Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[AnneInTheBurbs]

Yeah not sure. Supposed to be a Welsummer mix. His sisters are silver colored with beautiful penciling. Someone mentioned Wyandotte but he may be something different from the girls. The "father" was pretty in the picture. I think the girls are trying to lay. I was hoping for olive eggs but it's not looking like that will be the case.

sorry just read this...geesh, i am behind. Good luck with the eggs..hope you get what your hoping for.

So we got our first egg today. It's a small one. I'm almost sure it's from our Delaware Shelby. The girls are so excited. My 4 yr old asked which one of the chickens grew up. It was too cute. They are said to lay large eggs, but this one is small. Is that normal for a first lay for their eggs to be smaller? I also wanted to ask about what to put in the nesting boxes. We tried straw and all they did was pull it out and all over the coop. When we cleaned up the straw it stunk so bad so we are looking into other stuff. Our coop has sand for the flooring. Is it OK to use sand for the nesting boxes? Also does any one use diatomaceous earth in their coop? I've read alot of good things about it.

Congrats on the egg!! it is exciting! I use sand in the coops and in nesting boxes. DE and stall-sweetener to help with smells..also like to clip fresh herbs and such to make things smell very nice ..lavender in nesting boxes, plus using herbs is a nice way to keep pests away. I really don't have to use the DE, but was already bought...with the use of sand..kinda makes buying more pointless..unless I want to put it somewhere that there isn't.

I received some sad news this morning. The woman keeping my chickens had a massive predator attack. She said she only has a couple roos left. All of my girls are gone too. She said there were little bodies strewn everywhere, they weren't all eaten. So it looks like I will be starting fresh with new chickys. I'll miss my girls, but I gave them the best life possible, and I will do the same with this flock also. That also means I am accepting "donations" from all of you neighborly people! I would love a couple from @fisherlady s SPR line if any one has any in SE pa (love those broodies!). Also I hope to get some silkies and banty cochins if anyone can point me in the right direction.

oh annie....i am so sorry...my gosh! I don't have much in the way of birds, but if you really like any of my girls....plus they are laying..no waiting...just an offer. Can not imagine..don't even want to try. ..we will all help in any way we can...you know that!!

Thanks for the offer, I have a feeling I will be well stocked in a couple of weeks.

Looks like I've lost my little wry neck baby. My son found her dead. Again, no signs of trauma to her body. I was watching her all day and she was doing great with her mama. It was after school sometime not long after they got home. I had just checked on her before I went to pick them up and she was fine. I guess, sometimes, no matter what you do, they just aren't meant to make it.

. It's a terrible truth we all learn.

I received some sad news this morning. The woman keeping my chickens had a massive predator attack. She said she only has a couple roos left. All of my girls are gone too. She said there were little bodies strewn everywhere, they weren't all eaten. So it looks like I will be starting fresh with new chickys. I'll miss my girls, but I gave them the best life possible, and I will do the same with this flock also. That also means I am accepting "donations" from all of you neighborly people! I would love a couple from @fisherlady s SPR line if any one has any in SE pa (love those broodies!). Also I hope to get some silkies and banty cochins if anyone can point me in the right direction.

Anne: So sorry to hear....I have lost a lot of chooks to predators, never the whole flock....I have your Olive egger situation covered....I have 3-4 to give you maybe more....I just had the first hatch(another olive egger) of seven at lockdown...one other has a pip....I'll ditto the interest in Fisher's SPRs!!!

Thanks Stake, I appreciate that! If I get a hold of any of Fishers SPR I will share too.

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

Good morning everyone!


4 days til I'm in my new place but... Will I still be Anneintheburbs? I'll own 5 acres next to state game lands. I'll still be fairly close to civilization... Haha! just pondering with my spare time.

 

[dheltzel]

How dark are Welbar eggs?

They vary just like Marans and Welsummers, but are basically identical to those other breeds. This pic is of 3 Welbar, 3 Welsummer and 3 Marans (vertical rows). I had to mark them to tell them apart.
My Welbar eggs are faded some now because they are later in their laying cycle (as are the Welsummers). My Copper Marans never laid enough eggs to make them fade, so I guess you could say they lay a more consistent dark color than the Welbars and Welsummers. I had 6 BCM pullets and 7 Welbars for most of the year and the total eggs from the Marans for 2016 was 235. The 7 Welbars laid easily 3 times that number (not sure exactly because I had an additional group of pullets laying for awhile that inflated the totals). The Marans are gone now, glad to be done with them. It's nothing but Welbars for dark eggs now.

