Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[dheltzel]

Good morning all,

**dheltzel- you have beautiful birds. I think at some point in our chicken raising, it would be very nice to add colorful egg layers.

Just let me know, I'll get you all setup, eggs, chicks, whatever you want. If you have a broody you want to break, letting them hatch some eggs is the "group approved" way of doing that . . .

 

[LadyJane8]

Two and a half days into laying and I've collected 5 eggs. I suspect I will be finding 2 more when I return home this evening. As far as I was aware, all of the girls I have should be brown egg layers. 4 of the 5 collected thus far have been some variation on brown (tan, speckled, light brown...). Yesterday, one that I collected was pure white. I am certain my ISA girls are what TSC said they were. I have two barred rocks, neither of which I suspect as being the layers just yet. The only "weak-link" would be my Amberlinks. I've seen pictures of others and they tend to have more of the red coloration on the tips of wings. My girls, who are definitely girls and had been sold to us as such, are completely white. (As seen with my other gals in the pic at the link below)

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1G6ZRkik6OdVVZ2QWhadWJYZXc

Any thoughts? Thank you!

 

[BullChick]

Just let me know, I'll get you all setup, eggs, chicks, whatever you want. If you have a broody you want to break, letting them hatch some eggs is the "group approved" way of doing that . . .

That is how she ended up with BCM!

It took forever to convince her to hatch instead of breaking.
Though it has been several years. And she does have a bigger coop now. And her girls are going to slow down by next year...

 

[hyzenthlay]

Yes, those are mine! They do look like Ameraucanas, I'm careful never to mix the chicks because I doubt I could separate them with certainty when they mature. The Ameraucana genes are strong in these birds. If you want to compare their combs with a true pea comb from a show winning Ameraucana, I think you may see some differences. I don't show my birds, but it would be tempting to put one into a show and see how it does against really good black Ams. It would not likely win, but I can't see anything that would disqualify it from being shown as an Ameraucana.

One reason for using a white egg layer for the maternal parent is to remove some of the residual green and provide a "purer" blue. Some of my Am eggs are more turquoise than sky blue. Personally, I think the turquoise eggs are gorgeous, as are the very pure blue ones. They definitely go lighter in color faster than purebred Ameraucanas, though I think a lot of that is that they lay so many more eggs and they simply run out of blue pigment (hardly a fault, right?). So I don't think you will get green eggs from these. I have a few "olive eggers" left, they hatched on 6/3. These are definitely gonna lay some shade of green. Green egg color is highly variable. They hatched from olive eggs that resulted from a cross of a Cream Legbar and a Welsummer. They look a lot like a cream legbar, another case where I have to keep them separate or band them.

dheltzel, do you happen to have any pictures of that olive egger hen that is a Welsummer/Cream Legbar cross? And do you have any pictures of her eggs? I just got an olive egger chick from Meyer Hatchery that looks to be from their Welsummer/Legbar line, and I'd love to know what she might look like when she grows up--she is 2 weeks now. Thanks!

 

[fisherlady]

Two and a half days into laying and I've collected 5 eggs.  I suspect I will be finding 2 more when I return home this evening.  As far as I was aware, all of the girls I have should be brown egg layers.  4 of the 5 collected thus far have been some variation on brown (tan, speckled, light brown...).  Yesterday, one that I collected was pure white.  I am certain my ISA girls are what TSC said they were.  I have two barred rocks, neither of which I suspect as being the layers just yet.  The only "weak-link" would be my Amberlinks.  I've seen pictures of others and they tend to have more of the red coloration on the tips of wings.  My girls, who are definitely girls and had been sold to us as such, are completely white.  

Any thoughts?  Thank you!

There are Barred Hollands and Dominiques which look an awful lot like Barred Rocks...I think the Hollands lay white eggs? But not sure.
Amberlinks are a leghorn cross I think? So possible you got leghorns instead or an Amberlink which is just a very pale layer....

 

[fisherlady]

dheltzel, do you happen to have any pictures of that olive egger hen that is a Welsummer/Cream Legbar cross?  And do you have any pictures of her eggs?  I just got an olive egger chick from Meyer Hatchery that looks to be from their Welsummer/Legbar line, and I'd love to know what she might look like when she grows up--she is 2 weeks now.  Thanks!

Welcome from a bit to your North East!

 

[BullChick]

Welcome to the newcomers!!

 

[LadyJane8]

There are Barred Hollands and Dominiques which look an awful lot like Barred Rocks...I think the Hollands lay white eggs? But not sure.
Amberlinks are a leghorn cross I think? So possible you got leghorns instead or an Amberlink which is just a very pale layer....

I was just looking at Leghorns and was thinking the same. My girls are not looking like the pics of Amberlinks that I am coming across, and definitely look more like the White Leghorn hens I'm seeing.

Thanks!

 

[hyzenthlay]

Thank you!

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

Hi PA friends,
I'm in Kutztown, Berks County. Recent transplant from Brooklyn NY. Love it here!!!
All my best to all you PA chickeneers.

Welcome!!

Quote: Cool! The friend that is homing my chickens in Media has peafowl also. I remmeber her saying they take long time ( in comparison with chickens) to sexually mature. I think she said something like 3 years. Whew! BTW, do you have Muscovys? I was just reading about how wonderful they are for bug eating!

Quote: Just be careful, I just read the other day you should not be in the shower or bath even when a storm hits. It is possibly to get struck by lightning if it hits your pipes (or something like that).

The doves will just move away when she tries to catch them. They go right back to her then.

wow! What an awesome picture! You are creating such beautiful memories for her. She will treasure that forever when she is older.

Quote:

If I can't enable, what use am I?

You two are terrible with the enabling. But I agree DHeltzel, giving her some eggs is the best way to break a broody.