Meyer Hatchery Chicken pics anyone??

[christine9]

Well, I'm about to run out of chick food...and my CCL are  11 weeks old while my Meyers chicks are 8 weeks old. Obviously I don't want to buy another 50 lb bag of chick food. But I don't think they are ready for layer food yet. My CCL are getting quite red combs though!

What should I do?? And what about oyster shell? I didn't think I should be adding that until they start laying, but should I add it closer to when the CCL are 18 weeks? Feeding mixed groups is difficult!! 

I switch to grower/finisher after 8 weeks. You could feed that to everyone and leave your oyster shell out in a separate feeder for the big girls.

 

[NotableNancy]

Some garden and fruit shots from Colorful Colorado. The peaches come from the western slopes of Colorado, in a place called Palisade. They are known here as Palisade Peaches, they are a box of I heaven. So I have been plotting my attack, first we have been sampling lots, my cute BF ate three on the way home from picking them up.


Our Tomatoes are coming on strong now...



Our lone pumpkin, a little late but should be big, actually I think we have one more in the rocks.


We have had a blessed cooler summer and a lot of moisture of late, we even went mushroom hunting today on our property and got a large amount!

Awesome.... I'm so jealous!! We've gotten about 10 tomatoes all summer because we have to grow in pots where nothing will find and eat them. Tons of jalapeños though!

OH MY GOSH! Maybe that's the other ameraucana I ordered and it was the lav orp that passed? Splash ameraucana??

Ohhhh, LOVE them!!! Fingers crossed for blue eggs!! Big diff. in price too... I would call and let them know the possible mix up and see what they say.

 

[rnchick74]

I switch to grower/finisher after 8 weeks. You could feed that to everyone and leave your oyster shell out in a separate feeder for the big girls.

I will have to look and see if they have this at our feed store...surely they do! What age do you start the oyster shell? And what age do you change to layer?

 

[christine9]

I will have to look and see if they have this at our feed store...surely they do! What age do you start the oyster shell? And what age do you change to layer?

I put oyster shell out the first egg shows up. That might be a little late. I switched to layer once my grower/finisher was gone lol.

 

[christine9]

Ohhhh, LOVE them!!!  Fingers crossed for blue eggs!!  Big diff. in price too... I would call and let them know the possible mix up and see what they say.

I will let them know. Another $15 towards my order for next year would be great! My poor DH is going to be disappointed this is not his purple chicken. Also time for a name change. My chicken so I can name her! Limabean it is! Plum will have to come next year! I don't think I will sleep tonight. All those blue eggs. Blue and black baby chicks! Aaahhhh!

 

[trsturself]

Feeding a mixed flock is hard when you buy bagged food. Our previous feed store carried layer or chick starter. Nothing else. Try to find something that is around 16-18% protein that isn't layer and put the oyster shell out separately. The little ones won't eat it but your layers will. They'll know when to start eating it. Without a mixed flock you should have a source of calcium by 18 weeks.

 

[autumnhearth]

I will have to look and see if they have this at our feed store...surely they do! What age do you start the oyster shell? And what age do you change to layer?

Yes, I also switched from starter to grower/broiler at 8 weeks (you can also look for flock raiser). At just before 14 weeks I was running low on the grower and it was time to order so I got a 25 bag of grower and a 25 bag of layer. After 16 weeks I started mixing them until the grower was gone. But I would start layer feed no earlier than 16 weeks, 18 weeks would be fine and that's when I put out the oyster shells free choice.

