The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[armorfirelady]

So I have been trying to find the article I read awhile ago about how chicken eggs are colored. I know that it has to do with minerals individual hens produced. While searching I found this exert & found it quite interesting. Lately I have noticed once in while one of my hens earlobes are white.......perhaps that is when I get 1 egg that is so pale it looks white? Its not always white so I am looking for info as well on that. Thought I would share.......and if I find that page that was so informative I will share that as well.

Here is the quote-
"The most fascinating aspect of the lobes is not that they have them, but that the color of a chicken’s ear lobes will determine what color their eggshell will have—a chicken with white earlobes will produce white shells, and a chicken with red earlobes will produce brown shells."

 

[Pozees]

On shipped eggs from the same breeder shipped exactly the same to the same receiver, I also agree with Stony, but cannot pretend to be nerdy smart, I'm more like the enabler brother, who I will always think of as Joel.

I think despite our best efforts, sometimes we only think we are incubating and hatching the same way every time, mainly because we believe our instruments used to monitor temp and humidity and they can be erroneous. I can add water to the incubator and have humidity register exactly the same as if I just set at least 20 eggs - so I stopped adding water. That may be due in part to the very low ambient humidity here, although I would think the opposite would be true. The last two hatches I did the exact same thing with the eggs, and the ones that came from nearest me were a complete failure. The only difference was I put them in the 1588 with the turner made for it, and put the others in the Farm Innovator 4200 with its own turner. The 1588's turner made creaking noises a few times, it is brand new, and I suspect it does not work as smoothly as the other. Maybe just enough to disrupt the hatch? Around day 11 or 12 I saw movement in only one egg, and even that one was no longer moving on day 18. I don't remove the eggs from the turner to candle because I don't want to jostle them too much or risk dropping them (I am somewhat less than graceful) and I would rather err on the side of caution. I keep the lid off only a minute, touch the candler to the end of each egg, I will go back and look again if I am unsure but I get it done quickly and get the lid back on. I've taken to only candling somewhere between day 10 and 12, then again when I go to hatching mode. I still don't have a great hatching rate on shipped eggs, but better than before. I am just now incubating my first eggs laid here at home, and should know in a week how well they fare in comparison.

The second incubator contained Fogle RIR eggs and some Black Silkie eggs, all shipped, and so far I have 4 RIR and 2 Silkies hatched, today is day 21. Another RIR is pipped and I am hopeful for a few more in the next day or so, but very happy to see those lovely chicks out and healthy.

Best news of the day, for me anyway - I am ridiculously happy to report my broody has hatched at least one egg, looks like one of the two Fogle RIR eggs I gave her, the other is a Black Silkie egg. She is a first timer, hatchery Blue Cochin, and I am very proud of her. I had to stop myself from giggling with glee when I spotted the shell and heard the little peeps coming from beneath her.

 

[delisha]

Not sure if this belongs here but I'm in Australia and feel very strong about the "natural" keeping of animals! On Monday I was give a pair of ducks, I kept them secure and locked away in a coop and run for three days and today I decided to let them free range in my yard! So I came home today to find they have joined the local colony out the back. I have a lot of land and dams behind me no houses just cows! So I'm happy for them to b there! They have plenty of water and may just b able to have a sence of freedom with the securities of "home" here that I can provide them with! Just would feel bad of they fall victim! Anyways tomorro we have a local event that is celebrating 30 years " tocal field days" it will be my first time there and I'm hoping to get my first flock of laying hens there! I hope I wake up to my ducks in my yard and find the australorps I want at the field days!

Have a great time!! and welcome to the group!

I had my first casualty last night. One of my SS chicks was dead this morning. I haven't been putting the heat lamp on at night, since it's been in the 50-60's at night. But it got down in the low 30's last night so I had the light on. I think this chick was squished or suffocated. It was half buried in shavings and right under the light. That chick was doing great yesterday. They do have mites and I dusted them with ash and DE a couple days ago. I added DE yesterday morning to the shavings. Since they won't be staying in this pen too long, I didn't think the DE would hurt anything. Hate losing that chick. I'm pretty sure it was a rooster.

Sorry..

Quote:

VIABILITY OF SHIPPED HATCHING EGGS...

Question of the day....

Was discussing the poor hatch-rate on shipped over on the SFH thread. Seems that eggs from SOME breeders do better than others and there is not significantly different packaging from one to another. Sometimes even shipped from the same post offices and same routes.....

