Illinois...

[chickendreams24]

DH is always offered a bird to cuddle, but he declines.  It's fun having quail in the house (now that it's only a few).  DD likes how easy the new cage is to clean.  (I like that too b/c I don't have to remind her every morning.)

Years ago when we 1st hatched (& kept) chicks, I allowed DD to snuggle them during the brooder stage.  A simple "chicken towel" across the lap is all that's required (helps contain feathers, dirty feet, & other bio functions).  The chickens got used to handling & the kids get to read to a chicken.  Thankfully, both kids are very conscientious about hand washing after chickens & they're now great readers.  During the pullet stage, the chickens would get to come inside as long as the inside/outside temp diff isn't too great.  What's nice about the older birds is that they usually gain vent control and can be held for 10-20min at a time.  If they need to relieve themselves, they get wiggly & keep trying to stand up.  That's the cue for coop time ASAP.  Every once & a while we get a bird who either doesn't enjoy snuggles or never learns to control herself.  (Some of you may remember my stories about "Poopie Poo.")  Let's just say that those birds don't get invited into the house.  The chicken/dog towels are stored by the back door.  House visits are not a daily occurrence, but since the quail are already in our house, they get a lot of extra attention just because they're in close proximity.  Tues = 3 weeks old.

If they're solid black,then Yes, there's a very good chance.  It all depends on the roo:
Brick - chick would have barring.  There's one choc cuckoo orp that had to come from Godiva xBrick.  Not sure if the black chick with head spot could be his or if it's a Biele mix male. see below
Moose - could only give lav, so any black chick of his would be lav split (His size + Godiva's body shape would look amazing)
Dummy - could give lav or black.  No way to tell unless you breed the chick in the future to a lav

At least one chick is a BielefelderxOrp mix. (Her eggs & Godiva's look alike.  I think we set only one Biele egg, but it's possible for me to make a mistake.)  The Biele is a huge, cuddly, egg machine.  She started at only 5 months & is still going strong through all this snow/cold.  A Biele-orp male would have barring & female mix would be solid black.  If you see a black chick that develops some non-orp traits, - like a shorter comb with too many points, mis-colored or shorter legs, long box-shaped body (instead of round), or unique, non-solid color pattern, then it's probably the mix. As far as size, my Biele pullet is bigger than Brick (an orp roo), but not as tall as Moose.  My former Biele roo grew to be about 12 lbs & his head was well above my knee. (I do miss that big boy!) The Bieles do great in cold weather, mature faster, eat far less than an orp (as adult), and produce more eggs.  

Okay sounds great! Very excited to see what's what and who's who. Almost certain both our Pharaoh quail are boys bummer. Hopefully we get some girls too.

I love hearing about the birds getting to enjoy movie nights at your house lol wish we could do that. Lol

Well my phone has been working on and off so I snapped a couple pics of the cream legbar pullet today let's see if I can get it to post them. We are now almost certain that it's just my phone and that I need a new one.
Okay so I just tried and my phone won't show me the best pics when I try to upload them so I'll have to try with dh2b's phone to get those ones on tomorrow but for now here's a couple of the not so good ones.

 

[Faraday40]

Okay sounds great! Very excited to see what's what and who's who. Almost certain both our Pharaoh quail are boys bummer. Hopefully we get some girls too.
You may want to keep one of the boys. Our little boy is everybody's fav. He jumps right up onto any hand & waits there until he gets some loving. He's easily the most social, then comes the 2 brown females. The whites are OK, but more "jumpy." They seem to poop more too. LOL

I love hearing about the birds getting to enjoy movie nights at your house lol wish we could do that. Lol

Well my phone has been working on and off so I snapped a couple pics of the cream legbar pullet today let's see if I can get it to post them. We are now almost certain that it's just my phone and that I need a new one.
Okay so I just tried and my phone won't show me the best pics when I try to upload them so I'll have to try with dh2b's phone to get those ones on tomorrow but for now here's a couple of the not so good ones.

WOW! Your CCL looks so different than her sister! Her head looks almost white & gray. I remember she was lighter in color & a bit more docile, but otherwise the same.

Ours now has a bigger crest, comb, & more body color. (Nervous about her bigger comb in these very cold temps.) Her head & neck look more yellow/gold. (Almost like she stole all the color from her sister.) Ours also has waves or folds in her comb. Not sure what the technical name for that is. I don't know what a good CCL specimen should look like, but we love her & think she's beautiful!






