Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[barbiegirl]

OUR FIRST EGG!!! YEAH... We just got back from vacation in South Carolina yesterday. Eggey-Eggey our easter egger layed this little green egg today. What a nice welcome home present. Excited for the other girls to start. They are all 19 weeks old now.

Congratulations on your first egg!

 

[PurpleFoxglove]

I've been wandering around the internet deciding what I want to add to my flock in the spring, especially since there's a little more room in the coop now. So, best place to get awesome quality Blue Splash Marans chicks. Suggestions? Bonus points if they're in Pennsylvania. Also, how do you prefer to grow your flock? Raising chicks in the brooder and then introducing them, putting hatching eggs under a broody hen?

ETA: dheltzel, I remember that you do BBS copper marans, right?

 

[Jryan18]

I haven't been on in a week or so. Can't catch up with all the posts. My son has me running around, he is learning to drive and I have to take him driving lol. What are you doing in the Poconos? If anyone is looking for a Partridge silkie rooster I have one available for $20. This weekend has been wood splitting, getting ready for winter. Now we have to stack all this wood we split. Have some large logs to cut into rounds and split as well. I hope we will have enough for the winter.

I am a ways away but if you are really worried about it I have piles of wood that I want gone(don't have a wood burning stove). It's your if you want to come get it. There are probably to cords split, another cord ready to split and probably another 4 or 5 cords still in large logs that would need cut down then split.

 

[SilkieSensation]

I've been wandering around the internet deciding what I want to add to my flock in the spring, especially since there's a little more room in the coop now.  So, best place to get awesome quality Blue Splash Marans chicks.  Suggestions?  Bonus points if they're in Pennsylvania.  Also, how do you prefer to grow your flock?  Raising chicks in the brooder and then introducing them, putting hatching eggs under a broody hen?


ETA: dheltzel, I remember that you do BBS copper marans, right?

I could hook you up with black & blue copper. Breeding 2 blues gives you black, blue & splash.

 

[Yayah]

I've been wandering around the internet deciding what I want to add to my flock in the spring, especially since there's a little more room in the coop now.  So, best place to get awesome quality Blue Splash Marans chicks.  Suggestions?  Bonus points if they're in Pennsylvania.  Also, how do you prefer to grow your flock?  Raising chicks in the brooder and then introducing them, putting hatching eggs under a broody hen?


ETA: dheltzel, I remember that you do BBS copper marans, right?

Just lately I'm falling under the spell of the broody. It is so stinkin easy if you've got a hen working for you! Especially in the summertime. So stress free. I'm not saying I'll do it that way all the time because I don't necessarily like the way my chicks end up absolutely wild (because I don't have the time to spend out in the yard sucking up to them), but it has been so easy this summer since I switched to broody. I love not having to deal with introductions and integration.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

I've been wandering around the internet deciding what I want to add to my flock in the spring, especially since there's a little more room in the coop now.  So, best place to get awesome quality Blue Splash Marans chicks.  Suggestions?  Bonus points if they're in Pennsylvania.  Also, how do you prefer to grow your flock?  Raising chicks in the brooder and then introducing them, putting hatching eggs under a broody hen?


ETA: dheltzel, I remember that you do BBS copper marans, right?

I prefer raising my chicks by hand in the brooder. I feel that they are so much sweeter and more interested in people that way. But my flock isn't hard to integrate new babies into either so that makes a difference. The last ones I added were only 6 weeks old when they started wandering around in the coop with the adults.

 

[PurpleFoxglove]

Quote:

Just lately I'm falling under the spell of the broody. It is so stinkin easy if you've got a hen working for you! Especially in the summertime. So stress free. I'm not saying I'll do it that way all the time because I don't necessarily like the way my chicks end up absolutely wild (because I don't have the time to spend out in the yard sucking up to them), but it has been so easy this summer since I switched to broody. I love not having to deal with introductions and integration.

I prefer raising my chicks by hand in the brooder. I feel that they are so much sweeter and more interested in people that way. But my flock isn't hard to integrate new babies into either so that makes a difference. The last ones I added were only 6 weeks old when they started wandering around in the coop with the adults.

Right, that's what I figured - that chicks raised in the brooder and handled more would generally end up more tame/friendly. Once the eggs hatch, could you hypothetically take the chicks and pop them in the brooder? Or would the hen lose her marbles over such a thing? I guess they would be gone so long that you'd still have the task of introductions, etc, so it would really only solve an "I don't want to buy an incubator" situation haha. My girls are pretty mellow, it will be interesting to see how they do with new additions. Interesting. Thanks for the input!

 

[stake]

Question for @fisherlady . And anyone else with experience with broodys and young chicks. I have all my girls on chick starter, because I have the chicks running around. I have oyster shell out for them to take as well. I also offer their egg shells back to them crumbled. It seems like a coup,e of my girls are laying thinner shelled eggs. Should I make them a treat with extra calcium in it? Is there any way to put out food for just the laying girls that the chicks can't get to? Currently they all free range in the backyard together.

Ann:

It is my understanding that layer feed has both grit and calcium in it.....I have a leghorn that occasionally lays thin shelled eggs....I think it just happens sometimes....my two cents....

 

[stake]

First babies came in the mail today, Finally!! I think they're doing ok they seem to be eating, drinking, pooping and sleeping along with lots of chirping.

congrats....what did you get???

 

[PurpleFoxglove]

I could hook you up with black & blue copper. Breeding 2 blues gives you black, blue & splash.

Hmmm. I will think about it, I have space for a couple more chickens, but probably not enough to be breeding for things. Not just yet, anyway. Someday.