Illinois...

[Faraday40]

Right now my English choc orp, Godiva (hatched April 1, 2016), is laying about every other day. She's a good hen & I hope she keeps it up. She started laying back in September - which is early for an orp.

My 2 orps that hatched May 13th have not started laying yet. (Those are from a different line & are always very slow to mature. They're already 2xs the size of Godiva & already weigh about 8 lbs.) They will likely take 7-9 months to lay

My 2 older lav orps (14 & 18 mo) should be molting but seem to be on the fence about it. It looks like their feathers are slowly being replaced, but they're still giving me about 1-2 eggs a week. Not sure why. I'm expecting them to shut down the eggs any day now, but I honestly don't know. This is their 1st molt.

My last orp is Darth Layer - age 3.5 years. She's our worst layer and stopped back in September. Her molt is going very slowly & her comb is so pale. She's a very sensitive hen & gets depressed every time a chicken leaves the flock. In Sept, a hawk or other predator stole a chick. Before that, she stopped for a month after the death of Precious. Darth is not exactly pretty but she's DD's fav. She will likely be with us as a pet whether she lays again or not. Last fall Darth Layer looked so miserable, I thought she wouldn't make it through winter.

My biggest surprise has been my Spitzhauben. She began laying in August between 4-5 months old & was giving us a daily, little, white egg. She stopped in Sept- possibly from the stress of the missing chick- and is now molting. Spitzie is an experiment to see if we like the breed, so I'm not sure if it is normal to molt so young.

A pleasant surprise has been my Bielefelder (Hen Solo). She's a giant - like my orps - but started laying at only 5.5 months old. She's still giving us about 5 eggs per week. Between her & our RIR, we won't starve this winter. LOL I also enjoy her sweet, calm personality & tri-colr appearance.

 

[MikeTodd]

Finally snapped some good pics of our easter egger/brahma roo that we are still undecided on if we are keeping.

 

[Faraday40]

Finally snapped some good pics of our easter egger/brahma roo that we are still undecided on if we are keeping.

He's got those fluffy legs that make me giggle. I suppose your deciding factor will be his temperament.

We had an incredible EE roo that would let our DD do anything to him. A complete lap chicken & acted like a pet- even after he turned 1 yr old. (His only downside was rough mating of the hens & too much crowing.) I've heard Brahmas are a gentle breed & can grow large to deter predators..Perhaps you'll get the best of both breeds & he'll pass along the blue egg gene to his offspring.

 

[MikeTodd]

Thanks! He is a little skittish since he is not the dominant roo. I also don't think I have heard him crow. If I bred him to a brown egg layer, would I get an olive egger?
This is our dominant roo Midas.

 

[Junibutt]

Right now my English choc orp, Godiva (hatched April 1, 2016), is laying about every other day. She's a good hen & I hope she keeps it up. She started laying back in September - which is early for an orp.

My 2 orps that hatched May 13th have not started laying yet. (Those are from a different line & are always very slow to mature. They're already 2xs the size of Godiva & already weigh about 8 lbs.) They will likely take 7-9 months to lay

My 2 older lav orps (14 & 18 mo) should be molting but seem to be on the fence about it. It looks like their feathers are slowly being replaced, but they're still giving me about 1-2 eggs a week. Not sure why. I'm expecting them to shut down the eggs any day now, but I honestly don't know. This is their 1st molt.

My last orp is Darth Layer - age 3.5 years. She's our worst layer and stopped back in September. Her molt is going very slowly & her comb is so pale. She's a very sensitive hen & gets depressed every time a chicken leaves the flock. In Sept, a hawk or other predator stole a chick. Before that, she stopped for a month after the death of Precious. Darth is not exactly pretty but she's DD's fav. She will likely be with us as a pet whether she lays again or not. Last fall Darth Layer looked so miserable, I thought she wouldn't make it through winter.

My biggest surprise has been my Spitzhauben. She began laying in August between 4-5 months old & was giving us a daily, little, white egg. She stopped in Sept- possibly from the stress of the missing chick- and is now molting. Spitzie is an experiment to see if we like the breed, so I'm not sure if it is normal to molt so young.

A pleasant surprise has been my Bielefelder (Hen Solo). She's a giant - like my orps - but started laying at only 5.5 months old. She's still giving us about 5 eggs per week. Between her & our RIR, we won't starve this winter. LOL I also enjoy her sweet, calm personality & tri-colr appearance.

Its re-assuring that I am not the only one. Was getting worried that there is something wrong with my flock! Well I am going to try artificial light for a couple of weeks because I was planning to sell 3 of the Orps, but without them laying, I can't claim they will lay at the end of winter. Lets see!

 

[Faraday40]

Its re-assuring that I am not the only one. Was getting worried that there is something wrong with my flock! Well I am going to try artificial light for a couple of weeks because I was planning to sell 3 of the Orps, but without them laying, I can't claim they will lay at the end of winter. Lets see!

