Meyer Hatchery Chicken pics anyone??

[NanaLynn]

We normally do not get negative temps or even in the single digits here in NC, but last year we did. Now it would be even nicer to have that nice Hawaii weather here too, but I really can't complain too much.
I do need to somehow cover the chickens new nipple waterer soon and also plug in the bird heater to keep the water and nipples from freezing.
It holds 1 and half gallons so I will probably just fill it a few times a day until I figure out how to insulate the hose going to it.
I still can't believe some of you have snow and such low temps already. Didn't Fall just start? I literally just picked the last tomatoes a few days ago.
Chickens seeing snow for the first time is pretty funny though.

 

[NanaLynn]

Had to go away for a business trip and my daughter said that we got one white egg yesterday! Finally! It was Splash, our splash Blue Andulasion. She would wait until I left. That still means that we only had 2 eggs yesterday. Hopefully this means more are done molting too.

 

[daniellea2912]

I love her look. she looks huge in this picture too. Glad she is getting better too!

I have a Buff Laced Polish and used to have a Golden Laced one. The Golden Laced was killed in the dog attack, we also had another Golden Laced that died from stress during shipping with a few others. the ones we had did not seem anymore prone to attacks then the other hens, but I could always see their eyes, so I guess they could see well. If the feathers cover the eyes, I imagine that would be a problem.

Here is a pic of our Golden Laced one, Elvis. She never had a chance to lay an egg. She was turning out really pretty though.
is Buffy, our Buff Laced Polish. She is a very sweet hen and squats for us. She lays a medium to large egg when she is not molting.
I love the Polish hens and plan to get one of every variety one day. They are just so much fun to watch!

All of my birds are from Meyer's

Thank you for the pictures of your polish! I just love my CCL's poufs so I don't  think I will be able to resist a polish with super pouf this year   Now to decide what coloring to get.  I really love the coloring of both of the ones you shared...   How many eggs do you usually get a week from your polish?
Beardie is normally a pretty big girl, I think she was a little under 6# in early summer.  She is fluffy feathered (like an orp)  though so she actually appears even larger than she is.

 Glad Beardy is doing well and WOW, she is so pretty!!!

I believe trst has a polish, not sure if she got from Meyer or not. Beardie is a cutie, love her coloring.

 

Thank you both! 

 I do have a polish. It's from Meyer. She has done fine during free ranging. I did have another polish from Meyer for awhile that had a much harder time seeing. Her crest came all the way down her eyes and she could barely make it around. I didn't have a problem free ranging but I think I would've had she been out during a hawk attack. I had to trim her feathers just so she'd stop running into the chicken wire around the run. Our friend took her and she disappeared from their house one day. No idea what happened to her. Their other polish is at my house right now and she seems to do fine. My friend doesn't like her polish but we love ours. Ours was a decent layer before all ours stopped laying too. 
Our friend has a white leghorn that she really likes. 

Thanks for the info!  About how many eggs do you get from your polish a week?  Id like to add a white egg layer to my flock this year but didn't expect the polish to lay enough to really fill that slot...

 Yes of course, would love to get others thoughts!  One reason I was thinking of starting pullets was because I wanted to pick out the EE colors, I know the surprise is meant to be part of the fun, but I'm a bit of a control freak

Beardie is stunning!  She reminds me a bit of a Dark Brahma, which I love.  Love Orps, would love other colors one day.  A local breeder near me is starting Red Orps in the spring, soo pretty, but I will have to wait.  Yeah, I feel like we should have a Buckeye too, but I'm not sure about trying again this year.  Anyone remember who got the three Buckeye chicks a few months ago?  Would love an update on them!

 Thanks for the Beardie compliment  Yea I am going to have trouble resisting adding an EE to my order too... this year I added one when I went to pick up my order, I love the surprise of how they will feather out and then what color egg they will lay.  I think my EE gal from this year, Ophelia, will be laying anytime! A few days ago she went from staying like 10 feet away from me at all times to being within arms reach all the time and her comb has really popped up. Plus yesterday she squatted.  

She is a gorgeous girl, I really have lucked out on getting pretty EE's (my other 3 EE including Beardie are from Mt Healthy)


Does anyone know when we can start placing orders for next year?  I think I maybe remember hearing Dec 1??

 

[Melabella]

cute babies!
such pretty eggs and the contrast between the light creaming colored egg and the dark brown. I believe our Dark Cornish lay a beige almost cream color. So what are your Marans like, personality wise? We have a neighbor down the road who has cuckoo Marans, wouldn't mind picking up a breed that lays the chocolate eggs and maybe a white layer. Looking forward to our little breeding programs next spring and those baby chicks!

