Sussex. I showed my DH the other day about how to sex those, I had some females & males in my brooder. Once you see them side by side it's fairly easy to tell. I hope her foot gets better, poor little thing.

Would you mind posting example pictures? I either have two females or don't see the difference.

 

[lizzyGSR]

I'm pretty upset this morning. My little bird was dead when I checked on her this morning. She was eating and drinking and acting just fine last night. I have no idea what the problem was.

A broken foot shouldn't be deadly! She was really small for her age, but still! She was eating and drinking every time I checked on her and then I know she did at least occasionally when I was just nearby and not holding her up there...