Texas

[magpiesing]

Howdy fellow Texans! Totally new to backyard chickens, guess it's maybe a response to "empty nest," with both my boys growing up and preparing for college life. Live in Nederland, near Beaumont. Have a small coop with (so far) 4 chickens. I love browsing and learning from this site. Thanks for all the kind responses and uplifting advice I have seen here. Chicken people are just generally good folk
Along with my 4 new girlies, I have an old Schipperke, a youthful cat, and two Zebra finches under my roof. And I have to admit, some days I like my animals more than my kids (HA!).....

Welcome. we are nearly neighbors. I live in Northeast Montgomery county. We have 20 chickens. Started with seventeen. Have three that our hens hactched this fall and are nearly grown. Love the eggs we get. Ours are a mix or mixed birds that give us lovely brown eggs. Love our chickens.

 

[oweirdo]

Prince Poppycock guarding his chicks.... I had to force him out, and all he does is turn around and beg to get back in.

 

[hungnguyen]

Quote:
Howdy, from Austin. Welcome abroad.

 

[GaryDean26]

I saw some Cream Legbar hatching eggs for sale at the show in La Grange this weekend. I thought they were bluer than any Ameraucana eggs I've produced (three hens). They were much like the color of your egg as it shows up on my computer. My Ameraucana Breeders Club egg chart has C9 as quite a green egg. Your egg above does not look green at all. None of the Cream Legbar hatching eggs I saw at the show had any green to them.

Well, I don't actually own an Araucana color card. I use the On-line Auction cards, and was told by someone that does have the Araucana that a OAC123 is a C9.

 

[hungnguyen]

Quote:
I bought a bunch of wire coops, motly built in Mexico. Then when set them up, I provide a metal roof and block 1 side (to block the afternoon sun. This makes it well ventilate for the summer heat. I set most of the cages near a tree to provide some shades. Then when winter comes, I winterize all cages with plastic covering 3 sides (only open on the south side so I can feed). I make my own rule to cover the cage in Nov and should complete this task by Dec 1. My birds are Orientals so they don't take the north windy cold air well. Then by Mar 1, I took down the plastic to be ready for Spring and Summer. This year, with this weather trend, I may delay this until Mar 20 to be safe. The plastic job takes quite some times, but I save the plastic to re-use next winter. Lots of work but it worth

 

[TexasLisa]

futterwhack and shelidero, Welcome from Rosenberg.

Lisa

 

[jajeanpierre]

Well, I don't actually own an Araucana color card. I use the On-line Auction cards, and was told by someone that does have the Araucana that a OAC123 is a C9.

I have an Ameraucana card, not one from the Araucana club--they are different breeds. I bet it is the same card, though. Your egg looks really blue on my computer screen. The Creame Legbar eggs I saw for sale were also that same beautiful blue. My understanding is there is some brown-egg layers in the background of Ameraucanas. A light wash of brown (a tinted egg) over a blue egg will tend to make the egg on the greener side.

 

[Ms Jellybean]

Blue eggs? Well they are a lot closer to blue that the Americauna eggs that are placed next to them in the egg contests, but depending on the person and the lighting some call them blue and some call them green. The egg color is C9 on the Araucana color charts (or OAC123). The are big eggs though. I have some that will lay an occasional XL eggs.

This is one of out first Cream Legbar eggs and shows the color really well.



Here are some photos of my current grow out group. I plan on showing that cockerel on the right (he is two months older than when this photo was taken and filling out nicely).




Here are a few of the pullets from the same group. I will be keeping the one in the front because she is pure for the "cream" gene, but the other in the photo have genetics for producing "gold" plumage and so they are not the correct color for the Cream Varriety of Legbars (yes there is a Gold variety and Silver Varity of Legbar too. The standard for those varieties are non-crested and white eggs because they didn't have any Araucana in their creation)



Here are some photos of my breeding stock. My main cockerel. Notice the off-white saddle feathers. This is the recessive "Cream" plumage. Gold plumage is dominant and since it is in the USA bloodlines most of what you see are Gold colored Legbars. The gold colored Legbars are slowly being weeded out as breeder work towards the cream standard. Gold birds have rusty red or yellow color saddle feathers and a yellowish color triangle on the end of the wings of the cockerels.



And My main Breeding hen. She is Gold, but a carrier for the Cream Plumage and 50% of her offspring come out with the correct cream plumage. I use her as me main breeder because of the half dozen pairing that I have grown stock from her offspring are the larger and most vigorous. Her egg color is not the bluest in my flock, but she lay some occasional XL eggs. Her largest single yolk egg was 76 grams and her largest double yolker 81 grams. Most of the Legbars in the USA averages about 63 grams eggs. This hen is also less flighty that all my other hens. The rest of the flock sleeps 5 feet up in the rafters of the chicken pen, but she has shorter wings and a bigger build and can not get more than about 4 feet off the ground. I think the less flighty birds will be better for containing free range flocks (although they always seem to stay inside the fence anyways unless spooked).



And a mix of the flock out on the pasture.

Those are some really pretty birds.

Howdy fellow Texans! Totally new to backyard chickens, guess it's maybe a response to "empty nest," with both my boys growing up and preparing for college life. Live in Nederland, near Beaumont. Have a small coop with (so far) 4 chickens. I love browsing and learning from this site. Thanks for all the kind responses and uplifting advice I have seen here. Chicken people are just generally good folk
Along with my 4 new girlies, I have an old Schipperke, a youthful cat, and two Zebra finches under my roof. And I have to admit, some days I like my animals more than my kids (HA!).....

Welcome! I used to have two Zebra finches. Then I had about a dozen. They breed like mice and rabbits combined!

Prince Poppycock guarding his chicks.... I had to force him out, and all he does is turn around and beg to get back in.

Handsome boy.

 

[bnjrob]

What do you think of my idea of basically an open-air nest box with just wire and shade cloth for walls? It would be predator proof.

Might be worth a try. If you do it right, you can make a "shell" that you can easily slip on and off of the box to give it solid walls for winter and rain storm protection.

 

[granthamkk]

Prince Poppycock guarding his chicks.... I had to force him out, and all he does is turn around and beg to get back in.

That is a beautiful rooster!