Anyhow - I had this though and I want to throw it out for discussion:


Could viability possibly be at least partially a nutrition/health of flock issue rather than just shipping variabilities? As in, could the eggs be stronger, heavier, thicker albumen, better anchored, etc., depending variants in nutrition and thus result in a better hatch-rate despite jostling enroute?

YOUR INPUT/THOUGHTS, PLEASE!




(Just another one of those things I'm thinking about

)

Health and age of the hens/pullets is the biggest factor in hatching eggs. Shipping does not even come into play yet. The best age for hatching eggs is 1 1/2 -2 1/2 years old. Pullet eggs or older hen eggs have less chances of success to hatch, fertility, viable chicks, healthy developed chicks. (Yes, some one is going to say they have a hen who is 100 years old and she hatches 100% all healthy chicks..congrats!)You add natural variables out of human controls like weather and humidity and they drop more. Add the post office and be thankful and greatful you hatch 30%.

Quote: I do not know to be honest. It depends on what she is feeding. BOSS is pretty fatty..but corn is horrible and fatty. (sorry to all the corn lovers) this is just my personal opinion.
Never stop sprouting your BOSS..the benifits are remarkable.

 

[delisha]

On shipped eggs from the same breeder shipped exactly the same to the same receiver, I also agree with Stony, but cannot pretend to be nerdy smart, I'm more like the enabler brother, who I will always think of as Joel.

I think despite our best efforts, sometimes we only think we are incubating and hatching the same way every time, mainly because we believe our instruments used to monitor temp and humidity and they can be erroneous. I can add water to the incubator and have humidity register exactly the same as if I just set at least 20 eggs - so I stopped adding water. That may be due in part to the very low ambient humidity here, although I would think the opposite would be true. The last two hatches I did the exact same thing with the eggs, and the ones that came from nearest me were a complete failure. The only difference was I put them in the 1588 with the turner made for it, and put the others in the Farm Innovator 4200 with its own turner. The 1588's turner made creaking noises a few times, it is brand new, and I suspect it does not work as smoothly as the other. Maybe just enough to disrupt the hatch? Around day 11 or 12 I saw movement in only one egg, and even that one was no longer moving on day 18. I don't remove the eggs from the turner to candle because I don't want to jostle them too much or risk dropping them (I am somewhat less than graceful) and I would rather err on the side of caution. I keep the lid off only a minute, touch the candler to the end of each egg, I will go back and look again if I am unsure but I get it done quickly and get the lid back on. I've taken to only candling somewhere between day 10 and 12, then again when I go to hatching mode. I still don't have a great hatching rate on shipped eggs, but better than before. I am just now incubating my first eggs laid here at home, and should know in a week how well they fare in comparison.

The second incubator contained Fogle RIR eggs and some Black Silkie eggs, all shipped, and so far I have 4 RIR and 2 Silkies hatched, today is day 21. Another RIR is pipped and I am hopeful for a few more in the next day or so, but very happy to see those lovely chicks out and healthy.

Best news of the day, for me anyway - I am ridiculously happy to report my broody has hatched at least one egg, looks like one of the two Fogle RIR eggs I gave her, the other is a Black Silkie egg. She is a first timer, hatchery Blue Cochin, and I am very proud of her. I had to stop myself from giggling with glee when I spotted the shell and heard the little peeps coming from beneath her.

congrats~~

 

[aoxa]

Okay so the perennials I had bought are doing just fine in the frost Thought I'd let you guys know.

I am beat. We have been gardening all day. We built three raised beds, did the entire rock garden, filled one raised bed with organic soil and gave up and went for ice-cream. A big mound of dirt = a lot of work. Dylan came by to help though, so that was nice..

We also ordered our laying hens and meat kings today.

 

[aoxa]

My favourite photo of the day. Lucy hunting Can you see it?



What about now?

 

[Child of Noah]

So I have been trying to find the article I read awhile ago about how chicken eggs are colored. I know that it has to do with minerals individual hens produced. While searching I found this exert & found it quite interesting. Lately I have noticed once in while one of my hens earlobes are white.......perhaps that is when I get 1 egg that is so pale it looks white? Its not always white so I am looking for info as well on that. Thought I would share.......and if I find that page that was so informative I will share that as well.

Here is the quote-
"The most fascinating aspect of the lobes is not that they have them, but that the color of a chicken’s ear lobes will determine what color their eggshell will have—a chicken with white earlobes will produce white shells, and a chicken with red earlobes will produce brown shells."