The seasonal lack of light & molting are the most common reasons I can think of to cause the major slow down. It wouldn't hurt to check for parasites (mites, worms, lice, etc.) If you're going to treat for any of those, now is a great time. I dewormed mine & also treated for mites.

I'm a little nervous about poor Mr DummyPants. He has some baldness & redness by the vent. I've been treating him with various mite treatments but there's been no improvement since July. I'm beginning to wonder if there's something he's doing to rub & irritate that area - like maybe the way he mates. No other chickens have anything similar. Does anyone have a highly effective mite treatment? (I've done "Poultry Protector" Sevin, & Frontline. Plus Vaseline on his legs. His legs look OK.)

 

[jerryse]

The seasonal lack of light & molting are the most common reasons I can think of to cause the major slow down. It wouldn't hurt to check for parasites (mites, worms, lice, etc.) If you're going to treat for any of those, now is a great time. I dewormed mine & also treated for mites.

I'm a little nervous about poor Mr DummyPants. He has some baldness & redness by the vent. I've been treating him with various mite treatments but there's been no improvement since July. I'm beginning to wonder if there's something he's doing to rub & irritate that area - like maybe the way he mates. No other chickens have anything similar. Does anyone have a highly effective mite treatment? (I've done "Poultry Protector" Sevin, & Frontline. Plus Vaseline on his legs. His legs look OK.)

I use bio spot defense on my house dog . Best on fleas that I have tried . I have used it on chickens for scaly leg . You could try that . The ingredients are hard to read small print .

 

[Junibutt]

The seasonal lack of light & molting are the most common reasons I can think of to cause the major slow down. It wouldn't hurt to check for parasites (mites, worms, lice, etc.) If you're going to treat for any of those, now is a great time. I dewormed mine & also treated for mites.

I'm a little nervous about poor Mr DummyPants. He has some baldness & redness by the vent. I've been treating him with various mite treatments but there's been no improvement since July. I'm beginning to wonder if there's something he's doing to rub & irritate that area - like maybe the way he mates. No other chickens have anything similar. Does anyone have a highly effective mite treatment? (I've done "Poultry Protector" Sevin, & Frontline. Plus Vaseline on his legs. His legs look OK.)

I dewormed them couple of months ago and do it again just in case. Do mite treatment also work on lice? I have not seen any but might as well take care of them at the same time. If not, any recommendation for lice?

 

[chickendreams24]

Where was this that the man got caught in combine? He is one lucky man.

Janesville WI area. Also update turns out the man in his 20s did not rupture his femoral artery and was caught just above the ankle. While he did have some nasty cuts and bruises and needed some patching up it could have been much much worse. Turns out he backed up into the head of the combine as it rested on the ground running(they were shoveling spilled corn into the head) the man in.the combine saw it happening and turned the combine off as the young man stepped back into it. So while he did get banged up and they were worried about tendon damage and such he really was very very very lucky. He will make a full recovery. His tendons were all fine and other than the cuts and general bruising and such and the one broken bone in his lower leg he got off lucky. He could have lost his whole foot.

Its re-assuring that I am not the only one. Was getting worried that there is something wrong with my flock! Well I am going to try artificial light for a couple of weeks because I was planning to sell 3 of the Orps, but without them laying, I can't claim they will lay at the end of winter. Lets see!

The seasonal lack of light & molting are the most common reasons I can think of to cause the major slow down.  It wouldn't hurt to check for parasites (mites, worms, lice, etc.)  If you're going to treat for any of those, now is a great time.  I dewormed mine & also treated for mites.  

I'm a little nervous about poor Mr DummyPants.  He has some baldness & redness by the vent.  I've been treating him with various mite treatments but there's been no improvement since July. I'm beginning to wonder if there's something he's doing to rub & irritate that area - like maybe the way he mates.  No other chickens have anything similar.  Does anyone have a highly effective mite treatment? (I've done "Poultry Protector" Sevin, & Frontline.  Plus Vaseline on his legs. His legs look OK.)  

I use bio spot defense on my house dog . Best on fleas that I have tried . I have used it on chickens for scaly leg . You could try that . The ingredients are hard to read small print .

I dewormed them couple of months ago and do it again just in case. Do mite treatment also work on lice? I have not seen any but might as well take care of them at the same time. If not, any recommendation for lice?

We used poultry/garden permethrin dust for mites and had very good luck with it. We treated them twice or maybe it was three times whatever they say on the thing and had amazing luck. Also as it is created for chickens and gardens I know it is safe although you will want to wear a dust mask and have a helper. We also washed our clothes afterwards but are kind of paranoid BC of my asthma. Of course it isn't effective on leg mites I don't think.

@Junibutt
What orps are you planning on selling?

