Meyer Hatchery Chicken pics anyone??

[christine9]

I love the explanation of wild type. It's not my favorite, but I love the variety it adds to my girls. I did kick all six 10 week olds out of the grow out pen today. It went pretty well. It seems that they outnumbering the older ones helps a lot! I just wrangled them all up and put them in the big girl coop for the night. I hope I remember to let them out in the morning lol! I haven't had to put any chickens to bed in a long time! Hopefully after this week, they'll be putting themselves to bed.
Oh and Peppy seems to be moving up the ranks. Two of the older girls give him the right of way, but my alpha Dellie still chased him around. Lol. I just love watching this unfold.

 

[christine9]

I have to post a pic of my BB Apricot! She's going through her first real molt and the new feathers have lacing that was not there before. She's even prettier now!! I can't wait till all the new feathers are in.

 

[trsturself]

I have to post a pic of my BB Apricot! She's going through her first real molt and the new feathers have lacing that was not there before. She's even prettier now!! I can't wait till all the new feathers are in.

beautiful!

 

[MamaShell]

I lug buckets of water in the winter. Actually I've been doing that since last winter since I haven't gotten our nipple system up and running since I took it down last winter. I love the rubber bowls for winter because they dump easily. When we got to negative temps for over a week last winter I put a heat lamp over their water outside to keep it from freezing during the day. It barely kept it above freezing! I've tried putting the water in the coop before but they got it filthy and got the shavings around it all wet. I guess if you could put something where it didn't get dirty and kept the water from everything else it would work. Our new coop has a little bench in it. I'm going to try putting their water on that this winter to see if it keeps it from freezing. I will still have to lug a bucket out but that's ok, it's just once a day and I have to make that trip out there a couple times a day anyway, so it's not costing me additional time.

Everyone is saying we are going to have a horrible winter this year, but it must be a late one because we usually have a first snow before Halloween but it's supposed to be 80 this weekend!

Thanks, some rubber bowls out and a hanging waterer inside are starting to look like the way to go. Thanks for the advise! I have to hang some tarps to try to block at least a corner of he run from wind and snow so that the girls can still get out this winter! I really don't want to have to dig my way to the coop and have to dig them out as well. I really hope this winter is not as bad as everyone seems to think it will be!
Thanks to NotableNancy and Christine9 for their advise, as well (for some reason, the @ sign is not on here so I cannot tag them).

 

[NotableNancy]

Yes, a lot of it's in the shape. That's what defines different breeds when they are genetically the same color (such as Columbian Wyandottes and Light Brahmas). Legbars are also Cream, while the Dorkings are Silver, so there is a slight difference in color. They are both a variation on wild-type partridge, though.



Wild-type partridge is one of my favorite patterns, if not my absolute favorite. Wish I had more! There are all sorts of colors that are wt partridge based, like crele, blue silver, dun silver duckwing, isabel, etc. Lots of possibilities but all so gorgeous! And these are just the hens!

And adorable is right on Malcolm and Trudi! Now that they've had a chance to clean themselves up after their road trip home and get used to their surroundings, they are looking prettier than ever! (This is a bad cell phone picture, but you can kind of see what I mean.

)




Edited to add breeds.

Great explanation on the wild type. I like the silver best also. Where did Trudi and Malcolm fly in from? If you get a pic of them next to your chickens I'd love to see how small they actually are. They look adorable.

I have to post a pic of my BB Apricot! She's going through her first real molt and the new feathers have lacing that was not there before. She's even prettier now!! I can't wait till all the new feathers are in.

You're killing me... they're my fav.... she's so pretty!!

Thanks, some rubber bowls out and a hanging waterer inside are starting to look like the way to go. Thanks for the advise! I have to hang some tarps to try to block at least a corner of he run from wind and snow so that the girls can still get out this winter! I really don't want to have to dig my way to the coop and have to dig them out as well. I really hope this winter is not as bad as everyone seems to think it will be!
Thanks to NotableNancy and Christine9 for their advise, as well (for some reason, the @ sign is not on here so I cannot tag them).