I was asking about that on another thread a few days ago. I got a LOT of very helpful real world answers!
I also was directed to this: http://scratchcradle.wordpress.com/2012/07/01/gms1-genetics-of-egg-color/ Scratch Cradle Genetics. (That's number 1, number 2 deals with "what makes a blue egg")
The brown of an egg is "painted" on, with the shell being white. The brown color is something in the chicken's blood. The blue of the egg is something in the chicken's bile and the shell part is blue. The variations you see in one particular chicken have to due with diet, age, and where she is in her laying season (the "stuff" gets used up after she lays a lot of eggs, so the further in, the lighter the eggs tend to be).

 

[stonykill]

On shipped eggs from the same breeder shipped exactly the same to the same receiver, I also agree with Stony, but cannot pretend to be nerdy smart, I'm more like the enabler brother, who I will always think of as Joel.

I think despite our best efforts, sometimes we only think we are incubating and hatching the same way every time, mainly because we believe our instruments used to monitor temp and humidity and they can be erroneous. I can add water to the incubator and have humidity register exactly the same as if I just set at least 20 eggs - so I stopped adding water. That may be due in part to the very low ambient humidity here, although I would think the opposite would be true. The last two hatches I did the exact same thing with the eggs, and the ones that came from nearest me were a complete failure. The only difference was I put them in the 1588 with the turner made for it, and put the others in the Farm Innovator 4200 with its own turner. The 1588's turner made creaking noises a few times, it is brand new, and I suspect it does not work as smoothly as the other. Maybe just enough to disrupt the hatch? Around day 11 or 12 I saw movement in only one egg, and even that one was no longer moving on day 18. I don't remove the eggs from the turner to candle because I don't want to jostle them too much or risk dropping them (I am somewhat less than graceful) and I would rather err on the side of caution. I keep the lid off only a minute, touch the candler to the end of each egg, I will go back and look again if I am unsure but I get it done quickly and get the lid back on. I've taken to only candling somewhere between day 10 and 12, then again when I go to hatching mode. I still don't have a great hatching rate on shipped eggs, but better than before. I am just now incubating my first eggs laid here at home, and should know in a week how well they fare in comparison.

The second incubator contained Fogle RIR eggs and some Black Silkie eggs, all shipped, and so far I have 4 RIR and 2 Silkies hatched, today is day 21. Another RIR is pipped and I am hopeful for a few more in the next day or so, but very happy to see those lovely chicks out and healthy.

Best news of the day, for me anyway - I am ridiculously happy to report my broody has hatched at least one egg, looks like one of the two Fogle RIR eggs I gave her, the other is a Black Silkie egg. She is a first timer, hatchery Blue Cochin, and I am very proud of her. I had to stop myself from giggling with glee when I spotted the shell and heard the little peeps coming from beneath her.

after watching dozens upon dozens of broodys handle eggs, rolling them all over the place, getting off the nest 30 minutes at a time when it is 40 degrees F out, getting up to eat when they feel the 1st pip I don't worry at ALL about how carefully I handle the eggs.I have even watched broody's roll a zipping egg out from under them, then pull the hatched chick under them. I am gentler than the broody's are and they have better hatch rates than I have ever had.
Enjoy your broody! I had 1 broody hatch 11 of 13 the other day and have 8 more sitting on eggs. And the year is still young

 

[chikenscratch]

