Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[feliciadawn]

@OneMountainAcres Is she split to lavender? They are all so light!

 

[OneMountainAcres]

@OneMountainAcres Is she split to lavender? They are all so light!

Yes she is. That's why I'm assuming The dad probably has to be the splash, silkie x ameraucana boy since some babies look ameraucana with clean legs and others look crossed. He's also can carry the lavender gene. BUT some babies are lavender and have 5 toes...that boy does not have the extra toes. Is it possible for him to carry the gene for extra toes without expressing it?

 

[dheltzel]

I had 2 of my coworkers and their families visit the farm today. 5 small children and they were delighted by so many things. The pet-able pony and calves were real hits, as was the black frizzle cochin bantam pullet I let them pet while I held her.
I definitely think cochin bantams are the best chicken breed for pets, especially if young children are involved, and the frizzles seem to be even more gentle for some reason.
Hopefully I will have frizzle chicks next year in lavender, black and mottled. Keep them in mind if you want a pet chicken.

 

[feliciadawn]

Speaking of children, my 5-year old next door neighbor child Jack is so cute. The other day I was outside on a business call and little Jack starts rambling on about how they had a new pet and his name was "Cheetos". Of course I was paying attention to my phone call and not really listening. Finally he pointed as he continued to say how they just went to the pet store to get Cheetos. Of course, Cheetos was actually my Mille Fleur D'Uccle who flew the fence. Her name had been Millie, but I renamed her Cheetos in honor of little Jack. She is actually just the color of a cheeto.

 

[Blarneyeggs]

@GoodGuinea It is quite an achievement to have them all get along!

@OneMountainAcres Best surprise ever! We haven’t had a broody hatch chicks here in years. Such sweetness.

 

[Blarneyeggs]

@Plantnerd One of our PA peeps raises Australorps, she is in Wagontown, so probably close to you.

 

[dheltzel]

If I do go the hatchery route, which is the most likely scenario, I will be using Sandhill and possibly McMurray. I know people who have birds from Sandhill and they are some of the nicest I’ve seen. I will be putting in an order with them in October/November unless I find a magical unicorn that leads me to a breeder willing to sell. I admire the work they do at Sandhill and I feel I have a similar mindset as far as preservation of genetics both plant and animal. I really enjoy the work that goes into it and I regularly work 16-18 hour days between my job and working at home. My goal is to be as self sufficient as I can and if I can help to preserve and continue these older genetics they can be passed to future generations. I will be selling/trading veg starts and some produce as well as eggs to defer costs. If I can acquire true heritage breeds, I would selectively breed to maintain the lines and sell/trade excess hatching eggs and chicks. This is by no means a business venture for profit.

I have never bought from Murry McMurry, but my aunt, who has shown poultry for decades and is very serious about it, will only buy from them if she can't get a breed from a quality breeder. I'm sure she still has to cull some.
A more current example of helping Sand Hill - I obtained a line of Coturnix quail that lay bright blue eggs. I sent a batch of eggs to Glen and intend to send some half grown birds soon. Also, I just won an auction for Spitzhauben chicks from Greenfire Farms. They are different colors than what Sand Hill sells, but hopefully will have good type and be useful for an outcross to his line. First, I have to grow them out and see if I can produce chicks next spring. Then, I suspect @feliciadawn will want some of the first one I manage to hatch (assuming her little one really is a roo after all.). After that, I can send some chicks to Glen. Like me, he is fine with getting chicks a bit later in the year, spring is so busy with people wanting to buy chicks, that it helps to get most of my own breeders from the summer hatches.

 

[lovesfarms]

This is an interesting thread because I know the areas people are from. I grew up in New Holland, and now I'm York but in between in Chester County.

 

[feliciadawn]

. They are different colors than what Sand Hill sells, but hopefully will have good type and be useful for an outcross to his line. First, I have to grow them out and see if I can produce chicks next spring. Then, I suspect @feliciadawn will want some of the first one I manage to hatch (assuming her little one really is a roo after all.)

What color spitzhaubens did you get? So exciting that you are going to cultivate spitz. I still have 2 silver spitz and one silver polish. They are 2 months old and 2.5 months old. No idea of the genders. No one is crowing yet, no one has red wattles. The spitz are confident birds that will venture out into the pen with the big chickens and eat mealie worms out of my hands (and peck my hands if they happen to not contain mealie worms.)

 

[dheltzel]

What color spitzhaubens did you get? So exciting that you are going to cultivate spitz. I still have 2 silver spitz and one silver polish. They are 2 months old and 2.5 months old. No idea of the genders. No one is crowing yet, no one has red wattles. The spitz are confident birds that will venture out into the pen with the big chickens and eat mealie worms out of my hands (and peck my hands if they happen to not contain mealie worms.)

Greenfire says they have 3 colors, but are sold out of silvers. The chicks look like 7 chamois and 5 golds. I will have to research the chamois color and see if I can determine the genetics behind them. The golds should be straightforward to cross with silvers, as "technically" their only difference should be the one, sex-linked gene. If I had silver pullets, I could cross them with a gold cockerel and all the resulting pullet chicks would be gold, and the cockerels would be silver, but carry a single copy of gold.