So it has been snowing in Colorado, storm moved in yesterday. Woke up to 4 inches and 12 degrees. Suppose to be 10 tomorrow for the high and low of 2. Fed the gang some oatmeal with BSM, flax and chia seeds for breakfast this am.....brrr I am kicking and screaming into winter.

I have 4 white marans from Meyer. I ordered three after Aurora turned out so wonderful Very curious and calm personality. Top of her little pecking order of 3, but not in an overly aggressive way. She comes over to me and talks... She is a LARGE bird, and her feathers are the softest thickest,, very fine in my flock. Very very feminine and pretty. She has laid every other day since she started 3 weeks ago. These are my first ownership with Marans and I am not sure how personality measures from variation of type within. The three younger ones that are only 10 weeks in the grow out stall are a bit more middle of the pack in the pecking order and so far aren't growing out as pretty as Aurora, they all have the French type with the feathered legs, but don't seem as impressive but it is still early.

ACK that snow made me quesy to see. I am having our last warm day before that cold storm from Canada heads our way here in NY. NOT looking forward to doing this all over again... uggggg


MB

 

[autumnhearth]

Thanks for the Beardie compliment

Yea I am going to have trouble resisting adding an EE to my order too... this year I added one when I went to pick up my order, I love the surprise of how they will feather out and then what color egg they will lay. I think my EE gal from this year, Ophelia, will be laying anytime! A few days ago she went from staying like 10 feet away from me at all times to being within arms reach all the time and her comb has really popped up. Plus yesterday she squatted. She is a gorgeous girl, I really have lucked out on getting pretty EE's (my other 3 EE including Beardie are from Mt Healthy)


Does anyone know when we can start placing orders for next year? I think I maybe remember hearing Dec 1??

I love when the pullets start to get submissive. Our EE Clara was so skittish until about a week before she started laying. Her first week of laying she was climbing on my lap and trying to burrow into me. She isn't quite as friendly anymore, but still docile. Morgaine our BCMs who used to not want to have anything to do with humans, will now go flat to the ground when reached for.

I have 4 white marans from Meyer. I ordered three after Aurora turned out so wonderful Very curious and calm personality. Top of her little pecking order of 3, but not in an overly aggressive way. She comes over to me and talks... She is a LARGE bird, and her feathers are the softest thickest,, very fine in my flock. Very very feminine and pretty. She has laid every other day since she started 3 weeks ago. These are my first ownership with Marans and I am not sure how personality measures from variation of type within. The three younger ones that are only 10 weeks in the grow out stall are a bit more middle of the pack in the pecking order and so far aren't growing out as pretty as Aurora, they all have the French type with the feathered legs, but don't seem as impressive but it is still early.

I remember Aurora is so pretty, do you have a recent pic? I would love to see how your other three turn out. Our Marans has the silkiest richest feathers of our flock too

 

[Melabella]

I love when the pullets start to get submissive. Our EE Clara was so skittish until about a week before she started laying. Her first week of laying she was climbing on my lap and trying to burrow into me. She isn't quite as friendly anymore, but still docile. Morgaine our BCMs who used to not want to have anything to do with humans, will now go flat to the ground when reached for.

I remember Aurora is so pretty, do you have a recent pic? I would love to see how your other three turn out. Our Marans has the silkiest richest feathers of our flock too

sure.. I will post some later. yes.. feathering off the charts fluffy.. and dense.. and sooooo soft

 

[COChix]

Oh no!? You have snow already? Stay warm!

Yep and like trsturself says we had 70 degree temps on Sunday, so it is all rather a shock to the system.

We went to bed with snow and 9 degrees. Woke up to 6deg and a couple inches of snow. DH was making me feel guilty last night for leaving the barn kitten out in the tack room. He was fine overnight and today, but I brought him into the house tonight. I couldn't get any light bulbs to work to give him heat so I felt bad leaving him out there after last night and today of freezing weather. Couldn't keep his water defrosted either. 
My friend's stupid chicken will not go in the coop. When I got home tonight she was huddled next to the door covered in snow. I'm sure she's been there all day. Stupid chicken! 
I'm really annoyed my door isn't working. I need to get it working then build another for the other coop so I won't have to go out at night any more! 

I am NOT ready for winter! There was no easing into this one. 68 on Sunday, 10 today. I had to dig out my winter clothes in a hurry. 

When I went out to the coop at 7am the temp gauge said 0, the heated water bowl didn't freeze overnight so that was positive I was a bad chicken keeper and didn't get all my stuff done for winterizing the coop and run. However it seems to be working out ok as it is allowing me to see where I want to tarp the run for wind breaks and protection. We also didn't get the patio panels up on the open parts in the roof of run, so there is snow in the run. Didn't put down enough straw in the run. I was out yesterday, rigging up a heat lamp for the coop, getting their water bowl set up and covering some of the openings covered in the coop. All I can do is adjust and keep moving forward and know next year I will plan a little better.