Okay, so I am having trouble making a decision... hopefully some of you can take some time to read this and weigh in your opinions. What would you do and why?? I have to re-home at least 2 of my roosters as is appears I am soon to have 4, which I think is going to be too many. No, I can't cull any of them because I'm too attached now, which is making it very difficult to decide who to keep. Stories: Roo 1 - "Chubby Cheeks" (28 week old EE) Description: Has tried to do some "little" attacks, nothing major - no flying up, just little pecking attacks at our feet and extremely rare - usually only if I change shoes. We have pulled his feathers and hasn't really done it again. I can walk into the yard with no problems. He's a wonderful protector and lets the hens eat right from his beak when he finds something. He's beautiful! He has some sharp claws that did rip open one of my BR girls sides but now that they have saddles, I haven't had it happen again and to be honest, I'm not entirely sure it was him, but just assume because the other two roos are silkies. He crows a lot, but not sure if he would continue to do so if he didn't have the other two going back and forth with him. All in all, I think he is a very good rooster, so far... Roo 2 - "Snuffleupagus" or "Snuffy" (28 week old red silkie) Description: Definitely the most ornery! If my daughter is squatting down, he likes to fly up and attack her backside. He doesn't mess with me at all anymore as I started tugging his back feathers weeks ago when he started being a little biter - he would not just peck, he would grab on and not let go! He cracks me up with his scruffy cuteness though - he has become my husband's favorite because he is a little scrapper and never gives up. He doesn't really get any of the girls but he sure does keep trying. He occasionally scuffles with the blue silkie roo but our EE always steps in and breaks it up. I think we love him because he's the underdog. Also crows a lot. Roo 3 - "Disco" (28 week old blue silkie) Description: He reminds me of a proud little king. He has never flown up or attacked. He just dances all the time. We try to tug his feathers when he dances but boy does he got some moves and can dodge your hand too fast to get to him. I am beginning to think that he finds himself pretty funny that he can get away. He is pretty good all around. Doesn't seem to be too hard on the girls; he only seems to scuffle because Snuffy starts it. I think he crows the least but still gets going back and forth with the other two. Roo 4 - "Monsoon" (8 week old blue cochin) Description: Too young to really tell about how he'll be but I am pretty certain the blue cochin hen I wanted was improperly sexed. "She's" got a decent-sized comb and wattles developing and yesterday when I let all the little ones out to free-range, I could have sworn he/she was trying to do a kind of a warning/egg song sounding call due to a fence that was moving around a lot. He/She's absolutely beautiful and I am so disappointed that it seems to be a cockerel. He does like to peck a lot more than the other babies do - not sure if that's a bad sign as I don't want a huge blue cochin roo pecking me all the time someday. But I've also heard that cochin roos are the sweetest?? So, questions to consider... Which two are most likely to get along? Which two would be best for my flock as listed in my sig? I do have one white silkie hen. My EE has mounted her with no issues before but don't know if a cochin would be too much for her? They are in a big run most of the time - they get supervised free-ranging. They are not really let out without supervision so I don't necessarily need a protector. I should also mention that all the older roos have been great with the babies - it's the hens that pick on them. I do not have plans for breeding silkies or any other chickens at this time. I guess if I did want to in the future, it would only be for future egg-layers and we'd eat the future roos we would get. I do have my white silkie laying on some duck eggs for me right now for my sister. I am trying to do what's best for my flock and also cut down on the incessant crowing they all do with each other - (at least the 3 older ones - the cochin hasn't crowed yet). Here are some photos of all them... It's been at least 2-3 weeks since some of these were taken, some longer.

That last one looks mean

Good news here! My guinea keet's crop has emptied, and none of the others have any symptoms of impaction! I'll be keeping them off shaving for sure until two weeks afterthis event though, I don't trust the little buggers. If they can give themselves an impacted crop with a piece of sod, I shudder to think what they would manage with a brooder full of shavings! I posted over on the "what breed or sex" forum with two of my little kids of uncertain gender, I would be happy if anyone from here would like to weigh in, but figured I wouldn't bog down the thread. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/776461/unknown-gender-questionable-breed-7-9-weeks#post_11101447 We had violet leaf in a mixed salad topped with grapfruit sections, avacado, and voilet flowers, dressed with the grapfruit juce and olive oil and a little salt and pepper. sure was tasty. I'm waiting for my fiddleheads to get up high enough to pick. I'm hoping to try making dandelion (flower) jelly and maybe dandelion wine. I'm going to have to try that sun tea for sure, and hunt up some burdock stalk. It won't be up here yet. You know, simple, whether because the wallet is skinny or by choice is a good thing. I grew up where we never turned the tv on, and didn't even have a computer until I was in high school. I want that for my kids. It was a good life. Lots of fresh air and sunshine, dirt, and being a kid. My husband hunts and fishes, and i garden, can, preserve, and dry. I'm hoping this year that more than 50% of what goes on our table will come from the garden or the woods or the chickens. I need to learn more about wild harvesting for sure. sorry to hear this.

There is a great book that I got from the library about foraging for wild food. Its called Backyard Foraging by Ellen Zachos.

 

[PeepsCA]

Quote: LMAO!

My first thought was... a hairball that the cat warfed up (I have a pure White cat).

Sorry CoopChick, too young for me to risk a guess on. Gonna have to keep it 'tll it crows or it grows streamers (to find out if it's a Roo), lol.