Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[dheltzel]

Bielefelder is one of my dream breed. I love big birds with nice personalities. What didn't you like about them? Eat too much? Not enough eggs? They shouldn't be aggressive or flighty, right?

The eggs I received were large but mishapen, they fertility was great, but I had a poor hatch because they couldn't get out. The ones I have I had to help out of the shell, or I would have lost them all. That left a bad "first impression". Now that they are grown, I like them better, depending on the shape and quality of eggs they lay. They seem very calm, but not necessarily gentle with other chickens, they are in a pen to themselves now, but I hope to integrate some of my Rhodebar hens in there also. I think a RBxBF could be a fantastic production bird - autosexing and a great layer of larger sized eggs. The BF hens are rather pretty, I think more attractive than a RB hen. Curiously, the hens look virtually identical to my Welbar hens. I put bands on the BF's in case they should ever get mixed somehow because I doubt I could separate them if they did.

I hope to be selling chicks in the spring. They are still with Marans in the "I breed them as a service because everyone wants them, but they aren't my favorite" category.

 

[TillyPeeps]

The eggs I received were large but mishapen, they fertility was great, but I had a poor hatch because they couldn't get out. The ones I have I had to help out of the shell, or I would have lost them all. That left a bad "first impression". Now that they are grown, I like them better, depending on the shape and quality of eggs they lay. They seem very calm, but not necessarily gentle with other chickens, they are in a pen to themselves now, but I hope to integrate some of my Rhodebar hens in there also. I think a RBxBF could be a fantastic production bird - autosexing and a great layer of larger sized eggs. The BF hens are rather pretty, I think more attractive than a RB hen. Curiously, the hens look virtually identical to my Welbar hens. I put bands on the BF's in case they should ever get mixed somehow because I doubt I could separate them if they did.

I hope to be selling chicks in the spring. They are still with Marans in the "I breed them as a service because everyone wants them, but they aren't my favorite" category.

You seem having lots of great ideas of generating some fantastic breeds.

I'm really looking forward to see these new chicks.
Now I already start worry about my coop is not big enough.

 

[dheltzel]

Now I already start worry about my coop is not big enough.

You can stop worrying - they aren't big enough. I know that without even knowing the size of the coop you have now.
It's a disease that apparently has no reliable treatment.

 

[BullChick]

Quote:
You seem having lots of great ideas of generating some fantastic breeds.

I'm really looking forward to see these new chicks.
Now I already start worry about my coop is not big enough.

I guarantee your coop isn't big enough. I have space for about 60 to be comfortable. I only have 6 at the moment, but I'm building more coops in my head all the time!

 

[Chaos18]

The eggs I received were large but mishapen, they fertility was great, but I had a poor hatch because they couldn't get out. The ones I have I had to help out of the shell, or I would have lost them all. That left a bad "first impression". Now that they are grown, I like them better, depending on the shape and quality of eggs they lay. They seem very calm, but not necessarily gentle with other chickens, they are in a pen to themselves now, but I hope to integrate some of my Rhodebar hens in there also. I think a RBxBF could be a fantastic production bird - autosexing and a great layer of larger sized eggs. The BF hens are rather pretty, I think more attractive than a RB hen. Curiously, the hens look virtually identical to my Welbar hens. I put bands on the BF's in case they should ever get mixed somehow because I doubt I could separate them if they did.

I hope to be selling chicks in the spring. They are still with Marans in the "I breed them as a service because everyone wants them, but they aren't my favorite" category.

So do all of your separate pens have electricity that goes to them to keep water liquid during the winter?

 

[dheltzel]

So do all of your separate pens have electricity that goes to them to keep water liquid during the winter?

Almost all of them. There are some pens in a room in the main barn without heated waterers (too much danger of fire there), but it is very sheltered and the temps tend to stay higher there. We have rubber bowls that are fairly easy to break ice out of, and can drop the ice cubes out the window to the barnyard below (hopefully remembering to check for cows or people down below first). Those pens are also super easy to clean, just toss the old bedding out the window and drag in loose straw from the barn floor about 10 ft away. Decent trade off, I guess.

