Maine

[Jazor]

Don't want to clutter the thread, but the Barred Rock Roo is still up for grabs. If you (or someone you know) wants him let me know! Thanks people

 

[lazy gardener]

Q.T. I'm predjudiced, but I'd recommend the Dominique. Rose comb not as prone to frost bite. Chicks easy to sex at hatch. They are an excellent forager, posess a nice demeanor, reported to be a good winter layer, and tasty meat bird, though not as large as a lot of other DP, but are more feed thrifty. Solid (not white) roo over Dom hen yields sex-linked chicks with a dominant rose comb. Doms will brood, though they're not habitual brooders. Otherwise, I'm partial to rose or pea combs, due to the nasty winters we get. And, my personal predjudice is for clean footed breeds. Here's a breed that's headed to extinction: Light or Dark Brown Rose Comb Leghorn. Nice large white egg from a smallish feed thrifty bird, excellent forager, good flyer, not as likely to be predator snacks. The only down side that I can see is that these birds tend to be a bit more flighty... which is the very reason that they are better equipped to evade predators.

My assisted chick has spraddle leg and a toe that is partial to curling on the left. She's otherwise doing well. I'll be researching splinting and making a bootie for her. That could be entirely due to the position she was stuck in when I assisted her out of the egg and put her back, figuring that she was a lost cause. She came from one of the smaller eggs, and her down is not well developed. That doesn't concern me, b/c the BSL from last year's hatch, though the first one to hatch, looked absolutely pathetic, and had short stubby down over the lower quadrant on one side of her body. (looked like a porcupine) She's my best layer, and people who see my chickens, comment on the "beautiful black one".

Final count: 20 live chicks, 2 required assist. 2 blood rings, 1 early quitter from a repaired cracked egg. 5 eggs left in incubator, 2 appear to be death prior to lock down, 3 DIS. Not excellent stats, but not too shabby either. Some of the chicks are small, obviously from small eggs. EE x RIR made a good showing of large nice looking chicks. They appear to be sexable, if only I knew the genetics I was looking at. (half of them are yellow, with minimal black broken striping on their backs, and the other half are more reddish brown with more of a chipmunk striping.) Most of the eggs that didn't hatch were disproportionately large.

 

[Widget]

I just got the ok to breed, grow and whatever needs to be next.....seriously... ok so need to move forward...I am in Maine. ... thoughts or ideas??? I want to bring hard to find breeds back to Maine

I say Icelandic. Colorful.Winter hardy. Eggs are white to light brown. Docile but are not really fans of confinement. They are a landrace chicken so have no real standard. I have one hen and would love to have more.

 

[Wee Acre Farm]

If you want to raise Icelandics then contact Muddy Hoof Farm in Lubec. I sold her some of my breeding stock. I kept one hen who is the mascot for our chicken swaps. They are winter hardy alright. Widget is right, they do not like confinement at all, If you plan to pen them they need a covered run. They would rather be roosting in the tree tops even in winter. They free range best.
There is also a breeder very well known in Vermont. I got hatching eggs from her also. They are a very colorful bird some are crested and it would be hard to find any two alike. Icelandics are also known as the Viking Bird.

 

[quailtrail]

Thanks for the info!!!
@lazy gardener Funny that was top on my list. When I first started researching chickens I fell in love with these! But couldn't find any.

@Widget @Wee Acre Farm Never heard of these. I am researching these now

More seedlings planted today. Yay!!! What a beautiful day we had!!!! Had to go sneaker shopping with kids first. My 11yo got new ones right before Xmas and needed new ones as they were too tight!!!! She went from an 8 to a 9!!!!! I'm a size 7...good grief.

My 14yo son thinks she's going to be bigger than him lol!!! He's just 9.5...

Lock down today. So nervous! !!! My own eggs. The Olive ones I couldn't candle. The rest vary. I wanted to toss the ones that didn't look like they were doing anything but my daughter begged me not to toss...so hoping they don't explode or something. No funny smells. Today my god was sniffing the incubator that went into lock down out of the blue. So fingers crossed!!!

 

[lazy gardener]

After researching splinting for spraddle leg, and shoes for curled toes, I did an assessment of my little chick. She looked like she definitely needed intervention when I looked at her at 7 AM. 2 hours later, she was up walking about and keeping her left leg under her. The middle toe appears weak, but when she's standing, she bears wt evenly and the toe is straight. So I decided to take a watch and see approach. I did give her and the other shrink wrapped chick some nutri drench, and some hand feeding formula today. I'll continue to give them some extra nutrient for a while. Gave them some boiled egg and no one touched it except for one of the BSL who went right to town on it.

Quail Trail: There's a lady in NH who had Doms. She ships eggs. I'm not sure how good her quality is, but it's worth looking at.

 

[quailtrail]

@lazy gardener do you have her info?

Glad the chick is holding strong! !!

 

[lazy gardener]

Her name is Draig Athar. I wish you the best of luck. So, you're thinking about getting started with a breeding project this year? I'm rolling the idea around in my head about breeding a rose or pea combed auto sexing bird. Similar to the Cream Leg Bar birds. It can be done in 3 generations. Before I start down that road, I need to play around with combs a bit, to see what a pea x rose comb looks like. That will be a major factor in my choice of breeding stock.

 

[MustardTiger]

And yet again my brassica seedlings are failing. So frustrating! I cant seem to win with chard or celery either. I cannot wait until I have my raised beds built. I am going to make hoops to cover them so I can start things directly outside. I think that may help for these colder weather crops! I restrained myself and didnt start peppers and tomatoes until a few weeks later than last year...now if I can restrain myself from putting them out in the garden too early!

I am ready for my chicks. I wish they were arriving today! A whole month to wait argh!

This year I have assigned my husband the job of cleaning out the coop. We clean it out completely just once a year and I have done it for the past two years. It is my least favorite chore. If I could stand up fully in the coop I wouldnt mind but being half bent over with a shovel is no fun at all. I was lurking sheds on craigslist yesterday - some nice options for a bigger coop on there! someone is selling a nice shed/goat run in too.

 

[Branch Chickens]

It sounds like we're on a similar schedule. Pepper, tomato, and leek seedlings going right now. Chicks coming at the end of the month. I'm going to occupy myself with transplanting tomatoes today. I hadn't noticed that some of the second sets of leaves were getting pretty big. This is our first year doing a garden. My husband agreed to build me raised beds for my birthday. Does anyone here have experience with repotting into Solo cups? I watched a couple of videos where you double up the cups and cut the inner one to make them easy to transplant. Is that worth it? We're trying to cut corners on costs at the moment, so if any of you have suggestions for what I can keep my seedlings in until planting time, I would be glad to hear them!

I went to my mom's house yesterday and let her girls out of the coop. They look so satisfied and in the element back out on the ground. I do not envy the winter they've had, cooped up for so long.