Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[LadyBehir]

Jaebles is eating and drinking ok. Poop looks ok. She stood up a little taller for a while then went back to sitting. I think she just has a boo boo but no major injury. The sore spot looks more like feathers coming in there. I think she likes the room service.

 

[LadyJane8]

I apologize for going on about these birds...

Wingtip, thus named for the white tips at the end of each wing, escaped the coop, but is still hanging around the yard and woods near the house. We've made food and water available for him/her and the still MIA EE, Gladys, and have seen it hanging around the coop where the rest of the flock is kept.

We're pretty confident that Wingtip will stick around, and are trying to be optimistic about Gladys finding her way back to our yard (as opposed to the woods beside the neighbors yard), but would still like to try and integrate them with our crew at some point, so we would still need to catch them.

Does anyone have any suggestions for this? Since they are essentially wild and very people shy, we don't want to do anything that is going to frighten them farther into the properties around us, and we certainly don't want to try anything that could cause potential bodily harm.

Thanks!

 

[hyzenthlay]

LadyBehir, glad to see Jaebels returned to you, not too much worse for the wear! What breed is she? She's pretty.

 

[BullChick]

Jaebles is eating and drinking ok. Poop looks ok. She stood up a little taller for a while then went back to sitting. I think she just has a boo boo but no major injury. The sore spot looks more like feathers coming in there. I think she likes the room service.

 

[dheltzel]

I wish I could take one (or more) of each!!! If only we weren't at opposite ends of the state.... But if I'm ever in shouting distance of you, I'm going to plan to get in touch to see what you have available!!!

Do you find your Legbars or your Ameraucanas tend to lay bluer eggs, or are they about the same?

Your blue egg black sexlink from that last picture is just gorgeous--I would love to have one. Are their eggs as blue as your CCLs or pure Ams, or are they more like EE eggs?

And that OE Legbar in your last pic was stunning, too. Is it a CCL over Welsummer?

The OE's grandfather was a Welsummer, the other 3/4 is Cream Legbar. Her mother looks exactly like my other Legbar hens.

Egg color varies some in both breeds. My Ams tended to more turquoise and got bluer as the season went on. The Cream Legbars start bluer and faded a bit over the season, probably because they lay more eggs overall. The Black Sexlinks are very blue in tone (no hint of green) but start out lighter than the others and fade faster, because they seem to lay 6+ eggs per week and just run out of blue color. After a few months, they look white unless you put them next to a white egg or in a white carton.

The secret to great egg color in any breed seems to be to reduce the number of eggs they lay to concentrate the pigments in the shells of the few they lay. This is certainly the secret to dark brown eggs. My Welbars and Welsummers that have been laying for months are laying eggs colored like a hatchery Welsummer now. Darker than a Rock, and lots of spots, but nothing that you would call chocolate or even terra cotta. Production is way down too, I think most are starting to molt. I'm going to start increasing the daylight hours with artificial light around the middle of Dec. Hopefully, they start to lay about a month later. I'm fine with poor egg production from now until January/February.

 

[hyzenthlay]

The OE's grandfather was a Welsummer, the other 3/4 is Cream Legbar. Her mother looks exactly like my other Legbar hens.

Egg color varies some in both breeds. My Ams tended to more turquoise and got bluer as the season went on. The Cream Legbars start bluer and faded a bit over the season, probably because they lay more eggs overall. The Black Sexlinks are very blue in tone (no hint of green) but start out lighter than the others and fade faster, because they seem to lay 6+ eggs per week and just run out of blue color. After a few months, they look white unless you put them next to a white egg or in a white carton.

The secret to great egg color in any breed seems to be to reduce the number of eggs they lay to concentrate the pigments in the shells of the few they lay. This is certainly the secret to dark brown eggs. My Welbars and Welsummers that have been laying for months are laying eggs colored like a hatchery Welsummer now. Darker than a Rock, and lots of spots, but nothing that you would call chocolate or even terra cotta. Production is way down too, I think most are starting to molt. I'm going to start increasing the daylight hours with artificial light around the middle of Dec. Hopefully, they start to lay about a month later. I'm fine with poor egg production from now until January/February.

It's interesting that your 3/4 CCL 1/4 Welsummer OE is laying such lovely olive eggs! I understood from the color charts that crossing an F1 OE to a blue egg layer would get you a more minty green egg--maybe like what a lot of EEs lay. But yours are really olive! And maybe it's just the picture, but that hen doesn't seem to have too much of a crest going on--I would've expected pretty full feathers up there for a 3/4 CCL.

Thanks for the great description on Ams vs. CCLs vs. your black sex links. With the subtle varieties, it sounds like it would be fun to have some of each. The lighter blue eggs on the sex links at the end of the season might even be pretty neat.

It's too bad that to get more concentrated egg colors you need to cut back on quantity, but it does kind of make sense. I know with my Ameraucana and EEs, they definitely get paler over the season as well.

 

[Werforpsu]

Hey all. Well, 1 week of getting eggs and we got 7 eggs in 8 days! They are all small still: 36-42 grams.

The day skipped was day 2.
How likely do you think it is that there is more then 1 pullet laying? We havent gotten 2 any day yet (i've been checking pretty regularly and keeping them confined for long lengths of time so i'm fairly sure they arent hiding them somewhere.). I was suprised to not have more breaks if only one is laying. And we had no evidence of a shellless egg or a misshappen egg in the start. Just a perfect yet small egg. Our 1 girl is 25 weeks and the other 5 are 22. It just keeps seeming like we should be getting more then 1 a day.


I'm excited for next spring already to buy chicks off you all. It sounds like you have some great breeds and crosses going on. My one son asks me constantly for colored egg layers and I really want some dark brown layers. I wonder how my hubby will feel about me driving all around the state for eggs! Lol. "Hey sweety I'm going to chester county this weekend to visit high school friends. I'm going to bring new chicks home with me! Next weekend I'm going to Pitt. That's okay right?"

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Hey all. Well, 1 week of getting eggs and we got 7 eggs in 8 days! They are all small still: 36-42 grams.

The day skipped was day 2.
How likely do you think it is that there is more then 1 pullet laying? We havent gotten 2 any day yet (i've been checking pretty regularly and keeping them confined for long lengths of time so i'm fairly sure they arent hiding them somewhere.). I was suprised to not have more breaks if only one is laying. And we had no evidence of a shellless egg or a misshappen egg in the start. Just a perfect yet small egg. Our 1 girl is 25 weeks and the other 5 are 22. It just keeps seeming like we should be getting more then 1 a day.


I'm excited for next spring already to buy chicks off you all. It sounds like you have some great breeds and crosses going on. My one son asks me constantly for colored egg layers and I really want some dark brown layers. I wonder how my hubby will feel about me driving all around the state for eggs! Lol. "Hey sweety I'm going to chester county this weekend to visit high school friends. I'm going to bring new chicks home with me! Next weekend I'm going to Pitt. That's okay right?"

You don't necessarily have to drive all over the state.... If the chicken train happens to be running through, you can just meet at a certain spot and pick up birds that have been added to the train by others along the way

 

[hyzenthlay]

You don't necessarily have to drive all over the state.... If the chicken train happens to be running through, you can just meet at a certain spot and pick up birds that have been added to the train by others along the way

Wait, there's a chicken train? If that's a real thing, I want to see the train schedule!

 

[BullChick]

Wait, there's a chicken train?  If that's a real thing, I want to see the train schedule! 

It's very real. Keep an eye on the thread.