Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

Good morning peeps, rise and shine!

My beloved Sheltie crossed the rainbow bridge on Saturday very unexpectedly. I was/am very sad.

Tweety I am so sorry for your loss. This is so hard to deal with. I still cry thinking of loosing two of my precious old pets within 6 months of each other. It's loosing a family member and very heartbreaking for sure.
Originally Posted by lizzyGSR

Congrats on your future birds!!!

I have some more pictures of my 5 week olds.

These are 2 of the 3 barred rocks. The 3rd one looks exactly like the 1st one -- I can't tell them apart, and this is the one I caught.

Chick 1 (I believe male) What do you all think?

Boy

Boy
Chick 2 (I believe to be female) Again, input?

Girl

Girl
Both together: (for comparison purposes.)

Girl on left boy on right.
Speckled Sussex:




All 3 of them



Two of them appear to have a bit more white in their wings, but otherwise they are pretty much alike. The first 2 pictures are the same bird. I couldn't catch the others without risking hurting them. I think the 2 lighter ones also have slightly bigger feet, but I can't get a decent picture. They are "flighty" in the most literal sense of the word. How do you determine the gender of SS's?

The sussex are so hard to tell. They have pronounced combs. As they feather in the males will have less spots and normally a darker color. But that all takes time. From this picture alone I would say the one in front is female and the one in the middle is male.
They will calm down in time and be big lap babies. All the sussex I have are just naturally sweet.
Quote:

A couple questions for this morning....

First, when I open the shed door in the morning, my broody hen will leave her nest and go dust bathe and walk around the yard. We've given her 30-60 minutes and then "help" her back into the shed. How long should she stay out? I hate having to catch her as that is stressful on her, but I also want her sitting on her eggs. Once we put her back in the shed she happily goes back to sitting. What do you think?

Second question is feed in the litter. There is a ton (maybe literally) of feed around the feeder in the litter. If they run out of feed in the feeder, will they peck it out of the litter? Right now, they're a bit more high-brow than that and I've never seen them do that. Last thing I want to do is deprive them of feed. Keep the feeder full or "encourage" them to find what they've spilled?

On a side note, I'm looking forward to day 10 when I can candle the eggs. I was watching some YT videos on it and was surprised how hard it looks. I thought you shine the flashlight and the chick inside gives you a thumbs up or thumbs down based on how he/she is doing. As I understand it, if the veins look like a spiderweb, things are good. But, if there's a vein that runs a complete circle around the shell that's bad.

Thanks.

Personally I don't candle eggs under a broody unless she completely deserts her nest. In fact I don't normally candle eggs at all until near hatch time. Handling them can introduce bacteria and like HEChicken said it's not worth the risk of dropping them and killing an embryo to me anyway. If you can sit down and do it where there is no hard area to drop them I guess it's okay. Just candling doesn't mean they will all grow to full term either. Guess that is why they say, Don't hatch your chickens until they hatch.
That's just my personal position on this.
I just hatched a big bunch of chicks yesterday. Still have a few to go. I need to get some more sold.

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

I am still in the market for a Wheaten Ameraucana roo, if anyone close by (I live near Dodge City) has an extra of good quality. I have one little pullet that needs a mate by Spring!

 

[tweetybaby2005]

Good morning peeps... rise and shine again.

Thank you all for your support. It is definitely hard and I caught myself calling for him when I got home then realize he was not there to greet me. Hopefully time will help with the pain.

Sharol, beautiful BR and I agreed with HEchicken that the first 2 look like cockerels and the last looks like a pullet. I don't know SS so have no idea how to identify male vs. females.

Zigzag, I just let my broody hens do whatever they want but then again, I'm not home during the day so they could be off their nest longer than an hour. I do have a broody that has always gone back to the wrong nest.

Some how, she doesn't remember which nest she is supposed to be going back to so the eggs would just sit there cooling off.

The bad thing is, she loves to go broody and she IS broody again right now. Sigh...


Have a good day everyone.

 

[sharol]

e:


The sussex are so hard to tell. They have pronounced combs. As they feather in the males will have less spots and normally a darker color. But that all takes time. From this picture alone I would say the one in front is female and the one in the middle is male.
They will calm down in time and be big lap babies. All the sussex I have are just naturally sweet.

Looking at the pictures I realized that the tail on the sussex on the left is quite a bit longer than the tail on the one on the right in the group shot, so I went out for a better look. I have 1 with a tail that is much further developed than the other two. She also (I am guessing she) has a lighter pink comb. 2 boys and a girl there, too.

