Meyer Hatchery Chicken pics anyone??

[NotableNancy]

Here are my Meyer girls at 2 weeks and 5 days old (on their first outing in their run)

Tallulah (lavender orp)


Zuline (Blue splash marans?)


Delphine (Blue splash marans)

Bernadette (Welsummer)


Prudence and Hester (Dominiques)

(Hester is lying in the grass)

Prudence

Simone (Cuckoo marans)


And my baby, Edith P. (though I am afraid she may be a he), Black copper marans

So cute!!! And love the names!

I do regret too that I did not get chickens while my kids were younger, it would have been a great experience for them. I guess my future grandchildren will benefit from the experience instead.

X2. Hopefully far in the future since my boys are still teens

Came home from work today to a very horrified husband- apparently our young roo had been breeding our young hens all afternoon!! He says they were not all the most compliant of partners

let's hope all this sexual maturity means that we will get a few eggs before the light and weather really get terrible.

Fingers crossed for you!

 

[MsChickenMomma]

It's official. We are moving Sunni into the house this week. I just ordered two diapers from lovemychix (here on BYC) for her. She doesn't fit into the flock any more, and she's miserable if I put her into the coop. She has been spending a lot of time in the front of my barn away from the other chickens. She loves to be around me when I'm outside, so I think coming to live in the house will be good for her. And I won't have to worry about the chickens picking even more spikes off of her comb.

Now I just need to clean out the old dog igloo in the loft of my barn and get it set up in the house for her.

The other girls are doing great. Annie and Alice each give me a white egg almost every day, Ellie and Lucy lay eggs 1-3 times per week, and Amber, Lizzie and Lilly are getting close to laying. All three of them are normally terrified of me, but they are starting to get braver around me. Ellie did the same thing. She got very sweet towards me just a few days before she laid her first egg. So hopefully soon! Daffodil has only laid the one egg. I'm starting to wonder if it was even hers.

It could have been an odd egg from one of my adults. It's hard to know when you have 22 hens running around the place.

They keep my rooster busy though.

 

[NanaLynn]

My neighbor that I chicken sit for is getting 25 new chicks from Murray McMurray so I can live vicariously through her! I tried to talk her into buying from Meyer but she wants Americana and thought the price at Meyer was crazy ($18) when Murray is only $3.50. I tried to tell here they aren't real Americana but since she has one "Americana" from Murray purchased 2 yrs ago and it lays a light blue egg she thinks it is a true Americana. Oh well. Can't wait to see her chicks! AND was tempted to piggy back on her order but refrained.

I THINK my last EE laid yesterday because I finally saw her jump out of the nest when I walked in the coop and there was an egg in there that looks different from all others I typically get. NO it's not green/blue. It's a light creamy color. How the heck could I have such bad luck. She has all the signs to lay a colored egg. True pea comb, green legs, beard etc. So only 1 out of 4 lays green. At least I can justify getting more next spring chicks! May get them from my local feed store that buys from Ideal but it's still a long way away. They get such amazing breeds for a feed store and you can order what you want, it's not just pot luck.
I will probably have to get rid of a couple girls to add more but I already know I'll give away one of my RIR's - she still sneaks up on me and pecks my leg so hard it feels like she takes a chunk out. I've tried holding her and walking around with her but it doesn't stop her from doing it again the next day. She's also such a tyrant in the coop and kicks certain girls out of the nests when they are trying to lay. They often end up laying in the run or poop board because they just can't hold it anymore I guess

Guess your neighbor is getting some EE's? I guess eventually they'll learn. I do love the EE's though. I would have been tempted as well. It is easier to say no to chicks now since Winter is coming.
Maybe there is still hope for your EE and that was someone else's egg? I thought Daisy had started but I think each time it was Ash's egg. I watched Daisy and her egg is smaller and more pointed then I thought. So what I thought was her egg was Ash's at first and she really just started squatting last week, but made noise and went to the nest boxes a week or two before she actually started laying. I hope you still have a chance for your EE. I hope my two new ones will lay blue/green eggs too! Still nothing from Olivia, so all brown eggs each day. We have family in visiting too and it is always fun to show off the green egg. Oh well...

I understand about that RIR, I still have to watch Pepper too, she makes little holes in my legs if I don't watch my back. We have friends who may start keeping chickens and I am really considering giving Pepper to them. I'd like to give away a couple more too, but no one else is mean yet or annoys me enough to get rid of. Pepper is not as mean to the others as your RIR is though.

It's official. We are moving Sunni into the house this week. I just ordered two diapers from lovemychix (here on BYC) for her. She doesn't fit into the flock any more, and she's miserable if I put her into the coop. She has been spending a lot of time in the front of my barn away from the other chickens. She loves to be around me when I'm outside, so I think coming to live in the house will be good for her. And I won't have to worry about the chickens picking even more spikes off of her comb.

Now I just need to clean out the old dog igloo in the loft of my barn and get it set up in the house for her.

