Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[OneMountainAcres]

I sometimes get a good laugh checking out the competition: https://www.cacklehatchery.com/lavender-ameraucana-chicken.html
Of course, I sell them for $8 rather than $14, no shipping charges (or stress), and I have them right now, in fact some are several weeks old already. Also, mine are all split for the silkied (wooly) gene.
They are making a lot of profit on these, the just aren't that hard to keep and hatch.

The lavender ams are popular here too but mine are slacking. They've been giving me very few eggs lately. This weather is not helping here though. Beautiful for a day or two then you wake up to find you're getting 6-10 inches of snow! When will spring get here!?

 

[dheltzel]

Yesterday was amazing (so was Sunday). It is hard to believe we are getting up to a foot of heavy snow over the next 2 days.
I think the egg production is definitely tied to the amount of nice weather. I got a lot of eggs yesterday and will probably get a lot today, then I bet it drops off until the weekend.
Except for the ducks. I have 9 females between the 2 breeds and last week I collected 58 eggs, so 5 of them only laid 6 eggs for the week, the others laid 7 -- amazing. With proper nesting areas, the eggs are pretty clean and very fertile too. I'm really starting to dig ducks!

 

[FluffyButt789]

So I was revisiting the idea of buying a shed for my chickens this summer. Does anyone have a plastic shed? I want something like this

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Lifetime-8-ft-x-12-5-ft-Outdoor-Storage-Shed-6402/202080012

But I worry that it won't be insulated enough. I could build some interior walls with insulation though. Just wondering if it's a good idea. Or if I'm better off building another (but bigger) wood shed.

My other issue is that we really only have 1 spot for a shed... so once we tear out the small one, the chickens will have to go somewhere, probably the garage, until the newer shed is finished...

 

[fangedknight]

Great news everyone!! Some context before I start jumping up and down. Some of you may know, some of you may not, but we've had a bit of a problem in Berks County. There hasn't been a Poultry Fanciers club or a 4H club for at least 20 years maybe more thanks to idiocy and scares about the whole Avian Influenza thing and a few other issues. All of which are bull in my humble opinion. Honestly I don't know if anyone even remembers why there stopped being a club in the first place.

However! Thanks to @LeBlackbird and myself! We're planning on changing that! (Eventually, we gotta actually get people interested first). So I decided to make a new Berks County poultry group on facebook to get people interested and talking about their chickens! Technically there already is a berks county poultry group on facebook but apparently their admin has fallen off the face of the planet so my membership is still pending and I just said screw it I'll do it myself and Susan can help.

So without further ado, if anyone would like to join our humble tiny group on the book of faces here is the link! https://www.facebook.com/groups/2199051260109541/ it is a closed group for obvious reason but feel free to click the join button! I actually need to finish setting everything up, but in the meantime feel free to take a peek at what we've got so far!

 

[fisherlady]

@AnneInTheBurbs

Great job on the broody box, nice score on the pallets. Wish you lived closer, I would get you some scrap plywood to go along with hatching eggs.

We have been slowly working on moving our kitchen to a different location in the house. The room it is going in has wood panel walls from original owner. The panels are actually 1/2 inch thick heavy duty stuff, not the thin, cheap stuff they make paneling from now. I have been pulling the panels and reframing the outside wall as I go to add more insulation. And doing drywall on inside. Now have 5 or 6 4x8 panels stashed for future project wood. Won't probably need it for a long time and will probably have to haul it to the farm property for storage.

 

[BullChick]

Hey, @dheltzel how do you hatch your bantam Am eggs? I have never incubated bantam eggs. I’ve also never (EVER!) successfully incubated green or blue eggs. I had to get my broodies to hatch them.
Though I’m great at incubating dark eggs, which I know some have trouble with.
So, please tell me your humidity and timing. 18 Days?

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Hey, @dheltzel how do you hatch your bantam Am eggs? I have never incubated bantam eggs. I’ve also never (EVER!) successfully incubated green or blue eggs. I had to get my broodies to hatch them.
Though I’m great at incubating dark eggs, which I know some have trouble with.
So, please tell me your humidity and timing. 18 Days?

I now you weren't asking me but I've been having great luck with silkies and seramas. I don't do anything different lol. All eggs incubate together around 99.5-100° with humidity readings of 25-35% for the first 18 days then lockdown humidity at 60-65%. Seramas tend to hatch days 19 and 20 but can take the normal 21 days too.

 

[dheltzel]

Hey, @dheltzel how do you hatch your bantam Am eggs? I have never incubated bantam eggs. I’ve also never (EVER!) successfully incubated green or blue eggs. I had to get my broodies to hatch them.
Though I’m great at incubating dark eggs, which I know some have trouble with.
So, please tell me your humidity and timing. 18 Days?

Blue eggs hatch as easily as white and light brown for me, it's dark eggs that fail most often. I don't add any water for the first 18 days, then at lockdown I aim for at least 60% RH, usually I can get it to 80%.
If the eggs are fertile, I generally get great hatches from all the Ameraucanas, bantam and LF.

 

[Lelanae]

Two Ameraucana questions.
1) About what age are they accurately sex-able?
2) If I get straight run from Dennis and raise them up and they all turn out to be boys, is there anyone here that would take them off my hands (obviously for free)? I think with an Amerucana 'roo crossed with a dark brown layer you get olive eggers?

 

[dheltzel]

Two Ameraucana questions.
1) About what age are they accurately sex-able?
2) If I get straight run from Dennis and raise them up and they all turn out to be boys, is there anyone here that would take them off my hands (obviously for free)? I think with an Amerucana 'roo crossed with a dark brown layer you get olive eggers?

1) Silver and Wheaten colors are sexable at about 4 weeks, maybe earlier. I really like the silvers for that reason. The "extended black based" colors, black, lavender, blue, splashed, etc, are never color sexable, so you have to go by other factors, mostly comb size and pointed/rounded hackle feathers. These are gradual in their appearance and I am often not sure a chick is male until they are 4 or 5 months old. Lavenders are the worst for sexing because the feather fretting that is commonplace in this color (for all breeds) makes it harder to see pointed ends on the hackle feathers.
2) Ameraucanas are a classic dual-purpose heritage breed and the males are good size for meat production (far better than Legbars, for example). If you are willing to sell them for meat, you should be able to find people willing to pay $5 - $10 each, especially in Hispanic communities. If you don't want them killed, it is harder to find good homes, but black and lavender Ams are absolutely top-notch flock protector roos, I've never had one attack a person, but they are large and fearless with small hawks.