Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

The easiest way to see it is in the yellow cheeks as in this pic on Leggs site;

http://www.leggspeafowl.com/photo/images/P1090676.jpg

Mine would be very low percentage as the crest is not bunched and it does not have a long neck and legs. It does have the yellow cheeks and a bit of yellow hue in two places although I have read that corn will turn a white bird yellow too.

Oh well then yes. My white breeders all have yellow cheek patches. I was thinking a green influence in the feathers when you asked.

Thanks Trish! I'm really looking forward to getting them.
Thanks, Danz. I'm still working on putting weight on Willow but she's at least doubled the amount of coat that she had when she got here.
Stay warm everyone, it's bitterly cold here. My new angora rabbit has been inside because he's just too young and it's too cold for him to be outside. I was afraid the eggs would freeze before the were gathered today but DH gathered them for me.

my doe still hasn't kidded and I'm terrified she'll end up kidding in this weather, and inspite of regular checking I'll miss it and the babies will end up with hypothermia. I know I'm paranoid but it is freaking me out. Hopefully Willow would help lick the babies clean and dry. She's definitely Very fond of her goats and I've seen her lick them several times.

Prairie you could send me an email if you would to tell me about the diet you are using. I'd like to improve especially Winston's coat. I think he may have had some hook worm or something before I wormed him. His hair is dry and off color and doesn't feel like normal pyr hair. He really needs to get new hair in to improve his looks. He is growing some though.
I hatched about 30 + chicks yesterday. I still have a few to go. Many of these were test hatches so I have some mixed colors. I also hatched a few others for customers but because of the mixed colors I have to wait until they feather some to make sure I have the right breeds. I normally can keep them straight by the chicks and knowing what all I've incubated. The problem was that I didn't mark many of the eggs because I was just testing fertility. I noticed the other day I had put two trays of eggs in the incubator that I had failed to mark the hatching date on. I hate it when I do dumb things like that. All I can do at this point is know they will hatch between a couple of different dates a couple weeks apart. But at least those are marked for breeds. I have to wait for the rest of these eggs to hatch before I can load a couple more trays in there that are ready to go. Or I am going to have to start a second incubator.

 

[KsKingBee]

We've been selecting our best BCMs for breeding this year based on SOP and egg color, we will be setting our first tray of eggs in about another week. Guess it's time to get everything sanitized...

Anyone here disinfect their eggs before setting?

 

[Trish44]

KsKingBee I think Danz does spray her eggs with tektrol. I really haven't had an issue with it & the one time I did spray chicken eggs I felt like it contributed to them not hatching. I know Frank Reece does it with his turkey eggs, he is the one that told us about using the tektrol. I just don't think the chicken eggs tolerate being cleaned with anything as well though, they're more porous.

We got a couple inches of snow here, just enough to make the driveway a mess & cause us problems with getting in & out. I saw that they're predicting more snow on Sat. I knew we weren't out of the woods yet with winter, it was just teasing us. Bah!

 

[chicken danz]

Yes KSKingBee I use tek trol on my hatching eggs. I was skeptical cause you keep reading about the bloom on the eggs protecting them. I'm sure it does when a hen hatches, but in the incubator not so much. I have my water heater set at about 140 so it's nice and hot, I add tek trol and dip every egg. I don't measure but use about an ounce a gallon I would guess. I don't let them soak any longer than it takes to pick them up one by one, because I don't want them to get too hot. It actually reduced the amount of sickness I was getting in hatched chicks and improved my hatch rates. Also it tends to help identify those eggs with hairline cracks you can't see. They tend to bubble just a tiny bit. There's a lot of people that will tell you you'll ruin your hatch but it's just not so. Besides, your incubator stays disinfected that way. You aren't introducing bacteria to it.
I got the birds fed but my water hose was frozen so I'm feeling grouchy. I HATE cold weather. The girls must be in tune to it too cause I sure didn't have many eggs today.
I found my first Sebbie eggs too. It was frozen and cracked. That is enough to put me in a bad mood.

 

[Prairie Fleur]

Danz, I shot you and email on what I'm feeding. One quick note here, Grizzly Pollock or Salmon oil will help Winstons coat a great deal. It's revolutionized Willows coat.
We had a lovely layer of snow this morning when we got up. It was So pretty!! It's pretty much gone now tho. Maybe DH will be able to burn some thistles now since things are damp.

 

[zigzag45]

@KsKingBee - Beautiful building. I would love to have that much space. I do have to say that after spending sat afternoon cleaning out my little (and only) coop, I don't envy having to manage that much litter.

We got 3" or so of snow and my birds are pretty put out. I filled their water this morning and they are just walking in circles in their coop, complaining about the snow.

Somehow I got behind on the DLM process and was having moisture build-up along the bottom few inches of litter. I was really glad I cleaned it when I did. I try to get the girls to stir it up for me but they seem pretty good at picking the scratch off the top and not digging for it.

 

[chicken danz]

Our lovely layer isn't melting. It's just too cold out. It's making me irritable. I need to go back out shortly and feed the brooder house. I didn't do that when I was out there. I would really love to just take a nap. I have customers showing up today and need to get their chicks ready too. I'm so not a winter person.

 

[Prairie Fleur]

Sorry, Danz. It's almost all gone here and the temp is up to 45' already.

 

[KsKingBee]

Yes KSKingBee I use tek trol on my hatching eggs. I was skeptical cause you keep reading about the bloom on the eggs protecting them. I'm sure it does when a hen hatches, but in the incubator not so much. I have my water heater set at about 140 so it's nice and hot, I add tek trol and dip every egg. I don't measure but use about an ounce a gallon I would guess. I don't let them soak any longer than it takes to pick them up one by one, because I don't want them to get too hot. It actually reduced the amount of sickness I was getting in hatched chicks and improved my hatch rates. Also it tends to help identify those eggs with hairline cracks you can't see. They tend to bubble just a tiny bit. There's a lot of people that will tell you you'll ruin your hatch but it's just not so. Besides, your incubator stays disinfected that way. You aren't introducing bacteria to it.
I got the birds fed but my water hose was frozen so I'm feeling grouchy. I HATE cold weather. The girls must be in tune to it too cause I sure didn't have many eggs today.
I found my first Sebbie eggs too. It was frozen and cracked. That is enough to put me in a bad mood.

I read that you need to make sure the solution is warmer than the eggs so the egg will not absorb the solution. I had too many quitters last year and want to see if this helps. Let the peas out and what do we see? Pied Piper breeding on of the Cameo hens! I am so not ready to separate the breeders yet.

How soon would you expect a hen to lay after breeding begins?

 

[KsKingBee]

@KsKingBee - Beautiful building. I would love to have that much space. I do have to say that after spending sat afternoon cleaning out my little (and only) coop, I don't envy having to manage that much litter.

We got 3" or so of snow and my birds are pretty put out. I filled their water this morning and they are just walking in circles in their coop, complaining about the snow.

Somehow I got behind on the DLM process and was having moisture build-up along the bottom few inches of litter. I was really glad I cleaned it when I did. I try to get the girls to stir it up for me but they seem pretty good at picking the scratch off the top and not digging for it.

I forgot to close the shutters before the last rain and the wood chips got soggy.

It took about two hours to shovel out all the chips and install new last Saturday. The garden is getting a lot of good humus out of the deal!

Our big snow event brought us about one inch of snow and it's about gone now.

But now we have mud.

The peas came out and are enjoying playing in what is left of the snow.