Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[fisherlady]

Snapped a few pics of lacey with her latest group this week on my phone, finally got a chance to upload them since I was in good cell service for a while today. Chicks are all barnyard mixes.

 

[fisherlady]

Duplicate post

 

[dheltzel]

I would think these are all very good chicken breeds, and should sell well. If you can breed some flighty out of california greys, they would be great addition for your customs for white eggs. Are the welbar eggs as dark as welsummer eggs? Will you consider rhodebar X ameraucana (sexlink?) For green eggs?

Cannot wait to see how the new incubator work.

How is your recent hatch? Any more bielefelder?

40 chicks so far from this week's hatch. Only 1 Bielefelder so far (they are slow to hatch, even behind the BCM's), but I'm hopeful a few more will hatch today (5 eggs made it to lockdown).
And the big news is that 6 of the Welbars (out of 7 eggs) hatched !

These are the first ever pure Welbars from my efforts to recreate the breed here in the US. There are 5 males and 1 female, assuming the autosexing is good, and it sure looks that way - the chick colors look like Rhodebars, the best autosexing breed I have (until now). I will need to grow these out a few weeks to prove that, but I'm pretty sure these are the real deal.

The Welbar eggs are as dark as the Welsummers and BCM's. They are beautiful eggs and the hens look almost exactly like the Bielefelders. The roos are different, but that may be from the genes in the new lines still being very heterozygous. All in all, they are a lot like a BF, only with even darker eggs (and so far seem to hatch easier, but the sample set is small).

 

[BullChick]

How on earth my girls haven't stayed through a brood yet is beyond me. Fisherlady, I want to ask what you're doing special, but I've had other broodies.
(sigh) I guess it's just not my time.
These eggs piling up from the flock being wormed are so close to being incubated. With my luck, they will hatch, and someone will go broody two weeks later. :-D

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

Hi Anne! I'm from Bucks Co too . Maybe you can help me find a page on township restrictions? I'm looking for Warrington/Jamison/Buckingham/Doylestown/warminster West specifically

Hello there! I am in Warminster too, and we are not zoned for chickens here. I know I am not the only one with chickens in this own ship. I also know of someone with chickens in Warrington area too. You are welcome to come see my setup and talk chickens if you like. I simply asked all my neighbor's who's fence borders mine if they would mind me have a couple chickens. No one had a problem with it so long as I didn't have any roosters and so long as they weren't stinky. I have had no complaints and a lot of my neighbor's really enjoy them.

Time to test the new incubator - loaded it with 75 turkey eggs and 29 chicken eggs. I intentionally selected some breeds with good fertility and some with bad, so I can compare the performance between the 2 incubators. I will know in a week (when I candle) whether it is safe to add more eggs.

The first hatches of the year of several breeds is underway. First of the "hopefully truebreeding" Welbars are out. The real test is whether they are truly autosexing now   I am very impressed with the parents, I get almost as many eggs each day from that pen with 7 pullets as I do from the pen with 30 purebred Welsummers. To be fair, some of the Welsummers are too young to lay and some are second year birds and maybe haven't come back into lay -- and I'm obviously biased in caring most about the strain I created.

I was thinking today about making a new, intentionally designed laying flock for next year. Our main laying flock is an eclectic mix of purebred hens I no longer use for breeding, and mixed breeds (some intentional hybrids, some really mixed up). I think I know what chicks I'm hatching will be the most productive layers, so this is what I am planning:

Black Sexlinks (for blue eggs)
Welbars (dark eggs)
Rhodebar x Bielefelder hybrids (light brown eggs)
Cream Legbars (green eggs)
California Greys (white eggs)

Presuming they are all roughly equal in productivity, what proportion of the various color eggs do you think would be the most appealing to people buying eggs?

Congratulations! It must be quite satisfying to see all your hard work come,to fruition. I would think dark brown, light brown, and blue eggs would b the most popular, but perhaps not in that order. White eggs I suspect less so. This is based on none other than my desires when I first started. Also keep in mind, if your target market are backyard chicken keepers like myself, temperment is a big necessity as well.

Snapped a few pics of lacey with her latest group this week on my phone, finally got a chance to upload them since I was in good cell service for a while today. Chicks are all barnyard mixes.

Adorable as always! You definitely go the broody stink eye. How dare you disturb her? iWe are on day 17 for my broody sitting on turkey eggs. I hope I will have some pics to share soon also. Should be funny, turkey eggs underneath my banty cochin.

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

How on earth my girls haven't stayed through a brood yet is beyond me. Fisherlady, I want to ask what you're doing special, but I've had other broodies.
(sigh) I guess it's just not my time.
These eggs piling up from the flock being wormed are so close to being incubated. With my luck, they will hatch, and someone will go broody two weeks later. :-D

I think the most important quality for a broody is breed. I have three hens that seem to go broody fairly frequently, but none of my other chickens do. Also, the girls that grow broody were are raised or hatched by individuals, and we're not chicks from a commercial hatchery. Try a bantam Cochin. A few people here have them from probably the same line, and they do like to sit!

