The Old Folks Home

[Arielle]

Linda-- glad your fellow showed up. I think they rely on their ears as much as their eyes. Glad he made it.

Jan-- you are welcome to join as its more about how we feel than our age! My grandfather retired and sold the business to his nephew. ANd went in to work every day for the next 15 years !!

Said he didn't like the work but I"m not so sure about that. He was good at it.Love that you can keep the farm going, and have horses too.

SCG-- just wait until all the good birds are laying in the spring-- the selection will jump. Most of my birds are not laying, even those will lights are holding out.

THis has been a long week, took DH several days to get the job finished. Need to get ram in with ewes-- that was delayed. THere is something rejuvenating about the birth of lambs, just like the thrill of chicks hatching.

One of my young drakes follows me, and grabs my pant legs-- persistent enough to be annoying. He nibbles up and down my leg. I think he is confused !!!

I put him in the small kiddie pool and he LOVEs the water and leaves me alone for a while; the next day he is at it again.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Linda-- glad your fellow showed up. I think they rely on their ears as much as their eyes. Glad he made it.

Jan-- you are welcome to join as its more about how we feel than our age! My grandfather retired and sold the business to his nephew. ANd went in to work every day for the next 15 years !!

Said he didn't like the work but I"m not so sure about that. He was good at it.Love that you can keep the farm going, and have horses too.

SCG-- just wait until all the good birds are laying in the spring-- the selection will jump. Most of my birds are not laying, even those will lights are holding out.

THis has been a long week, took DH several days to get the job finished. Need to get ram in with ewes-- that was delayed. THere is something rejuvenating about the birth of lambs, just like the thrill of chicks hatching.

One of my young drakes follows me, and grabs my pant legs-- persistent enough to be annoying. He nibbles up and down my leg. I think he is confused !!!

I put him in the small kiddie pool and he LOVEs the water and leaves me alone for a while; the next day he is at it again.

Sounds like you have some young duck love going on. Hopefully he finds one of his own species soon.

I saw your ad up on BST but thought I had seen you post that your production was way down, too. Last spring I ran out of nesting boxes, everyone was broody! And fighting over what eggs were laid.

 

[Wisher1000]

I got the darkest egg, so far, from one of my Marans girls today. I just had to share.

I don't know alot about how to rate them, but I know that there is a scale and would like to know which group this egg (the one the pen is pointing to) would be in. I think it is pretty dark. What do y'all think? I included some of my others that were interesting. My other favorite is the dark speckled one on the top right of the plate.

 

[Arielle]

I got the darkest egg, so far, from one of my Marans girls today. I just had to share.

I don't know alot about how to rate them, but I know that there is a scale and would like to know which group this egg (the one the pen is pointing to) would be in. I think it is pretty dark. What do y'all think? I included some of my others that were interesting. My other favorite is the dark speckled one on the top right of the plate.

Very pretty. Very few of my marans eggs get eaten-- usually I sell them as hatching eggs or hatch them myself. I sold more marans chicks than anything else last year. I was only able to keeep two pullets for myself to add to my 5 hens.

THe only girls laying are my mixed flock. FIve different layers running amok with a variety of roosters( representing all the egg colors: white, brown, chocolate and blue.) THe boys get around when no one is looking!!

I get a bakers dozen every day.

No breeding pens set up. I"m hoping for this weekend. The big poultry congress is this weekend about 1.5 hours away. DH said he didn't want to go. Still hoping to change his mind.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: He hangs out with another boy and a girl-- you would think he would find the right species. Two older hens around too. I'm not interested and playing hard to get-- you would think he would get it!! LOL

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Wisher, that is a nice colored egg. Color washes out sometimes in photos, too, and yours still looks great. My dark layer lays a non-shiny egg... it's really rough, so I'm jealous that yours is so shiny. I love the speckled one, also. Wish I could help you with the grading.

 

[Stumpy]

Beautiful, dark egg, Wisher.

 

[dsqard]

Glad to know that I am not the only one who is getting basically no eggs. I get about one a day and it is my youngest hen from one of the hatches last year. She is a Brahma mix. Big girl and lays almost every day. Can't wait for it to start getting warmer so I can think about hatching. I don't think I am going to do any of the hatchalongs this year, just hatch when the timing is right. SCG and I are getting our plans together for the trip to Bryce and Zion (and hopefully the wave

) at the beginning of May. I might think about getting some chicks instead of hatching this year but we will see. In a few months I will also be reducing the horse numbers by two. I am going to send my daughter's horse and my large appy up to NY in the spring. I had been thinking of replacing one of them with a spotted saddle horse but I am thinking that having only three horses to feed and clean up after might be nice.

 

[Wisher1000]

Very pretty. Very few of my marans eggs get eaten-- usually I sell them as hatching eggs or hatch them myself. I sold more marans chicks than anything else last year. I was only able to keeep two pullets for myself to add to my 5 hens.

THe only girls laying are my mixed flock. FIve different layers running amok with a variety of roosters( representing all the egg colors: white, brown, chocolate and blue.) THe boys get around when no one is looking!!

I get a bakers dozen every day.

No breeding pens set up. I"m hoping for this weekend. The big poultry congress is this weekend about 1.5 hours away. DH said he didn't want to go. Still hoping to change his mind.

I eat, or give away, all of my Marans eggs. I would love to raise some more, but can't stand to see those beautiful roosters go to the pot. I kept the best one from the last hatch and now have the birds to be able to set up a breeder pen. I know that if I had pure Marans eggs, I could sell or trade them on BYC, but I have no experience with shipping eggs. These birds came from eggs that I got from a BYCer here locally that said they came from eggs she ordered from another BYCer. I guess I should ask her if they are from a "good" line. If they are, I would be more inclined to build a breeder pen. I guess I could build it big enough to house the Marans and the peafowl..... hmmmmmmm......

 

[ronott1]

Quote: Go here: http://www.skylinepoultry.com/Packing___shipping_eggs.html

Follow the instructions and send me a dozen Marans eggs and I will hatch them. I will reimburse you for the shipping, so this will be a test hatch for you and I will take lots of pictures and give you my hatch notes.

PM me if you are interested.

Ron