Illinois...

[ChicagoClucker]

Glad Dummy's doing better! Poor guy. Glad he's out with the ladies and getting some sun.

I've been pretty much down all weekend with what I believe to be a very nasty flu(or food poisoning but I dont think its that)and I'm miserable. Absolutely miserable been two nights with very little sleep and I've barely eaten anything BC when I do I regret it.

I hate the flu. Thank goodness we have peppermint sticks as they have done some good to help settle my tummy. I don't want to move BC then I feel worse. Thank God for DH2B as he has been having to pick up all my slack and he's been great! He even made me breakfast yesterday which tasted great but I ended up regretting. I've never had such awful stomach pains before except when I had the h1n1 the first year it was here and maybe last year when I had food poisoning.

Anyway I hope all is going well for everyone and I hope Dummy and Moose can work things out and get along.

Awww, hope you feel better soon. It sounds like the stomach flu, and it went thru my house also. As it progressed through our family ,it seemed to lose some steam. It hit the first of us hard and lasted a full week, but by the time my son and I caught it, it was a 2 day flu.

 

[chickendreams24]

Awww, hope you feel better soon. It sounds like the stomach flu, and it went thru my house also. As it progressed through our family ,it seemed to lose some steam. It hit the first of us hard and lasted a full week, but by the time my son and I caught it, it was a 2 day flu.

Oh how I long for a two day flu lol I have already had it 2.5-3 days and I'm miserable. Plus how did it happen when we've run out of soul? Face palm

I will be eating rice for breakfast and lunch today maybe even dinner. I will also be nibbling on dry graham crackers and hopefully my stomach won't decide to hate me.

Maybe I'll try to snag a nap. Uh I hate not being able to do anything right now. Hopefully the weather holds this week and next weekend and I feel well enough to process some birds, clean the cooler, and all the runs and everything else that must be done.

Thanks CC

I hope I feel better soon and I hope this flu doesn't keep going around. This is just awful.

 

[Faraday40]

Oh how I long for a two day flu lol I have already had it 2.5-3 days and I'm miserable. Plus how did it happen when we've run out of soul? Face palm

I will be eating rice for breakfast and lunch today maybe even dinner. I will also be nibbling on dry graham crackers and hopefully my stomach won't decide to hate me.

Maybe I'll try to snag a nap. Uh I hate not being able to do anything right now. Hopefully the weather holds this week and next weekend and I feel well enough to process some birds, clean the cooler, and all the runs and everything else that must be done.

Thanks CC

I hope I feel better soon and I hope this flu doesn't keep going around. This is just awful.

Hope you're feeling better x2. I find ice pops, jello, & broth are good starting foods.

When I took the kids in for strep last week, the doc mentioned that she was seeing several cases of flu - many in people who had received flu shots! For such a mild winter, our area seems to be getting more illnesses this year. Our family had a long cold (turned into bronchitis & sinusitis) for the month of December +. We were OK thru most of Jan, but then the kids got strep, fevers, a rash, & cold symptoms last week. Thankfully they tested negative for flu & the adults are skipping this one so far.

Sadly our 95 yr old neighbor is currently in the hospital with the flu. She lives alone & her daughter's family had the flu. Her daughter tried calling & couldn't get through. She drove out & found her mom on the floor. Our neighbor had fainted & was on the floor for 9 hrs. This sweet, quick-witted lady is extremely independent. She can still recite poetry, tell stories about the Great Depression & WWII, and share recipes. It's so hard for her to do the daily routine in a body that's aging. She rarely complains and takes each new challenge as it comes. She plans to stay in her small home as long as possible. Please keep her in your prayers.

 

[4stakes]

We hatched some Orpington eggs. We have a splash rooster and black pullets and splash hens. We had 18 eggs hatch out of 20. 16 pullet eggs hatched and two hen eggs hatched. One of the hens egg was very cold when I collected eggs and it hatched. Also we had 3 pullet eggs that were older than 10 days. My question is do we have any blue chicks? By the breeding all the pullet eggs should be blue. Thanks, Kevin

 

[Faraday40]

We hatched some Orpington eggs. We have a splash rooster and black pullets and splash hens. We had 18 eggs hatch out of 20. 16 pullet eggs hatched and two hen eggs hatched. One of the hens egg was very cold when I collected eggs and it hatched. Also we had 3 pullet eggs that were older than 10 days. My question is do we have any blue chicks? By the breeding all the pullet eggs should be blue. Thanks, Kevin

They're adorable!!!!!
I never hatched blues, so you certainly have my attention. The 3-4 gray ones look a lot like my lav orps, but I'm sure those should be blue not lav. I think splash chicks look yellow/white/pale & of course the black are easy to tell. You'll know for sure when they feather in a week. Your blackxsplash combo should give you the blue chicks.
Congrats on the great hatch!

