looking for fellow Alberta chicken freaks!

[Waffle]

Hi I am looking for anyone in Alberta who are interested in chickens to just have a chat with. I have a few friends locally but to be honest I am turning into the crazy chicken lady of the area by the sounds of it. I dont have many chickens but ALWAYS on about them and trying to find standard cochins and buff orpingtons! Not an easy task! Anyway just say Hi if your here

 

[PrairieChicks]

Is Saskatchewan close enough? I got a mix of chicks 7 weeks ago. In that mix are white standard cochins and buff Orpingtons as well as others. I had to order 25 and only want to keep about 10. I live north of Saskatoon. Would enjoy talking "chickens". I haven't connected with anyone close to me yet.

 

[Waffle]

Hey there :0)

Where about from Saskatchewan are you? I have had a few hatch recently I found some Buff Orpingtons (Yey!!) But the most suprising thing of all is I hatched some White crested Black Polish and I tell you they are crazy friendly!! I also have what I call my special needs chick (it is perfectly healthy but had a rough start) which is a fizzle! How long have you been into chicks?

 

[PrairieChicks]

We live just north of Saskatoon. What area of Alberta do you live in?

I had chickens for about 10 years - red sussex and leghorns. Then we moved to this farm and it didn't have anything set up for chickens. Life got busy with the kids and fixing this old place up, so I didn't get set up for chickens till last fall. I ordered day old chicks from Alberta - mix of Heritage breeds and got them 7 1/2 weeks ago. I have EE's (sold as Ameraucanas), Buff Orpington, Standard White cochin, Austrolorps, Danish Brown Leghorns, Buff Brahma and a couple dark Brahmas. I only want to keep about 10 - so I'll have to find homes for the rest. I think I'll keep one of the EE roosters as well. I'd love to hatch some chicks next year. Just did that once and it was so much fun. I had never looked into the different breeds and it's been fun to figure out what they all sent me.

I've seen pictures of the Polish and Fizzle. They look amazing! make me laugh. Have you posted some pictures of them?

 

[Waffle]

I live just west of Grande Prairie! Ihave only been doing chickens for three years now and last year we did the whole broody hen thing but this year I got an incubator! I have loved EVERY minute of hatching and I am on one last push to do a final hatch as I want more Polish. I would like some more Fizzles too! I got buffs thinking they were the friendliest chickens but nope them polish walk straight into my hand!! I want to get Turkeys too!

I dont have many pictures of my polish just a couple and my fizzle has only just started getting funky feathers!!

Would love to see a few pictures of your flock!not aver good picture of my polish

my latest hatch and the dark one is the fizzle chick

a silkie cross just beautiful!

 

[PrairieChicks]

Your chicks are so cute! You can see the extra fuzz on the Polish's head already! How old is it? And how big do they get? It looks like the Fizzle has feathers on its legs like the Cochins or Brahmas? How many do you have? Are these chicks from your incubator? They all look so good.

Grand Prairie is a beautiful area! My daughter and her husband moved an hour west of GP last fall. We were able to visit them end of April and we're planning on going again long weekend of Sept. It will be good to see the area when it's green. Last time the snow was almost melted. I can see why you like to live there!

I tried to upload pictures and it took forever and then it all died. So I'll try again. Maybe just do one at a time. Did yours take a long time to upload, or am I doing something wrong?? I used the insert Image icon.
The 3 in the middle (2 reddish brown and grey/white) are my EEs. Buff Brahmas are at the back. 2 standard white cochins and the Australorp is on the right. Bottom left dark brown rooster is the Danish brown leghorn. And a buff Orpington's head is bottom left. The Orpingtons are the friendliest of the group - one will usually fly up onto my leg if I sit in there for a bit. And the Cochins are the most "unflappable" of the group.

This picture was from 10 days ago and when I saw it again today I was quite surprised how much they've change in that time. I think I have 14 or 15 pullets out of the 33. I spend time on BYC and then sit out in the coop and try to figure out which are the roos and which are the pullets . I was going to take a picture today to send, but we have an extremely windy day. I'll maybe try tomorrow if it's nicer out.

 

[Waffle]

They are lovely birds! I love the EE's the fizzle is part Cochin the lady I got them off crosses them once in a while to keep the feathers full. The polish look a bit different now as they are about a month old now. Will take a new picture for you. As for uploading pictures yes it takes for ever so your not doing anything wrong at all! The polish buffs and fizzle chick were all done in my incubator but my last hatch I had three broody hens sat on some eggs. I had to help with a few because once they had six chicks hatch they kept loosing the eggs from under them and they went cold. I hatched three that had started out there and my husband brought them in cold. Quite exciting really! I love hatching. One egg I had to put the incubator on for as it seemed about a week away from hatching so any day now! Grande prairie is ok but I'm glad I don't live in the city anymore! I also get very homesick as I am originally from the UK. My husband comes from near Prince Albert! Looking forward to more pictures from you! Sorry I didn't reply yesterday as I was in town at an adoption event for dogs. We are fostering a 6 month pup. But got really upset taking him to it and despite himself so did my husband lol so we left early taking the dog with us! Think we will be keeping him now! Won't EVER foster again!!!

 

[Waffle]

Oh and polish get about standard size!!

 

[PrairieChicks]

Here is the rooster I'm thinking of keeping. He was sold to me as an Ameraucana - but after reading more on BYC I now know he's an EE. All my chicks will be 8 weeks old tomorrow. His tufts started growing more about 2 weeks ago. I think I only got 1 hen out of the 5 EE's. I was hoping for the blue/green eggs...


This is one of my buff Brahmas. I think maybe a rooster??

I'm looking forward to see pictures of your Polish and Fizzle as they grow up! How long have you been in Canada? (Welcome!! by the way). We live a half hour north of Saskatoon off Hwy 12. I just love living in the country too. What kind of pup did you end up keeping?

Let me know when your chick hatches and what it looks like!

 

[Waffle]

Hi sorry its been so long again. this is why I stopped chatting on the one thread. Lovely people but just couldnt keep up! with two little ones and a load of animals I dont always get online in the summer! Different story in the winter lol! I don't know why but my photos are not uploading to my computer! I think some busy fingers have been playing around!

Very handsome birds you have there! Lovely! When do you think you will be getting back to just 10?
I have been living in Canada for nearly 9 years now! Quite a while hey but still have a strong accent! Our pup is just a mutt but very cute. he is about 6 months old.

I took pictures of my polish for you on my phone so will get that fixed asap! But for now here is a picture of my Rooster and pup




Oh yes that Egg we took out from the hen house is hatching as we speak! just as I thought with all that activity tho it is shrink wrapped and I am having to help.