Hamburg thread!

[classicsredone]

Btw, at what age did you start getting eggs from your Hamburg ladies? Mine are taking their sweet time developing, but that's okay by me.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Quote:
I think they're about four and five months; I bought these little wonders a couple of weeks ago. The woman I got them from hatched eggs from a local breeder who got her original stock from someone in Kansas; Maggie is about a month older than the other two, and was laying before I got her, and then Suzzy started a couple of weeks later. They'll be freeranging when they're out of quarantine and Maggie grows her clipped primary feathers back! I'm getting about six eggs a week from both of them-Suzzy is a little more dependable, but Maggie spent longer in the mixed pen, where the most numerous chicken breed was LF Brahmas, and she is smaller than the younger hens, I suspect from having to compete for feed?

They seem absurdly young to me, but that's because I've had a BLRW hen for months, and she's just today started laying.

I'm hoping to get a rooster soon, as I really want a breeding flock of this breed. I fell in love with them long ago, before I met any, but having these darlings has sealed the deal: they are talkative, tame and full of personality, as well as being pretty darned bossy to me as well as each other.

 

[classicsredone]

Hmm...mine are 18 weeks and there isn't much comb development. Their ears have turned blue and their faces are beginning to blush, but they don't look anywhere near ready to lay. I'm thinking my Barred Rocks will lay in a few weeks, and they're 5 days younger than the Hamburgs.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Terre was at about your girls' state of development when I got them on the 14th:

This is the best recent picture, when she was two weeks older:

Terre's just about at the same stage of development that Suzzy was when I got her, and she was a week out from laying then. So I should be overwhelmed with eggs soon, good thing my offspring have plenty of friends working minimum wage jobs who are grateful for eggs!

 

[EweSheep]

Beautiful birds!

OK I see what you mean about blue or purplish combs....immaturity. Not a sign of respiratory distress.

As for laying, mine takes about six to eight months old for exhibition line birds. Hatchery Hamburgs, I remember they were only 5 months old when they started laying.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Quote:
Mine are not, in fact, hatchery birds. They may not be SQ, but they are from known small breeders.

 

[classicsredone]

Mine are from McMurray. I was wasn't able to find any local breeders. I'd like to breed in some friendliness that would only add to their beauty, but we don't want to irk our neighbors with a rooster.

 

[EweSheep]

Quote:
Mine are not, in fact, hatchery birds. They may not be SQ, but they are from known small breeders.

They are beautifully marked! I can tell the difference from the hatchery kind vs exhibition lines or breeder's lines.

The hatcheries by far was disappointing to say at the least, because their spangles were so muddled up and the tails were smutty looking as if the spots were not completely dried and smeared toward the quill. Not a good trait to have. some would have too much spangling, very little white showed up.

I used to have a pair of SSH from McMurray about twenty years and some ago and they were very elegant and more true to type than todays.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Quote:
Mine are not, in fact, hatchery birds. They may not be SQ, but they are from known small breeders.

They are beautifully marked! I can tell the difference from the hatchery kind vs exhibition lines or breeder's lines.

The hatcheries by far was disappointing to say at the least, because their spangles were so muddled up and the tails were smutty looking as if the spots were not completely dried and smeared toward the quill. Not a good trait to have. some would have too much spangling, very little white showed up.

I used to have a pair of SSH from McMurray about twenty years and some ago and they were very elegant and more true to type than todays.

I'm being shortcut on my wish for a rooster by the tendency of everyone to have to cull cockerals because they live in town: I'm in an UGMZ but on acreage which is classified as agricultural (I also have a herd of beef Shorthorns, so it had better be) and is covered by a Freedom To Farm ordinance. My nearest neighbors are my cousin, who has chickens and pheasants, and a daycare which never greases its swingset run by people who throw parties with amplified music and do not invite their neighbors so the dulcet tones of my BLRW rooster, Ian, do not trouble my conscience much. The only sure-thing high quality cockerals near me are Jim Legendre's bantams, four hours away, expensive, and the wrong size, and rumors of a breeder in Spokane, which I've not chased down.

I lucked out with these birds, I know- they do seem very true-to-type, and except for Maggie's muddled spangling on her tail base seem pretty well marked.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

So, the punchline to the comb development photos: today's nest box photo: