Meyer Hatchery Chicken pics anyone??

[MsChickenMomma]

Lizzie laid her first egg this morning!! When I went out this morning she was frantically trying to find a "safe" place to lay it. She was jumping up on top of the PVC feeders trying to find a way out of the coop, and she was making tons of racket. So I picked her up and put her in one of the nest boxes. She fiddled with the shavings for an hour and finally laid a cute little white egg. She bled a little bit, ( ) but she seems fine otherwise. She will be 26 weeks old tomorrow.



Lynn: Whenever she shows signs that she has to lay an egg, I take the diaper off. Sunni has a good way of letting me know when it's egg laying time. She'll pase and make tons of noise.

Nancy: When a chicken is being stubborn, they'll hold poop for a long time. My DM (Dearest Mother) was very much against having a chicken in the house, but with enough research on my part, she ended up giving me the okay.

 

[trsturself]

I love reading about Sunni's adventures. You should write a book from her perspective.

Yeah for Lizzie's first egg!

I had to go by real powder to get rid of the lice/mites that the chickens have. I did the DE and it hasn't seemed to help. It's hard to tell though because I can't see any bugs on them, just a bunch of eggs on the feathers. Anyway we dusted everyone on thursday and will repeat tomorrow. I have a dust bath spot for them now but haven't seen any of them use it yet. It looks like someone is but no other evidence of it.
What led me to buy the real stuff was...
I was outside Thursday getting the Halloween decorations out and noticed our little GLP (Pippi) was laying in the sun face down. When I opened the gate she popped up and ran away so I figured she was just sun bathing. I laughed and told my daughter how she looked dead the way she was laying. A little later I walked by again and she was sun bathing with her wings out. This isn't an odd thing since all the chickens like to soak up the sun so I didn't think much about it. Around an hour or two later I checked on the flock in the garden and noticed Pippi wasn't with the flock which is odd. She is still young and is always at least with her last hatch mate. So I started looking for her. I saw her tail peeking out of the hidey hole we have for the rabbit. I pulled her out and she could barely lift her head up and her neck looked all crooked! I immediately brought her inside. Her crop was completely empty and her neck was going all sorts of directions. I dipped her beak in some water w/ vitamins and she just sat there. So I got the dropper out and started dripping the vitamin water inside her beak. She wouldn't even make the effort to swallow it, just let it drip down. We got some water in her and then some watered down food. That night after trick-or-treating my daughter fed her some more and she went to bed. Yesterday morning she looked a lot better. She was standing and my daughter said she was eating and drinking on her own. I left to go to work. I came back a few hours later (yes, my job only took an hour or two) and I thought she was dead when I checked on her. She couldn't lift her head at all and was just laying in the cage. We went and got a few mealworms and some vitamin E. We forced her to eat a bunch of meal worms, some vitamin water, and a couple drops of vitamin E. My daughter did this every hour or so and she started getting a little better. Before we left for dinner she was eating mealworms on her own and standing up. When we came back from dinner I checked on her and she was laying on the bottom of the cage shaking. We put a little washcloth over her and settled her down hoping she was just cold. She finally closed her eye and lay still. I thought for sure she'd be dead this morning. I was very surprised to open my daughter's bedroom door and there she is standing up straight pecking at the food we had left in there. I brought her a plate of apple pulp and mashed sweet potatoes and she started gobbling them right up. I hope she makes a full recovery! She was supposed to go home with a friend of ours yesterday but of course we didn't let her take her.

On a brighter note...
That same friend took 2 of our other chickens (our Andalusian and splash polish). Now once we get rid of Pippi (we never intended on keeping her) we will be down to 7 of our own chickens (9 in residence). I told my daughter we can have a max of 10 of our own chickens. She told my husband she wants a porcelain d'uccle and a silkie. So yesterday my husband tells me this and I say yes, I know. And get this... he comes back and says we should get at least 5 chicks just to make sure we get one that survives. Then I tell him that both of those are usually straight run because they are bantams so we should get a few more of each. So he suggests 10 of each and we'll sell what we don't keep. This coming from the guy that said no more chicks and constantly asks when they'll be out of the house! lol! He's definitely been bitten by the chicken bug! I better put in my order before he changes his mind. I also want a new brooder. I want to make sure it wasn't our setup this year that caused so many problems. Better get him building that too.