Egg production here has dropped dramatically in about a week or two although I know that part of this is probably due to the naughty birds that are hiding their eggs on our property. Still it has declined a lot. We have been working on winterizing and I know that has greatly disturbed the flock lol. We also had to put a new tarp on the coop roof and clean it out both terrifying. Lol

We have also been moving cockerals around, we have just this week moved 10 juvenile cockerals out of the juvenile side of the cooler coop and into the main population. Due to the lower number of pullets in there they were caiaomgnway to much trouble. They are not enjoying foraging and growing even more. We have 10 more cockerals ready and nearly ready to do. Yay! While I dislike the day it makes me proud of us and grateful to them. They have all had wonderful lives and continue to do so. I wish we could keep more but we can't it isn't fair to the hens and pullets.

It's amazing to see the freezer filling up with farm fresh chicken. We have to date done 9-10 and we have eaten two. We have another 10 that are probably ready. They will hopefully be done once dh2b is done in the fields. That should be this week hopefully. Then we have the ten that we pulled out of the juvenile side. They're much larger than they sound and some could probably be done soon. We will see. They had to be pulled from the back side BC of rotten behavior, the adults put them in their places. Lol there are also a couple that have been showing some attitude towards people. Thankfully the oldest cockerals don't stand for that. (The two orp boys from this last March from Junibutt are such a riot to watch them chase these young boys if they get too rough with a hen or bite me.)

We had a friend visit and get to meet the flock. This is his first trip to the US and there was a lot to see. He's from Haiti and they have wild game bird type chickens. He got to see a half wet day old chick courtesy of an early hatch(something he's never seen before-lol he thought it was ugly) and meet the rest of the flock. He really enjoyed them and was amazed when he saw the single barred chocolate English orp boy from Junibutt. He kept saying, "This is also a chicken?!" Lol hahaha so funny I think he was quite intimidated by this giant bird(he's truly massive) but once I picked him up and told him he could pet him he was quite taken with him. Lol we are still unsure if he will be staying permanently. While we adore him we do wonder if his younger brother will be a better choice. Time will tell. In the meantime we have discussed what we will do if we do process him as a meat bird. I don't believe we have a pot large enough to scald him in and I'm not sure he will fit in out large sized killing cone. Lol everyone who comes here asks if he is a turkey.

He is such a sweet bird I don't truly know of we will be able to make ourselves process him. He doesn't roost even on roosts that are only 16-18" high and had a broken off feather that became an infected feather follicle on his abdomen. He's such a good boy that halfway through treatment when the dog went after a motorcycle we both took our hands off of him and he just layed there calm as could be. We got the infected follicle out and it has not come back. While he doesn't care for handling usually although sometimes he lets me pet him he isn't hard to work with. Except for his size lol he's hard for me to hold because he's so huge. Even dh2b can't hold his wings down by wrapping his hands around them like he would with a normal bird. Or like I would usually as well.

Okay I suppose I have blabbed on for long enough. It's good to hear from you all keep in touch.

 

[Faraday40]

@chickendreams24
Glad you are finding good uses for those extra cockerels. Please post a pic of your cockerel from Junibutt. (He's probably Brick's brother or 1/2 brother.) Brick & Godiva are very small compared to my giants.

Here's "Moose" This was taken last night as DD was putting him to bed. He hatched in early June, so he's just beginning to crow & mate the females. He still has a lot of filling out to do, but I think he's finally stopped getting taller.


This is Godiva. As you can see, she already has that nice round shape.



Guess what DD is doing now!? Yep, she talked her teacher (& parents) into letting her try to hatch grocery store, farmer market, & backyard eggs. We never did find fertile chicken eggs at a grocery store, so she's only testing farmer's market vs. backyard chicken eggs. For the quail, we were able to get samples from each. Looks like we'll have chicks for Thanksgiving.

....and if anyone wants some chicks, please pm me. I'm not sure if we're going to keep a couple quail (if any hatch), but we're certainly not going to keep any more chickens. I have someone who will "take" them, but she owns snakes. The chicks should be mostly orps, but the father could be any of my 3 orp roos. The Bielefelder eggs look similar to the orp eggs, so 1 could have slipped in. The farmer market eggs came from wyandotte hens with a silkie/wyandotte/EE roo. Not expecting many (if any) of those to hatch because they were washed & refrigerated.


We decided to use separate incubators & brooders for the diff species. However, is it safe to keep the brooders near each other? (I've heard mixed thoughts about having gamebirds near chickens because they have more delicate immune systems.) I learned that quail are extremely seasonal, so if a normal hatch rate is 70%, then it would likely drop to 20% in Nov. Basically, the males stop mating, so fertility is low until feb-march. This experiment would work much better in the spring, but sci fair is a winter thing. Oh well. She can always do another trial in spring, update her poster, & enter it in the county fair over the summer.

BTW- She's dying to have a silkie. I have a very strong feeling that she's going to come up with some type of completely different 4H project that will require hatching Silkie eggs.

@Junibutt