Michigan

[sevenchickens]

Quote:
Take a deep breath. 35 days is what... Wednesday?!! Just hang in there! They will come when they are ready.

My little pip has made no progress. If I wasn't seeing the egg move I'd probably be helping it out!

 

[GotChicken?]

I feel utterly horrible right now, because I had to put Dash, the rooster who injured his legs, down today. It just hit me like cold water that no matter how much he struggled to survive, he was never going to walk normally again, and that the other chickens would soon stop merely bullying him and start actually hurting him. I know I did the merciful thing, but it still hurts like all get out to have to put down a perfectly good and beloved rooster just because of a freak accident.


I also had a bad experience at the livestock auction today. I went there to try and find a decent size cage for a less than outrageous price (it's a flea market; why do you have used goods priced the same as the exact same item in the store brand new?!). I went by one of the poultry sellers and was horrified. Usually his birds are in halfway decent shape, but today he had some birds there that were just pitiful. Indian Runners with their eyes freshly plucked out, sikie hens with absolutely no feathers on their heads, other chickens that looked like they had been knocked around in the dryer before being put on display; just absolutely painful to look at. And the prices he was asking for them- wouldn't offer 1/4 what he was asking for birds in that condition. All you can do is just shake your head and walk away.


Aren't I just sunshine today.

On a much lighter note, I picked up my bantam Ameracaunas and Vorwerks from John Blehm today. It was originally supposed to be 10 (7 A, 3 V), but the Vorwerks eggs for this week didn't hatch, so he gave me 6 Vorwerks hatched from last week, and an extra 2 Ameracaunas!

That's it! No more chickens! I really, really hope there are more females than males. Don't be surprised if I'm on here 8 weeks from now asking if anyone wants some bantam roos!

I admit though, the Lavender A's are such sweethearts. When he put them in the box to sort them out, I stuck my hand in and they ran (more like waddled; they had only been out of the hatcher an hour tops) up to it and began snuggling up to it!

Unfortunately, one of the black A's and a V aren't doing too well, so I don't know what's going to happen to them.


Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day.


Rats! I forgot to add that Mr. Blehm has seconds/culls available and that if I thought anyone was interested to let them know. They're good birds, they just don't meet the Standard. I would have picked up a couple if he hadn't given me the extras.

 

[zephyrcreek]

Quote:
What's the sad part about it...

since a lot of them are first chicks from some of my breeds, I'm keeping them to grow out and see how they develop. I need to keep the forty-leven-million Cochin chicks to see which ones are going to be frizzled...I marked the eggs that came from the frizzled hens, but with so many eggs in the 'bator, I can't tell which chicks came from which eggs.

And even sadder...

36 standard eggs went into the hatcher this morning....most of those chicks will be kept as well.

And the most sad...
I set 48 more eggs in the 'bator this morning.

I can sympathize. I've been setting 70-100 eggs every 6 days.
That's a lot of chicks.

Our first BLRW will be hatching in the next day or so, plus tons of EE.

I plan on keeping the next 2 batches of Dels (50-60 each hatch) to evaluate for breeding stock.

 

[Olive Hill]

GotChicken? :

I went by one of the poultry sellers and was horrified. Usually his birds are in halfway decent shape, but today he had some birds there that were just pitiful. Indian Runners with their eyes freshly plucked out, sikie hens with absolutely no feathers on their heads, other chickens that looked like they had been knocked around in the dryer before being put on display; just absolutely painful to look at. And the prices he was asking for them- wouldn't offer 1/4 what he was asking for birds in that condition. All you can do is just shake your head and walk away.

It is disheartening though, isn't it?

I went to the swap in St. Louis last weekend and there were a lot of rough looking birds there. One seller in particular though had me a bit taken aback. She's local here, not far from us. And while I don't know her well, I've never heard anything but positive things about her operation. Well, she had some of her "older" layers there to sell this past weekend and I couldn't believe my eyes. For supposedly having them in a coop with run they looked an AWFUL lot like poorly treated battery hens. Missing a LOT of feathers, every last one all pecked up.

I've got a pretty high tolerance for varied husbandry practices. We keep a functional flock for meat and eggs, mine don't get the frills and luxuries a lot of pet and show flocks get, but they're healthy, happy and treated well. They're feathered, shiny, bright-eyed and have healthy combs, feet, etc. Basic chicken care is not rocket science, you know?

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

Quote:
What's the sad part about it...

since a lot of them are first chicks from some of my breeds, I'm keeping them to grow out and see how they develop. I need to keep the forty-leven-million Cochin chicks to see which ones are going to be frizzled...I marked the eggs that came from the frizzled hens, but with so many eggs in the 'bator, I can't tell which chicks came from which eggs.

And even sadder...

36 standard eggs went into the hatcher this morning....most of those chicks will be kept as well.

And the most sad...
I set 48 more eggs in the 'bator this morning.

Yep... you got it bad!

 

[Mark's Menagerie]

Quote:
Grats!

lets see, you said $100 a dozen right? better start making them lay faster and try to get it below $50 a dozen at least.

 

[sevenchickens]

It's nearly 8:00am. I'm never the first one to post in the am!! Good Morning everyone!! I have a confession to make. I broke the cardinal law and opened the incubator during lockdown. The one Muscovy egg that pipped 36 hours ago hadn't progressed any further (and I didn't see it moving at all anymore) so I helped by just making a small hole in the membrane, the duckling is still alive! Hopefully it will remain so. No other Pips yet. But I would have gone into lockdown today if I hadn't had the early bird on Saturday so I have my fingers crossed that I will have a few more. Mom2emAll-I need a progress report! How are yours?

 

[Opa]

Hopefully the weatherman is right in his forecast that this will blow out of here this afternoon.

 

[DaughterOfEve]

I love the rain when it is warm outside and was kinda hoping for a little thunder boomer to say IT'S REALLY SPRING!

Update: I found a home for my leg attacking, hen pecked by isa browns rooster. He is a golden pheonix and a local breeder was looking as his old roo passed on. It's a match made in heaven (I have been praying to find a home for him for a couple months).

Looking forward to Saturday the 17 we are starting a small market swap and sell in Montague, MI next to the feed store. It is just in the morning officially. We hope to have a good turn out and make a regular thing out of it.

Gotta gitoutahere to work while I still have a job anyway. Have a great day all!

 

[wyliefarms]

Quote:
Not sure of all the breeds as there was 16 different varieties possible sent in the bantam assortment. Rachel will be able to tell in a few weeks when they feather out. We can take pictures then. There are 9-10 of one breed out of 25 chicks.

Rachel did hatch out some black ameraucana bantams and is going to incubate some lavender and lavender x black ameraucana eggs in a couple weeks. So we have a variety to pick from!

Sarah