***OKIES in the BYC III ***

[i-love-my-honey]

I finally got down to what my daughter really wants. Hopefully we have found her a Frizzle (she wants a frizzle because she thinks they are cute - of course!). She now wants a blue egg layer. (Our Ameraucana gives us light olive eggs). Does anyone have new chicks or hatching eggs that come from or should be blue egg layers? (All I can find online are Cream Legbars, Auraucanas, and Ameraucanas. Are there any more?)

 

[NanaKat]

Hello all!

Yesterday we got 2 new chicks, they were prolly only 1 day old. So little! I got one black pullet and a cute little black bantam with fuzzy feet. Im not sure about the feet. I picture poo all over them but I couldnt pass up the smallest chick ive ever seen. Anyways we have a tote for our brooder, its on the work bench. We cut a section out and used duct tape to tape some hardware wire on it so my daughter can see in and so they can see us coming and not b so startled. I guess the tape is crap cuz this morning the hub found the pullet on the floor! Thats a 3 foot drop! She seems fine. She huddled up with the other as soon as he put her back. She stands fine. Im just worried. We have learned alot about chicken loss this summer. Id hate to lose another. Are chicks like babies, soft and resilient? Or should I be worried?

A chick that falls 3 feet may still be fine. landing on concrete would give reason to keep an eye on her.
Hens that hide and brood a clutch of eggs in the barn have been known to bring their chicks out at only a few days of age...calling them down off the shelf, hay or nest box where they were brooding.

 

[lonnyandrinda]

I finally got down to what my daughter really wants. Hopefully we have found her a Frizzle (she wants a frizzle because she thinks they are cute - of course!). She now wants a blue egg layer. (Our Ameraucana gives us light olive eggs). Does anyone have new chicks or hatching eggs that come from or should be blue egg layers? (All I can find online are Cream Legbars, Auraucanas, and Ameraucanas. Are there any more?)

You missed Easter Eggers- which are mixed breeds from those breed you listed.

I have Ameraucanas, EE, Cream legbars, and EE mixes. I will have hatching eggs in all of those available in the next week or two once the first set in the bator shows me how the fertility is doing. Chicks available by the last weekend of Sept or so. www.chickenfanatics.com is my website if you want to take a look. I just reactivated the "store" so it should show you prices again.

 

[jaxia]

A chick that falls 3 feet may still be fine. landing on concrete would give reason to keep an eye on her. 
Hens that hide and brood a clutch of eggs in the barn have been known to bring their chicks out at only a few days of age...calling them down off the shelf, hay or nest box where they were brooding.    

ty nanakat

since it happened over night we are unsure where she initially landed. She is up and moving around tho. Id think if it were bad i would see some symptoms by now.

 

[NanaKat]

Yesterday I worked all day in the barn, cleaning the brooder room. I removed the baker's rack for Roger to use for his power tools. Moved the 6 cage unit, sanitized all the cages and fed close to 25 baby mice to the girls. We sure have had a prolific mice infestation!
Im going to leave the concrete floor clear of chickens but devise two more floor pens in that room to accommodate the biddie Bantams and the large fowl with young chicks until they are ready to free-range.

Someone asked when do you incorporate juvenile birds into the flock...if they are hen raised, I let the hen do it when she is ready...usually about 2 weeks of age. If they were hatched and raised in the brooder boxes, I wait until they are about 6 weeks of age and put them on the floor with a separate feeder, waterer and roost in an enclosure that they can leave and return themselves. This could be a big dog crate with 2x4 openings or a bit larger. Just big enough for the chicks and not the hens. The chicks will explore the hen house when the big birds leave to freerange. The hens returning to the nest boxes to lay usually will not pay much attention the the chicks.

Now a neat story...while I was cleaning yesterday, I noticed a Blue laced Red Wyandotte that had been broody for her 21 days sitting on a golf ball calling chicks to her side. Four or five 4 week olds whose mother was outside, responded and snuggled under the BLRW's wings and started trilling. She kept calling and other little ones moved to her. By the time I finished in the brooder room, she had accumulated 8 chicks. Guess, she felt these were hers since she sat a full hatch period because when the real Moms came in, she defended her clutch against them. Each of the other hens has about 10 little ones so having another mom isn't going to be a problem,. This morning she had them outside hunting behind the barn. Not bad for a hatchery bird.

 

[i-love-my-honey]

Yesterday I worked all day in the barn, cleaning the brooder room. I removed the baker's rack for Roger to use for his power tools. Moved the 6 cage unit, sanitized all the cages and fed close to 25 baby mice to the girls. We sure have had a prolific mice infestation!
Im going to leave the concrete floor clear of chickens but devise two more floor pens in that room to accommodate the biddie Bantams and the large fowl with young chicks until they are ready to free-range.