 

[fisherlady]

How on earth my girls haven't stayed through a brood yet is beyond me. Fisherlady, I want to ask what you're doing special, but I've had other broodies.
(sigh) I guess it's just not my time.
These eggs piling up from the flock being wormed are so close to being incubated. With my luck, they will hatch, and someone will go broody two weeks later. :-D

I don't know why they haven't stayed yet...2 of their 'sisters' co-brooded for us last fall. They prefer a dimly lit and rather secluded area, though they will sit in favored nest boxes it causes more ruckus when they do. With only having 5 hens in the flock the other hens will notice the broodies absence more and may pester her more.
The next time you have one try to sit attempt to move her to a smaller caged area in an out of the way corner before you give her eggs. Move her at night and cover her new nest with a dark sheet for the first day or so to help her get settled. Open the cage to let her roam when you are there to supervise. When she returns willingly to her new nest then give her hatching eggs and remove the 'dummy eggs' she had originally. You can eventually leave her door open all the time if the other hens are leaving her alone and she keeps returning to the correct nest.
Some hens get it right the first time, others need help...thankfully most figure it out after their first successful brood and little is needed from us after that.

 

[TillyPeeps]

40 chicks so far from this week's hatch. Only 1 Bielefelder so far (they are slow to hatch, even behind the BCM's), but I'm hopeful a few more will hatch today (5 eggs made it to lockdown).
And the big news is that 6 of the Welbars (out of 7 eggs) hatched !  e
These are the first ever pure Welbars from my efforts to recreate the breed here in the US. There are 5 males and 1 female, assuming the autosexing is good, and it sure looks that way - the chick colors look like Rhodebars, the best autosexing breed I have (until now). I will need to grow these out a few weeks to prove that, but I'm pretty sure these are the real deal.

The Welbar eggs are as dark as the Welsummers and BCM's. They are beautiful eggs and the hens look almost exactly like the Bielefelders. The roos are different, but that may be from the genes in the new lines still being very heterozygous. All in all, they are a lot like a BF, only with even darker eggs (and so far seem to hatch easier, but the sample set is small).

Wow,if the welbars breed true, there could be a great market for them. I know lots of people are looking for good dark brown egg layers. They are on my wishlist for next year for sure.

 

[LalaG]

Hello there! I am in Warminster too, and we are not zoned for chickens here. I know I am not the only one with chickens in this own ship. I also know of someone with chickens in Warrington area too. You are welcome to come see my setup and talk chickens if you like. I simply asked all my neighbor's who's fence borders mine if they would mind me have a couple chickens. No one had a problem with it so long as I didn't have any roosters and so long as they weren't stinky. I have had no complaints and a lot of my neighbor's really enjoy them.
Congratulations! It must be quite satisfying to see all your hard work come,to fruition. I would think dark brown, light brown, and blue eggs would b the most popular, but perhaps not in that order. White eggs I suspect less so. This is based on none other than my desires when I first started. Also keep in mind, if your target market are backyard chicken keepers like myself, temperment is a big necessity as well.
Adorable as always! You definitely go the broody stink eye. How dare you disturb her? iWe are on day 17 for my broody sitting on turkey eggs. I hope I will have some pics to share soon also. Should be funny, turkey eggs underneath my banty cochin.

Such a small happy world! . We are also in warminster! I've read it's 10acres PER chicken which is ridiculous? I have the land for chickens and wouldn't torture anyone with a bunch of loud roos, even myself . I'd love to see your set up! We currently have 9 silkies in the incubator (I do this every year with my kids and put the brooder in the garage and then give them to an amazing farm in new hope with huge coops and lots of birds but I want to keep them . At least a pair of them, no more than 4. We have a large fenced backyard and the room to certainly carry that many discreetly I'm just worried someone would report us? We are thinking about moving and this is actually one of my wishes for the new house!

 

[BullChick]

...

How on earth my girls haven't stayed through a brood yet is beyond me. Fisherlady, I want to ask what you're doing special, but I've had other broodies.
(sigh) I guess it's just not my time.
These eggs piling up from the flock being wormed are so close to being incubated. With my luck, they will hatch, and someone will go broody two weeks later. :-D

I think the most important quality for a broody is breed. I have three hens that seem to go broody fairly frequently, but none of my other chickens do. Also, the girls that grow broody were are raised or hatched by individuals, and we're not chicks from a commercial hatchery. Try a bantam Cochin. A few people here have them from probably the same line, and they do like to sit!


As Karen said, these girls were raised by broodies, and their sisters are already moms.
I had two go broody in the fall. They gave up after two weeks. I know a young skunk had gotten into the pen. I wasn't surprised when they stopped. Just sorry that I didn't discover it sooner, and put the eggs in the incubator.
The girls all have been periodically staying in a nest box for up to three days each. Just when I was getting ready to do as Karen said, they had already joined the others. I am thinking of making a change in the coop. The chickens and ducks have free range together already. There has not been a problem. They are in pens next to each other. I think it's time to open the door in between. When I have done a double pen in the past, the duck pen has been used as a feeding room and the favorite nesting room as well. Especially for the girls that do want to brood.
Anyway, we'll see. Once I do get a broody, I'll be annoyed because I'll have to break the others. Time will tell how it will go. I just know I haven't seen a baby bird in several years. I kinda miss it!