Holy cow!!! I saw you ate it but man you should have blown that thing!Although I've been complaining about the low # of eggs this month, I can't believe the one I found today!It was so big I had to measure it! About 9.5cm long (about 3.75 in) To get an idea of scale, those are my fingers. I am an adult woman - and not a small one. The egg is HUGE. \
4.15 oz
or 117.9 grams
If a 2.5 oz egg is considered Jumbo, what should THIS size be called? Now I just can't figure out who it came from. The hen that usually lays the biggest eggs lays a peachy-white egg. This one is way too dark to be hers. It's a med brown like an orp at the beginning of her egg cycle. My orp hens have pale combs & are molting. I can't imagine this coming out of an orp pullet. (also no blood streaks on it) That only leaves my RIR or Bielefelder pullets. Both have been laying since Aug/Sept - unlike the orps who have just started or soon will.
For all my BYC friends we have about ten dozen eggs right now and we are getting about 14 a day so come on up and help us clean out the fridge! Lol
Sorry I haven't messaged you back yet. I will do that today. Lol well we got out first quail egg today a tiny shell less thing that I just got to see right after it was layed. The males started growing this last weekend and I finally got to see them today. Both of our browns are boys... 100% sure on one of them 99.998 on the other although it's chest isn't as red. The four whites(only one is all white the other three have a couple black feathers on the head) I'm thinking are all female but we can't be sure yet. The egg is about the size of a nickel. One of the whites has a small injury on either side of the head looks like it was scalped or like the scalp tore almost. The chickens can not access them at all so I'm thinking perhaps one of the males was too rough? I blue koted it but although a little sedate it seems to be acting fine (which of course means I'm covered in the blue kote) I also added some sticks I figured the girls might enjoy having something to go under/around to stay away from the persistent boys. I will say that today when I saw one of the males breed a girl he did grab her head right where the other one is injured but he didn't seem very rough. Perhaps it's the other boy, as they both have some missing feathers off the backs their heads- the girl I saw bred and the girl(?) with the injury. The other two I couldn't reach. Their enclosure is finished except the door is a make shift one until we can get that done so it doesn't open all the way and my arms are shorter than dh2b's. It so cool I can't wait until you get to see it! I'm really loving the quail we may need to build another enclosure or two lol. I know you didn't ask me but I figured I would answer anyway. We house put bantams with our lf and they do great. Even the trio of Oegb that had trouble adjusting BC they weren't raised in the flock are doing wonderful! They all get treats and loving and of course food and water. We are still a little overrun with boys but we did get a couple more of our last spring's mixes done this weekend. Putting them on the back side has really helped although we can't wait until all the boys are done and the flock can either a) expand and have both side of the coop or b) the back side can be used to finish raising the last chicks from you and the ones we hatched last until they're of a size to introduce to the flock. Our bantams do great with the flock and most of them are actually pretty high on the pecking order. My little lavender/self blue Oegb Crocket walls up to treats and most of the birds scatter lol she is such a hoot. She would rather share with the lower birds on the pecking order than the higher ones. We keep silkies, Oegbs, a sebright, and a couple bantam mixes with the flock. The only time I'm ever really worried is when one of the young cockerals thinks he can breed the oegb. They do learn of course but it does make me panic for just a bit lol. Think about a big black orp on top of something smaller than Trouble. Come spring we plan to br able to separate out breeding groups for the chick season. It won't be permanent but that way we will have all pure chicks.Had the egg for lunch. It was a double yolker! (Discovered that a runny, over-easy egg takes great over left-over mashed potatoes or on top of potato-leek soup with chives & cheddar cheese) I've been getting 2-3 eggs per day. It's enough for baking & an occasional breakfast, but we have to conserve the eggs. Looking forward to spring when we can have egg sandwiches & bake frequently .... and also have extra eggs to sell! (Of course, we'll probably be hatching them too.) @ChicagoClucker Do you currently keep your bantams with the big chickens or do they have their own space? How do they do with LF birds? I only have 2 bantams, so they live with the flock. Although smaller, they can & will squawk a lot when they feel offended. They're near the bottom of the pecking order but I haven't seen bullying or missing feathers. I had to place a step by the waterer for them. When it's time for treats, they get their personal invitations. Trouble looks up at me, waiting for eye contact, making her fussy little attention-seeking noises until I hold out my arm & say her name ( = her invitation to land on me & get hand fed). In a similar way, Cookie just gets