 

[NanaLynn]

I love reading about Sunni's adventures. You should write a book from her perspective.

Yeah for Lizzie's first egg!

I had to go by real powder to get rid of the lice/mites that the chickens have. I did the DE and it hasn't seemed to help. It's hard to tell though because I can't see any bugs on them, just a bunch of eggs on the feathers. Anyway we dusted everyone on thursday and will repeat tomorrow. I have a dust bath spot for them now but haven't seen any of them use it yet. It looks like someone is but no other evidence of it.
What led me to buy the real stuff was...
I was outside Thursday getting the Halloween decorations out and noticed our little GLP (Pippi) was laying in the sun face down. When I opened the gate she popped up and ran away so I figured she was just sun bathing. I laughed and told my daughter how she looked dead the way she was laying. A little later I walked by again and she was sun bathing with her wings out. This isn't an odd thing since all the chickens like to soak up the sun so I didn't think much about it. Around an hour or two later I checked on the flock in the garden and noticed Pippi wasn't with the flock which is odd. She is still young and is always at least with her last hatch mate. So I started looking for her. I saw her tail peeking out of the hidey hole we have for the rabbit. I pulled her out and she could barely lift her head up and her neck looked all crooked! I immediately brought her inside. Her crop was completely empty and her neck was going all sorts of directions. I dipped her beak in some water w/ vitamins and she just sat there. So I got the dropper out and started dripping the vitamin water inside her beak. She wouldn't even make the effort to swallow it, just let it drip down. We got some water in her and then some watered down food. That night after trick-or-treating my daughter fed her some more and she went to bed. Yesterday morning she looked a lot better. She was standing and my daughter said she was eating and drinking on her own. I left to go to work. I came back a few hours later (yes, my job only took an hour or two) and I thought she was dead when I checked on her. She couldn't lift her head at all and was just laying in the cage. We went and got a few mealworms and some vitamin E. We forced her to eat a bunch of meal worms, some vitamin water, and a couple drops of vitamin E. My daughter did this every hour or so and she started getting a little better. Before we left for dinner she was eating mealworms on her own and standing up. When we came back from dinner I checked on her and she was laying on the bottom of the cage shaking. We put a little washcloth over her and settled her down hoping she was just cold. She finally closed her eye and lay still. I thought for sure she'd be dead this morning. I was very surprised to open my daughter's bedroom door and there she is standing up straight pecking at the food we had left in there. I brought her a plate of apple pulp and mashed sweet potatoes and she started gobbling them right up. I hope she makes a full recovery! She was supposed to go home with a friend of ours yesterday but of course we didn't let her take her.

On a brighter note...
That same friend took 2 of our other chickens (our Andalusian and splash polish). Now once we get rid of Pippi (we never intended on keeping her) we will be down to 7 of our own chickens (9 in residence). I told my daughter we can have a max of 10 of our own chickens. She told my husband she wants a porcelain d'uccle and a silkie. So yesterday my husband tells me this and I say yes, I know. And get this... he comes back and says we should get at least 5 chicks just to make sure we get one that survives. Then I tell him that both of those are usually straight run because they are bantams so we should get a few more of each. So he suggests 10 of each and we'll sell what we don't keep. This coming from the guy that said no more chicks and constantly asks when they'll be out of the house! lol! He's definitely been bitten by the chicken bug! I better put in my order before he changes his mind. I also want a new brooder. I want to make sure it wasn't our setup this year that caused so many problems. Better get him building that too.

Wow, so sorry to hear about Pippi, I hope she improves soon. It sounds like you have it all figured out with all your chicken calculations though.

My husband has grown attached to our chickens as well. I guess the key was to get chickens and let them get attached to them, then order more.

Your daughter has some good choices in chickens too.

 

[trsturself]

Well Pippi is doing great. She's pretty much back to normal. She was outside in the yard with everyone yesterday until evening. We brought her inside for the night just to make sure she's ok. She is back outside today and you wouldn't even know she was on death's bed just a few days ago!