Sigh. I said earlier that Amelia was having a hard time today, it ended up taking 5 hours from the time she started whining and going into the nest boxes until the time she lay. She just couldn't get comfortable and kept going up high on the perches and was looking for ways to get out of the run, at one point she was standing in front of the coop window gazing at the trees longingly. She had a couple breaks, laying down with her sisters and during one particularly long anxious stretch I took her inside and sat her bottom down in warm water to try to relax her which seemed to take her mind off laying entirely, she just closed her eyes and napped then had a nice blow dry. I put her back out with her sisters and just let her readjust for a couple hours. When it was close to time to meet my son at the bus stop I checked on her again and she was back in the coop. Rowan wanted to come see her lay, but after 15 mins of him waiting patiently he gave up. She eventually settled down in one nest box as the storm rolled in. Poor dear didn't look so good, she was drooping her head and I was about to take her back inside but after I stroked her back a bit and encouraged her she started grunting, I told her to push, "good girl, keep pushing" yeah I'm probably a bit crazy for treating it like labor, but she did it. It was a very round egg, darker and warmer in color than the first two and she laid it in the nest box! Poor Amelia. No egg song from her yet, she was much more vocal before she laid though. Clara took a break today which is just fine, she laid 5 eggs in 7 days!


Earlier today before Amelia's first egg with tomatoes from our garden. Only 2 of these still have their insides intact. We blew out the other 5 and scrambled them.


The round egg looks lighter out in the rainy light


Inside. Love how the new egg makes her first two look more purple and pink. Husband only sees brown and blue (Clara's eggs are really bluish green). His dad and nephew are color blind but can differentiate between all the major colors, just has a hard time seeing subtle hues. Plus I took a color theory course in college. What do you all see?

Edited to add: This morning when I got back from the bus stop I let the girls out and Clara was missing. She was getting to work in the nest box early and didn't make a fuss this time, she took maybe 10 mins from the time I got home to lay. Seems her break yesterday did her well. And she only had a short egg song as she wanted to get right to eating clover and bugs. We'll see if Amelia takes a break today since she laid at 5pm.

 

[daniellea2912]

Aww you have an Amelia too! Haha Atilla the Hen, that's great. Love the name Rue and that nail polish! Sage is bootyful! And Poppy and Pepper are stunning.

Our Amelia laid her second egg this afternoon. I found it on the ground in the run, thankfully not broken. I scooped it and her up and showed her me putting it in the nest box. She seemed to whimper understandingly, haha how's that for anthropomorphizing? It's another pinkish white bloomed brown round egg. Funny how I was really wishing for a pink egg layer as two of the three chicks I have planned for the spring are brown layers.

Atilla the Hen has taken her name quite seriously and is the dominant hen in my flock

Thank you for the compliments on my other ladies! (and my nail polish

)

Welcome back, love your girls, they are all gorgeous and are the same age as ours.

Beautiful birds

Thank you both

I think they are very pretty ladies, but of course I am a little biased.

That was probably me... I have breeder CCL and one laid her first egg the day she turned 18 weeks and the other laid when she turned 19. Both are pretty green eggs. I was surprised about them not being blue... but they're very pretty!! They were so standoffish from the time I got them and now they just love me and always hover around my feet. So funny, as soon as they start to lay them like me better!!
I would look around for hidden eggs because yours look like they should be laying!
All your girls are so pretty!!!

I have been checking around everywhere I can think to look, but havent seen anything. Pepper just squatted for the first time like a day or two ago so hopefully they aren't hiding them from me.... No one else has squatted yet but geesh some of their combs are just crazy developed.

Unfortunately I had my first close encounter with a hawk this morning

so scary! I had just put the ladies out and they ran out and started rooting around... Then all the sudden they all came FLYING back to the coop and hid out underneath the lilac bush-a few of the older ladies were screeching what I am guessing was the "get the heck outta dodge" warning sound. They seemed much more shaken up than a usual hawk sighting- around here its when the hawk is way high up just flying over... I ran out to see what was up and saw a hawk in the next pasture over flying to a tree limb. Ran like crazy to corral Clove, who was the only one I saw not in the lilac bush. I think she sensed I was upset and ran for the lilac bush on her own. as I was running back to the coop to lock everyone up, the hawk landed an old playset like 15 feet in front of me. It was bigger than I expected but I have never been THAT close to a hawk. I think it was as surprised as I was that we were so close to each other and it scrambled to fly away. I got every one into the coop and counted and recounted realizing there were only 14.... I realized Poppy wasn't there! I panicked and looked for her everywhere, almost in tears when I finally locating her hiding in some yucca plants (which was an excellent hiding spot I must say).
Needless to say they are holed up in their coop and enclosed run for a few days at least-n which they are already not happy about. I figured I can do some supervised free range time over the weekend and see how that goes before I turn em loose. May be better for the youngins anyway since they will be laying anytime and they are more likely to lay in the boxes if they are confined to a smaller area. Plus even if they do lay outside the nestbox, they will be much easier to find.
Is fall a worse time for hawks? I'm not sure what type of hawk it was, it had a kind of white and brown stripey look to it from what my shaken up mind remembers.

