Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[BullChick]

All:

I think I've found a source for these....anybody want any just pm me....I am going to use one for a hawk protector...but, its a pretty good start to a 4x4 coop......

I would love to have one or two of those frames!

as everyone knows I like to keep a variety of birds, so I get a variety of egg colors....

why do folks insist on a certain egg color?

no matter what I say, they insist that the eggs are somehow different....I can not sell white eggs..

city folk that I know will not buy green eggs, and some tell me that brown eggs are dirty, that is why they are brown.

I try to politely educate people, but it is hard to not just

Ditto! I have to eat most of the white eggs.

Quote: I am sure a lot of people will complain about chocolate.

Ha ha ha.

Hi !
My name is Dennis and I'm new to BYC, but not new to keeping poultry (off and on, but starting about 40 years ago). I'm hoping to connect with other poultry enthusiasts in SE PA. My birds are really owned and maintained by my nieces on a dairy farm in Northern Chester County. I'm the uncle who helps and advises them.

 

[dheltzel]

I have read (and bookmarked) Sally's post about incubation. I've been gathering info and opinions and formulating a plan for my incubator. I considered buying a GQF Sportsman or Dickey's, but I think I can make a better one for about half the price. I want to incubate turkey eggs as well as chicken eggs, and (hopefully) in 2015 I will have peacock eggs as well. I believe that rolling eggs on their side is better than tilting them as the GQF incubators do. Making a manual turning incubator to do that should be easy, making the turning automatic is my big challenge. I have a plan worked out in my head, but I'll have to experiment with the mechanics to get it working reliably. So this winter is my experimental stage, but I want to be ready for any turkey eggs that might show up early.

As far as the chickens, we have some BBS Ameracaunas and Welsummers from Whitmore Farms in MD that are growing fast. When they start laying in the spring, I want to hatch most of those as well. We only have 2 Welsummer hens, the lone cockerel died, so I will be looking for a Welsummer cockerel at some point. I'd prefer to get one from good stock (not from a hatchery), but who knows what I'll find available. I might just buy some more Welsummer chicks from Whitmore to get the cockerel we need.

I love that the Welsummers auto-sex.On the farm, the girls makes pets of everything and killing anything is not going to happen. So, if I can hatch the eggs and eliminate the males before they even get to the farm, that solves so many problems. There will still be the extra male Ameracaunas, but at least the Welsummers are manageable that way. That explains my interest in Cream Legbars -- autosexing and blue eggs. I suspect that a CCL cock over any other hen will not produce sexable chicks.

 

[wingstone]

bbbrrrr...woke up to a cold house,,,I only have 1 electric heater that works on the main floor...well used to work,,,,,,guess it is time to call the electrician and have some heaters and thernostats replaced...........

cooking off some chicken which i will then seperate for other uses, and also the dreaded kerosene heater...........good thing i got chicks right now, atleast i can hover by the heat lamp..

dheltzel....I have rhodebar, they are also autosexing...

 

[dheltzel]

wingstone, I would definitely be interested in Rhodebars, either eggs or chicks. They are one of the 3 auto-sexing varieties I'm hoping to get established with breeding groups. They lay normal brown eggs, then some Welsummers for dark brown, and Cream Legbars for blue. Until CCL's become available/affordable, we have a nice strain of Americaunas to make the blue eggs. I'd much rather get some Rhodebars going than to resort to hatchery sex link for the main supply of brown eggs.

Do your Rhodebar's lay a lot of eggs, or has the production of lots of eggs become a secondary consideration to bringing them back from near extinction?

 

[wingstone]

wingstone, I would definitely be interested in Rhodebars, either eggs or chicks. They are one of the 3 auto-sexing varieties I'm hoping to get established with breeding groups. They lay normal brown eggs, then some Welsummers for dark brown, and Cream Legbars for blue. Until CCL's become available/affordable, we have a nice strain of Americaunas to make the blue eggs. I'd much rather get some Rhodebars going than to resort to hatchery sex link for the main supply of brown eggs.

Do your Rhodebar's lay a lot of eggs, or has the production of lots of eggs become a secondary consideration to bringing them back from near extinction?

I have a six pack of rhodebar, 2 roo's and 4 hen's......I do not expect any eggs untill spring, they are summer hatches that are just to young to determine if I like them or not..

