The IMPORTED ENGLISH Orpington Thread

[Faraday40]

I hope you guys don't mind all the pics.
With all the stress around here lately, I just needed a day of chicken therapy.

 

[homeschoolin momma]

I love the pictures! I wanna see more! Cant wait to up up on the 23rd.

 

[flgardengirl]

Okay that's just hysterical about the evil shadow rooster! They can be so goofy. All your SLO's are looking nice!

 

[Faraday40]

I realized that yesterday was 2-2 (Groundhog Day) and my silly rooster was afraid of his shadow. I guess we're getting 6 more weeks of winter!

 

[ColtHandorf]

I was out of town for a four-day weekend working an anime convention as their Dealer Liaison in the Exhibitor's Hall. I snapped a couple of quick pics this morning because of course it didn’t rain the whole time I was gone, but is going to rain for the next three or four days. Hopefully it isn't actively raining when I get home so I can feed and water everyone. I passed smooth out yesterday when I got home and didn't get it done. Checking this morning, apparently the roommate decided she wasn't going to keep an eye on them while I was gone. None of the eggs had been picked up and they were out of food. :/ I turned them out and threw some scratch down real fast ,but office clothes are not conducive to get chicken chores done in the morning...

 

[ColtHandorf]

Here are some terrible pics this morning. But at least you can see their shape.

You can clearly see the yellow legs on the two cockerels. The one closest to me is the better looking one that I’m going to keep as an “in case”. His brother actually has a potential home lined up. The wind is blowing really hard (it dropped from 75 this morning to like 36 currently) so the posture is kind of wonky, but the White looks very nice when he’s standing.

 

[ColtHandorf]

My yard is a swamp. The chickens are miserable. And the geese are loving it of it course. Breeding behavior has started so I'm sure I'll start getting eggs soon. I've got some eggs in the incubator, so we'll see how things go. I'm not holding my breath. The LG is notoriously fiddly and doesn't hold a constant temp. And the good incubator has some friend's eggs in it as she lost her rooster.

 

[Faraday40]

My yard is a swamp. The chickens are miserable. And the geese are loving it of it course. Breeding behavior has started so I'm sure I'll start getting eggs soon. I've got some eggs in the incubator, so we'll see how things go. I'm not holding my breath. The LG is notoriously fiddly and doesn't hold a constant temp. And the good incubator has some friend's eggs in it as she lost her rooster.

Sorry about the backyard swamp. We're heading for a deep freeze with below zero temps at the end of the week. .....Just as I was getting used to the mild winter.

My 1st broody hatch of the year:
This is Glow's chick. The lav orp must be the father. The chick isn't the inky black I'm used to and at times she even looks dark blue. Time will tell.

I really only threw a couple of Glows eggs under the hen because I had just sold Glow. I didn't want the chicks but a broody to adopt my little serama chick, Solo. I'm sure I told her story. Here's Solo with her new mama & sister. Biologically they share no DNA, but I hope they bond and form a family.

 

[ColtHandorf]

I have doubts any of the eggs will hatch. She gave me 18 and they were all from one hen. plus they were stored air cell down so I'm sure that won't help either. Combine that with the temp swings in the Little Giant and I'm imagining it will be a waste of 21 days. After that I'm hoping to have the nice large Rcom purchased that can manage itself. Then I can have good hatches again. lol

 

[Faraday40]

I have doubts any of the eggs will hatch. She gave me 18 and they were all from one hen. plus they were stored air cell down so I'm sure that won't help either. Combine that with the temp swings in the Little Giant and I'm imagining it will be a waste of 21 days. After that I'm hoping to have the nice large Rcom purchased that can manage itself. Then I can have good hatches again. lol

Who gave you the eggs? Why didn't she know how to store them? Since you have the eggs, it won't hurt to set them and toss the clears in 10-12 days. By then it's obvious.

I put about 6 pullet eggs under my other 2 broody hens. Only one might be developing. Accidentally a serama egg started to develop, so I marked it. It's developing just fine! Now I need to decide if I should let the silkie have the 1-2 chicks and pull the serama out to try a couple more eggs? (or I could just let both share the 1 serama chick and maybe 1 orp chick.)