Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[OneMountainAcres]

This is NOT helping my resolve to leave the incubators turned off until after Christmas.

Lol! You know you miss having babies!

 

[BullChick]

All eggs are not fertile. You must have a rooster to get fertile eggs from your hens.

I disagree. A woman is considered very fertile if she has many children.

New CCL Babies hatched over the weekend. There are 2 boys and 2 girls though the one girl is extremely dark while the other is extremely light lol.

All 4 in one pic. The very light colored pullet is on the left

Light colored pullet

Pullet and cockerel

Ayam cemani photo bomb and a week old CCL cockerel in the back

Awe!
Okay! Decision made! I would say thank you, but having chicks in the house this time of year is not something to say thank you about!

 

[Chaos18]

Of course you would disagree

 

[Werforpsu]

Hey all,
As the holidays come closer, I wanted to let y'all know of a charity that I am going to donate to as a gift for my kiddos this season.
I wouldn't put it on here, except that this is money to donate baby chicks to impoverished families around the world. This was something that I just happened upon (and there may be others that do this too). Since WE all know the food / monetary value that a chicken can bring (if you eat / sell the eggs and eventually the chicken) and we all like chickens at least a little bit, I thought that this was an interesting idea for chicken lovers to participate in.

They say that for $14, they can give them a dozen chicks, set up a coop and provide some basic veterinary care. You can also pay different amounts for other animals, but since this is a chicken site, I just wanted to tell you all about the chickens. Here is the site if anyone wants to participate.

https://www.samaritanspurse.org/donation-items/baby-chicks/

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

That's a really good idea I'm glad you were able to share that with everyone.

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

Am I the only one wo has a problem with turkeys fighting with chickens? I have already got rid of three turkeys still have one she will be going to a new home also if she can't fix her attitude.

 

[Lelanae]

Thanks @Chaos18!! This could be a fun project for the kids (me)

I have a Giant very close and I have been tempted too!

 

[Prpjewel]

The hatchability of refrigerated eggs is lower. If you want to hatch eggs, there are a number of us that are close enough to get you some good eggs to hatch. Be sure to consider what you will do with the chicks, including all the roos you might end up with.

Very true. Can you please explain to Chaos what I was saying. The carton says fertile and therefore able to be fertilized. It may not contain fertilized eggs. It would be good to know either way by cracking one open.

 

[dheltzel]

Very true. Can you please explain to Chaos what I was saying. The carton says fertile and therefore able to be fertilized. It may not contain fertilized eggs. It would be good to know either way by cracking one open.

I can sense some confusion about fertile vs fertilized. An individual animal can be fertile (or not, ie sterile), an egg can be fertilized (or not). Can a bird egg really ever be considered "fertile"? I think that technically it cannot once it leaves the hen's body. Fertile means "able to conceive", right? Or perhaps in the case of an egg still "in vivo", able to be fertilized. So a fertile chicken egg is the tiny cell that is produced and waiting to be fertilized, not the thing that a chicken lays that we call the egg.

Almost all eggs sold for eating are not fertilized, roos only add hungry mouths to a flock that is solely used for producing eggs for eating. A few places have started selling "fertile eggs", where the producers keep roos with the hens. They mean fertilized in this context. They are more expensive because the cost of production is a bit higher and so are not very popular, except with people who believe that a "fertile" egg is healthier or tastes better. This is the same fallacy that people think brown eggs taste better than white. The difference in taste has nothing to do with fertilization or shell color, but a lot to do with diet and the hen's well being. I believe the presence of a roo can result in happier hens, but not in the mass production facilities. Chickens in the wild live in small "harems" with a roo that protects and serves his hens. They live relatively carefree lives under his watch, dust bathing and foraging as the mood hits them. Those happy hens lay the best eggs, both for eating and incubating. Their fertilization status is a by-product of the wholesome lives the hens lay, but I can see how someone would think that an egg being fertilized might make it a better egg.

 

[dheltzel]

Am I the only one wo has a problem with turkeys fighting with chickens? I have already got rid of three turkeys still have one she will be going to a new home also if she can't fix her attitude.

Maybe some strains or individual turkeys are more aggressive than others. I have had pretty good success mixing them with chickens. At least a dozen roos have co-habitated with my turkeys and there was only 1 case of aggression from the turkeys. I sort of think he might have be collateral damage from the toms fighting amongst themselves (which happens a lot, but never results in injury or death to any of the turkeys). Perhaps I've just been lucky. I've never had a people aggressive tom either, but I've heard stories about other toms. Mine are ornamental pets, not bred for meat production (well, the Midget Whites were at one time, but they seem quite non-aggressive too).