Consolidated Kansas

[sharol]

Quote: I THINK I saw movement in one of the eggs that I put in the incubator when I candled this morning. The other 2, not so much. It could have been wishful thinking. The remaining broody is sitting tight this morning, so maybe there is hope for one of her eggs. Fingers crossed on that. She has one orp egg and 2 breda eggs. The ones in the incubator are all breda. Today is 21 days.

 

[chicken danz]

Good luck with your hatch Sharol.
I had a group of speckled sussex due to hatch the 31st that started hatching yesterday. Silly birds are 2 days early. The other breeds due to hatch the same day aren't hatching yet. Go figure. It's okay but I wasn't expecting them just yet. I have someone coming in about an hour to pick up an order of Araucanas. I have to get them picked up so I can have room for these sussex.
Going to have a butcher day tomorrow. I've got to get out and get things all set up for that today. Just waiting for the temperature to come up a little.

 

[Trish44]

Good luck with your hatch Sharol.
I had a group of speckled sussex due to hatch the 31st that started hatching yesterday. Silly birds are 2 days early. The other breeds due to hatch the same day aren't hatching yet. Go figure. It's okay but I wasn't expecting them just yet. I have someone coming in about an hour to pick up an order of Araucanas. I have to get them picked up so I can have room for these sussex.
Going to have a butcher day tomorrow. I've got to get out and get things all set up for that today. Just waiting for the temperature to come up a little.

I have had chicks hatch early like that as well & they usually do fine. Good luck with your butcher day, I know it will be a lot of work, but it will be worth it not to feed all of those birds. I still have one drake duck to get done, but it's got to wait till I've recovered enough. I can't stand that long at a time right now in one place. I'm not going to complain though, I'm ahead of the game so far with my progress on the knee. Keep your fingers crossed that will continue.

@Dani4Hedgies I don't raise BLRWs. I do have a couple of hens in my laying flock & I love them but I don't have a rooster for them & no pen space. I really like the Wyandottes & have several in my laying flock. I just have way too many breeds already & had to make a hard decision about what to raise. I had to have eggs shipped in to get mine because I couldn't find any locally. It's a risk having eggs shipped, you take your chances. You may end up with one or two chicks out of a dozen eggs.

 

[Dani4Hedgies]

Trish,
Thanks for the info yea Im not ready to try the whole hatching eggs myself though my hubby saids I'm a really good mother hen to my chicks.

 

[prairie]

Hi! Been a while since I have been on here but now really wanting to get more chickens. Wondering if Danz or anyone -- has any young hens for sale. I would love to have pure Aracaunas along with a rooster but also just love chickens so will consider others.

Also love unusual chickens. I really don't want to start with chicks preferring the mamas to raise the babies.

 

[chicken danz]

Welcome back. It's kind of hard to find hens this time of year unless someone is selling out. I have seen a few facebook adds for people selling hens but I sure don't trust people who sell hens right before hatching season. I'm afraid they would be dishonest about their age and sell old ones. I may have a few pullets left over later but I just sold out most of what I have.
I will send you a PM and see if you are interested in a couple birds.
Very busy day today and tomorrow is going to be busier. It's terrible when you have to cram days of work into one or two when the weather permits.

 

[prairie]

Thanks Danz. I'll let you know about the birds.

About 3 months ago I gave away all of my hens mainly because they all stopped laying. I couldn't figure it out but last summer in July they all quit laying at the same time. Thought a molt but no and never did figure out what the problem was and finally gave up cause I got tired of feeding them. After about 4-5 months I gave them to someone who wanted some pets / chickens. They have a really good home but not sure they are laying yet.

Thought I would just forget about chickens but I just can't -- really really love them. Had them on and off all my life so it's hard to not have them.

So on the hunt for some hens.

 

[chicken danz]

@prairie that's not unusual at all. If they were the same age especially. Some birds cut back laying when it's really hot. Some birds start in molt in July. Normally it isn't that early but this year was different. A molt will take about three months. About the time the molt gets over then winter and long days set in and they stop laying. The trick to beating this is to have birds that are hatched at different times of the year so their cycles aren't the same. Also having different breeds can help as well. You can stimulate laying by having lights on a timer come on really early in the morning then shutting off when it's plenty light out. I usually had mine go off about 9:00 just in case of those gloomy winter mornings. I try not to do that though because I feel the birds need a rest now and then.
I have some lights in my hen houses that I left on because I had moved an entire group out there and wanted them to find the houses when they weren't used to them. I didn't want them sitting outside in the cold since they didn't know where to go.
I still have three groups of birds that aren't laying and haven't for months. One is in an outside pen and the other two are in my building. I The ones in the building have the exact situation as the other 12 groups in there but they just haven't gotten started up again.
The other problem would be if you bought adult hens from someone. They may have not been totally truthful about their age and sold you old hens. This can be particularly true if they were sex link type hens which burn out in a couple years.
If I were you I'd be looking for pullets that aren't quite old enough to lay. Some hatched this fall would be perfect. They will start laying in a month or two and you won't have someone else's cast offs.

 

[Dani4Hedgies]

Its so much fun shopping and seeing the different colors and patterns. Though I'm heading to Meyers look up breeds is I have noticed in the last week what I thought was a Barred Rock has suddenly gotten gold feathers scattered throughout the head. Will get better picture today when I take the chickens back out to their yard.

 

[Dani4Hedgies]

Here is Stew our mystery chicken (yes hubby choose the name lol)