Cream Legbars

[ChicKat]

Just received 16 nicely packed Cream legbar eggs from Curtis. They are resting point end down till tomorrow when they go into the bator.

Yesterday I found my favorite hen sitting and growling on eggs. (Really, Thursday!) Today she is Miss Porcupine hen. Running out to get food with all of her feathers standing up straight. She looks like a strong case of broody hen. I am putting some of my own Cream Legbar eggs under her. I was thinking about setting some more after a bad hatch the last time and she convinced me. So I will have some of my eggs under her and Curtis's in the Brinsea. And a new coop space after tomorrow. I am having my big run divided up and adding a smaller coop. This will give me 3 separate coops and runs, 2 tractors and the bunny hutch.

This all started because my daughter liked to feed grapes to my neighbors chickens.

Good Luck with the hatches !!

 

[ChicKat]

a few pictures of my two 4.5-week-old CL chicks:



charlotte, looking rather demure



harold posing with an old corn cob



harold again -- he's got a lot of personality already

They are way too cute! Just love Harold!

 

[graciesmum]

my Percy is getting big now, such q friendly girl she is lol

 

[ChicKat]

my Percy is getting big now, such q friendly girl she is lol

Keep those pictures coming as Percy keeps growing. It is so interesting to watch the development of CLs.

 

[1muttsfan]

I have infected several visitors with the dread chicken-keeping disease bwaahaahaa!

Had 2 little pullets hatch in an incubator run; one cockerel hatched under a broody was lost to poor instincts on the mother's part. No more eggs for her! I am currently raising several cockerels from different sources so not a great tragedy, still looking for a really good one.

 

[normanack]

I have infected several visitors with the dread chicken-keeping disease bwaahaahaa!

Had 2 little pullets hatch in an incubator run; one cockerel hatched under a broody was lost to poor instincts on the mother's part.  No more eggs for her! I am currently raising several cockerels from different sources so not a great tragedy, still looking for a really good one.

I didn't know about Bad Broodies until one of mine proved to be one. That she sat on only half her eggs at any given time should have been a clue. Two chicks got pecked and didn't make it (despite little visible damage); a third got scalped but is growing and thriving. How, I don't know. We named her Frankenstein.

 

[HaplessRunner]

Sounds like she is completely unreliable. Good to breed & get eggs from & that is all.

 

[ChicKat]

I didn't know about Bad Broodies until one of mine proved to be one. That she sat on only half her eggs at any given time should have been a clue. Two chicks got pecked and didn't make it (despite little visible damage); a third got scalped but is growing and thriving. How, I don't know. We named her Frankenstein.

poor little tyke. Aptly named though--- especially in that shot above. LOL

 

[ChicKat]

Sounds like she is completely unreliable. Good to breed & get eggs from & that is all.

Here's something that I have heard....an egg hatched from a hen that has gone/goes broody produces a chick/pullet that is more likely to go broody. -- I wonder if unreliable is a genetic trait that is passed along?

 

[1muttsfan]

Chickat, parenting instincts are very important when choosing replacement breeders if you are planning on raising chicks under broodies of that breed. I prefer not to have hens go broody if I am raising them as egg layers, as selecting for broodies also selects for hens that lay fewer eggs. There are fortunately other options for raising chicks, such as incubators and broodies of other breeds - there has to be some reason to keep silkies around! Poor mothers are more likely to raise daughters who poor mothers, and that is true in all species including Homo sapiens. The advent of large-scale farming and incubator raised chicks meant that selecting for parenting skills was no longer important when producing egg layers.