 

[COChix]

Hey gang, I haven't had a chance to get caught up, but had to jump on and show this pic

All in the same nest box, I know one is Pepper the leader, the I suspect a Delli and a RIR as they have been checking out the next boxes.

 

[trsturself]

Atilla the Hen has taken her name quite seriously and is the dominant hen in my flock

Thank you for the compliments on my other ladies! (and my nail polish

)
Thank you both

I think they are very pretty ladies, but of course I am a little biased.

I have been checking around everywhere I can think to look, but havent seen anything. Pepper just squatted for the first time like a day or two ago so hopefully they aren't hiding them from me.... No one else has squatted yet but geesh some of their combs are just crazy developed.

Unfortunately I had my first close encounter with a hawk this morning

so scary! I had just put the ladies out and they ran out and started rooting around... Then all the sudden they all came FLYING back to the coop and hid out underneath the lilac bush-a few of the older ladies were screeching what I am guessing was the "get the heck outta dodge" warning sound. They seemed much more shaken up than a usual hawk sighting- around here its when the hawk is way high up just flying over... I ran out to see what was up and saw a hawk in the next pasture over flying to a tree limb. Ran like crazy to corral Clove, who was the only one I saw not in the lilac bush. I think she sensed I was upset and ran for the lilac bush on her own. as I was running back to the coop to lock everyone up, the hawk landed an old playset like 15 feet in front of me. It was bigger than I expected but I have never been THAT close to a hawk. I think it was as surprised as I was that we were so close to each other and it scrambled to fly away. I got every one into the coop and counted and recounted realizing there were only 14.... I realized Poppy wasn't there! I panicked and looked for her everywhere, almost in tears when I finally locating her hiding in some yucca plants (which was an excellent hiding spot I must say).
Needless to say they are holed up in their coop and enclosed run for a few days at least-n which they are already not happy about. I figured I can do some supervised free range time over the weekend and see how that goes before I turn em loose. May be better for the youngins anyway since they will be laying anytime and they are more likely to lay in the boxes if they are confined to a smaller area. Plus even if they do lay outside the nestbox, they will be much easier to find.
Is fall a worse time for hawks? I'm not sure what type of hawk it was, it had a kind of white and brown stripey look to it from what my shaken up mind remembers.

Sounds like a Cooper's Hawk, AKA Chicken Hawk. That's the one that landed in our tree 10 ft from me and wouldn't leave until we hit it with a pellet gun! They are known for going after chickens, hence the nickname. They will fly to a nearby perch and watch and then attack one that is vulnerable. They can fit through small openings because they are used to flying through tree branches. Only good thing is, if the chickens see it coming in for a landing on a perch, they usually have time to hide before it attacks. But if it gets to a good perching site without being seen in the air, they won't notice it and it will have a good change of getting one. They don't carry the chickens off, they aren't strong enough for that. What they do is land on them, hold them with their talons, and then just start ripping into them! Horrible!

I think our latest visitor is a Swainson's Hawk. It's hard to take the time to identify them, you just go into panic mode and want them gone. But I don't remember it being stripey like the Cooper's Hawk. And I've seen quite a few Swainson's Hawks while driving around the area.

My flock is free ranging right now but it's foggy and freezing out. I think the hawks will be snug in their nests right now.