Looks like I'll get my two pullets if we are right and some boys. I'll have to check with you later about the breed lines for the boys. It would be a shame to eat birds that will be a lovely as your roo. Maybe someone will want a beautiful barred rock or speckled sussex cockerel here in a couple of months. I was reading about the Sussexes, and I guess they were originally bred for meat AND eggs, though.

 

[Trish44]

sharol, I agree with the others on the BRs you have two cockerels there & a pullet. On the SS the one on the right definitely is a cockerel & the one on the left looks like a pullet. I can't see the other one well enough to tell. It becomes apparent pretty early on the SS though which are the cockerels because they get a much bigger comb & more color to it than the pullets & the same with the BRs. On the BRs also the pullets are much darker overall in color, more black &: the cockerels have more white & therefore look lighter.

zigzag, yeah my chicks make a bigger mess with the feed than any of the adults. I recently cleaned out the chick portion of my breeder coop & I'm sure there was 50 pounds of chick starter on the floor I swept out. I just let the chickens & guineas clean it up & they're still after days working on that spot. The same thing happens when I clean out my brooders & the layers get the leftovers. The veining should be very easy to see by 10 days if the eggs are developing, you should know by then which ones are no good. If one starts & quits you will see a red line going around but no veining to speak of. Sometimes you will see one that did start & then died in the process so it will be a dark spot free floating.

 

[chicken danz]

I have a couple of hens that insist on being broody and then don't remember what nest they were sitting on. Since I decided I could use some new layers I am letting one of them sit and if I find her on a new nest I just take the eggs she was sitting on and put them in the incubator. Those I will candle in a week or so to see if they are still developing or not. The worst part will be finding a place to raise them. I can tell all my pure breeds apart but these guys can look like anything.
I have jubilee eggs now I am gathering and I am really afraid those and the sussex will look identical as chicks. I guess in time I'll get it figured out.
I was gathering eggs yesterday and wished I had my camera with me. I have an old drawer made into a nest box for my English white orpingtons. These girls are just huge. Well there were two of them crammed in the nest box and neither one of them had room to sit down deep. They are recent new layers and I'm just starting to hatch their chicks. But they seem to insist on being broody.
I've got another busy day planned. I got a call and the truck is supposed to be here early in the morning with the building supplies. And the building crew will be here in the afternoon. I have more stuff to get ready and moved so they have room to build.

 

[cleansquared]

Hello! What distance would you all suggest a d length of time to keep new c hickens isolated and can I keep them I. The same barn ? Thanks

 

[Trish44]

I have a couple of hens that insist on being broody and then don't remember what nest they were sitting on. Since I decided I could use some new layers I am letting one of them sit and if I find her on a new nest I just take the eggs she was sitting on and put them in the incubator. Those I will candle in a week or so to see if they are still developing or not. The worst part will be finding a place to raise them. I can tell all my pure breeds apart but these guys can look like anything.
I have jubilee eggs now I am gathering and I am really afraid those and the sussex will look identical as chicks. I guess in time I'll get it figured out.
I was gathering eggs yesterday and wished I had my camera with me. I have an old drawer made into a nest box for my English white orpingtons. These girls are just huge. Well there were two of them crammed in the nest box and neither one of them had room to sit down deep. They are recent new layers and I'm just starting to hatch their chicks. But they seem to insist on being broody.
I've got another busy day planned. I got a call and the truck is supposed to be here early in the morning with the building supplies. And the building crew will be here in the afternoon. I have more stuff to get ready and moved so they have room to build.

danz the Jubilee chicks & the SS don't look really much alike at all. The SS are dark colored to begin with & stay that way. The Jubilees are yellow chicks that get darker coloring with the feathering but they look different if that makes any sense. They don't really get that much darker till they're much older.

Hello! What distance would you all suggest a d length of time to keep new c hickens isolated and can I keep them I. The same barn ? Thanks

I would not put them in the same barn, that negates why you're doing the quarantine in the first place. You should keep them in quarantine for a minimum of 2 weeks, longer if you see any signs of illness at all.

 

[chicken danz]

I guess I'll learn soon when these first Jubilees start hatching. I don't remember my jubilees looking all that much different when I got them. They were 2-3 week olds. Maybe not as much chipmunk striping but some of my SS chicks don't have a ton of striping either. The problem is I brood all breeds together and in time I worry I might get them confused.

 

[sharol]

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GlzAHY5HF...Q3WU/s1600/Sharon+Crosetto+worms+in+poop2.JPG

This morning I found worms that looked just like this in poo on a roost. What are they? They are thinner than roundworms (I think). What should I use to banish these ickies.

I have Ivermectin (pour on) and Wazine. What do I need to buy?