The NFC B-Day Chat Thread

[N F C]

Great idea on the Breed ID forum.

And

on being an enabler with Debby! Oh my, I went from let's get 4 chicks to 25 chicks pretty much the moment I started looking at pics and reading about the breeds. I was reading the reviews on this sites of different breeds and the cons were minimal for most of them it seemed! Or, maybe I just blocked the cons out during my reading?

Enabler? Hey, I resemble that remark!

The last chicks I got were from MM and I was pleased with the chicks and the customer service. Our freebie was easy to pick out, it was the one and only Polish...a boy of course.

Don't let any cons affect how you feel about your birds, everyone has their own experience with the breeds and every bird is a bit different in personality. For example, I believed all the great stuff written up about Black Australorps but after ours turned out to be the birds from helL, I'll never have them again. My RIR's that so many people warn others about were some of the friendliest birds we had. Just goes to show, you can't believe everything you read.

 

[tjbaker70]

Enabler? Hey, I resemble that remark!

The last chicks I got were from MM and I was pleased with the chicks and the customer service. Our freebie was easy to pick out, it was the one and only Polish...a boy of course.

Don't let any cons affect how you feel about your birds, everyone has their own experience with the breeds and every bird is a bit different in personality. For example, I believed all the great stuff written up about Black Australorps but after ours turned out to be the birds from helL, I'll never have them again. My RIR's that so many people warn others about were some of the friendliest birds we had. Just goes to show, you can't believe everything you read.

Excellent advice!

I feel really duh right now because I only ordered two Salmon Faverolles and just realized that I have three! That's the freebie! I think they did that one because one has a bum eye. At first we thought it had no eye in one of the sockets, but we've been able to clean the eye a couple times per day and yesterday the lid finally opened. The chick seems healthy otherwise and none of the others pick on it. It's easy to catch and likes to be held.

I was worried about the RIR based on things I had read. I ordered them because our 4H leader loves them and has a big farm, so I knew we'd be able to give her a few (we can only have 20 hens for our property size). They seem like some of the friendliest of our birds though! Also, the cleanest of the chicks!

Did you have to get rid of the Polish Roo? I love the way they! Our youngest is raising a White Crested Black Polish for his 4H poultry project this year. We have four now and they are really tame and easy to catch.

 

[Blooie]

Whew, step away for a bit and now I'm behind...someone needs to do a newsletter for me now

DS and I went to the library yesterday and discovered their book sale room. What a deal, no set prices you just pick out as many books as you want and make a donation. My donation may have been a little too generous...they offered to let us look in their back room too, lol. We're going back again later this week to find more good stuff.

DH and I have our 1st employee of the golf course season hired! Very nice mature man for the bartending. He'll work out well I think. And my teenager from last year wants to come back, so that's going to be helpful. Things are shaping up!

Whew, step away for a bit and now I'm behind...someone needs to do a newsletter for me now

DS and I went to the library yesterday and discovered their book sale room. What a deal, no set prices you just pick out as many books as you want and make a donation. My donation may have been a little too generous...they offered to let us look in their back room too, lol. We're going back again later this week to find more good stuff.

DH and I have our 1st employee of the golf course season hired! Very nice mature man for the bartending. He'll work out well I think. And my teenager from last year wants to come back, so that's going to be helpful. Things are shaping up!

Thanks @sunflour ! I am going to take another look. If those little Black ones are the Dominiques, the I have no idea who my Blue Andalusians are! Well, there is one little one posted below that I am pretty sure is a Blue Andalusian, but there is only one and there were supposed to be two. hmmmm...

I have two Blue Andelusians and I don't think I have photos of them as chicks. But they sure didn't look alike as chicks - I remember doing the same thing you are doing now - staring at them and wondering. One of them matured pure white with a blue edges on a few of her feathers and the other one looks totally black. Go figger! In the photo below they are at the upper right, standing almost tail to tail. Funny, huh?

 

[tjbaker70]

I have two Blue Andelusians and I don't think I have photos of them as chicks. But they sure didn't look alike as chicks - I remember doing the same thing you are doing now - staring at them and wondering. One of them matured pure white with a blue edges on a few of her feathers and the other one looks totally black. Go figger! In the photo below they are at the upper right, standing almost tail to tail. Funny, huh?

Wow! So different! The chicken in the front on the right is really beautiful! What is she?

 

[Blooie]

Wow! So different! The chicken in the front on the right is really beautiful! What is she?

That's our Light Brahma - her name is Tank! The photo doesn't show it, but she's huge! The kids just love her - she's so friendly without being pushy. I'd love to have more of them - at one point I had 5 of them and 8 Buff Brahmas, but man they'd make a mess out of eggs! They were all so big and if they got into the nests (which were admittedly set up BEFORE we got such behemoths) they'd manage to break any eggs that had been in there previously with their wiggling and settling. So I took a couple back to my brother - remember the great adventure traveling with live chickens for 12 hours? - and have good personalities, and extremely winter hardy. They don't do so well in the heat, but then a lot of chickens do better in cold than heat.

