Getting the flock out of here - a diary of a crazy chicken man

[vehve]

Well, what do you know. She wasn't only admiring the golf ball, she decided to start laying. We've got our first olive egg. After 20 minutes in the nest though, she decided to come out, and hat not quite finished the job, so she laid right inside the pop door. Also broke our record from yesterday, 48g. Too bad the egg apparently hit the doorway on the way out, it had a slight crack in it. But a beautiful color nonetheless. Seems like the delivery was a tough one though, there's some blood on the egg. No wonder, since she started with such a large one.

 

[ramirezframing]

No cranes. My kids would lift each other and break bones. They are fearless

Quote: See all kinds of ways my darlings would "improve" that play house

Wonder how long till they are after their grandpa for the "fort/ play house" that my sisters and I use to play in.

 

[ramirezframing]

Well, what do you know. She wasn't only admiring the golf ball, she decided to start laying. We've got our first olive egg. After 20 minutes in the nest though, she decided to come out, and hat not quite finished the job, so she laid right inside the pop door. Also broke our record from yesterday, 48g. Too bad the egg apparently hit the doorway on the way out, it had a slight crack in it. But a beautiful color nonetheless. Seems like the delivery was a tough one though, there's some blood on the egg. No wonder, since she started with such a large one.

Congrats on your first olive egg. Do you plan on getting them darker?

 

[vehve]

Quote: I'm pretty happy with whatever she makes. This being her first, I wouldn't wonder if they became a bit darker, she's half BCM. The spotting on the egg is just peat moss now, but the egg her sister came (pure BCM) had a lot of the darker spotting on it, it would be pretty cool if she started developing that on top of the green too. I was afraid that the green wouldn't show that well, as the blue egg she arrived in had a pretty faint coloring, but I'd say that you can't call that egg anything other than green. I'll probably crack that one open in the evening to see what the blue looks like once Karin gets home, but all in all I'm really happy with the color. Once her half sister gets laying too we'll have a nice color spread to display in the egg skelter that I got shipping confirmation for yesterday. Then we just have one pullet left after that, our Speckled Sussex will still take a while though as she's three weeks younger than these two. Any idea on what color I can expect from her?

 

[ramirezframing]

Sorry, I had meant would you breed her to try and make the offspring have darker olive eggs? From your sussex, you should get a light brown egg.

 

[vehve]

Sorry, I had meant would you breed her to try and make the offspring have darker olive eggs? From your sussex, you should get a light brown egg.

Ah, we'll have to see. Our roo is the same mix as she is, but basically I could breed him with his half sister the BCM depending on what kind of color she produces. I'm not sure if I want to do that since they share the same father though, and we don't really have the space for more chickens either. We'll see next spring though, anything could happen during the winter. If we were to start breeding, olive eggers would probably be an interesting project. I sort of like the idea of becoming a Alho preserver too though, but that's maybe a bit boring. I really like the temperament of our BCM, so that might be interesting too. Oh dear. Now I'm planning on becoming a breeder already, somebody slap me out of it, quickly!

 

[piglett]

I'm not sure if I want to do that since they share the same father though, and we don't really have the space for more chickens either.

it doesn't matter if they have the same farther

something to look at is having a rooster in with your hens for WHEN something

with big teeth shows up.

i would rather have a chewed on rooster than 2 or 3 dead/dying laying hens

 

[vehve]

Quote: So far our little teenager has not reacted in any way when our Dachshund tried to get a taste of one of the girls who ventured too close to her. Our lab did however quickly put an end to that, it was the first time I ever saw her dominate the older Dachshund who usually is in charge of our pack. The roo does however seem to think that the neighbors son is something with big teeth, and keeps a close eye on him (he teased the roo with a stick at one point, now he has to suffer for that). And he does sound an alarm whenever larger birds fly over our yard. But we don't really have much in the way of predators. Foxes might be the only threat, and those are mainly nocturnal, I doubt they could jimmy the run or coop doors open. Lynx is so rare in this populated areas, that I'm not worried, bears and wolves keep to the eastern border of the country, and then there is our own version of raccoons, "raccoon dogs", but they are very different from the North American version. And I've only seen them as roadkill maybe 15-20km away. Raptors are of course one issue, but we don't have much of those either, and our yard isn't optimal for swooping down to grab a chicken. The neighbor did say he saw a weasel once, but I think they steer clear of our yard to to the smell of dogs, and like the foxes, they're mainly nocturnal.

 

[LindaB220]

Oz, I've been searching but cannot find your rice bran recipe for feed. What is it again?

 

[vehve]

He has the ingredients on his webpage, but not the measurements. I think he posted them a while back though.

And let's see if this works.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/attachments/641