The new coops I put in last fall all have heated water bowls and LED lighting on digital timers. This is pic from last January, you can see the blue heated water bowls, roosts w/poop boards, and some 5 gallon bucket feeders. The lights and electrical are above the area in the pic.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

If anyone is looking for Pullet Crested Cream Legbar lay beautiful blue eggs! or a few XXL egg blue layer pullets,
I just hatched chicks last night because I needed to hatch some males and got a crapload of pullets so I need to sell them off.
North Berks County, Just west of Cabelas off Interstate 78
MESSAGE ME IF YOUR INTERESTED PLEASE!
They just hatched overnight and there are two eggs I am waiting on.
NO I WONT SHIP, thanks! I wont hold until the weekend without PAYPAL either! sorry!



parent stock

 

[Chaos18]

I've got a question for those of you who fancy yourselves as extension cord experts....or anybody with an opinion on the matter. I don't have electricity going to any of my three coops. For 3 seasons....not a problem......for winter time.....problem. I've got a bunch of those orange extension cords that everybody seems to have. I've got electricity down at the garage, the closest building with electricity. I had planned on buying heated water bowls (the kind that dhetzel has in his pic above) so they have been planned into the budget. My question is this. Would the orange extension cord be ok to run from the garage up to the coops? Both connections/ends of the cords would be under a roof. The rest of the cord would be in a very low traffic area. Thoughts?

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

Lost a black silkied Americauna today. The others killed it and pulled out a lot of it's guts before I found it, and only a few hours after I removed another one that they had picked to the point of bleeding profusely. Those are a viscous bunch, I'm not sure if the silkied ones are worth having after all. On the positive side, I got the first egg from the Reese CCL's today. Small, but very, very blue e The reports that they all lay green eggs is not true after all. Maybe some will lay green eggs, but selecting for egg color is easy. I just turned the main incubator off a few days ago, now I really need to try to hatch this Reese egg.

Haha, is it worth firing up (or in your case, just replugging it back in ) the baton for a few eggs?

Thanks! Was looking at the Galaxy 10 in particular, so great to know!

I use and iPad, and I love it. It does force you to jog read, but I feel that the software is better than Android. We like the Windows tablets around here too, but I understand no everyone does. . Try not to get the cheapest one, that is the biggest mistake we see in our computer shop with people buying electronics.

Bielefelder is one of my dream breed. I love big birds with nice personalities. What didn't you like about them? Eat too much? Not enough eggs? They shouldn't be aggressive or flighty, right?

Me too! I can't wait till I have room for a couple... Or a few....

Sorry -I guess I should have spelled it out [COLOR=333333]Kunkletown[/COLOR] [COLOR=333333]Looking for Heritage RR and BR- Tks.[/COLOR] [COLOR=333333]Looking for a Heritage Rhode Island Red -Rooster and Heritage Barred Rock Hens [/COLOR] [COLOR=333333]Thanks and Take Care Harry[/COLOR]

Welcome to the fun!

You can stop worrying - they aren't big enough. I know that without even knowing the size of the coop you have now. It's a disease that apparently has no reliable treatment.

The treatment is to buy a bigger property with more outdoor housing for livestock.

If anyone is looking for Pullet Crested Cream Legbar lay beautiful blue eggs! or a few XXL egg blue layer pullets, I just hatched chicks last night because I needed to hatch some males and got a crapload of pullets so I need to sell them off. North Berks County, Just west of Cabelas off Interstate 78 MESSAGE ME IF YOUR INTERESTED PLEASE! They just hatched overnight and there are two eggs I am waiting on. NO I WONT SHIP, thanks! I wont hold until the weekend without PAYPAL either! sorry! parent stock

They're gorgeous! If only I had the room... What an ususual problem, to have too many pullets!

 

[dheltzel]

I've got a question for those of you who fancy yourselves as extension cord experts....or anybody with an opinion on the matter. I don't have electricity going to any of my three coops. For 3 seasons....not a problem......for winter time.....problem. I've got a bunch of those orange extension cords that everybody seems to have. I've got electricity down at the garage, the closest building with electricity. I had planned on buying heated water bowls (the kind that dhetzel has in his pic above) so they have been planned into the budget. My question is this. Would the orange extension cord be ok to run from the garage up to the coops? Both connections/ends of the cords would be under a roof. The rest of the cord would be in a very low traffic area. Thoughts?

The orange cords come in different diameters, if yours is thick enough to handle the load you are putting on it, then no problem. I would use the thickest one you have that will do the entire length in a single run. If you can find the gauge on a label or etched into the plastic ends, you can lookup the wattage rating for that gauge and see if it is more than the sum of your bowls and lights.

If you use the "redneck method" (plug it all in while holding the cable to see if it feels too hot), keep in mind that the water bowls have thermostats and don't draw current until the water in the bowl gets pretty cold, so it might seem ok, then overload on a cold night when the heaters all kick on at the same time.