Meyer Hatchery Chicken pics anyone??

[trsturself]

Thank you! Guess I will be staying busy with cleaning for the reception at our house. (The actual wedding will be at a church) We plan on having everything inside and if the weather is nice, maybe some people can linger out to the patio. I think it may rain though, so will be all set up inside. Thanks for the best wishes!

Soup, love that name! Daisy my White Rock is starting to peck me too along with Pepper the BR. I keep pushing them away but they come back and peck me again. I think it is a game to them. In the winter it is not so bad, but once the clothes get thinner and if I wear shorts, we'll have a problem.

Great pics, those Polish look great! How old are they? Amber looks good too, you said she is back to laying eggs didn't you? Maybe after a molt those feathers will come in? I feel sorry for your bunny too, you should get another to keep him/her warm, then you can have lots of bunnies heating up the coop.

Thank you! We have the hawks around here too, so far the girls do well with hiding when one is flying over and I have a lot of safe areas for them to get under cover. I guess I fear stray dogs more in my neighborhood since they just go on a rampage.

I hope that your new place works out. I know bird netting at Lowes here is around $14.00 for a huge roll of 100 feet by 7 feet. Best deal that I found.

Good luck with the reception! Hope it all goes smoothly.

The polish are 6 months old now (almost 28 weeks). No signs of laying from them yet but from what I've read they can take up to a year to lay so with winter here I don't expect anything from them until spring. You guys will know right away when they do! At least it will be easy to tell when I get their egg since they will be our only white layers.

Yes, Amber is laying. We'll see how she does after her molt. I'm ok if she never grows them back. I'm just happy she survived and is healthy!

I'm glad our whole backyard is fenced so I don't have to worry about stray dogs! I haven't seen a hawk here in awhile. I guess shooting them with an airsoft gun gets the idea through to them that this isn't a good place to hunt. It stings but doesn't hurt them. They are cheap at walmart and you could hit them in your neighbors tree no problem.

 

[chickenpooplady]

Well, my Meyer girls are 20 weeks old today. No eggs yet but my Black Australorp, Easter Egger, and Blue Andalusian have really red combs and wattles. My Blue Laced Red Wyandotte and Speckled Sussex are not even red yet. At what age did your pullets of these breeds lay? My guess would be that they will start laying in 1-2 weeks but they are starting to check out to nest boxes and squat so I am not sure.

 

[cheeperchick]

I wasn't sure if any of you wanted to see, but I took some pictures of the screw that Sunni ate last week. I also tried taking some pictures of Sunni's goofy looking comb, but she wouldn't hold still and my camera wasn't cooperating. I'll try and get some pictures of the girls today and tomorrow for their 23 week picture update.

MsChickenmomma...how's sunni? I saw the screw & couldnt believe it. How did you get it out? I found my 24 week buff orp boy over the weekend dead in my coop and there's a possibility he might have eaten a thumb tack that might have fallen out of my pocket....I feel soooo guilty :'( anyway he was still warm under his wings when I found him and his mouth was closed. I checked his vent and there was a little blood poo on its way out. I didnt think of the tack until after I burried him. Got him from meyer back in June. :-\ Need to back into the coop wth a magnet. Im using the deep litter method so if I do find a tack then he may have died from something else. It's like literally finding a needle in a hay stack!

 

[trsturself]

Well, my Meyer girls are 20 weeks old today. No eggs yet but my Black Australorp, Easter Egger, and Blue Andalusian have really red combs and wattles. My Blue Laced Red Wyandotte and Speckled Sussex are not even red yet. At what age did your pullets of these breeds lay? My guess would be that they will start laying in 1-2 weeks but they are starting to check out to nest boxes and squat so I am not sure.

I think my BA laid around 22 weeks and my EE was closer to 24 or 25 weeks. I'd have to go back and look up exact dates. Once they were squatting and checking out the nest boxes it was a week (plus or minus a couple days) before they started laying.

 

[trsturself]

MsChickenmomma...how's sunni? I saw the screw & couldnt believe it. How did you get it out? I found my 24 week buff orp boy over the weekend dead in my coop and there's a possibility he might have eaten a thumb tack that might have fallen out of my pocket....I feel soooo guilty :'( anyway he was still warm under his wings when I found him and his mouth was closed. I checked his vent and there was a little blood poo on its way out. I didnt think of the tack until after I burried him. Got him from meyer back in June. :-\

Need to back into the coop wth a magnet. Im using the deep litter method so if I do find a tack then he may have died from something else. It's like literally finding a needle in a hay stack!

Oh no! I'm sorry you lost one. I hope you find the tack to ease your guilt. I'm so paranoid about string and screws/nails/etc after all of Sunni's adventures. I'm sure there are a ton of them in the yard since I've found a couple already. The people who lived here before us didn't seem to worry about it and I know my DH is bad about leaving stuff around when he builds something. I think he's more conscious of it after telling him about Sunni though.

 

[cheeperchick]

Oh no! I'm sorry you lost one. I hope you find the tack to ease your guilt. I'm so paranoid about string and screws/nails/etc after all of Sunni's adventures. I'm sure there are a ton of them in the yard since I've found a couple already. The people who lived here before us didn't seem to worry about it and I know my DH is bad about leaving stuff around when he builds something. I think he's more conscious of it after telling him about Sunni though. 