 

[dheltzel]

do you have some pics you could share of these silvers you are talking about? Thank you
You seem to be farther along in the breeding than Greenfire. How long have you been "hobbying" these silvers?

I took some pics of the roos, but need to get them off the camera to upload. This is an old pic of a silver pullet, she is not barred, so not technically a silver welbar, but her barred sister (who I never got a pic of) is the mother of my current silver cocks. The silver cocks (including the chick @Auroradream26 has now) are only heterozygous for silver. That is ok with me because I can use them over any Welbar pullet to get both silver and gold chicks. The little one that @Auroradream26 lost should have looked something like this one (but barred). None of my silver chicks are old enough yet to show their adult plumage.

 

[Chaos18]

They vary just like Marans and Welsummers, but are basically identical to those other breeds. This pic is of 3 Welbar, 3 Welsummer and 3 Marans (vertical rows). I had to mark them to tell them apart.
My Welbar eggs are faded some now because they are later in their laying cycle (as are the Welsummers). My Copper Marans never laid enough eggs to make them fade, so I guess you could say they lay a more consistent dark color than the Welbars and Welsummers. I had 6 BCM pullets and 7 Welbars for most of the year and the total eggs from the Marans for 2016 was 235. The 7 Welbars laid easily 3 times that number (not sure exactly because I had an additional group of pullets laying for awhile that inflated the totals). The Marans are gone now, glad to be done with them. It's nothing but Welbars for dark eggs now.

Oooooo I might have to get some chicks off you then. I need a dark layer like that to round out the egg basket.

 

[dheltzel]

Oooooo I might have to get some chicks off you then. I need a dark layer like that to round out the egg basket.

Next time the chicken train runs your way . . .

 

[Chaos18]

Next time the chicken train runs your way . . .

Sounds good to me.

 

[BullChick]

Looks like I've lost my little wry neck baby. My son found her dead. Again, no signs of trauma to her body. I was watching her all day and she was doing great with her mama. It was after school sometime not long after they got home. I had just checked on her before I went to pick them up and she was fine. I guess, sometimes, no matter what you do, they just aren't meant to make it.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

I took some pics of the roos, but need to get them off the camera to upload. This is an old pic of a silver pullet, she is not barred, so not technically a silver welbar, but her barred sister (who I never got a pic of) is the mother of my current silver cocks. The silver cocks (including the chick @Auroradream26 has now) are only heterozygous for silver. That is ok with me because I can use them over any Welbar pullet to get both silver and gold chicks. The little one that @Auroradream26 lost should have looked something like this one (but barred). None of my silver chicks are old enough yet to show their adult plumage.

I'm really disappointed that it was the silver pullet that I lost but I guess that's just the way it is. It'll be great to see the little silver guy grow up though. Daffodil is doing great and keeping tabs on the last two. I just watch her spend 5 minutes teaching them how to get back in to the run. She got one in, the other was confused and she had to go back for him but she got them both where she wanted them. Those two seem to stay very close to her. They'll be a week old tonight? Ana is doing great with her baby too. Both girls are civil towards each other and while they're not working together, they can be together without any issues. That's a relief! The entire house smells like garlic right now. I won't have to worry about any vampires coming around here lol. I finally managed to get the rest of our harvest peeled, sliced, and in the dehydrator to make garlic powder. We filled 4, half gallon jars of pickled cloves to use throughout the year too. I think my fingers may perminantly smell like garlic now lol.

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

I received some sad news this morning.  The woman keeping my chickens had a massive predator attack. She said she only has a couple roos left.  All of my girls are gone too. She said there were little bodies strewn everywhere, they weren't all eaten. 

So it looks like I will be starting fresh with new chickys.  I'll miss my girls, but I gave them the best life possible, and I will do the same with this flock also. 

That also means I am accepting "donations" from all of you neighborly people!     I would love a couple from @fisherlady
s SPR line if any one has any in SE pa (love those broodies!). Also I hope to get some silkies and banty cochins if anyone can point me in the right direction.

I am sorry for your losses I don't know how far your from me and I don't know what all you would want of my birds but there good layers and they are sorta mixed except the silkies my EE and the red sexlinks, and my Rhode Island Red. But the rest there nothing but mixed breed, I don't know if I would be able to hatch anything for you or not I would have to see.