When the others were being rehomed or processed, Tank got to stay. Ken really likes her so she'll stay . She and our dog Molly were always hanging out together, which looked really funny...


Couple of Buffs and a couple of Lights, enjoying their salad from McDonalds!



Tank (just a pullet here) and Molly - bookends!


Tank coming over for a bit of pulled pork last night.

 

[JaeG]

OK, so I went back and looked at my order and some pics from the hatchery where they came from (McMurray), and I think I have it sorted. The Andalusians have more variety than I anticipated. They are called Blue Andalusian, but well, here is one:



I got my flock from Murray McMurray Hatchery and they show these as examples of their Blue Andalusians:



And, I have three of these others (front), which must be the Delawares, which makes sense because I ordered three and have three of these:
I'm

This all makes much more sense now based on my order. The cream colored Blue Andalusian threw me way off and for whatever reason I had it stuck in my mind that Dominiques were yellow.

I'm pretty sure blue andalusians come in blue, black and splash, but only the blues are recognised and can be shown. Something like that anyway. Chicks are just so adorable.

 

[Bunnylady]

OK, so I went back and looked at my order and some pics from the hatchery where they came from (McMurray), and I think I have it sorted. The Andalusians have more variety than I anticipated. They are called Blue Andalusian, but well, here is one:



I got my flock from Murray McMurray Hatchery and they show these as examples of their Blue Andalusians:

I assume the Andalusians do the usual BBS (Black, Blue, Splash) thing, genetically. One copy of the gene for blue results in a bird that is blue. Two copies of the gene for blue makes a splash (mostly white, with little splashes of color). If you breed two blue birds together, they each have one copy of blue and one not-blue, so some offspring will be blue, some will be splash, and some of the offspring will get two copies of the not-blue gene and be black.

 

[tjbaker70]

That's our Light Brahma - her name is Tank! The photo doesn't show it, but she's huge! The kids just love her - she's so friendly without being pushy. I'd love to have more of them - at one point I had 5 of them and 8 Buff Brahmas, but man they'd make a mess out of eggs! They were all so big and if they got into the nests (which were admittedly set up BEFORE we got such behemoths) they'd manage to break any eggs that had been in there previously with their wiggling and settling. So I took a couple back to my brother - remember the great adventure traveling with live chickens for 12 hours and have good personalities, and extremely winter hardy. They don't do so well in the heat, but then a lot of chickens do better in cold than heat. When the others were being rehomed or processed, Tank got to stay. Ken really likes her so she'll stay . She and our dog Molly were always hanging out together, which looked really funny... Couple of Buffs and a couple of Lights, enjoying their salad from McDonalds! Tank (just a pullet here) and Molly - bookends! Tank coming over for a bit of pulled pork last night.

These are so great! I love the Molly and Tank picture. I don't think I looked at these partocular birds in my search. Gorgeous though! Trying to imagine a 12 hour drive with chickens ... oh my! I'm looking forward to the chicks growing into full grown chickens and having them out in the yard this summer. I have a Min Pin - Chihuahua mix that is still trying to figure out what's going in with all these little birds. So far, she just sits quietly next us when we have them out and watches.

 

[tjbaker70]

I'm pretty sure blue andalusians come in blue, black and splash, but only the blues are recognised and can be shown. Something like that anyway. Chicks are just so adorable. 

I think so. I've been doing a bit more digging around about them. They were one of the last minute add ons to my order, so I spent the least time reading up on them beforehand. The only chicken we are interested in showing from this bunch (so far) is one of the Polish. My 6-year-old is in 4H and has his heart set on raising a White Crested Black Polish hen for the fair. I'm not sure hatchery chickens are great for showing, but he's just starting out so it seemed like a good starterms chicken.

 

[Blooie]

These are so great! I love the Molly and Tank picture. I don't think I looked at these partocular birds in my search. Gorgeous though!

Trying to imagine a 12 hour drive with chickens ... oh my! I'm looking forward to the chicks growing into full grown chickens and having them out in the yard this summer. I have a Min Pin - Chihuahua mix that is still trying to figure out what's going in with all these little birds. So far, she just sits quietly next us when we have them out and watches.

Well, it wasn't so bad....we were going back to eastern South Dakota for Thanksgiving and we figured if we ran into trouble on the road at least we'd have eggs and chicken. Take awhile to get a Brahma done over a Sterno can in a blizzard, but I suppose it could have been done! The only bad part of the trip was the occasional cecal poop. In a closed van with the heaters on that got a bit ripe!