Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[TillyPeeps]

I think the Rhodefelder chicks are they cutest looking of all the breeds I hatch, except maybe the Ameraucanas, with their little "ear muffs". They just seem much fluffier than the others, everyone that visits wants to hold one.

I know that's not a major criteria for picking a breed of chicken, but it's nice anyway.

I only have one Rhodefelder that didn't get sold early and it's growing nicely but looks exactly like a Rhodebar to me, so I'm thinking I might have gotten it mixed up in the eggs or chicks and it really is a Rhodebar. Not that it matters, she is destined for our laying flock unless a customer wants a pullet that age (a lot of customers have become friends and I can't refuse their requests, so I keep some random pullets in the batches I raise just in case). In any case, I know she will be an awesome layer, I have 4 Rhodebars and 3 Blue Eggs Sexlinks coming into lay now and they always impress me with their laying ability and personalities. They all tend to get "crotchety" as they get older, but as pullets they adapt well where ever I put them.

Maybe some Rhodefelders looks like Bielefelders and other like Rhodebars? Guess we need to wait till seeing how more Rhodefelders turn out like. I went through Bielefelder tread and found that Bear is identical to Bielefelder pullets. Not only the look, but also the personality. She is very quiet comparing to other chicks. When comparing to Penny the Welbar, her chest feather are red instead of salmon.
BTW, I all my chicks are doing good and all super cute and beautiful.

Thank you for the great work of breeding!

 

[Chaos18]

When you install your PTC heating elements in your incubators do you add any kind of spacer between the heater and the surface it's being mounted to? How about a heat shield or anything like that on the surface it gets mounted to?

 

[TillyPeeps]

No 'right' answer to this.... many variables...as already stated it will vay depending on feathering rate and cold hardiness. Also a big factor is your coop set up. A bigger coop with a good draft free corner may be much more chick friendly than a coop which is drafty or only has limited floor space which is out of direct line from the pop door draft.
Heating method/choice can also factor in, some folks can use a heat lamp in their coop, others choose not to, some use brooder plates or heating pads (some claim they are safer, but still a highly risky option if extreme safety measures aren't followed)
In general if you can 'harden' off chicks at a young age then they will feather in a bit quicker and be ready to graduate to the coop a bit sooner. To do this takes space though... you need to raise them in a brooder that is big enough to allow you to set up zones.... you will keep a heat lamp, brooder plate or heating pad at recommended temp for their age in one zone, then a few feet to the cooler zone where you place food and water. The cool zone can be room temp, or garage temp, but certainly would be at least 15-20* cooler than the sleeping zone. You will find they quickly begin spending more and more time in the cool zone.
The warm zone/cool zone set up allows a situation which much more closely mimics a broody. Our broodies provide the warm zone, the rest of the coop is the cool zone in our coop...and our broodies raise chicks in the coop when it is freezing out, the chicks run under broody for more frequent warm ups in cold weather but still are out and about in 30* coop scratching and playing like they don't have a care in the world!

My 5-week old chicks still sleep under heating pad every night.

I really want to move them to coop this weekend when they turned 6 week. I decided to turn off the heating pad on Saturday and they still slept under it. The room temperature is about 60~70. I guess they are not ready for coop yet?

 

[TillyPeeps]

Silver Laced Wyandotte ,,,,,Stella

SLW,,,,,,,Henrietta

Black Australorp......Eggie

Speckled Sussex,,,,,, Madge

Barred Rock,,,,,Clucker
Barred Rock Sawyer

Unknown...... I think dark Cornish, EE or wellie.......Ziva. ,,,,any new guesses?

There is one more Specklerd Sussex named ,,,,Daisy but I can not get her pic to upload, sorry about the quality of the pics trying a new lens and I am not sure I like it, but anyway these are my girls. The kids named a couple of them can u figure out which ones......lol

Nice pictures! Whatever Ziva is, she is so cute!

 

[chiques chicks]

@AnneInTheBurbs I've only incubated a small batch this year so far. I've been playing around with incubating styles, not taking things seriously. I had six eggs hatch, 3 were albino, but they all died in the first week. They seem to need extreme care when young, which I didn't provide. Next time they will get their own ICB (intensive care brooder).

There are three doing well that should carry the albino gene. I need to get pictures of them. They are just over two weeks old. Probably roosters, lol.

 

[chiques chicks]

Here's two of them.

 

[Redwolf141]

Nice pictures! Whatever Ziva is, she is so cute!

Thanks Tillypeeps she is a cutie. Last night during the late news she flee out of the brooder and on to the floor so at 2 weeks she learned to fly. We call her Ziva the diva .....she is always squaking and playing. She loves dried meal worms grabs one and does laps around the brooder weather the others are chasing her or not. She is fun to watch and very friendly.

 

[kimalulu]

I did well on my egg hunt, now to hatch them!
...I'm actually really nervous!

These ended up in the incubator plus 4 under my broody hen.

 

[dheltzel]

Maybe some Rhodefelders looks like Bielefelders and other like Rhodebars? Guess we need to wait till seeing how more Rhodefelders turn out like. I went through Bielefelder tread and found that Bear is identical to Bielefelder pullets. Not only the look, but also the personality. She is very quiet comparing to other chicks. When comparing to Penny the Welbar, her chest feather are red instead of salmon.
BTW, I all my chicks are doing good and all super cute and beautiful.

Thank you for the great work of breeding!

I love it when my chicks find a great home. They are some of the luckiest chicks I hatched this year.

 

[dheltzel]

When you install your PTC heating elements in your incubators do you add any kind of spacer between the heater and the surface it's being mounted to? How about a heat shield or anything like that on the surface it gets mounted to?

Yes, you need some sort of spacer or heat sink to be safe and give the best heat distribution. I use 1/2" hardware cloth to make a cage and mount the element inside the cage so it's always suspended off the floor.