Do you have electric in your coop or run?? Because I just bought one of these...

http://www.amazon.com/Allied-Precis...id=1414029675&sr=1-6&keywords=heated+dog+bowl

(maybe not that exact one... but it was on sale for only $13 and free shipping so I figured I can't go wrong).

also for $14 this works really well... http://www.amazon.com/Farm-Innovato..._sbs_hi_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=1GFNEYSWB74SAEWZ6ZNR



I'm going to think about covering part of my run also. With 7 more chickens than last winter I need as much room for them in the run as possible and when it snowed last year they didn't have much space at all. I think I can cover my new smaller coop/run pretty easily and then just 2 sides of the big run. Have you priced out tarps or do you have them? I was going to look at construction grade plastic maybe at Home Depot.

 

[trsturself]

Great explanation on the wild type. I like the silver best also. Where did Trudi and Malcolm fly in from? If you get a pic of them next to your chickens I'd love to see how small they actually are. They look adorable.

You're killing me... they're my fav.... she's so pretty!!

Do you have electric in your coop or run?? Because I just bought one of these...

http://www.amazon.com/Allied-Precis...id=1414029675&sr=1-6&keywords=heated+dog+bowl

(maybe not that exact one... but it was on sale for only $13 and free shipping so I figured I can't go wrong).

also for $14 this works really well... http://www.amazon.com/Farm-Innovato..._sbs_hi_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=1GFNEYSWB74SAEWZ6ZNR



I'm going to think about covering part of my run also. With 7 more chickens than last winter I need as much room for them in the run as possible and when it snowed last year they didn't have much space at all. I think I can cover my new smaller coop/run pretty easily and then just 2 sides of the big run. Have you priced out tarps or do you have them? I was going to look at construction grade plastic maybe at Home Depot.

Thanks for the link. I'm going to order one of the bowls for inside the coop since we have power out there. I'm getting the larger 1.5 gallon one though. 1 quart would go too fast with my flock of 24.

I too need to figure out some sort of snow protection. If my friend could find a place to live with her flock I would have a separate covered area for my flock. They used it a lot when it was really hot or wet out, but that's where my friend's chickens are right now. It's also a little small for that many chickens to spend extended amounts of time in. DH says we should weave some canvas through the chicken wire that covers the top to give them some shade and a little snow protection. I think that would be a ton of work though. We tied a tarp to the top this summer but the wind whipped it around so much it eventually broke the baling twine we used.

Having my friend's chickens in the sectioned off area of our coop has really made me glad I have a lot of area. They have an area that's about 8'x12-15' and they have gotten it so messy! She has 26 chickens in there. That's about 4sqft per chicken, which is often the minimum people say but it's not nearly enough! The coop part is about 8'x8' with 4 roosts and that works well.

 

[COChix]

Hey gang, a I have been MIA for a bit. Been super busy with harvest upon us and getting ready for winter. The flock is plugging right along, we have built 6 more nest boxes that where installed into the big coop, Left Eye has just started joining the group this week during free range time and she is laying which completely made her one of the flock. Today we got 21 eggs, most ever, two short of the whole flock laying in a day. The shot of the eggs are all the clean eggs we got in a weeks time, 127, not bad. We have donated 24 dozen eggs to two different non-profits that help people in need and that has been pretty exciting and rewarding. Here are some shots...I am looking for some down time this winter, just a fe more weeks to push through and then we can hibernate....then I can get back to my BYC addiction.

Our soon to be egg label...NoBo stands for North Boulder, Colorado. Haven't decided yet on the size of label, but am leaning towards hang tangs with that logo and our info on the back.

Lastly been tracking feed and I can say we go through roughly 5.6 pounds a day, for 25 chickens. That is about 168 pounds in 30 days, is this also considered a type of chicken math?

