Meyer Hatchery Chicken pics anyone??

[MsChickenMomma]

You can check her pelvic bones easily. Hold her so you can see her vent. You will be able to feel her pelvic bones by pressing your hand just below her vent. There will be two knobby bones sticking out, the amount of space in between the bones will tell you if she is laying or not. If you can only fit 2 fingers in between them, she's not laying. If you can fit three or more fingers between, she's either laying or going to shortly.

Ok thanks! I'll be sure and check her tomorrow.

 

[kbh82310]

She has taken a turn for the worse. Barely holding her head up :-(

I'm sorry. What has she been getting?

 

[kbh82310]

Oh and Lynn, I got him when I was still living with my parents about 6 years ago and when my mom saw him I had to say it was a legless lizard cause if she knew what it really was she would flip. She found out the truth after I moved out and she wasn't happy. He is cool but his cage takes up a lot of space. And I can't hold him unless my husband is home (hubby's rule, but is not a bad idea) he tried to get me a few times so I don't handle him unless I need too

 

[The Howards]

TaDa! The new egg is on the right, I now think it is the Blue Swedish ducks egg, she has been showing the most interest in the coop. The buffs just follow her up in there. It is laying next to a Pekin egg and is about the size of a large chicken egg. She is such a big duck and it seems strange that she would lay such a small egg. It may get larger as time goes on I guess as it did for some of the others.
Oh and one of the cinn. queens (Red) is starting to squat a bit already!!

 

[NotableNancy]

When I went out to collect eggs at 4:00 today I had a total of 7 for the day... not bad but then when I went out at 7 to kick my Cochin off the nest there were 2 eggs under her... not hers!! So she must have let others in there to lay (or rolled them in there but there's a big lip on the edge of the nest so I doubt that) so I got a total of 9 again.
AND one of them I assume was Izzy's cause it was green but the other was an oddly shaped egg and is a beautiful creamy color!! I'm guessing that it's from my last EE to lay... who else?
Would my BA lay a cream colored egg? I just looked at Meyer site and the BB shows a cream color egg as a possibility. Could it be her already. Is that really early for a BB to lay, almost 24 weeks?
BUT seriously... is that really unusual to get 4 EE's and have only 1 lay a green egg? Do I have terrible luck?
I'll take a pic tomorrow.
I may have to trade a few brown egg layers next year for a few new EE's and a Leghorn. I'm not sure if my coop can hold any more chickens without getting rid of a few. I'll know after this winter.

OH... AND then after I kicked the Cochin off the nest the chickens were surrounding the nest and acting crazy interested... then one of my RIR's comes running full speed out of the coop with what I was guessing was a soft shell/skin of an egg! Half the hens started chasing her for that and the other half were running into the coop to eat the raw egg

Pure chaos... then there's me sprinting out of the run to get the access to the other side of the nest to get the raw egg out before all the chickens turn into egg eaters! Anyway... I have no idea who laid that mess but I could have had 10 eggs today. Crazy

You can check her pelvic bones easily. Hold her so you can see her vent. You will be able to feel her pelvic bones by pressing your hand just below her vent. There will be two knobby bones sticking out, the amount of space in between the bones will tell you if she is laying or not. If you can only fit 2 fingers in between them, she's not laying. If you can fit three or more fingers between, she's either laying or going to shortly.

I'm going to try that tomorrow on my BB. She'll let me do it. My BA's on the other hand might not take to kindly to it. If I'm feeling adventurous I will go for it. But my EE won't let me near her so that's out.

When off the nest, is she making a low, constant 'book-book-book' sound? Walking around with her feathers fluffed? Glaring, screeching, or acting threateningly toward the others if they come close? Defending her nest by growling, screeching, or pecking your hand? I have hens that spend hours on the nest while deciding if they're going to lay or not and they never go broody, but if she wanted to sleep on the nest, that sounds more like broody behavior. However, keep a close eye on her just in case. If she's not exhibiting much as far as broody behavior and just wants to sit on the nest, she may be ill and wanting to seclude herself in a dark place to rest.

As for what to do with her if she really is broody, it depends on whether you want her to raise chicks or not. If you want her to brood, leave her be and see if you can find some fertile eggs for her. She's awfully young and may not stick with it for long, though, so I wouldn't go too expensive on hatching eggs in case she quits on them.

If you don't want her to brood, keep her off the nest as much as possible. Some say if you leave them be they'll snap out of it after the amount of time it would have taken for eggs to hatch--however, I have heard of hens brooding for months and months and becoming dangerously thin. When my girls start to brood, I get a piece of fence, a dog crate, or a cage of any sort, just something to keep her off the nest but still in the flock, and keep her there until she quits. It usually doesn't take long, especially if she's in a high-traffic area and has nowhere dark or hidden to go to to keep her brain on brooding. Most of mine quit within a week or two of being kept off the nest.

