Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[barbiegirl]

Thanks! I think I am just going to let her do her thing, it's probably too late to move her, and she is high, if not the highest on the pecking order. We'll see how it goes. Did you candle at all during the process?

I personally didn't candle. I just let my silkie hatch the eggs. I miss that girl. She had 100% hatch rate and 100% all male hatch.

 

[dheltzel]

Need some help form the veterans. I just put the fertile eggs under my broody, but she is still in the same best box as she has been her entire broody time. She is in the nest box in the coop with the others. The other chickens don't lay in her box much, if at all, because she doesn't leave. They lay in the other nest box, or in another corner. Should I mover her into a separate pen? I do have a separate box that I had originally made for my silkies, that is close to ground level with no ramp. Should I move her now? I'm not sure if she would stay, but she is determined to sit on eggs....

Leave her, she will almost certainly give up if you move her. Now, if you were trying to break her, you could put her anywhere and she would keep setting, but as soon as you got those eggs for her, even before you arrived back home with them, her decision to set became very fragile. Don't ask me how they know you have valuable eggs for them to incubate, but they somehow do.

When I was a kid, I had 3 silkie cross hens that were great broodies, show them a nest of eggs and they'd move right in, take away the hatched chicks and put more eggs in the nest and they'd hatch them too. Never had any others as good as that. I trust incubators more than broodies now. Maybe I'll find some hens like them again someday.

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

I personally didn't candle. I just let my silkie hatch the eggs. I miss that girl. She had 100% hatch rate and 100% all male hatch.

That's amazing! But I would like more hens than roosters.

Leave her, she will almost certainly give up if you move her. Now, if you were trying to break her, you could put her anywhere and she would keep setting, but as soon as you got those eggs for her, even before you arrived back home with them, her decision to set became very fragile. Don't ask me how they know you have valuable eggs for them to incubate, but they somehow do.

When I was a kid, I had 3 silkie cross hens that were great broodies, show them a nest of eggs and they'd move right in, take away the hatched chicks and put more eggs in the nest and they'd hatch them too. Never had any others as good as that. I trust incubators more than broodies now. Maybe I'll find some hens like them again someday.

I'm sure they do know. She is a great broody so far, I have pulled her off the nest before to force her to go out and eat, and if I plopped her on the ground, she would sit there for a minute or two, probably thinking "Fine, I'll sit here for a while". I'll just have to observe and see how it goes!

 

[LittleMissPurdy]

I told dh that I am grabbing the incubator when we get through the house Wednesday.

i am so far behind, been out of commission for a bit... .but this is classic!!

...so funny Abi!!! Knowing you two makes this funnier yet!!
I certainly hope you get that incubator warmed up!!, whatever you gotta do to get those birds in that cab

.....hahahah

...miss ya!

 

[LittleMissPurdy]

I. Am. Not. Right. In. The. Head.
Saturday, I drove my daughter back down to her place in FL. Did most of the driving with her spelling me for a short bit. No stopping except for food and gas. Left there around 2:30 on Monday. Stopped for two short naps but other than that, just drove home. I am too tired to sleep now. But I got her stuff out of my garage and she gave me her old cat tree and an office chair. So, that was good. Husband took good care of my girls while i was gone.

so glad your trip went well..hope you have been able to get rested up.

...Our girls have been "out" for awhile now, but we still have a nice little pile of their "things" in the attic

 

[LittleMissPurdy]

One time I was gathering eggs in the dark and I grabbed what I thought was an egg. Nope, it was a big poop.

omgosh..i would just

..oh man...

I'm so excited! My orpingtons have started laying!!!!
Now I'm even more hyped up to get me another incubator and start hatching as the eggs wont freeze in the coops!!!

I also now am the proudish mama to 3 Freedom Ranger Pullets. The plan is to breed them to both a white rock cock or an orpington cock to see what produces. The goal is to create a self sustaining meat flock.
I am interested in your thoughts on if I should start with the White Rock or the Orpington. Since I only have 3 of the girls they are going to stay with the same roo until those babies grow up to laying age. Then I will switch the girls to the other breed's roo.

