TeaChick's Chicks

[TeaChick]

Marigold seems to have been edging into the original flock, but I'm not going to risk Picard (now that I've lost Will).
These two are like Adam and Eve for my new flock.
The mean girls can keep Eddie. I'll keep Leghorn eggs for hatching and eat the Comet eggs; the Comets are the mean ones.
I've been thinking about culling Sandy anyway, b/c she's the worst (and has been all along). IDK if it's b/c she's at the top and is a wicked queen or if she's at the bottom and feels like she has to fight tooth and nail to get enough food to live.
Otherwise, I'll hatch all of Snoodle and Marigold's eggs too.
And I won't buy eggs from a feed store ever again and will advise everyone I meet against it.

 

[TeaChick]

Oh, in happier news:
I candled my eggs and I'm able to see blood vessels in all four Leghorn eggs. Of the 14 Comet eggs, I was able to see blood vessels in two of them, the rest are either speckled or kind of porous, so it's hard to tell whether what I'm seeing is blood vessels or if my eyes are playing connect-the-dots.

I'm getting Leghorn eggs right along, but I'm getting half as many Comet eggs. Weird, but whatever.


Now, something unusual has been happening last night and tonight. I counted my chickens and I was one short last night (tonight I counted right, but forgot how many I was supposed to have, really feeling old tonight lol). Anyway, one of my Comets (Chocolate) has been bedding down (on top of an egg, I guess she laid it, but IDK) on the blankets on the back porch. Goldie was the one I couldn't get to stop laying up there last week, then there was one day that there were two eggs, then there weren't any for a day or two, now Chocolate appears to be laying on the blankets and Goldie (lays pink-ish eggs) has been laying in the hen house and Chocolate is bedding down on an egg on cold nights on blankets on the porch.
What does all this mean????????

 

[Scott H]

KWIM? Our Wyandottes are very good tempered...lead hen never pecks...second hen will peck at but NEVER draw blood or even ruffle a feather...usually doesn't even connect...LOL

 

[TeaChick]

KWIM? Our Wyandottes are very good tempered...lead hen never pecks...second hen will peck at but NEVER draw blood or even ruffle a feather...usually doesn't even connect...LOL

Oh, good!!! That's what Marigold is, SLW. =)
She's nice to me and all the other chickens.

Now, I have a debate going on in my mind. I want to separate Snoodle from the mean flock and put her with the nice flock. Neither she nor Marigold are laying yet.
My dilemma comes in here: Putting Snoodle in the new hen house as soon as she roosted on the old coop is how I got the entire flock going to the new hen house to sleep. I'm concerned about two things: 1. she might be the lead hen and might therefore cause all the mean hens to go sleep with my nice flock, and 2. if she is the lead hen and I remove her are the rest of them more likely to go all Lord of the Flies on me?

 

[TeaChick]

KWIM? Our Wyandottes are very good tempered...lead hen never pecks...second hen will peck at but NEVER draw blood or even ruffle a feather...usually doesn't even connect...LOL

Oh, KWIM = Know What I Mean

 

[TeaChick]

I set my eggs Friday.
Here's a pic:

I put the Leghorns in there to fill out the carton.
Well see how things go.

I got 6 eggs yesterday. (Four brown)
Here's a pic:

See the one on the far right?
I'll take a pic when I crack it to show whether it's double yolk or what.
I meant to candle it last night; if we don't use it today, them I'll candle it tonight.

It's enormous!!!!!
That front row is all from the same day. It's like it took two Leghorns to lay that thing.

 

[Scott H]

Can't help you with integration as all the advice you've received only works if your hens are onboard with it. :-D Just try and see what happens....under supervision, of course!

 

[TeaChick]

Can't help you with integration as all the advice you've received only works if your hens are onboard with it. :-D Just try and see what happens....under supervision, of course!

You're a real funny guy, ya know?
But you're right.
I'm not integrating into the gang of killer hens anymore!!!
I'm culling Sandy, and then we'll see what the rest of them do. I need the eggs, so I'm waiting until either Snoodle or Marigold starts laying first.
The only integrating I'll be doing is I do want to move Snoodle to the nice flock. Well, I'm going to call them my "laying flock", which will be almost entirely white Leghorns, and my "brooding flock", which will begin with Snoodle and Marigold.
All the Comet eggs I'm hatching now, I'm considering using them as meat birds, but then that gets me thinking that I should keep having Comets around so I can keep having meat birds, that's why I'm thinking I won't cull all the Comets, just start with Sandy and see how things go.

Okay, I was thinking out loud, now I'm just rambling.

Good night.


ETA: oh, egg count, well, not many. I'm getting five plus pretty consistently. I got six today (three of each).
Oh, and Chocolate is not broody. =( But she started sleeping on the blankets the same day as I found my new rooster killed in the hen house. Hmmmmm

 

[TeaChick]

It's enormous!!!!!
That front row is all from the same day. It's like it took two Leghorns to lay that thing.

Here's a better pic of the huge egg:

and here's a pic of the inside, as promised:
double yolk; one broke open before I could take the pic.

 

[TeaChick]

I candled the Comet eggs I set late last month. I was unsure as to what day they were, so I was candling today to see if I could tell. Of course, they're at the ambiguous sometime between day 10 and day 12 stage, but I checked out some egg candling pics on here and I think that calling it day 11 is fair enough for now. I'll candle again in about 5 days and see how much of the shell they're taking up, that way I won't compromise lockdown. So far, lock down will probably be about the 10th, but we'll see.

I also candled the eggs I set on the first; there's nothing much there yet. To be fair, my light isn't that great. =P But I can see some reddening to most of the yolks, a few of them looked like nothing but yolk, and one had a blood spot on one side of the yolk. Yay!!! (I think????)

I'll keep you all updated.

I started Spring semester in the middle of January, so I'll be very busy reading and turning in assignments until mid-March. Then things settle down a little, but I'll still have one class.
Anyway, I'll keep you all posted as much as possible. =)
Pics when they hatch, etc. =)

Take care!!!