Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[dheltzel]

Do you think it has anything t do with the AM gene? Our AM (actually I think she's a mix, so an EE) just laid her first egg in Feb and she is 9 MONTHS (May 2015 hatch)!! Winter came too soon for her liking, I suppose, and spring not soon enough. She took her good 'ole time. And get this . . . She is a BIG girl, biggest bird in the flock and she laid the smallest pullet egg we have gotten to date. Teeny little robin egg size.

She's not a real consistent layer yet, but her eggs are consistently small!

Glad it was a success! My girls did well last night. They spread themselves all throughout the coop and slept quietly. I checked on them this evening before shutting the pop door and couldn't believe my eyes - they were all on the roost! Great little girls behaving already. They really enjoyed being out in the run today, dirt bathing, sun soaking and just generally exploring.

I think it's the silkie genes that are slowing them down. I have some regular blacks that are starting to lay now at about 6 months. This egg was actually pretty good size. Pullets that start laying later often skip the "pullet egg" stage and lay regular eggs from the start.

 

[fisherlady]

Oh wow, I hope everyone recovers well, heals up, and gets back to normal soon!

Speaking of bumble foot, does it ever truely go away? I did surgery on Ariel for it last fall and her foot liked almost normal again for a while but looking at her foot now, it looks to be swelled twice the size that it was back then. I was thinking of just culling her instead of putting her through all that again. It has to be awful to run around with bumble foot and even worse to have someone pinning you down and slicing open your foot with no pain killers

The root on my roo's foot was pretty large, he never even flinched through most of the process until after the cores (yep, found two kernels in it) were removed. I think the pressure was keeping everything dulled. Once it was wrapped he was walking around on it right away and not seeming to favor it anymore. It was swollen back up tonight but he still isn't favoring it anymore, so hoping the penicillin shots and epsom salt soaks get ahead of it.

 

[LadyBehir]

Dennis, are your Marans not very prolific layers? The one hen I got from my hatch has laid about 4 or 5 eggs total so far. June 7th hatch date. And I am not sure if the New Hampshire has laid anything yet. Is this normal? I can vouch for the 2 roosters. They are taking their job very seriously.

 

[dekel18042]

Dennis, are your Marans not very prolific layers? The one hen I got from my hatch has laid about 4 or 5 eggs total so far. June 7th hatch date. And I am not sure if the New Hampshire has laid anything yet. Is this normal? I can vouch for the 2 roosters. They are taking their job very seriously.

I'm not Dennis, but this is a subject I am interested in. I and several others have a few marans in our flocks to add color to our egg baskets, They lay dark beautiful eggs. The hens themselves are friendly and good flock birds. They make wonderful olive eggers, but they lay the fewest of any breed I have. If egg production were my #1 criteria, I probably wouldn't have any but they make up for their egg production in other ways.
The next bit of information was said by someone who was raising marans, that their fertility isn't as good as some of the other breeds. Usually the number given is you need one rooster per ten hens. At one point I had one rooster for 18 hens and I never cracked an infertile egg, but I was told with black copper marans a better ratio is one rooster per five hens.

 

[npilston]

Hi All

Noob checking in from Schuylkill County (Tamaqua).

We're considering setting up for 6 hens, and looking for local connections for gear, and birds, if anyone knows of any.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Dennis, are your Marans not very prolific layers? The one hen I got from my hatch has laid about 4 or 5 eggs total so far. June 7th hatch date. And I am not sure if the New Hampshire has laid anything yet. Is this normal? I can vouch for the 2 roosters. They are taking their job very seriously. 

I also have a Marans hen from Dennis but have some from other sources too. In my experience, they can tend to be slow to start laying and only give a couple eggs a week when in fill swing. They also seem to stop laying alnost entirely during the winter. My 2 BC Marans girls haven't given me a single egg in probably 2 months now (though my wheaten is laying good right now).

 

[dheltzel]

Dennis, are your Marans not very prolific layers? The one hen I got from my hatch has laid about 4 or 5 eggs total so far. June 7th hatch date. And I am not sure if the New Hampshire has laid anything yet. Is this normal? I can vouch for the 2 roosters. They are taking their job very seriously.

