Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[TillyPeeps]

Yeah, I do feel chickens are way smarter than most people believe. May not as good as cats or dogs, but you can tell they do use their little brains, and they are so fun to watch when they do the silly chicken tricks

 

[dheltzel]

@dheltzel So glad Ansel is still going strong. The little cochen bantam that used to hang with him still seems a bit lonely -- she really thought she was a spitzhauben, and now she is the only one among my bantams who roosts. All the others lie in a pile on the ground, ignoring the low roosts that I gave them.

He is a pretty bird and attracts attention from visitors because he looks so different than the Ameraucanas.

 

[GoodGuinea]

Hi PA poultry folks! I'm trying to catch up on your posts, at least the semi-recent ones. I've been super busy for the last couple months. Not much chicken drama (yay!), but here's what's going on:

I was able to rehome my last guinea hen to a local lady I met on Facebook. I hope she's settled in and doing well. I miss her noisiness, but my chickens are so much more relaxed now that she's gone!

Three of the four new girls are laying (10 months old). The Jersey Giant and Blue Cuckoo Marans lay pretty much identical eggs: smallish and medium brown. That's kind of a disappointment. I was hoping for larger eggs from the Giant, and darker from the Marans. The Olive Egger is just what I hoped for! The Cream Legbar has yet to lay. Maybe in the spring?

One of my older hens got frostbite on her comb and went in a crate in the basement for a while, but came back out with the warmer temps this week and is doing fine. Hasn't started up laying again, but that's okay. The other two older ones are laying fine (white and large light brown).

 

[Lelanae]

Hi Dennis! When will you have silver welbar babies?

 

[R1-G2]

Hi all. I’ve got 6 call ducks under a year old. Four males and lately they have been fighting and fussing with each other. It has calmed down some but a blue bibbed drake seems to have fallen to the bottom of the order. I don’t like seeing him chased off or bullied. I’m in northeast pa if anyone is interested in giving him a new home. Very sweet duck. Fully flighted.

 

[dheltzel]

Hi Dennis! When will you have silver welbar babies?

I just sold the first 3 female Welbars of the season yesterday and 2 were silvers. I expect a lot of silvers this year and they are hatching every 2 weeks, so let me know when you want them. Next hatch will be available anytime after 2/22.

 

[dheltzel]

My pen of F2 Isabel Olive Eggers has 14 pullets and 2 roosters. Today I got 11 eggs from those pullets, 5 brown, 4 olive green and 2 blue (some "not very crested" Opal Legbars got in there and I can't tell them from the Isabel Olive Eggers. I have 4 pullets in separate pens so I can band them with the color eggs they lay and sell off the brown layers (and put the Opal Legbars with a Legbar roo). Today I banded 2 of the pullets, just 12 more to go.

 

[dheltzel]

I just finished setting 621 eggs! I'm exhausted. On average, about half the eggs I set actually hatch, but that is still a lot of chicks to sell.

 

[feliciadawn]

I have such a surplus of colorful eggs these days that everyone who steps into my house gets to take home a half-dozen, and they can select their favorite colors. Still I find myself wanting more chickens. It is a sickness.

 

[troyer]

Well, those are pretty eggs! Besides who wouldn't want more chickens.
I have too many though.