Thank you for all of this. She certainly seems broody and not ill. Makes a funny noise if she's sitting on the nest and another chicken gets to close then she attacked Junior when I kicked her out and Jr. tried to get in. And all fluffed up when I kick her out but after a couple of minutes back to normal looking.
I kept kicking her out of the nest and tonight I went out after dark and she was sleeping in there so I took her out and put her on the roost. I just checked my camera (yay,another reason to get one!) and she is sleeping up there so I guess that's good.
I think when she's older it would be fun to give her some eggs and see what happens. I know 2 people near me that have roosters so maybe I could buy some eggs from them and see what happens. But for now, I think she's a bit young so we'll wait on that.
We'll see what happens the next few days. Once when I kicked her off the nest I did my 'chick chick' call and threw out some sunflower seeds and she did run over to eat some but I didn't see her eat much else today. At least tomorrow the heat is supposed to break and be a bit cooler for the weekend. It was pretty hot to sit in the coop all day!

Oh wow! Did she even start laying eggs yet? I'd help, but too new at this myself.

Yup, she lays a cute light brown egg that is practically round rather than traditional egg shape.

 

[Poohb10454]

I'm sorry. What has she been getting?

Every 2 hours I'm feeding her the starter watered down with the electrolyte water. Plus water in a dropper. Also did a drop of nutri drench earlier today.

 

[trsturself]

Sad news, we had a quick bad storm roll through when we weren't home. We have a couple inches of hail on our porch!
we went to put our girls up for the night when we got home and we found our little silkie dead by the fence
We figure the storm came on quick and confused them. Even the girls that made it in the coop were wet. I think she froze or got hit on the head with something. Can't think of any other explanation.
Only silver lining is that we found out it was a roo today. It buffered the blow a little since we would have to give him up anyway but it is still hard. I miss him already.

Other bad news, I'm pretty sure our polish splash is a roo. My friend brought the silkies hatch mate over that we know is a roo and our silkie and polish both started chest bumping and fluffing up and fighting with him.

Bad day in our chicken world.

 

[kbh82310]

Sad news, we had a quick bad storm roll through when we weren't home. We have a couple inches of hail on our porch!
we went to put our girls up for the night when we got home and we found our little silkie dead by the fence
We figure the storm came on quick and confused them. Even the girls that made it in the coop were wet. I think she froze or got hit on the head with something. Can't think of any other explanation.
Only silver lining is that we found out it was a roo today. It buffered the blow a little since we would have to give him up anyway but it is still hard. I miss him already.

Other bad news, I'm pretty sure our polish splash is a roo. My friend brought the silkies hatch mate over that we know is a roo and our silkie and polish both started chest bumping and fluffing up and fighting with him.

Bad day in our chicken world.

I'm so sorry, is it the same Silkie you posted on here a couple days ago? How did you find out it was a roo, cause he went after your friends Silkie or did he crow? He must have gotten hit with hail cause mine have stayed out in down pours and I haven't had a issue. I hope your splash polish isn't a roo, she is so pretty!

Every 2 hours I'm feeding her the starter watered down with the electrolyte water. Plus water in a dropper. Also did a drop of nutri drench earlier today.

I really hope she makes it. The first couple days it was hard with heather too. It wasn't till Friday when she started improving. I tried putting vit e with it but it was really thick so I think it was harder to get down so I just stuck with grogel and chick starter.

 

[Poohb10454]

Sad news, we had a quick bad storm roll through when we weren't home. We have a couple inches of hail on our porch!
we went to put our girls up for the night when we got home and we found our little silkie dead by the fence

We figure the storm came on quick and confused them. Even the girls that made it in the coop were wet. I think she froze or got hit on the head with something. Can't think of any other explanation.
Only silver lining is that we found out it was a roo today. It buffered the blow a little since we would have to give him up anyway but it is still hard. I miss him already.

Other bad news, I'm pretty sure our polish splash is a roo. My friend brought the silkies hatch mate over that we know is a roo and our silkie and polish both started chest bumping and fluffing up and fighting with him.

Bad day in our chicken world.

I am so sorry :-( That is hearbreaking but I do understand what you mean about the fact that he is a roo softening the blow....it still doesnt make it easier though. Not a fun day at all.

I'm so sorry, is it the same Silkie you posted on here a couple days ago? How did you find out it was a roo, cause he went after your friends Silkie or did he crow? He must have gotten hit with hail cause mine have stayed out in down pours and I haven't had a issue. I hope your splash polish isn't a roo, she is so pretty!
I really hope she makes it. The first couple days it was hard with heather too. It wasn't till Friday when she started improving. I tried putting vit e with it but it was really thick so I think it was harder to get down so I just stuck with grogel and chick starter.

We lost her last night I tried everything I could...I stayed up with her until almost 3 am. Poor baby. I really had hope yesterday because she was improving for a few hours.

 

[trsturself]

Yes, same silkie. He didn't crow but his reaction to the other silkie told everything. It wasn't just the usual pecking order stuff. The rest of the girls did that, but those two got all fluffed up and really went at him.