I would never pick Marans or the German New Hampshires (the one you got from me) for my laying flock. I consider them "show birds", like silkies, ornamental but hardly worth having for the eggs. I disbanded my New Hampshire flock for that reason (you got one if the last offspring from them) and would certainly do that with the BCM's, but for the constant barrage of customers wanting them. I never recommend them as layers, I can't sex them as chicks, yet still people travel long distances to get them. Must be the French mystic or something. They are pretty, well mannered, and seem very hardy, but not my first choice for productive layers.

Welsummers are way better, IMO, and even my Welsummers are not what I'd like in terms of laying and hatchability, which is why I'm trying to scale up on the Welbars or locate another dark egg strain of Welsummers to infuse new genes into my line.

In general, I find the dark egg layers a bit more frustrating than the blue egg layers. The Legbars and Black Sexlinks are wonderful. I also really like purebred Ams, though they take a long time to sex out. They are otherwise close to perfect, IMO.

I have a box of 50 chicks coming today from John Blehm. They are Ameraucanas and Chanteclers, I don't know how many of each breed or color, that's going to be a surprise, but I'm excited to find out what is in that box. One of my goals this year is to upgrade some of my existing stock, and getting better Ameraucanas is on the top of my list.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Mike and I opened this thread up for the APRIL HAL a while!
Its RANDOM posting!

“Share Helpful Backyard Poultry TIPS”​

A Random Posting Contest Thread!​

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...ringing-in-the-chicks-april-hatch-a-long-2016​

"Springing in the Chicks"
Hosted by Mike & Sally​

​

DIY FAKE EGG by Pdjidesigner​

POST POST POST to WIN!​

Share any type of Helpful Tips, Inventions, Ideas, Money Saving Tips, that relate to ANY AREA of Fowl Keeping, Incubation, Etc. that may be useful and help someone else!​

If the idea was not your own, please credit the idea’s originator with a link or tag!​

​

Shelving DIY Brooders by, cmom​

DONATIONS NEEDED FOR CONTESTS! ​

No item too small! We can always have smaller items for 2nd /3rd places!​

Hatching Egg Donations, Fowl items new/used in good shape, BYC GFM's, Amazon Gift Cert, BYC Certs, etc all great items to donate! What some of us do is purchase an item from Amazon and send it directly to the winner, just make sure they have plenty of the item in stock, example chicken rooster fowl mugs are always cool!you​

​

NEW COOL CONTESTS!​

“Share a Laugh” Random Posting Thread OPEN!!!​

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1085520/share-a-laugh-a-random-posting-contest-thread-2016-springing-in-the-chicks-april-hatch-a-long​

“Share Helpful BYC TIPS” Random Posting Thread OPEN!!​

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1086457/share-helpful-backyard-poultry-tips-a-random-posting-thread-springing-in-the-chicks-april-hatch-a-long-2016​

Chick Mug Shots​

Selfies with Fowl​

Fowl drawing Contest​

 

[stake]

Hi All

Noob checking in from Schuylkill County (Tamaqua).

We're considering setting up for 6 hens, and looking for local connections for gear, and birds, if anyone knows of any.

Howdy from Chester Co....many folks here to help!, what are you looking for?

 

[stake]

Do you think it has anything t do with the AM gene? Our AM (actually I think she's a mix, so an EE) just laid her first egg in Feb and she is 9 MONTHS (May 2015 hatch)!! Winter came too soon for her liking, I suppose, and spring not soon enough. She took her good 'ole time. And get this . . . She is a BIG girl, biggest bird in the flock and she laid the smallest pullet egg we have gotten to date. Teeny little robin egg size.

She's not a real consistent layer yet, but her eggs are consistently small!

Glad it was a success! My girls did well last night. They spread themselves all throughout the coop and slept quietly. I checked on them this evening before shutting the pop door and couldn't believe my eyes - they were all on the roost! Great little girls behaving already. They really enjoyed being out in the run today, dirt bathing, sun soaking and just generally exploring.

well, mine are acting like idiots.....(well they've never been outside)....this morning they mostly have been staying in the coop...one comes out for a few minutes then back inside.....who knows...