Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[wlhtx]

Have you used the Reptipro incubator for hatches before? I was looking at getting one and was wondering how it has worked for you?

This is my first hatch with the Reptipro... But I'll keep you posted! I really like it so far. Holds temps really well.

 

[ki4got]

Welcome wlhtx, and congrats on your eggs!!


And I know how much everyone here enjoys photos - especially chick photos... but I haz somethin' eggxtra specials fer yoo!
This is Darth 'Bator and her 4 Swedish Flower chicks.

ROFL I see a family resemblance between Darth Bator and the Pseudo Flower Hen chick.

 

[puglady]

Yup, I see it too! Hopefully she'll (

) be a good mama for you too then, lol!

 

[Bulldogma]

Yup - hope you got a girl Silkie, Ki4got. Is she feathering out with Silkie feathers or hard feathers? There is a good likelihood she's a Darth 'Bator baby. No matter whose daughter she is, she'll be an amazing mamma. She's either pure or 3/4 Silkie.

 

[ki4got]

Yup - hope you got a girl Silkie, Ki4got. Is she feathering out with Silkie feathers or hard feathers? There is a good likelihood she's a Darth 'Bator baby. No matter whose daughter she is, she'll be an amazing mamma. She's either pure or 3/4 Silkie.

pretty sure she's pure... I see no evidence of 'real' feathers yet. don't think she's bearded tho.

the 'family resemblance' tho, was for the FF in the fluff. LOL

 

[Leahs Mom]

Well, Leigh...I see some more dark kiddos there.

 

[ki4got]

Yup - hope you got a girl Silkie, Ki4got. Is she feathering out with Silkie feathers or hard feathers? There is a good likelihood she's a Darth 'Bator baby. No matter whose daughter she is, she'll be an amazing mamma. She's either pure or 3/4 Silkie.

ok well, here's the PFH... pics taken about 5 minutes ago. LOL

assessments? hatch was 2.20.14 so 3 weeks old now.

and if anyone has any suggestions for keeping chicks clean while feeding FF let me know. LOL

(helps to load pics)

 

[ki4got]

oh and just an fyi... I had to learn the hard way apparently...

everyone around here was out of shavings a few weeks ago, but southern states had gotten some from another distributor. I ran out of the other shavings I'd been using in the brooders so decided this would do, since it's what I had...

if you get shavings from a new source, check them out for cedar shavings mixed in with the pine! I changed the bedding yesterday, and within the last 24 hours have lost 7 chicks! soon as I realized what was going on I moved them to the other brooder (which hadn't been cleaned yet) and dumped it all out. it doesn't seem to affect the birds outside, and I really didn't think much of it at the time, but it does have a bit of a cedar-ish smell.

that is the only thing that has changed in the last day that might explain chicks in one brooder only dying off like that. they were all nice and plump, well hydrated, but the legs and facial skin was a lot darker than I'm used to seeing.

fortunately I did pick up a bale of the stuff I usually use (statesman fine shavings from southern states) when I went by there the other day, but thought I'd use a bale I'd already opened first...

 

[Leahs Mom]

Thanks for the heads-up on that Karen. Could you post that on the Natural Chicken Keeping thread too?

 

[OldChurchEggery1]

I use shredded newspaper as bedding both for my chicks and in the main coops. I run the newsprint through a plain old OfficeMax shredder (none of the glossy paper ads, mind you) which makes it fine enough that it dries quickly but large enough that it doesn't mat down in the coop. The chickens like scratching through it and it has really cut down on how often I have to clean the coop. I add fresh shreddings every few days, throw down a little scratch, and let them mix it up. If I had a ground-contact coop I think it would well as part of a deep litter method. For the $19 mo. subscription rate, we get the news, the weekend coupons, and bedding. It's easy to find people around the office who would rather bring in their old newspapers than bother recycling them at the dump, too. I'm considering acquiring (either buying or asking my husband to build) one of those tumbling composters because I think the used bedding would be a good consistency and decent mix of "greens" and "browns" to go right in. For a while now I've been using the soiled bedding to help establish a new blueberry bed. Once the newspaper mix gets rained on, it forms a dense mat that helps keep weeds at bay. Then I can just layer on the pine needles and wood chips. It's an option to try if straw is in short supply or if a place only has cedar chips if you usually use wood shavings. I've also tried cutting broomsedge to use as bedding for our donkey. It's pretty similar to straw in texture and there's plenty of it in our neighbor's abandoned field. He lets me cut as much as I want because he doesn't have a working bush hog to clear it out.