 

[trsturself]

Hey gang, a I have been MIA for a bit. Been super busy with harvest upon us and getting ready for winter. The flock is plugging right along, we have built 6 more nest boxes that where installed into the big coop, Left Eye has just started joining the group this week during free range time and she is laying which completely made her one of the flock. Today we got 21 eggs, most ever, two short of the whole flock laying in a day. The shot of the eggs are all the clean eggs we got in a weeks time, 127, not bad. We have donated 24 dozen eggs to two different non-profits that help people in need and that has been pretty exciting and rewarding. Here are some shots...I am looking for some down time this winter, just a fe more weeks to push through and then we can hibernate....then I can get back to my BYC addiction.

Our soon to be egg label...NoBo stands for North Boulder, Colorado. Haven't decided yet on the size of label, but am leaning towards hang tangs with that logo and our info on the back.


Lastly been tracking feed and I can say we go through roughly 5.6 pounds a day, for 25 chickens. That is about 168 pounds in 30 days, is this also considered a type of chicken math?

Wow, so jealous of your eggs. We have 16 hens that are of laying age and getting ZERO eggs. My friend has 23 hens and also getting ZERO eggs. So frustrating.

I just looked at our food consumption also. My 24 birds go through ~100lbs of food in 30 days. That costs me $43. My friend goes through ~50lbs/week for her 26 birds at $30/bag.
So mine cost me roughly 5cents/bird/day. Hers costs roughly 15cents/bird/day. This is a very rough estimate. We both feed organic. Difference is I buy the bulk grains and ferment, she buys ready made crumbles. I say roughly because I did not take into account the cost of the flax seed oil, kelp powder, peas, or lentils because I'm not sure how long they last to add them to the calculations. So far I've had them for months and barely made a dent in them.

 

[COChix]

Wow, so jealous of your eggs. We have 16 hens that are of laying age and getting ZERO eggs. My friend has 23 hens and also getting ZERO eggs. So frustrating. 

I just looked at our food consumption also. My 24 birds go through ~100lbs of food in 30 days. That costs me $43. My friend goes through ~50lbs/week for her 26 birds at $30/bag. 
So mine cost me roughly 5cents/bird/day. Hers costs roughly 15cents/bird/day. This is a very rough estimate. We both feed organic. Difference is I buy the bulk grains and ferment, she buys ready made crumbles. I say roughly because I did not take into account the cost of the flax seed oil, kelp powder, peas, or lentils because I'm not sure how long they last to add them to the calculations. So far I've had them for months and barely made a dent in them. 

Wow that is a big difference for feed costs, I will have to re-look at it after my next batch of feed runs out. That gives me a few months to relook at your blog and the ingredients. I am all about doing this for as minimal amount of money for the organic feed. Our gang seems to be pigs, I feel like I even under feed them at times....could just be a mama's guilt. With all the eggs they are popping out and now some are starting their first molt, I know some extra feed, protein will help. Today we had chaos over bread, that is our flocks crack, I am just saying...

Thanks for the egg complements, we have a pretty happy flock, oh and we have some farmers cheese fermenting now that should be ready in the next day or so. That should help with the molting. Maybe your flock and your friends girls are not laying do to the change with flock mates? I don't remember if they are all in the same areas, but maybe this has something to do with it?

 

[trsturself]

Wow that is a big difference for feed costs, I will have to re-look at it after my next batch of feed runs out. That gives me a few months to relook at your blog and the ingredients. I am all about doing this for as minimal amount of money for the organic feed. Our gang seems to be pigs, I feel like I even under feed them at times....could just be a mama's guilt. With all the eggs they are popping out and now some are starting their first molt, I know some extra feed, protein will help. Today we had chaos over bread, that is our flocks crack, I am just saying...

Thanks for the egg complements, we have a pretty happy flock, oh and we have some farmers cheese fermenting now that should be ready in the next day or so. That should help with the molting. Maybe your flock and your friends girls are not laying do to the change with flock mates? I don't remember if they are all in the same areas, but maybe this has something to do with it?

It's a possibility. They can see each other but not interact. They seem to be ok with each other. One of hers has adopted our flock and our rabbit can fit through the fence and spends time on both sides. lol

I think it's mostly molting. The area around the run and inside the coop looks like the whole flock was murdered.