Should I buy eggs or wait it out?

[Chaneys Ranch]

that is the youtube url for the first video... hope it works. give it a few minutes while the edits take place... the rooster crowing at one point is Archie... he's behind me, and not in this video.

So cool! He is a very patient rooster for sure, I saw them sneaking a few pecks in! I think that's awesome how he herds them in, and i love his indian dance

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

I have tracking confirmation, my coronation sussex eggs shipped today...

I hope they make the trip, these are my first mailed eggs. now i am going to run to the mailbox all day friday

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

No good news. She died this morning. She was not egg bound. The shell could have been soft, but it was only one green poo. Wouldn't there have been more? And it looks like she was laying. I admit I had not gotten a dozen in a week or so, but I assume it was because of all the banging when I was building the coop, and on bad days when I didn't go out early to build, they were shut in until about 11:00. I knew they had food, and didn't want out. I sure didn't want to go out! So I think that was effecting the laying.
I will post pictures later of the coop. I will TRY to get some of the new gang. They keep hiding from me. I may even post a pic of the dead girl. Just in case it inspires you to think of something.

i am so sorry. I went back because i seem to miss so many posts and saw what happened. It really stinks to loose any of them

 

[cheeka]

good morning! isn't Si quite the boy? he's definitely trying to keep them corralled, as the other chickens were nearby... and he wants them safe (and he wants them all for himself...lol) a couple of pecks and he still was so gentle, and protective... I love his dancing too. W4W, the little white gal sure does stand out, but she is always at the front, always the first to look, but not always the first to "try". the beardless red is the first to try stuff... but yeah... little white is a dominant bird.

AND, I am so glad I checked my posts yesterday... I put the eggs under Peach 2 weeks 5 days ago. so the first egg is 2 days older than that, glad I didn't throw them out a week before they were due to hatch! I never wrote it down outside of here, and lost track of time. so perhaps I will have little peeps this weekend!

 

[BullChick]

Cheeka, I am glad you didn't toss them too! And don't forget that 21 is not set in stone! Babies come when they are ready! My poor mother was pregnant for six of us for 44-46 weeks. Her body just did not want to form us as fast as it should have! Can't say it was the Dr doing bad math. We were all born in different hospitals in 4 different states!
Everyone looks good this morning. Thank you all for the reassurance. I didn't have to "wait it out" for my new flock. I had an EE egg this morning! It was even where I could reach it!

I really need to put the coop on a table or find more cinder blocks!! I also need another door or two.
Now if I could just get Midnight to lay! She is my Ameraucana. I also have Cadbury, another EE. If she has lived this long, she should be giving me some eggs! So I am waiting for Midnight, Cadbury, a BCM and an EE. I am still deciding on names for the new gang members. They will be staying, so they get names.
What color is this egg? It is SUPPOSED to be blue. I must say that if the girls both lay green I will not be upset. I went back for them because I wanted to make green egg layers... And because chicken math is addictive.

Looks green to me!
I think it looks blue here.
The new coop, minus paint. I am thinking black and orange with a H-D bar and shield on it. There is a nest box in the back. Let's see if they use it! I plan on baiting it this afternoon.

 

[Wishing4Wings]

I have tracking confirmation, my coronation sussex eggs shipped today...

I hope they make the trip, these are my first mailed eggs. now i am going to run to the mailbox all day friday

Woohoo! What kind of incubator, electric or feathered? and if electric, what kind? Also, is there a chance for you to pick them up at the post office? The less jostling, the better. My local thread has so many hatch-a-holics (someone even has a cabinet incubator that holds 300 eggs!) and they say the hatch rate is lower the longer and rougher the trip. They are also doing packaging experiments to see the best way to package them for shipping. Kind of geeky, huh?

I'd be right there with them if I had more land!

