Michigan

[Opa]

Since I quite often have one of the "what was I thinking" moments I've found it handy to keep one of this readily available.

 

[RIRJen]

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YES!!! That's the one I needed!

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

I was wondering if anyone here would be willing to split an order from Whitmore farms? They have Ameraucana, Anacona, delawares, Marans and welsummers. You have to order 25 minimum and I have someone else interested in 10, I want 8 to 10. They are straight run. Shipping is $35 for 25 chicks.

 

[Olive Hill]

Jenn, you mean to tell me the company that manufactured the bator knows how to run it?!? Who'd have thunk it?

I'm so glad you got that all worked out. Jenn's Michigan Speckled Sussex Farm here we come!

I am a sucker for standard cochins

but I'm holding out for some partridges in the spring. They are my absolute favorite.

Besides, you know once you have those fluffy little behinds in your possession you won't really want to part with them.

What you saw on Dirty Jobs was probably vent sexing. Just to clarify, you do not squeeze the chick. You can do some serious internal damage vent sexing improperly. You massage the area around the vent out and slightly down to allow the internal sex organs to be exposed. And if Mike Rowe thought that was a dirty job he should come on out on adult-goose-vent-sexing-day, chicks don't have anything on what comes out of the vents of mature geese.

I haven't done much vent sexing on day olds. I raise both genders up so it doesn't much matter to me, so usually I just wait for them to show outward physical characteristics. I can give it a practice run when my next batch hatches out though and see where I stand if no one else knows how to do it well. I've done enough adult birds the learning curve for little ones should be fairly mild at this point. The sex organs are just smaller. Luckily my eyes are still good.

 

[Olive Hill]

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Hey! I have chicks that look JUST like their black and blue Ameraucana chicks. I have one of each, a black and a blue. Phenotypically speaking they've got it all. Slate legs, pea comb, solid black and solid blue in color, muffs, beard, the whole nine yards. But they're mutts. Worse yet, even their parentage is mutt-y. LOL! I waited a bit too long to make the kids say goodbye to their "pet" EE roo this fall and the last batch of chicks accidentally had a couple of his offspring in it as a result. EE x Australorp and what I ended up with were these black and blue chicks. They should -- if they're female -- lay olive eggs instead of blue, but man I can see how some unsuspecting consumers can easily get taken for a ride though by unscrupulous breeders.

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

I have an EE that lays a darkish green egg that I am planning on breeding with my welsummer with the hopes of getting a couple of olive eggers.

 

[Olive Hill]

Depending on how these two and their eggs turn out --

for hens -- I've considered letting the kids bring the EE roo back. He just went to live with my mom's flock so he's not gone, GONE. And now that I've seen what he can produce with my Australorps I'm tempted to see if I could establish a consistent Black/Blue Olive Egger line out of them. You know, because I don't have enough things to focus my time on.

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

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[vicki2x2]

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WHOA!! I can attest to that!!

 

[michickenwrangler]

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Nope, you sure don't

Our splash cochin is laying, don't know if the partridge hen is or not. So if you want some partridge x splash to get some blue partridge or who-knows-what, you're welcome to them. Just let me know so I can start storing some for you.