Texas

[RachaelS]

Quote:
Pretty boy Tammy!

 

[magpiesing]

Here is our new "ChickDigs" made from a fiberglass ring, don't know what from, and wire left over from the garden fence. The tarp is held down with zip ties so if a hen tries to get up on top it will be like a trampoline. It's inside the chicken house so is safe. We didn't have to make any changes to the coop....like a hole in the wire. That will hold them for a week or so then they will be over


6 weeks old and should be able to run with the big kids. The limb is new so they will have to learn what it's for. They had a blast playing in the leaves and shavings, finding bugs and bits of green. Fairly sure one of the brown leghorns is a roo and one of the white ones too. You can just make out the comb on the white ones head. the brown one is much bigger than all the others and gets up on the water jug. Hes already is the alpha bird of this group

 

[bnjrob]

Here is our new "ChickDigs" made from a fiberglass ring, don't know what from, and wire left over from the garden fence. The tarp is held down with zip ties so if a hen tries to get up on top it will be like a trampoline. It's inside the chicken house so is safe. We didn't have to make any changes to the coop....like a hole in the wire. That will hold them for a week or so then they will be over


6 weeks old and should be able to run with the big kids. The limb is new so they will have to learn what it's for. They had a blast playing in the leaves and shavings, finding bugs and bits of green. Fairly sure one of the brown leghorns is a roo and one of the white ones too. You can just make out the comb on the white ones head. the brown one is much bigger than all the others and gets up on the water jug. Hes already is the alpha bird of this group

That's a good idea for a brooder.

 

[TammyTX]

Pretty boy Tammy!

thank you!!

That was about 3 or so years ago. He still has all of his feathers, but now he is shorter (??) and his feet are gnarled from various calamities. Welsummers seem to have the most accidents of any breed I have.

 

[magpiesing]

The Kelloggs rooster is a Welsummer. I have one. he is 5 years old and a little mean s***!! He is beautiful, though.

This is Larry, in his prime:

Oh he is handsome...Is the Welsummer a heritage breed? I think I read that heritage birds are better layers and brooders than many of the newer breeds. Also that some breeds have deliberately had the broody trait bred out of them so they lay eggs all the time and no interest in brooding, just wondering if some of those traits appear in the crossbred birds and that's why most of our PR and aren't ever broody.

 

[SlipsWife]

if it's personal eggs I would be concerned with the health of the parent birds! maybe pump up their vitamins! it's been a hard winter for the birds...takes extra out of them

the empty spot on the small end is unabsorbed yolk...between now and Monday or Tuesday is a long time for a developing chick

another thing is these last several days they don't move much...they are absorbing and preparing for hatch day so don't give up on them

I feel a little less stressed after reading this. They were so squirmy the other day that to not see much significant movement was hard. We were going to wait until tomorrow to candle one more time but my daughter wanted to candle the eggs that are under our broody bantam EE and we decided to take a quick check of a couple of the others. Then we ended up checking them all... The cream legbar cockerel and pullet are new to us and I probably shouldn't have set their eggs. He did a good job with all of our other girls, which surprised me. He's not one to mate in front of us and we really didn't think the Turken eggs were fertile. The cochin bantam eggs that are under the bantam EE are showing veins. I wish she would have been broody when I got the shipped eggs in!

Quote: I wonder if it has been this crazy winter and the cold?

Sorry about your eggs...I hope you still have some success. For now I'm just gonna let my hens do the work or buy chicks. Maybe next year after I have some more experience I'' try hatching eggs. I don't handle disappointment well...lol

I'm thinking I need to hatch more of my own eggs and get that down...after the Turken eggs get here next week!

CL - cream legbars? I've seen some people discussing that they found the cream legbars to have hatching issues and not be very thrilled with the overall health and vigor of the birds. A lot of these new breeds still need to have kinks worked out of their gene pool. May not be anything you did at all.

Apparently these aren't necessarily a "new breed" as much as perhaps getting more common here in the US. But anyway, some experienced breeders of old-time heritage chickens from old bloodlines have mentioned they weren't impressed with what they had seen in legbars.