 

[Wishing4Wings]

Cheeka, I am glad you didn't toss them too! And don't forget that 21 is not set in stone! Babies come when they are ready! My poor mother was pregnant for six of us for 44-46 weeks. Her body just did not want to form us as fast as it should have! Can't say it was the Dr doing bad math. We were all born in different hospitals in 4 different states!
Everyone looks good this morning. Thank you all for the reassurance. I didn't have to "wait it out" for my new flock. I had an EE egg this morning! It was even where I could reach it!

I really need to put the coop on a table or find more cinder blocks!! I also need another door or two.
Now if I could just get Midnight to lay! She is my Ameraucana. I also have Cadbury, another EE. If she has lived this long, she should be giving me some eggs! So I am waiting for Midnight, Cadbury, a BCM and an EE. I am still deciding on names for the new gang members. They will be staying, so they get names.
What color is this egg? It is SUPPOSED to be blue. I must say that if the girls both lay green I will not be upset. I went back for them because I wanted to make green egg layers... And because chicken math is addictive.

Looks green to me!
I think it looks blue here.
The new coop, minus paint. I am thinking black and orange with a H-D bar and shield on it. There is a nest box in the back. Let's see if they use it! I plan on baiting it this afternoon.

Yay on the egg! With mine, the color seems to vary a bit. Maybe the weather or the amount of greens has something to do with it? My EE lays green that is a bit grayish, my wheaten Ameraucana (who was supposed to lay blue) lays turquoise, and my wheaten/buff cross Ameraucana lays bright green (although she is the one who was supposed to have turquoise!). I drove over 4 hours round trip to get those 2 Ams so I would definitely have a blue egg.

Oh well, I really like the chickens, and the eggs are pretty. Putting a true blue layer on my very long wish list!

Your coop looks sturdy (and heavy!). Mustacheio and I need to build something like that for his bantams, if we ever get some, but you're right, I would want it to be higher too. Can't wait to see the H-D decor!

 

[BullChick]

Quote: The table I have in mind is about 2 X 4 1/2 (standard table size, no leaf, It is solid). The coop is 4 X 8. Do you think there would be any problem with the coop hanging over the edges like that?
Here is a picture showing the skeleton.
Rather than put the table in the center, I think it should be centered in the back where the 2 X4's are. There are 3. One in the middle, one on each end.
What do you think? And if it is important, the floor is 1/2 inch BSB (or whatever it is called).
BTW, I drove 5 hours round trip. And I got halfway there last week before the weather made us turn around.

 

[Wishing4Wings]

The table I have in mind is about 2 X 4 1/2 (standard table size, no leaf, It is solid). The coop is 4 X 8. Do you think there would be any problem with the coop hanging over the edges like that?
Here is a picture showing the skeleton.
Rather than put the table in the center, I think it should be centered in the back where the 2 X4's are. There are 3. One in the middle, one on each end.
What do you think? And if it is important, the floor is 1/2 inch BSB (or whatever it is called).
BTW, I drove 5 hours round trip. And I got halfway there last week before the weather made us turn around.

As long as you think you can balance it on there okay, find the center of gravity, the structure will probably hold and a few chickens aren't going to throw off the balance that much. What about wind? Do you get strong winds? You could always run some posts down from the corners for stabilization. But how will you get it up on the table???

The lengths we go through for a chicken! There was a big fire up where we drove, and the closer we got, the smokier it got. Luckily the fire wasn't too near, but the wind was blowing in our direction. cough cough

 

[BullChick]

Quote: Bikers!!! They aren't just for scaring people!! I am going to either pick it up (3+ people) and have someone quickly move the cinder blocks, then put the table there, OR pick it up, and hope the blocks aren't in the way, so someone can just put the table there (then move the blocks) OR pick it up, put it down, move the table, break our fingers trying to get under the coop again to pick it back up.
The egg is definitely green! I found another that may have been from yesterday. It was green green. I had the new egg in a napkin, and I was going to post, "It's a girl!" Then I realized that girl and boy work (if everyone knew what it meant) because blue and boy are "B" and green and girl are "G".
Please tell me I am making sense, and not just rambling!!
Oh, and we do get a lot of strong winds, but with the weight of the coop, I doubt it will move.