Please also share pics of the mystery cream colored orp.
Here's her sis "Oppsie-Daisy" She's definitely not a mauve orp, but her color is so unique. At a glance she looks white, but in the light, there are some soft yellow undertones. Her dark eyes & gray legs are also uniquely pretty.




I think Oppsie-Daisy may have laid her 1st egg today. Of course it's on the big side, so maybe Hen Solo just laid an egg with less color than usual. BTW- Here's Hen Solo. Darth Layer was behind her, so it was hard to get a pic without Darthy's face in the shot.

Because of a few photo-bombing hens, I get many pics like this:
Darth Layer is trying to see if I have any treats in my camera.

 

[Faraday40]

While I was out in the coop taking pics for @chickendreams24 , I rook a few more of the spring hatches.

Here's Godiva, from @Junibutt . She's molting! UGH! Guess she saw everyone else doing it & decided to join them.


Here's Spitzie:
She stopped laying for the winter too.


Here's a rare pic of Moose next to Brick. Moose just keeps getting bigger!

Shake those wattles!



Here's Muppet. She's the only lav orp pullet we kept


Moose trying to check out the camera


.....and of course, we must always take a pic of beautiful Brick.


So far, the boys' combs are doing OK. Brick lost a few tail feathers, though.

 

[chickendreams24]

Okay sounds great! Very excited to see what's what and who's who. Almost certain both our Pharaoh quail are boys bummer. Hopefully we get some girls too. I love hearing about the birds getting to enjoy movie nights at your house lol wish we could do that. Lol Well my phone has been working on and off so I snapped a couple pics of the cream legbar pullet today let's see if I can get it to post them. We are now almost certain that it's just my phone and that I need a new one. Okay so I just tried and my phone won't show me the best pics when I try to upload them so I'll have to try with dh2b's phone to get those ones on tomorrow but for now here's a couple of the not so good ones.

[COLOR=0000FF]WOW! Your CCL looks so different than her sister! Her head looks almost white & gray. I remember she was lighter in color & a bit more docile, but otherwise the same.[/COLOR] [COLOR=0000FF]Ours now has a bigger crest, comb, & more body color. (Nervous about her bigger comb in these very cold temps.) Her head & neck look more yellow/gold. (Almost like she stole all the color from her sister.) Ours also has waves or folds in her comb. Not sure what the technical name for that is. I don't know what a good CCL specimen should look like, but we love her & think she's beautiful![/COLOR] [COLOR=0000FF]Please also share pics of the mystery cream colored orp.[/COLOR] [COLOR=0000FF]Here's her sis "Oppsie-Daisy" She's definitely not a mauve orp, but her color is so unique. At a glance she looks white, but in the light, there are some soft yellow undertones. Her dark eyes & gray legs are also uniquely pretty.[/COLOR] [COLOR=0000FF]I think Oppsie-Daisy may have laid her 1st egg today. Of course it's on the big side, so maybe Hen Solo just laid an egg with less color than usual. BTW- Here's Hen Solo. Darth Layer was behind her, so it was hard to get a pic without Darthy's face in the shot.[/COLOR] [COLOR=0000FF]Because of a few photo-bombing hens, I get many pics like this:[/COLOR] [COLOR=0000FF]Darth Layer is trying to see if I have any treats in my camera.[/COLOR]

While I was out in the coop taking pics for @chickendreams24 , I rook a few more of the spring hatches. Here's Godiva, from @Junibutt . She's molting! UGH! Guess she saw everyone else doing it & decided to join them. Here's Spitzie: She stopped laying for the winter too. Here's a rare pic of Moose next to Brick. Moose just keeps getting bigger! Shake those wattles! [COLOR=B42000] [/COLOR] Here's Muppet. She's the only lav orp pullet we kept Moose trying to check out the camera .....and of course, we must always take a pic of beautiful Brick. So far, the boys' combs are doing OK. Brick lost a few tail feathers, though.