I wouldn't mind ordering from Meyer again but they don't have the porcelain d'uccle so I'm thinking of just ordering hatching eggs from different breeders and getting an incubator and trying it that way. I know the hatch rate for shipped eggs is much lower but the cost is also a lot lower. We'll see. We've got a few months to figure it out.

 

[NotableNancy]

I had to go by real powder to get rid of the lice/mites that the chickens have. I did the DE and it hasn't seemed to help. It's hard to tell though because I can't see any bugs on them, just a bunch of eggs on the feathers. Anyway we dusted everyone on thursday and will repeat tomorrow. I have a dust bath spot for them now but haven't seen any of them use it yet. It looks like someone is but no other evidence of it.
What led me to buy the real stuff was...
I was outside Thursday getting the Halloween decorations out and noticed our little GLP (Pippi) was laying in the sun face down. When I opened the gate she popped up and ran away so I figured she was just sun bathing. I laughed and told my daughter how she looked dead the way she was laying. A little later I walked by again and she was sun bathing with her wings out. This isn't an odd thing since all the chickens like to soak up the sun so I didn't think much about it. Around an hour or two later I checked on the flock in the garden and noticed Pippi wasn't with the flock which is odd. She is still young and is always at least with her last hatch mate. So I started looking for her. I saw her tail peeking out of the hidey hole we have for the rabbit. I pulled her out and she could barely lift her head up and her neck looked all crooked! I immediately brought her inside. Her crop was completely empty and her neck was going all sorts of directions. I dipped her beak in some water w/ vitamins and she just sat there. So I got the dropper out and started dripping the vitamin water inside her beak. She wouldn't even make the effort to swallow it, just let it drip down. We got some water in her and then some watered down food. That night after trick-or-treating my daughter fed her some more and she went to bed. Yesterday morning she looked a lot better. She was standing and my daughter said she was eating and drinking on her own. I left to go to work. I came back a few hours later (yes, my job only took an hour or two) and I thought she was dead when I checked on her. She couldn't lift her head at all and was just laying in the cage. We went and got a few mealworms and some vitamin E. We forced her to eat a bunch of meal worms, some vitamin water, and a couple drops of vitamin E. My daughter did this every hour or so and she started getting a little better. Before we left for dinner she was eating mealworms on her own and standing up. When we came back from dinner I checked on her and she was laying on the bottom of the cage shaking. We put a little washcloth over her and settled her down hoping she was just cold. She finally closed her eye and lay still. I thought for sure she'd be dead this morning. I was very surprised to open my daughter's bedroom door and there she is standing up straight pecking at the food we had left in there. I brought her a plate of apple pulp and mashed sweet potatoes and she started gobbling them right up. I hope she makes a full recovery! She was supposed to go home with a friend of ours yesterday but of course we didn't let her take her.

On a brighter note...
That same friend took 2 of our other chickens (our Andalusian and splash polish). Now once we get rid of Pippi (we never intended on keeping her) we will be down to 7 of our own chickens (9 in residence). I told my daughter we can have a max of 10 of our own chickens. She told my husband she wants a porcelain d'uccle and a silkie. So yesterday my husband tells me this and I say yes, I know. And get this... he comes back and says we should get at least 5 chicks just to make sure we get one that survives. Then I tell him that both of those are usually straight run because they are bantams so we should get a few more of each. So he suggests 10 of each and we'll sell what we don't keep. This coming from the guy that said no more chicks and constantly asks when they'll be out of the house! lol! He's definitely been bitten by the chicken bug! I better put in my order before he changes his mind. I also want a new brooder. I want to make sure it wasn't our setup this year that caused so many problems. Better get him building that too.

It always seems like they get sick so fast! Glad to hear you helped her pull through and she's doing better!

Wow, so sorry to hear about Pippi, I hope she improves soon. It sounds like you have it all figured out with all your chicken calculations though.

My husband has grown attached to our chickens as well. I guess the key was to get chickens and let them get attached to them, then order more.

Your daughter has some good choices in chickens too.

The husbands are a surprise aren't they? When I told mine I would be getting rid of a few so I could get some different ones and started naming the ones headed out, he asked why I just don't get more without giving any away. I told him our coop can't hold anymore and he said, 'then we should get another coop!'