Well I may need a bigger magnet. I went in there with a small tool one and didn't find anything. Also the fact that the others have been scratching around in there might make it harder to find. :-\

 

[Kalalyn21]

Quote:
Mine are 20 weeks old as well today, I have 3 Black Copper Marans(which I've been told they take longer to lay, although one I bought from a breeder started laying at 22 weeks) a golden buff and and GLW. No red combs at all.

 

[chickenpooplady]

Quote:
I have a rooster in with them. I wonder if that makes a difference.

 

[NanaLynn]

Good luck with the reception! Hope it all goes smoothly.

The polish are 6 months old now (almost 28 weeks). No signs of laying from them yet but from what I've read they can take up to a year to lay so with winter here I don't expect anything from them until spring. You guys will know right away when they do! At least it will be easy to tell when I get their egg since they will be our only white layers.

Yes, Amber is laying. We'll see how she does after her molt. I'm ok if she never grows them back. I'm just happy she survived and is healthy!

I'm glad our whole backyard is fenced so I don't have to worry about stray dogs! I haven't seen a hawk here in awhile. I guess shooting them with an airsoft gun gets the idea through to them that this isn't a good place to hunt. It stings but doesn't hurt them. They are cheap at walmart and you could hit them in your neighbors tree no problem.

Thank you, that is my one wish that it goes "smoothly."
A year for the polish? Wow, that's a long wait! I guess we'll wait for Buffy's eggs for awhile then. No hurry though, she is so cute with her hairdo and her Buff Laced Polish ways, she can wait as long as she wants.

That is great that Amber is back to laying to, it is so amazing how she bounced back.
We are working on a plan to get our backyard fenced in, I will be so glad when the planning stages are done and we start getting it actually fenced in. The garden fence they are in now is for sure not strong enough to keep those stray dogs out.

I love that idea about an airsoft gun, now to convince my husband.

Well, my Meyer girls are 20 weeks old today. No eggs yet but my Black Australorp, Easter Egger, and Blue Andalusian have really red combs and wattles. My Blue Laced Red Wyandotte and Speckled Sussex are not even red yet. At what age did your pullets of these breeds lay? My guess would be that they will start laying in 1-2 weeks but they are starting to check out to nest boxes and squat so I am not sure.

Any day now. I searched today for more eggs. I did get 4 from my big girls, but none from the 18 week old ones today. I'll be searching everyday now. I enjoy it though, it is like an Easter egg hunt. It's always fun when you finally find one.

MsChickenmomma...how's sunni? I saw the screw & couldnt believe it. How did you get it out? I found my 24 week buff orp boy over the weekend dead in my coop and there's a possibility he might have eaten a thumb tack that might have fallen out of my pocket....I feel soooo guilty :'( anyway he was still warm under his wings when I found him and his mouth was closed. I checked his vent and there was a little blood poo on its way out. I didnt think of the tack until after I burried him. Got him from meyer back in June. :-\

Need to back into the coop wth a magnet. Im using the deep litter method so if I do find a tack then he may have died from something else. It's like literally finding a needle in a hay stack!

I am so sorry about your Buff boy. I am so scared too about nails, screws and other small items that may have been dropped during the coop and run construction. I hope too that you find the tack.

Oh no! I'm sorry you lost one. I hope you find the tack to ease your guilt. I'm so paranoid about string and screws/nails/etc after all of Sunni's adventures. I'm sure there are a ton of them in the yard since I've found a couple already. The people who lived here before us didn't seem to worry about it and I know my DH is bad about leaving stuff around when he builds something. I think he's more conscious of it after telling him about Sunni though.

Yeah, I am the same as you after Sunni's stories, I try now to make sure there is nothing around their area. I worry about everything in the garden from before that maybe I did not clean up good enough before the chickens arrived. My DH is learning too.

It sounds like there are a lot of Meyers hens out there that may start laying eggs any day now. What fun!

 

[MsChickenMomma]

MsChickenmomma...how's sunni? I saw the screw & couldnt believe it. How did you get it out? I found my 24 week buff orp boy over the weekend dead in my coop and there's a possibility he might have eaten a thumb tack that might have fallen out of my pocket....I feel soooo guilty :'( anyway he was still warm under his wings when I found him and his mouth was closed. I checked his vent and there was a little blood poo on its way out. I didnt think of the tack until after I burried him. Got him from meyer back in June. :-\

Need to back into the coop wth a magnet. Im using the deep litter method so if I do find a tack then he may have died from something else. It's like literally finding a needle in a hay stack!

I am so very sorry about your boy. It's so hard to lose them, and not know what happened to them.

Sunni is doing great. The screw (thankfully) didnt do any damage to her. I managed to catch it on time. I was feeling her crop one morning to see how much food was in it, and I could feel the exact shape of a screw. I spent an hour (with the help of my mom and dad) trying to get it out. We tried guiding it back up from the outside with refrigerator magnets, but they weren't strong enough. So we used a telescoping magnet. I had to hold her beak open and her neck as straight as possible, while my mom quickly lowered the long magnet down her throat and into her crop. It took us two tries, but it came right out.

After my adventures with Sunni, I am always extremely careful when it comes to strings and anything sharp and shiny.