No worries we plan to keep at least one boy for breeding it really depend on how many females we get. We are also discussing getting more this coming year. We really like them so far. Hopefully they turn out just as docile as yours. The ones you have in the house do you find them to be as dusty as chickens? Perhaps when we get more we could raise them in the porch to help them be even more tame. I would love to have them in the house but our youngest kitty Luna would take advantage of any that slipped out of a hand etc. She has a very high prey drive in spite of being a bottle fed baby since she was a day old. I would hate if she hurt any of them. How are your dogs with them? I will be taking pictures of lotspre of the flock as my phone allows. I literally went to snap a pic of Oopsies's sister last night and my phone stopped letting me take photos again. It's the dangdest thing. So often I feel it should be just trashed. Everyone please be patient as I fight through technical difficulties. I will be posting more photos as soon as I am able. @MeepBeep I would love to know what you think of my legbar pullet from your stock. @Junibutt I will be posting more pics of the birds from you as well. The chocolate from the last group I got from you is either I pullet or a super late developer. That was the one that at first needed a little TLC and has really come into her own in the flock. I am super excited about all of them Thank you all again so very very much! I hope next year I can pay back a little of your kindness and grow our flock some more. I still have my eyes out for blue splash and mauve English Orpingtons. After all I'm not sure if I mentioned it but we sold 18 pullets last week. It was hard but I think it was the right thing for the flock. @Faraday40 I find it odd that your girls are more mature than mine. I wonder why that is. The white orp and the CL both. But I don't mind. Hopefully they'll start with bigger eggs BC they'll have done more growing. More later everyone. Stay safe in the coming Arctic blast. We have been dealing with frozen and partially frozen water trays on and off but the chicks, and quail are doing great. No frost bite for anyone as of yet. Fingers crossed. Our pipes in the kitchen and thus the laundry room are frozen today thanks to a bitter bitter wind. The people who made this house just put a crawl space under the kitchen so our pipes always freeze with the bad wind and low temps. Not a huge deal we put a fan blowing air from the basent under the crawl space and that generally fixes the problem unless we get to about -30. So much for laundry today. Lol

 

[Faraday40]

Forgot to mention that this beauty came from @MeepBeep 's eggs. Hatched in Mid July.

 

[ChicagoClucker]

Forgot to mention that this beauty came from @MeepBeep 's eggs. Hatched in Mid July.

She is a pretty girl. Love all the pics.

I couldn't tell you the last time I saw a blue egg from my CL. Well haven't seen much of any eggs lately, but my Isbars have picked back up. Getting eggs from the 2 of them every other day. I get an occasional crèam egg from someone, but nothing from my CL or marans in quite a while. Can't wait for spring in that respect, but on the other hand, I have too many bantam cochin cockerels that have just begun crowing, so spring will be a bit noisy this year. I won't let the bantams hatch anymore late fall chicks.

 

[Faraday40]

I can't believe it! I just went out to do an egg check. I noticed a hawk take to the air as I was walking out & found my poor Spitzie ripped to pieces. It was a gigantic bird - like a red-tailed hawk - so I doubt there was much the roosters could do.

I'm so very sad & in shock. She was one of my fastest chickens, in good health, with great reflexes. Also, she was white to blend in with the snow. I know this is just nature & to be expected, but it doesn't help my feelings at the moment. After 2 failed hatches from 2 diff breeders (shipped eggs), I finally got eggs in February via a friend who drove by an Appenzeller Spitzhauben breeder on vacation. I was so excited to have all 6 hatch & after much deliberation, we decided to keep our sweet Spitzie as the new fancy, member of our flock. She was a gentle, quiet, easy-going girl who always loved to pose for the camera. (We have more pics of this pullet during her short life than any hen or rooster we've ever owned.)

RIP my dear Spitzie.





































While writing this, the kids came home from school. As you can probably tell, Spitzie was a favorite. Lots of tears today.

 

[Justjered]

Sorry it happened... We just had a juvenile silkie get taken on thanksgiving with only a handful of feathers as sign of any struggle...

Decided that day we would finally get around to enclosing our run area.

The 2 days later once it was finished, we had a hawk perched on top of the run trying to get into the run area but thank god, was successfully kept out of the run.

Sadly free range runs a greater predator risk... Darn nature food chain.

 

[Molpet]

So sorry for your loss Faraday40 ..
yes the hawks have been out here too, but most of the flock is staying in the coops. Between the dog and the turkeys, the hawks seem to bypass the chicken yard.

 

[ChicagoClucker]

So sorry @Faraday40 . I know how much you and your daughter liked her. Darn hawks