So I'm looking on Craig's list for something small that we can attach to the run. The run is plenty big
enough so that's not a problem. I only want to add 3 Leghorns and 3 EE's ( for now

) But my one RIR may still have to go... she's just a mean SOB to me and I end up carrying her around almost every time I'm out there.

 

[NotableNancy]

Yeah, Olivia is the same, she does not let me get close to her either. We have feathers everywhere as well from Olivia and from the 16 little ones too. I like the idea of eggs everyday that are 2.8 oz each or more. Your neighbor will have a lot of chickens once the new ones come! We found out that another one of our neighbors has a chicken and he asked to borrow our rooster, my husband explained that we do not have a rooster. Then he told my husband that his one chicken that he has lays 2 eggs a day!

I've never seen this chicken, but I guess he could have one in his big back yard, but 2 eggs a day? I believe he is a little confused....

My neighbor won't keep the older girls, they're going to eat them! Except for her EE (well, as she calls it her Americauna)
2 Eggs a day... find out where he got her and buy some of those... you could make a fortune selling them

They are looking pretty nice now, I'll try to get pictures, so far they are more shades of gold and brown. I am hoping I'll see more blue in one of them soon too, but so far not yet. The one I had and lost earlier in the year, Maddie, was more gold and brown and she was beautiful. I wouldn't mind having another one like her. I'll try to get pictures of them soon, I think they are almost 14 weeks now. We have family visiting for awhile, so I have not had my "chicken time" lately. I miss my special time with the girls.

Can't wait to see them!

 

[NanaLynn]

The husbands are a surprise aren't they? When I told mine I would be getting rid of a few so I could get some different ones and started naming the ones headed out, he asked why I just don't get more without giving any away. I told him our coop can't hold anymore and he said, 'then we should get another coop!' So I'm looking on Craig's list for something small that we can attach to the run. The run is plenty big
enough so that's not a problem. I only want to add 3 Leghorns and 3 EE's ( for now ) But my one RIR may still have to go... she's just a mean SOB to me and I end up carrying her around almost every time I'm out there.
The husbands are a surprise aren't they? When I told mine I would be getting rid of a few so I could get some different ones and started naming the ones headed out, he asked why I just don't get more without giving any away. I told him our coop can't hold anymore and he said, 'then we should get another coop!' So I'm looking on Craig's list for something small that we can attach to the run. The run is plenty big
enough so that's not a problem. I only want to add 3 Leghorns and 3 EE's ( for now ) But my one RIR may still have to go... she's just a mean SOB to me and I end up carrying her around almost every time I'm out there.

That's great, more chickens!!! I can't blame you for wanting to get rid of that RIR of yours, my BR is not as bad as yours.

Here are a few of my chickens, the little ones will be 14 weeks old tomorrow.
Dottie (CW) and Lacie (GLW), Heather the EE back middle.

Close up -Lacie GLW

Olivia ex-broody and now molting EE, she looks pretty rough now.

Izzie, Light Brown Leghorn, she now has white earlobes too.

Rocky, Partridge Rock in back with Izzie, LBL

Campi, Golden Campine

Mini, Welsummer with Andi, Blue Andulasion. She is getting white earlobes too, so I am a little confused about her.

Blackie, Black Australorp

Big Mama, BO

Campi- Golden Campine, closeup

Sally - SF

These are not great shots, I took them with my cellphone camera. I'll be sure to take some good shots with the SLR camera soon.

 

[NanaLynn]

I have tallied up the results for my Meyer chickens:

Here is the egg count for the current ones I have by month for 6 chickens:
July- 1 dozen- 5 of them just started laying
August- 10 dozen - still just the older 5 were laying
September - 9 dozen - my EE went broody
October - 8 dozen - my broody EE is molting and my 6th older chicken, Daisy the White Rock started laying early in the month, so I still do not have 6 laying at a time yet, but hopefully when my EE stops molting.

November - a little over a dozen so far and I am hoping by the end of the month a lot more once the 16 news chicks reach 16 weeks!

So what are your egg tallies for the past few months?