Someone asked when do you incorporate juvenile birds into the flock...if they are hen raised, I let the hen do it when she is ready...usually about 2 weeks of age. If they were hatched and raised in the brooder boxes, I wait until they are about 6 weeks of age and put them on the floor with a separate feeder, waterer and roost in an enclosure that they can leave and return themselves. This could be a big dog crate with 2x4 openings or a bit larger. Just big enough for the chicks and not the hens. The chicks will explore the hen house when the big birds leave to freerange. The hens returning to the nest boxes to lay usually will not pay much attention the the chicks.

Now a neat story...while I was cleaning yesterday, I noticed a Blue laced Red Wyandotte that had been broody for her 21 days sitting on a golf ball calling chicks to her side. Four or five 4 week olds whose mother was outside, responded and snuggled under the BLRW's wings and started trilling. She kept calling and other little ones moved to her. By the time I finished in the brooder room, she had accumulated 8 chicks. Guess, she felt these were hers since she sat a full hatch period because when the real Moms came in, she defended her clutch against them. Each of the other hens has about 10 little ones so having another mom isn't going to be a problem,. This morning she had them outside hunting behind the barn. Not bad for a hatchery bird.

NanaKat, when you have a hen raise chicks, you still have to provide food for them too, don't you? How do you keep the other birds from eating it? Also, should broody hens eat something different than layer ration?

 

[HeyBigRhondaq]

I can already hear chirping with 2 days left!
The eggs I'm hatching are clearly from two different hens. If I get a girl from one hen's egg and a boy from the other, (assuming the have the same daddy) can they safely be bred? The closest they could be related is half-siblings. I know it's a long shot given frizzle genetics and such a small setting. Yes, I make a habit of practicing my chicken math on a daily basis.

 

[Ksane]

Now a neat story...while I was cleaning yesterday, I noticed a Blue laced Red Wyandotte that had been broody for her 21 days sitting on a golf ball calling chicks to her side.  Four or five 4 week olds whose mother was outside, responded and snuggled under the BLRW's wings and started trilling.    She kept calling and other little ones moved to her.  By the time I finished in the brooder room, she had accumulated 8 chicks.  Guess, she felt these were hers since she sat a full hatch period because when the real Moms came in, she defended her clutch against them.  Each of the other hens has about 10 little ones so having another mom isn't going to be a problem,.  This morning she had them outside hunting  behind the barn.   Not bad for a hatchery bird.

I just love mama hens )
The Cochin boy and his girls are doing wonderful. It's feels so nice to have a big Blue Cochin again. When he gets his bigger yard i think I may put some BBS Ameraucana girls in with them also.

This is the breeder holding the mama of my 2 12 wk old French Lop boys, they get 12-13 lbs. one of mine is the same color as his mama and the other is her color plus white. I'm SO in love with these 2 boys. They live in an x-pen in the living room and get out of it to play for many hours each day. I'd have never believed rabbits were so sweet! This is a real calm docile breed, like Great Pyrenees of the rabbit world.
@Kassaundra I only tease you about getting me into rabbits. If not for you I wouldn't have ever gotten these 2 boys. And what a shame that would've been.

 

[lonnyandrinda]

I can already hear chirping with 2 days left!
The eggs I'm hatching are clearly from two different hens. If I get a girl from one hen's egg and a boy from the other, (assuming the have the same daddy) can they safely be bred? The closest they could be related is half-siblings. I know it's a long shot given frizzle genetics and such a small setting. Yes, I make a habit of practicing my chicken math on a daily basis.

Yes you can. There are specific ways to breed within a single group of chickens, called line breeding. half sibling matings are OK until about 4 generations depending on who you talk to.

Got some pictures today, I'm trying to get in the habit of watermarking my photos before I share them. Already had someone steal one of my Cream Legbar photos to sell his chicks on RareBreedAuction once. Only had time to photoshop and watermark the Cream Legbars tonight- took me over an hour! Here are some of my favorites.

 

[SharkmanDan]

In my limited experience, I am seeing that my chickens will eat what they should, and generally leave alone, that which they shouldn't eat. But, we all know that birds aren't the brightest creatures around, and I do occasionally see them pecking at pieces of plastic, a pen laying around, many things they can't, or shouldn't ingest.
What about mushrooms? Specifically, poisonous ones?i found a huge white mushroom, in the yard, yesterday, in an area where the birds like to roam. It looks like the biggest white mushroom, (like the store bought kind) I've ever seen. But, I think it's a toadstool, poisonous mushroom. I plucked it, so that it's not right on the ground, for the birds to peck, but, I have 15+ acres here. Lots of tall grass, and woods. If there's one, there are more that I'm just not seeing. Should I be concerned? Or, will they just avoid the poisonous ones?