Just a little reminder of last winter!!!!   phewwww.... can it be this bad again??


I'm in PA so I think you are the closest to me and most similar weather.... we're getting ready for a cold blast on Thurs and then really cold next week.  I'm putting the heaters under the waterers tomorrow and put one board up to block wind under the little coop so I hope they hang out under there to stay warmer.  But I bet no matter what I do they'll find their own place to hang out and just figure it out. 


If it makes you feel any better I heard it is -24 in Montana... not wind chill!!  
Your girls look like they don't mind to much though.  
What is BSM you said is in the oatmeal?  LOL, I always give them warm wet feed and have never tried oatmeal... I should give it a try.  Bet they'd like it. 

agggghhh, those pictures look cold! The gang seems to be adjusting some...oh and bsm=black strap molasses, sorry for the acronym. That is a decent amount of snow, I am hoping we don't go through that, but it is predicted to be a bad winter.

We normally do not get negative temps or even in the single digits here in NC, but last year we did. Now it would be even nicer to have that nice Hawaii weather here too, but I really can't complain too much.
I do need to somehow cover the chickens new nipple waterer soon and also plug in the bird heater to keep the water and nipples from freezing.
It holds 1 and half gallons so I will probably just fill it a few times a day until I figure out how to insulate the hose going to it.
I still can't believe some of you have snow and such low temps already. Didn't Fall just start? I literally just picked the last tomatoes a few days ago.
Chickens seeing snow for the first time is pretty funny though.

I hear you on that, as I pulled tomatoes from our garden as well before the freeze, I filled 4 boxes full! It was a late season here for tomatoes. I will cold store them and hopefully we can have a few tomatoes in the dead of winter.

I have 4 white marans from Meyer.  I ordered three after Aurora turned out so wonderful  Very curious and calm personality.  Top of her little pecking order of 3, but not in an overly aggressive way.  She comes over to me and talks... She is a LARGE bird, and her feathers are the softest thickest,, very fine in my flock.  Very very feminine and pretty.  She has laid every other day since she started 3 weeks ago.  These are my first ownership with Marans and I am not sure how personality measures from variation of type within.  The three younger ones that are only 10 weeks in the grow out stall are a bit more middle of the pack in the pecking order and so far aren't growing out as pretty as Aurora, they all have the French type with the feathered legs, but don't seem as impressive but it is still early.

ACK that snow made me quesy to see.  I am having our last warm day before that cold storm from Canada heads our way here in NY.  NOT looking forward to doing this all over again... uggggg


MB

thanks for the info on your Marans, I will have to check into them more. I hear ha on the snow, I am not ready!

Don't remember who asked what is BSM = black strap molasses, good beneficials for the girls, they love it. They love oatmeal breakfasts......

Lastly given the snow and some of the flock is molting, we got 18 eggs yesterday, so that is positive. I am not expecting this to last as we won't be adding supplemental lighting to coop, but who knows if they will stop. They are all cold hardy breeds so they should have some egg production throughout the winter.

 

[RoostersCrow HensDeliver!]

Lovely girl, but may I suggest that she needs a a beak trim. A simple snip with dog nail clippers should do it.

 

[trsturself]

My thermometer read -1 this morning. Brr! DH went out to the tack room last night and rigged up two light bulbs for the cat. I didn't put him out last night but this morning I checked and his water hadn't iced over. I brought my thermometer out and it read 34 where his bed is so I put him back out there today with some heavier blankets to cuddle up in.
I left the chickens in their coops because the runs are covered in a couple inches of snow. I brought them warm grits for breakfast. The heated water bowl worked great. Unfortunately I don't have a heater yet for my friend's water so I'll need to go out there again later today and refill their water.
The horses are stupid and don't go into their stall so they were covered in snow this morning. I fed them their hay and some grain (which I don't normally feed) in the stall this morning. I'm sure as soon as they are done eating they'll be back outside. It's always an internal struggle between raising animals naturally and wanting to baby them. lol

I forgot I need to figure out some water for the goats. I think I need to buy another heated water bowl!

 

[jtn42248]

... It's always an internal struggle between raising animals naturally and wanting to baby them. lol

That is so true!! If it were up to me I would have 62 chickens, ducks and geese in the house with a little bowl of feed for each...maybe with their names on them. But I work really hard at letting them live a natural life, even in this cold weather. They seem to be much better at it then I am.