Nevadans?

[sherylreno]

Hello, I'm new to BYC and I'm in Northern Nevada, Lemmon Valley. We just freshened up existing coop on our property and added a run. We are brand new to chickens, and worried about predators. What are the common predators for this area?

Welcome! I do know you have coyotes, raccoons, hawks, owls and possibly snakes. I'm not sure what else you would have out there. When are you thinking of getting your chickens? Do you want to start with adult chickens that are about or already laying for start with chicks?

 

[wolftracks]

Just so you all know. I do have hatching eggs for sale a lot from my Lavenders, so let me know if you're interested and I can add you to the list.

My lavender pullet is a sweetheart. I never let go of my breeding stock, but Sheryl knows I love her

LOL

I do have 2 cockerels that have turned out great and I'll be keeping one and the other will be going to Southern Cal, whenever we can work that out, so this girl will also be going into A breeding pen, but I was hoping to add her to the main lavender flock. I haven't had a chance to do that yet. Tooooo much going on. I'd use this pullet in my lavender egg project, but the lavender AMs still have a little green in the genes to do that, so I'm working on bluer eggs from them. They've improved, but they can be better. Two of my girls lay a beautiful blue, but of course one of them is in with another variety and last year I was still getting OEs from my Marans pens after 6 weeks. Yes..............6 WEEKS! Who knows how long this one will clear, but I'm using her with a Silkied AM to see what happens. Wrong color combo, but she also wasn't a favorite of those newer pullets from last year and I switched her out.

I also have BBS AMs as well as BBS Silkied AMs. These are my LF AMs. I have bantams too. One pen is a Chocolate split roo over Chocolate hens. The other is a black roo over a black chocolate split hen and lavender hens. I'm going to be putting the black chocolate split in with the chocolate hens this month too. The little lavender hens lay a really blue egg. The thing I like about the chocolates this season are that they are auto sexed. My roos hatch out black split and my pullets hatch out chocolate. Makes it so easy to be able to know who is what. Next time around they will be all chocolate, so sexing will be a pain.

Like I said I do sell eggs and I have lots of other breeds as well, I've had some of the chicks from my eggs go 1st and 2nd in shows. The 2nd was only because they showed 2 and it was beat out over the other. They seem to go back and forth on who gets 1st or 2nd. LOL My Phoenix are doing really well down south. I donated some chicks to a help replace some from a FFA flock after a dog attack. He wins a lot with those birds and some very nice comments are usually added. He's hatching a ton of them now and selling eggs. Kind of dips into my sales, but ya gotta help the kids out. I won't be selling many if any birds in CA after this year. I've been questioned about my quality, because I don't show, so I think I need to go get some ribbons of my own and not have to deal with that any longer.

This is Lavern. She is my original lavender hen and all of my birds I have kept other than one, came from her. I LOVE my Lavern




These are the chicks from last year. Some of these are now in my breeding program

You can see some of them in with the other breeds.

 

[wolftracks]

Realized I said all my birds were from her. I need to correct that. I have a Smith roo over her and the others. My new birds are from that breeding and it's helped with egg color. Just thought I'd correct that.

This is Ambrose

 

[sherylreno]

Kim - Yes, I know how attached you are to your flock just like I am to mine. They're our babies!

Like I said only if it does not work out but I'm hoping it will.

I'm a bit disappointed again, I decided to candle the other 2 eggs from Monique and alas, they were not fertile. I broke them open and nothing was there. I'm thinking just because chickens lay eggs does not mean they can have babies or she didn't accept Alberto even though they mated quite often? So anything and everything of Monique is now gone.

I was so hoping to have her offspring, I knew I should of done it last year but I didn't.

Kim - I know you already know this but if you keep mating the same pair you will still get sex linked chicks. Do that as long as you can. A lot of people are trying to get those LF AM Silkies now, did you get eggs from the person on here you ended up with the wayward gene and created this breed?

 

[wolftracks]

I spent a small fortune to get my one and only spit chick from alicefelldown and then I got a a pair from someone else in Oregon, since she had gotten a flock of all Silkieds out of them.

I hatched out a poult last night, but it has a hernia and don't think it's going to make it. The chocolates aren't Silkied, but I'm hoping to eventually get LF and Silkied, so as usual...........more projects. LOL

Sheryl, you need to come down for the meetup in Turlock. Karen is having it at her house. If nothing else, you might be able to come get some eggs and who knows what else. Besides, it would be great to see you. Still trying to figure out what I'm doing with my little sweety, but I know she'd have a great home with you and you'd love her.