The other girls are doing great. Annie and Alice each give me a white egg almost every day, Ellie and Lucy lay eggs 1-3 times per week, and Amber, Lizzie and Lilly are getting close to laying. All three of them are normally terrified of me, but they are starting to get braver around me. Ellie did the same thing. She got very sweet towards me just a few days before she laid her first egg. So hopefully soon! Daffodil has only laid the one egg. I'm starting to wonder if it was even hers.

It could have been an odd egg from one of my adults. It's hard to know when you have 22 hens running around the place.

They keep my rooster busy though.

Oh wow, you will have an interesting life and house with a pet chicken in it. Good luck!

So my chickens are not very bright or maybe it is just their natural survival instincts. Anyway last night was supposed to get to freezing for the first night here, so I covered the coop with blankets.
I put blankets over the too large windows and also the human door which is mainly just hardware cloth. I went back after dark and most of the chickens were too scared to go inside the coop, guess it was too dark. So I was taking them off the roosts outside in the run and putting them in the chicken door.
I ended up taking the cover off the human door so a little light would go in and that seemed to help, but there was still a couple more that were wandering back out to the run when I left them. Hopefully they are all okay this morning. It got down to 32 degrees. I'm going to get some clear vinyl today to cover the windows instead of the dark blankets to hopefully stop them from being so scared of the coop. I really do not want frozen chickens.

 

[RoostersCrow HensDeliver!]

You don't need to worry about them freezing, trapping moisture in the coop is their worst threat. I had better luck keeping the windows cracked open in my coop last winder during our single digit weeks than keeping everything shut up tight. When I had everything closed up that's when I was dealing with frostbite on my boys' combs. I let the coop ventilate, problem solved.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

If the ventilation is above your birds' heads, you shouldn't have any problems with them getting too cold. I have several vents in the peak of my coop and along the lower edges of the roof that are open year round without issue. We just built a coop addition with more year-round ventilation, so I'm hoping I won't have to worry about frostbite with the huge combs my Leghorns and Ancona have.

Just remember, they have a thick down feather coat on to keep them warm. If you really want to do something to help with keeping them warm, snuggle them up together on the same perch after dark. I've also heard of 'huddle boxes' for chickens, though I'm not sure how they work to keep the birds warm without trapping moisture. Anyway, trust me, even my tiny Sebright bantams have no problems on cold nights, and they sleep up in the rafters of my coop.

 

[chickadee5002]

I went out this morning and no egg yet. A couple of the nest boxes looked like there had been a chicken making a nest in it. I come home from work low and behold! My first egg from one of my buffs! Sorry had to show everyone what my buffs did! My very first egg! They are 24 weeks old yesterday. I got them as day old chicks from Meyer

 

[MsChickenMomma]

I went out this morning and no egg yet. A couple of the nest boxes looked like there had been a chicken making a nest in it. I come home from work low and behold! My first egg from one of my buffs! Sorry had to show everyone what my buffs did! My very first egg! They are 24 weeks old yesterday. I got them as day old chicks from Meyer

Very pretty! Congratulations!

 

[trsturself]

I went out this morning and no egg yet. A couple of the nest boxes looked like there had been a chicken making a nest in it. I come home from work low and behold! My first egg from one of my buffs! Sorry had to show everyone what my buffs did! My very first egg! They are 24 weeks old yesterday. I got them as day old chicks from Meyer

The first egg is always exciting.


Our cochin is either already laying or about to. She is more than 2 fingers and her vent looks like she's laying but if she is I have no idea when she started or which egg is hers. We got 2 large eggs today, one of which didn't look familiar, but I saw our BR in the nest today and didn't see her egg so I figured it was hers. Next coop we build I'm definitely getting the nest cam! But I want one that will take a pic every 5 min so I can review the day!

 

[chickadee5002]

Thank you! Yes that first egg is awesome! I almost fainted I was so excited!

 

[NanaLynn]

I went out this morning and no egg yet. A couple of the nest boxes looked like there had been a chicken making a nest in it. I come home from work low and behold! My first egg from one of my buffs! Sorry had to show everyone what my buffs did! My very first egg! They are 24 weeks old yesterday. I got them as day old chicks from Meyer

That is a pretty egg! Love those first eggs! Especially after waiting so long and watching those little chicks grow up. I am still amazed at the process.

Well I took down the scary blankets the next day and I have some vinyl covering the huge windows in the coop. I have a open air coop. The clear vinyl lets the light in too, so that it is not so scary. I left the door alone so there is plenty of air flow there, where the walls meet the roof there is airflow and I made sure to loosely cover the windows too. So I am hoping there is a good balance of direct air verses ventilation. I fixed the vinyl so it can be opened during the day too. Plus, we are climbing back up to the 60's or 70's in the next few days. Weird weather here in NC. Thanks for all the advice, hopefully I did it right. I used a huddle box when the chickens were little and it worked out well until they were too big for it.