 

[LittleMissPurdy]

Hi !
My name is Dennis and I'm new to BYC, but not new to keeping poultry (off and on, but starting about 40 years ago). I'm hoping to connect with other poultry enthusiasts in SE PA. My birds are really owned and maintained by my nieces on a dairy farm in Northern Chester County. I'm the uncle who helps and advises them.

I have several "projects" in the works that I am looking for help with. First, I am going to try building my own incubator this winter to increase the number of eggs I can incubate at one time. I've used the styrofoam incubators a lot in the past with reasonable success, but I'm pretty sure I can make a much better cabinet-type. I'm interested in buying some hatching eggs from local people next spring, especially any of the auto-sexing varieties, like Cream Legbars.

Secondly, I want to buy some more guineas, but don't really need 30 of them (the minimum required by the Guinea Farm in Iowa). I want to get Buff Dunbars because they are color sexable. If anyone is interested in buying some guinea keets next year, let me know and maybe we can split an order.

Hello & welcome!!

...lots of wonderful people here with many different varieties!! Just about everyone here hatches, so pretty sure the ideas on the "handmade" incubator will be many!! There are a lot of threads that have incubators..store bought and homemade, you are sure to find some great insight there too.

 

[LittleMissPurdy]

bbbrrrr...woke up to a cold house,,,I only have 1 electric heater that works on the main floor...well used to work,,,,,,guess it is time to call the electrician and have some heaters and thernostats replaced...........

cooking off some chicken which i will then seperate for other uses, and also the dreaded kerosene heater...........good thing i got chicks right now, atleast i can hover by the heat lamp..

dheltzel....I have rhodebar, they are also autosexing...

oh man....this is not the time for broken heaters!! I hope things get taken care of soon!! We use the oil-filled electric space heaters, they have come along way in their safety standards. They really help to warm up he areas we are hanging out in..or just to take the chill off in the bedrooms before bed. We used to have the kero-heaters, too many issues with those things, I would only use those if there were nothing else. Layers-layers-layers!!! Stay warm Wing

 

[wingstone]

Quote: The lay out of the house makes it not to bad
basement is easily kept warm just by the washer and dryer and water heater
then the main floor is only living room and kitchen, we usually only run the heat in the living room also,,,the one in the kitchen has not worked since we been here 18 years
the stairs in the living room takes the heat right up the steps..

we always keep a few kerosene heaters in working order for the tobacco shed...right now there is one sitting in my living room....I forgot about the smell of these things...

 

[dheltzel]

Please keep me in mind, wingstone, when you get more Rhodebar eggs than you want to hatch. Of if you should decide you don't want to keep the ones you have for some reason. I'm not in a hurry, but hope to acquire some next year.

 

[Penny Hen]

I have read (and bookmarked) Sally's post about incubation. I've been gathering info and opinions and formulating a plan for my incubator. I considered buying a GQF Sportsman or Dickey's, but I think I can make a better one for about half the price. I want to incubate turkey eggs as well as chicken eggs, and (hopefully) in 2015 I will have peacock eggs as well. I believe that rolling eggs on their side is better than tilting them as the GQF incubators do. Making a manual turning incubator to do that should be easy, making the turning automatic is my big challenge. I have a plan worked out in my head, but I'll have to experiment with the mechanics to get it working reliably. So this winter is my experimental stage, but I want to be ready for any turkey eggs that might show up early.

As far as the chickens, we have some BBS Ameracaunas and Welsummers from Whitmore Farms in MD that are growing fast. When they start laying in the spring, I want to hatch most of those as well. We only have 2 Welsummer hens, the lone cockerel died, so I will be looking for a Welsummer cockerel at some point. I'd prefer to get one from good stock (not from a hatchery), but who knows what I'll find available. I might just buy some more Welsummer chicks from Whitmore to get the cockerel we need.

I love that the Welsummers auto-sex.On the farm, the girls makes pets of everything and killing anything is not going to happen. So, if I can hatch the eggs and eliminate the males before they even get to the farm, that solves so many problems. There will still be the extra male Ameracaunas, but at least the Welsummers are manageable that way. That explains my interest in Cream Legbars -- autosexing and blue eggs. I suspect that a CCL cock over any other hen will not produce sexable chicks.

If you put them over solid hens you will get barred hens and solid roos