 

[chick-o-stick]

I just got 3 buff orpingtons and they are a month old. I ordered some chicks from Green's feed that arrive on Friday. I really hoped I would find a couple of hens old enough to be laying already, but I think I was looking in the wrong places before.

 

[chick-o-stick]

Welcome! I do know you have coyotes, raccoons, hawks, owls and possibly snakes. I'm not sure what else you would have out there. When are you thinking of getting your chickens? Do you want to start with adult chickens that are about or already laying for start with chicks?

 

[sherylreno]

I spent a small fortune to get my one and only spit chick from alicefelldown and then I got a a pair from someone else in Oregon, since she had gotten a flock of all Silkieds out of them.

I hatched out a poult last night, but it has a hernia and don't think it's going to make it. The chocolates aren't Silkied, but I'm hoping to eventually get LF and Silkied, so as usual...........more projects. LOL

Sheryl, you need to come down for the meetup in Turlock. Karen is having it at her house. If nothing else, you might be able to come get some eggs and who knows what else. Besides, it would be great to see you. Still trying to figure out what I'm doing with my little sweety, but I know she'd have a great home with you and you'd love her.

That's the one - Alicefelldown, I couldn't remember her name for the life of me. I'll be down eventually right now though I'm traveling to CA to go see family. My dad and step-mom are flying in Friday night from Florida, I can't wait to see them. Then they're off to go see the Southwest and I'm to meet up with them in the Bay Area and we come back together. I remember meeting Karen at the Stockton poultry show, she came to lunch with us at the Duck Nook.



Yeah, we don't spoil our chickens do we! Amanda being so scared of a thunder storm, we brought her in the house.

I just got 3 buff orpingtons and they are a month old. I ordered some chicks from Green's feed that arrive on Friday. I really hoped I would find a couple of hens old enough to be laying already, but I think I was looking in the wrong places before.

I started my flock from Green's Feed too. Boy, I thought I was doing everything right and I kept reading more and more and more. Found out I did most things right except for the lighting issue. I've used broodies ever since to raise my chicks because they're so calm afterwards. Everyone gets along most of the time. I remember a few years ago someone was over and she said "Sheryl, you need to get some Zen into your flock, your chickens just keep beating each other up. Needless to say, I can not have any chickens that will tear others up. I had to take my Bella to a ranch in Washoe Valley who raised bantams only and Bella is this super happy chicken now just because she was beating up on my Lav AM and I couldn't have that. I cried so hard saying goodbye to her. The person calls me all of the time to let me know how Bella is doing and how great she is around those little chickens. I knew she would be good with bantams because I could always put her with the baby chicks and she could careless about them. I guess she felt she had to make sure she was in charge once any chicken got older. Shucks, she even orders the geese around at the ranch, they won't get near her. Man I miss that girl.

 

[chick-o-stick]

I hope I do not sound hopelessly new to chickens when I ask this............. what is a Lav AM? Wait, I am hopelessly new to this LOL
If you know of anyone that has a couple of hens that are of laying age that need a really good home, please guide me to them. I am guessing that broodies means that you let your hen hatch her eggs and you kept them? My DH won't let me have a rooster so I am expecting to rehome a couple of my babies when we know for sure which side of the fence nature chose for them. I ordered Barred Rock and Golden Sex Link. I have heard that they are good layers and winter hardy. I saw a picture of a Lavender orpington and it was BEAUTIFUL. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to have one of those. No idea where or how to find one though. We just finished the coop and my 3 buffs just moved in, they seem to like it.

 

[sherylreno]

Wow, very nice coop. Please don't be offended or anything but I do see an issue with your set-up. The number one thing to stop predators is to not use chicken wire around your run or anything. Chicken wire only keeps chickens in and does not keep predators out. The rocks you have are good but you should have wire going out about a foot so a predator does not dig into your chicken area. Coyotes and such have no problems digging in your enclosure and taking your flock away. The best material to use is hardware cloth.

There's a whole group of us that have laying chickens right here and will post once we have them. We usually wait until we need to downsize our flocks due to over crowding issues and such. Most of us are very picky with our flocks and who can have them, we usually sell chicks and watch how they do with people who buy them from us. Then we know who can get our chickens. Sometimes, life gives us situations where we must get rid of our flock altogether, like I had last year, and whoever can take the birds so be it. I almost got rid of my whole flock until I got a bit better and knew I could give them a good life but I had to get rid of all my ducks because of my illness and most of my birds.

We also have a group on facebook for people who no longer use this forum, come join us if you want:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/122332831203598/