I don't know much on mixing breeds..or white rocks...but, Orpingtons are very nice sized bird..as you know..down side, they take a bit of extra time to become that large. If white rocks are just as big, but are faster growing..well...i guess it all depends on how long you want to wait....
I realize i didn't help much, but , there you go

...hahaha...
Sounds like you have an interesting plan...keep us in the loop..i would like to see what these mixes produce!!

lol that's funny! I was doing the same once, reaching for eggs at night and scared myself to death when I grabbed one of my hens. I did NOT expect anyone in there. It was early and still dark and I was half asleep lol. I don't think she appreciated the interruption.

...

 

[Blarneyeggs]

Need some help form the veterans. I just put the fertile eggs under my broody, but she is still in the same best box as she has been her entire broody time. She is in the nest box in the coop with the others. The other chickens don't lay in her box much, if at all, because she doesn't leave. They lay in the other nest box, or in another corner. Should I mover her into a separate pen? I do have a separate box that I had originally made for my silkies, that is close to ground level with no ramp. Should I move her now? I'm not sure if she would stay, but she is determined to sit on eggs....

Leave her, she will almost certainly give up if you move her. Now, if you were trying to break her, you could put her anywhere and she would keep setting, but as soon as you got those eggs for her, even before you arrived back home with them, her decision to set became very fragile. Don't ask me how they know you have valuable eggs for them to incubate, but they somehow do.

When I was a kid, I had 3 silkie cross hens that were great broodies, show them a nest of eggs and they'd move right in, take away the hatched chicks and put more eggs in the nest and they'd hatch them too. Never had any others as good as that. I trust incubators more than broodies now. Maybe I'll find some hens like them again someday.

Dennis, this is so true! My best broody, Popcorn, is 1/2 Silkie.

 

[LittleMissPurdy]

Help! Still searching for that job, how can you be over qualified... I have been told that I would hate the pay....
Really...... is lower pay not expected when downsizing to part time.... maybe I am over qualified if I can figure that out...

Sorry, had to vent... current job getting really bad, being forced today to both start early and stay late... a 14 hour day.

good grief wing....so sorry to hear job hunting is not going very well. Fingers are crossed and thoughts are positive

...something is out there for you!! Too qualified or not..geesh..

GM all:

Lost one of my big girls to a hawk this morning...a buff Orp and one of my original six....about two hours later I had another hawk try to fly under a bush where the chooks hide...I chased it off....it was a smaller type, not the usual red tails.....it was pretty persistent about sticking around til I got the sling shot out.....also noticed (I think) that a group of three vultures was following the hawk...what a PIA......

Wing, I think you need to learn the one fingered salute...my two cents....

Stake-I am so sorry to hear of your loss...
I am not familiar with your set up..is there any way for a "web" to be made over their ranging area?...There is a woman(dragonlady), she is usually around the English/orpington threads...she has a really neat way to protect her birds with this "webbing" ...just throwing that out there.
I totally agree on the whole "salute" thing

, but do understand about the need for a pay check...without having a job waiting, the pressure is greater.

 

[LittleMissPurdy]

So excited! Met Troyer's lovely wife and got 6 eggs for my broody girl. (There's that chicken math again....). Hopefully the broody will do well, she did not appreciate being woken up for me to put cold eggs under her. Lol

Thanks Wing for the connection & Thank you @troyer for the eggs!

oh you are lucky!!

....good luck on your hatch!! or your hens hatch

YAY!!! My cabin is finally here!!!

It got here about 2:30pm yesterday & between the rv not starting so it could be moved, my son getting his truck stuck in the yard trying to tow the rv, the delivery guy having to pull my son out & then tow the rv to where it needed to go, the trailer the cabin was on getting stuck in my muddy yard, trying to maneuver the cabin around the obstacle course in my yard, and getting the cabin set on blocks...it was around 10pm before the poor delivery guys could leave...and they still have to come back Monday to put the rest of the support piers under & finish leveling it. But, YAY, IT'S HERE!!!

I moved a few things in last night just to make more room in the rv. Today I will be running wiring & plumbing & getting everything ready to put the wood stove in place. Saturday I will be trying to get the wood stove set up & the rest of the stuff from the rv moved in and Sunday we will be getting beds & furniture from storage so we can get completely moved in before Monday.

awesome!! I hope everything goes smoothly from here for you Silkie! For you & your kids!!

...Love the new-home pics!!

 

[OneMountainAcres]

It's starting to look like both Winter and Flurry are both boys all I want are more Marans hens for more pretty eggs and so far every one of my pure marans hatched are looking to be boys! What's with that!?