When you start a thread please post a link...if @Shadrach doesn't mind, that is.I am quite sure that I have learned more from this one thread than I have from all the others I've read as well as several books.
I apologize for getting carried away with my newbie enthusiasm!Time to get my own thread started, although I don't really have much worth posting at this point. Maybe I'll start that threatened thread for users of Nestera and similar horrible, chicken-killing plastic coops.
Will do, because I appreciate any input from so many varied chicken wranglers and their methods!When you start a thread please post a link...if @Shadrach doesn't mind, that is.
That's one of the things I appreciate most on this thread, how much I have learned. Thoughtful discussions on feeding, habitat, roosters and brooding and the occasional sidetrack into all kinds of interesting things. I have changed my chicken keeping philosophy a lot over the years, I think to the betterment of their quality of life, and a lot of that is due to this thread, and the people contributing to it, not least of all, Shadrach himself, because it's all about the chickens and what they need, and not about eggs or dinner. And of course, THE PICTURES!I am quite sure that I have learned more from this one thread than I have from all the others I've read as well as several books.
I apologize for getting carried away with my newbie enthusiasm!
I can attest to the changing my philosophy part. Before I moved to town (something I'm still sour about) the first 18 years of my life were spent on a chicken farm. For the amount of birds my family had (400ish layers and 300ish friers at any given time) it was probably the best life those birds could've had. Acres of free range, coops always moved so that the grass is always fresh, etc. Still I believe that that's the best life one can give that many birds (and that they probably lived better lives than a lot of the confined backyard chickens on this site) but this thread especially has really changed my mind from the philosophy that I grew up with. When I'm able to keep chickens again, I will be much more ambitious with their quality of care
We've seen this: when a chicken dies, another often goes within 6 weeks from something unrelated. I'll keep my spiritual musings to myself, but it's interesting. And crushing, to lose members of our feather family in pairs.
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Our Easter Egger Raisin, a bona fide blue layer, laid one white egg last year – it was surprising! – along with a couple soft-shelled eggs, and then developed ascites.Does anyone here know if it is possible for a blue-egg layer to lay a white egg? I ask because yesterday I got a white egg that I think was laid by Maria, who has mostly got her mojo back but not yet resumed matriarch duties, but more relevantly is an Araucana, and who through all her life with me has laid pale blue eggs. I saw her go into and out of the relevant coop, and accept a mating, and shake herself afterwards, so all the signs are there. And yet, ...
She's now at least 8 (acquired as a POL, supposedly, but I was a newby then, so any age bird could have been passed off to me as POL), and if she laid it, it would be her first egg of this year. So I'm wondering if maybe her oocyan gene stopped working, perhaps as a result of her recent illness (whatever that was), or just old age, or it's just a shell gland glitch? She's the only obvious candidate to have laid it. As I understand it, the blue colour is not just a surface layer applied at the end like brown, the biliverdin is deposited as the shell is formed, so it goes right through the shell (and her eggs are actually blue-er on the inside than on the outside of the shell). But this could still be described as a shell gland glitch I imagine...? Obviously I'll keep an eye out for her next egg, but given her age, that may not be anytime soon
My blue egg layers seem to run out of ink towards the end of the season. Not pure white eggs but certainly whiteish.Does anyone here know if it is possible for a blue-egg layer to lay a white egg? I ask because yesterday I got a white egg that I think was laid by Maria, who has mostly got her mojo back but not yet resumed matriarch duties, but more relevantly is an Araucana, and who through all her life with me has laid pale blue eggs. I saw her go into and out of the relevant coop, and accept a mating, and shake herself afterwards, so all the signs are there. And yet, ...
She's now at least 8 (acquired as a POL, supposedly, but I was a newby then, so any age bird could have been passed off to me as POL
So sorry about your dogs, one is hard enough, then another goes, too much.So sorry, @fluffycrow, for the loss of Kolovos. He was truly the comb king, beautiful guy. Sending the hens good thoughts.
We've seen this: when a chicken dies, another often goes within 6 weeks from something unrelated. I'll keep my spiritual musings to myself, but it's interesting. And crushing, to lose members of our feather family in pairs.
Unfortunately, the same just happened with our dogs, which is awful. Our 2 eldest dogs died in the past 7 weeks. It's been a lot to process. The amazing beings who left us:
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Tax: Nice to think Peck's spreading peace offerings on the wind here, to those of us dealing with loss. (In reality, she's just spotted a bug to eat
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I noticed that too, with my EEs, especially as they got older.
With having new cockerels(along with the SR. Roosters.) The senior hens are absolutely not afraid to put the young lads in their place if they get a little too rambunctious. They will chase them off while shouting what sound a lot like expletives. This only really happens when the senior lads are off with other groups of girls and ofc as soon as they hear any kerfuffle they charge in to give their juniors a mild rebuke to back the ladies up. They do a really great job about making sure none of the girls are off by themselves.What tickled me is that while squawking in the coop, she sounded downright angry!
