Texas

[harley1975]

Hi everyone, I'm new to the site. My family and I live in Garland, TX near LBJ. The hubby and I are tossing around the idea of chickens. We went to Roach feed & seed earlier this to peek at their chicks. the lady at the counter said they had no way of sexing the chicks( after digging around on this lovely site i found out how to sex a chick by the wing feathers). Has anyone on here bought chicks from them? what did you get if you did buy, the seemed to be a couple different breeds? also were they vaccinated? Sorry for the ramble and thank you if anyone can answer my questions  

Welcome from Tyler

 

[Ms Jellybean]

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.

I think that is a good idea. Would you also add a way to seal it up some in the winter? I guess you could wrap thick plastic around it. How people here plan coops for 100*+ and 10* and everything in between is amazing. I guess it is easier to build for the heat and have a way to close the coop up some. That is what I plan on doing.

 

[jajeanpierre]

Have you checked out the book Fresh Eggs Daily? It has a lot of natural remedies and preventatives in it. I really like the book.

All these birds were too sick to fool around with natural remedies. Honestly, I thought the bird that came out of the shipping box with a cough was going to die on me--she just got sicker and sicker until I took her to the second vet, an avian vet, and we got her sorted out. The other two birds with the blocked crops were also close to death before we got them sorted out. The avian vet was confident they would all live, but I wasn't so sure. They were that sick. They went from being nice round, well fleshed birds with beautiful feathers to emaciated birds in a very short period of time. I was quite surprised at how quickly they went downhill.

Some of the treatment for the birds with the crop issues were "natural" remedies. They were fed a lot of spinach which somehow works well at breaking up masses in the crop (maybe the high oxalic acid content), scratch which is better at breaking up the masses than a soft food, 15cc of water tubed into the crop to flush the crop coupled with and gentle massage of the crop. That was coupled with an antifungal (Nystatin).

 

[GaryDean26]

Any pics? Do your Cream Legbars lay blue eggs?

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.

 

[jajeanpierre]

I think that is a good idea. Would you also add a way to seal it up some in the winter? I guess you could wrap thick plastic around it. How people here plan coops for 100*+ and 10* and everything in between is amazing. I guess it is easier to build for the heat and have a way to close the coop up some. That is what I plan on doing.

These nest boxes would be strictly for the warm months for hens to brood and raise chicks in. I'm just really concerned about the Cochins overheating. I don't think they do well in the heat. If they start to overheat, they are too insulated to cool themselves.

I lived in Saudi Arabia with a Shetland Sheepdog. He was good to take out in the extreme heat for a short period of time--his heavy coat would insulate him from the heat, but once he overheated, he was in real trouble. His heavy coat which had kept the heat out for awhile, now would keep the heat in. I carried a spray bottle with me to keep him cool.

I built my coops for the warm weather. I got a real surprise this winter, and I think I made my chickens sick because I tried to close it up too much. I'm going to start from scratch this summer with a new and bigger coop. I have found that chicken keeping is quite the learning experience. I read and researched a lot, but reading and doing are not the same. I've had parrots for many years, so I have a fairly good understanding of birds in general and some of the issues they have which differ from keeping mammals. Still, I've made huge mistakes.

 

[jajeanpierre]

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.

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.

 

[shelldero]

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!).....

 

[magpiesing]

Hi I sent my hubby on a quest. He found the book you mentioned for 14.95 and I had him order it. Thanks so much for the info. I try to grow our food w/o any chemicals. I don't want to use meds on our birds unless last choice. Then I would isolate and treat ony the sick. I know that's sometimes risky because some things can spread fast and mass treatment might help. But then I would loose all our beautiful, wonder ful eggs. Not happening if I can help it! I So, just have to wait for the book. Thanks again Magpie

 

[SlipsWife]

Hi everyone, I'm new to the site. My family and I live in Garland, TX near LBJ. The hubby and I are tossing around the idea of chickens. We went to Roach feed & seed earlier this to peek at their chicks. the lady at the counter said they had no way of sexing the chicks( after digging around on this lovely site i found out how to sex a chick by the wing feathers). Has anyone on here bought chicks from them? what did you get if you did buy, the seemed to be a couple different breeds? also were they vaccinated? Sorry for the ramble and thank you if anyone can answer my questions

I don't believe you can feather sex all chicks, even of breeds that can be feathered sexed, they have to be bred to be feather sexed. I could be wrong but I'd hate for you to end up with a bunch of roosters that you've grown attached to! The best way to make sure you are getting what you want would be to buy sex-links or sexed chicks. I've heard of a few mix ups with sex links, either from being put in the wrong bin at the feed store or sometimes their down colors are pretty close and mistakes happen. Sexed chicks from a hatchery usually have a 90% guarantee but you always seem to hear the stories of people who order 10 pullets and end up with 9 roosters...

We've only bought sex-links and straight run until this year. The pullets we ordered are still to young to judge.

I'm not sure how many chickens you can have or want but if you might try ordering sexed chicks or sex-links from a hatchery. Most have a minimum order of chicks, Ideal, out of Cameron Texas has a $25 minimum but will add males for warmth if you don't order enough. Usually its pretty simple to sell the extras on Craigslist, at least in our area. Also, TSC usually has sexed/sex-link chicks but don't expect them to be knowledgeable about the chicks!

 

[LBejaran]

  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! Don't worry, we'll all encourage you to add some more chickens to your flock!

I love my animals and I often get along with them better than my family, haha! At least they appreciate it when I feed them.