underfoot making her noises. She never even bothers to go after scratch thrown to the ground. She simply stands on my feet and waits until I lower the treat cup for her to select a morsel. The LF have their ways too. Precious follows me around as I do the morning chores. The entire time it sounds like she's moaning & whining: "Treeeeeaats..Treeeeeeats!" Godiva runs up quickly to search for the treat cup. If it's not in my hands, she'll go about her business. However, if I'm throwing down bread or scratch, she begins a loud, rapid honking to grab my attention & insists that she gets her fair share (which of course to an orp means most of it!) @chickendreams24 Grace's fav quail (Albert) began crowing a week ago. A white one has joined him. Definitely time for them to go outside! I saw the white male (now wearing a purple stripe) try to grab at the neck feathers of another white. The purple quail does have a large ball behind his vent. In general, the quail vents are larger (more plump than a hen's vent) but I can't tell if the remaining 2 whites are female or just immature. They'll be 6 weeks on Tues., so we're not too far away from eggs. This is my waterer.It hangs by a chain, so I can adjust the height. It's too heavy for me when full, so I only fill to 3-4 gal In the winter, I have a bucket de-icer inside. Although the water stayed liquid during our 1st winter, the vertical nipples froze when in single digits. I had to chip away ice many mornings that year. For the 2nd winter I switched to the horiz nipples. The horiz nipples are inside, so they didn't lock up when below zero. (If a tiny bit of ice were present, the chickens just peck it away to get to the water.) Originally I thought the heater was expensive, but it was about the same cost as a pre-made heated chicken waterer. The fact that it has lasted multiple winters makes it affordable. I also like that it only turns on when below freezing. The water is never "warm" but cold & liquid. Because of minerals in our water, I added a filter to our kitchen sink. (Not for us, but to prevent mineral build up on the heater, so it will last longer. LOL ) Yes, our chickens must drink filtered water in the winter, but I doubt it beats you giving your quail Jim Beam.
And yes potato leek soup sounds very good.[COLOR=333333]Had the egg for lunch. It was a double yolker![/COLOR] [COLOR=333333][/COLOR] [COLOR=333333]Quail update:[/COLOR] [COLOR=333333]Here's the tiny runt quail (on left). It's still alive & finally caught up in size.[/COLOR] [COLOR=333333]
[/COLOR] [COLOR=333333]Quail sexing update:[/COLOR] [COLOR=333333]Anyone with quail knowledge, please let me know how I'm doing.[/COLOR]
1. Male (now crowing & tried to mate quail #2 below)
[COLOR=B42000][/COLOR] 2. Female???? [COLOR=B42000]
Lol stop teasing me with your Cochins.Ok the potato-leek soup sounds sooooo good! I can't wait for spring either. I have had to buy eggs, which hurts, but the dog gets eggs everyday with her dinner, so there isn't a way around it. I house my bantams separate from my LF now, but when my #s were lower, they were all in the large coop together. They all got along fine, the bantams did not have a problem getting their fair share of food or treats. And Mick was the king of the coop then, with all the ladies, LF and bantam girls. But when the black and SL cockerels became interested in the girls, I had to separate the bantams. Mick didn't want to give up any of his ladies, and the other boys were twice his size. The bantams are in my original ice box coop, the Mother Clucker Inn and the LF have the new large coop.And like you said, they are all different. There are the specific ones who like their treats given to them in there own way, LF or bantam. Edited to add- Had to run up and get a yard and half of Velcro to make some no crow collars. Between the 2 LF roos and then all the bantam cockerels that are maturing, it is getting just too loud over here. LF boys were easy, and was able to get the 2 frizzled bantams but have 4 more bantams to catch. Uggg, pass the word please, I have bantam pairs available. Need to get rid of some of these boys.
I would take them in a heartbeat but we are already overrun with boys. I would want to keep a boy for breeding and I'm not sure I could swing it until we get another coop. As it is we plan to keep 1-2 silkies, 2-3 orps, 2 Oegb, 1 cream legbar and 2 SLW. I know it's a lot we have a lot of choosing to do. Thankfully the boys we are choosing between all do extremely well together and with people. Between the 2 runs and the coop(2 sides plus a small run inside) and once we get the other coop here. We should be pretty good even if every boy had to be separated for some reason. That being said we are also purposely working to keep only the most people and bird friendly birds, we will also be continuing to wean them down into the spring and next year. Thankfully our one large cooler coop is sized easily for 60 birds and we were calculating for large fowl. We only plan to take about 40-50 to spring breeding. We will be continuing to process cockerals as we are able to which as I said helps a ton. With feed and space. Plus about half the birds in our coop are bantams so it's pretty good spacewise. ETA is that a white sport legbar or a Leghorn on top of the coop?
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