I have noticed a decrease due to the shorter days, I guess with the shorter days it's a couple of dozen a month less. I'll be buying eggs this month since we have family visiting and with Thanksgiving coming up too. Everyone loves my deviled eggs! Maybe next year I'll be able to make them with our eggs!

Also, I have not had a double yolker in awhile, miss those! Daisy has not given me a double yet, so maybe there's a chance from her. My leghorn and one of the marans are becoming more talkative to me, so maybe they will be early layers? Guess we'll see.

...and the picture is from August when my EE was still giving me the one green egg a day.

 

[MsChickenMomma]

That's a really good amount of eggs from 6 chickens! Most of my girls are all very old, so they don't lay very many eggs anymore. Most of the eggs I get now are from my Meyer girls.

I would have to look at my calender outside to see how many eggs i've gotten the past couple of months. I don't keep track of each bird, I just write down the amount of eggs I get each day. The only one I have been able to keep track of is Sunni. I'll go back through my calender and count later this afternoon.

I also have some sad news for everyone... In January or February of 2014 we are looking at a high possibility of having to move into city limits. The place we will most likely end up doesn't allow any chickens. Even if we can convince the city council to allow us to have some, we won't be able to have more than maybe six hens. If I am allowed to have some, I will only be able to keep my really old girls, because there is no way I'll be able to find homes for my 6 year old hens. So this means I will have to give up my Meyer babies.

The only one I will be able to keep is Sunni, because she lives in the house. I'm really disappointed by this... But I suppose it is what it is. If I am allowed to have chickens where we move, and my old girls pass on, I will definitely be ordering from Meyer again. I have already done a good deal of crying today...

I just hope I'll be able to find them all good homes. Especially my amazing rooster Rodney. It's so hard to find rooster's homes... Maybe it will be easier now, since I am re-homing all of my hens with him.. The move isn't set in stone yet, but it looks like we will most likely end up moving. We can't afford to keep renting this farmhouse, and we can't find another farm house that we can afford to pay rent for or purchase. Our only option is to move within the city limits. For now I'll just enjoy my babies while I still have them.

 

[NanaLynn]

That's a really good amount of eggs from 6 chickens! Most of my girls are all very old, so they don't lay very many eggs anymore. Most of the eggs I get now are from my Meyer girls.

I would have to look at my calender outside to see how many eggs i've gotten the past couple of months. I don't keep track of each bird, I just write down the amount of eggs I get each day. The only one I have been able to keep track of is Sunni. I'll go back through my calender and count later this afternoon.

I also have some sad news for everyone... In January or February of 2014 we are looking at a high possibility of having to move into city limits. The place we will most likely end up doesn't allow any chickens. Even if we can convince the city council to allow us to have some, we won't be able to have more than maybe six hens. If I am allowed to have some, I will only be able to keep my really old girls, because there is no way I'll be able to find homes for my 6 year old hens. So this means I will have to give up my Meyer babies.

The only one I will be able to keep is Sunni, because she lives in the house. I'm really disappointed by this... But I suppose it is what it is. If I am allowed to have chickens where we move, and my old girls pass on, I will definitely be ordering from Meyer again. I have already done a good deal of crying today...

I just hope I'll be able to find them all good homes. Especially my amazing rooster Rodney. It's so hard to find rooster's homes... Maybe it will be easier now, since I am re-homing all of my hens with him.. The move isn't set in stone yet, but it looks like we will most likely end up moving. We can't afford to keep renting this farmhouse, and we can't find another farm house that we can afford to pay rent for or purchase. Our only option is to move within the city limits. For now I'll just enjoy my babies while I still hav

That is terrible, I'm so sorry to hear. I would be so upset too.

I hope things change around and maybe you can keep them after all.

I've been tallying our counts verses cost of feed per chicken, etc. We really just want 16 chickens, that would mean just 2 50# bags per month. We are having to buy 3 bags a month for 22 chickens now which adds up. Plus city code says we should only have 20 and my coop is really just for 20, so we may be trying to re-home some of ours too, but I cannot imagine not being able to have any, I am so, so sorry. I am so hoping that your situation changes before next year and maybe it will all work out.