I need to do more research on the hatch rates for CL's...Hopefully its just going to be issues breeding them to each other, and the cockerel will be good for the other girls, which is the main reason I wanted him. Hatching a few extra pullets that lay blue eggs would have been nice though.

 

[RachaelS]

Oh he is handsome...Is the Welsummer a heritage breed? I think I read that heritage birds are better layers and brooders than many of the newer breeds. Also that some breeds have deliberately had the broody trait bred out of them so they lay eggs all the time and no interest in brooding, just wondering if some of those traits appear in the crossbred birds and that's why most of our PR and aren't ever broody.

I have read that depends on what you are after. A heritage bird, generally, does not lay as often, or as soon, as production birds, but the "generally" lay for a longer period of time, they don't get burnt out. Production/hatchery birds are not selected for broody traits so that can be missing from a lot of birds that one can buy.

If I remember correctly a PR is a heritage bird if you buy from heritage lines. The production/hatchery PR birds hit POL (point of lay) quicker and are less inclined to brood.

I have had a hatchery Barnevelder that went broody.

 

[orumpoultry]

Even if people don't cull as in kill a bird, if they were to take any birds that have shown signs of being sick out of their breeding program, then at least the birds are not passing on any weaknesses that they may have.  Most people just aren't able to wrap their head around killing one of their chickens - whether it be for illness or to eat them.  It takes some getting used to since most people are accustomed to having their chicken come prepackaged in plastic wrap.

Haha! True. I guess I was exposed early enough it doesn't get to me as bad. Not that I've never croed over a chicken. I have on plenty of occasions.

However, when it comes to bettering my flock I have no problems culling. Especially excess roos and hens that go on the table.

My DF is new to the experience and has troubles. He was upset when I told him my decision on the pullet that's failing to thrive. He wants me to give it more time, I say it's had enough.

I agree...we love to sit out with our tea in the evening and just watch our chickens.  They are funny and relaxing and you get a laugh from time to time because of the things they do.  Like chasing bugs or jumping up to grab leaves..."chick TV is the best.

My niece is absolutely obsessed with chicken t.v. she loves the chicken football channel... lmfao!

 

[magpiesing]

In our group of chicks we have 4 silver lace, don't know if any will be a roo. If one turns out to be and the other 3 hens would it be ok to breed them? I mean what are the chance they are "brother and sisters" and does this matter with chickens? I know it does in cats and dogs. I would not want to have messed up chicks. They came from TS at the same time.

 

[bnjrob]

I feel a little less stressed after reading this. They were so squirmy the other day that to not see much significant movement was hard. We were going to wait until tomorrow to candle one more time but my daughter wanted to candle the eggs that are under our broody bantam EE and we decided to take a quick check of a couple of the others. Then we ended up checking them all... The cream legbar cockerel and pullet are new to us and I probably shouldn't have set their eggs. He did a good job with all of our other girls, which surprised me. He's not one to mate in front of us and we really didn't think the Turken eggs were fertile. The cochin bantam eggs that are under the bantam EE are showing veins. I wish she would have been broody when I got the shipped eggs in!

I wonder if it has been this crazy winter and the cold?

I'm thinking I need to hatch more of my own eggs and get that down...after the Turken eggs get here next week!

I need to do more research on the hatch rates for CL's...Hopefully its just going to be issues breeding them to each other, and the cockerel will be good for the other girls, which is the main reason I wanted him. Hatching a few extra pullets that lay blue eggs would have been nice though.

OK, I see something that might be a problem for your hatch rate - you used eggs from a cockerel and pullet? Now I have and still do on occasion hatch from pullets because I'm working with a rare breed and I've needed to get more birds on the ground to make sure that if something happened to our original stock, that we had backups. But I've been told numerous times by old breeders, that for best results all around, to only breed from birds at least a year old, preferably from birds that are at least two years old. So with the crazy weather we've had for the winter this year, and the fact that these are younger birds that you have - you've got two reasons right there that can affect the hatch rate. I wouldn't discount them for breeding yet - they are young and still have time to mature. I would definitely try to hatch eggs from them again, maybe in the fall or winter or spring of next year. By that time they will be older and have their bodies at more of a steady state instead of still trying to grow, so they will be in a better place to give the egg/fertilization process a better effort.