 

[ChicagoClucker]

We hatched some Orpington eggs. We have a splash rooster and black pullets and splash hens. We had 18 eggs hatch out of 20. 16 pullet eggs hatched and two hen eggs hatched. One of the hens egg was very cold when I collected eggs and it hatched. Also we had 3 pullet eggs that were older than 10 days. My question is do we have any blue chicks? By the breeding all the pullet eggs should be blue. Thanks, Kevin

Love baby time! Ok, so if your roo is a splash any eggs from your splash hens will give you splash chicks. Then the splash roo over the black pullets should give you all blue babies. But it looks like you have some black chicks also. Mmmmmmm something isn't right. You should have all blues and the 2 splash. Maybe are any of your pullets a very dark blue? That would throw you those black chicks. Also thinking perhaps some of those might be self blues. Sweet!

Edited: I do see a couple of blue chicks. 2 or 3, perhaps its the lighting but the newly hatched smaller ones in the pic look blue.

 

[Junibutt]

We hatched some Orpington eggs. We have a splash rooster and black pullets and splash hens. We had 18 eggs hatch out of 20. 16 pullet eggs hatched and two hen eggs hatched. One of the hens egg was very cold when I collected eggs and it hatched. Also we had 3 pullet eggs that were older than 10 days. My question is do we have any blue chicks? By the breeding all the pullet eggs should be blue. Thanks, Kevin

Hi Kevin,


First of all congrats on the hatch. They are beautiful chicks!


Now, as to the colors, something is not right here. Its quite possible that the pics may not show true colors or maybe the line of orpingtons you have may have a lighter shade of blue, however the blue chicks I have usually seen are much darker (almost black from a distance)


Here is an example of the blue chicks I had








As @Faraday40 and @chicagoclucker said that all the chicks (not just the pullets) from your black pullets eggs should have been blue.


and Splash x Splash should be all Splash.


So while all the lavender looking chicks can be splash, however there is no possibility of black chicks. Is it possible they could be blue and just the lighting is making them look like black? Can you take the pics in sunlight and post again if possible?


If the chicks are indeed black, then you have to look at the parent flock to see where it is coming from. Did you buy the parent flock from somewhere or is it your own?

Is it possible to post pics of the parent flock?

 

[Junibutt]

Quote:
Sorry to hear about your situation. We have already had 3 rounds of flu this season and I hope its over for us. Just be patient and stay hydrated. I enjoyed myself with some nice Vit C. gummies.

 

[4stakes]

CC not sure what you mean by self blue. Yea I agree there is something fishy going on here. The parents are from our flock. Here are some pictures of them. I will try and get better pictures of the chicks tomorrow night. Thanks for your input everyone. Kevin

 

[chickendreams24]

Well ladies and gents idk how or when it happened but we had a buff Orpington hen missing at lock up tonight. Found a massive possum in one of the sheds with her body it had been her killer of course. Bad bad night. We snapped some pics of the possum if anyone would like to see. I don't remember if we took any of her or not. Poor baby. It was pretty horrific. Her neck, chest and back were open skin torn off most of the left breast muscle consumed. He had also eaten all of the toes off of one of her feet, and most of the meat off of her back.

Like I said it was horrific. Poor baby. What a rotten creature. I know it was just trying to survive. It was obviously an older possum as like I said it was huge and it's left ear was torn from an old fight, I'd bet. Still it had to feel remorse for something that killed one of your birds and may have been involved in other missing birds.

Still our greatest culprits are the fox(or pair of foxes) and coyotes plus possibly the wolf which of course we won't shoot. The possum and fox heck yeah. We have so seen a few birds of prey mostly hawks but also eagles but have never had a bird confirmed taken by a aerial predator. Probably BC even the pidgeons that roost in the old silk scrlare those birds silly. Lol.

So now I feel rotten BC of the possum and the bird, who's name was Clover, and BC of the flu. I really used to love wildlife and I still do but having them killing your chickens does make it much harder. The possum was in the building(Quonset but) that our feed is stored in. We just got 1000 pounds of feed Saturday. I'm sure it could have found an easier meal than my bird.

Please don't think me callous for saying this BC I absolutely feel for her and wish we could have saved her but it could have been several other birds that would have been worse. She was a good hen and a great layer of light pink eggs. She was also curious and sweet but not overly friendly. She will be missed but she was also on a list of birds to be rehomed this year and since the last possum, that ate eggs, she tried to peck at any egg we picked up. (Note: she wouldn't peck them otherwise.)

So while I'm heartbroken for her and I'll miss her and her curious gentle face I am glad to know the culprit was caught and my beloved flock are now safe again, or at least as safe as they've ever been, for now. Why oh why does everything have to like to eat chicken?!

I know I'll find myself looking for her in the future for just a few moments before I remember and tomorrow will be hardest but I know I'll have the memories of her. Much as I still do for Mickey and Ducky.

She was one of the original five chicks we ordered that started all of our chicken math. Even before we picked up those 5 which became 9 lol in addition to 7 others we picked up from a different feed store and 8 more we hatched a month later.

This brings our losses for 2016-2017 to 29 birds. that is a ton.