Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[Mumsy]

I've never had much luck staggering eggs but this time using a second incubator as a hatcher for the first set Silkies worked! Second set of Lucky Pickens Bantam RIR chicks are hatching today on 12-12-12! BAZINGA!

 

[CarolynF]

Quote:

Are you sure it's a BSL? They should have red feathers around the neck and head.

Yep I'm sure. Originally I thought they were supposed to have red feathers, too. But over the past year I've spent a lot of time talking to various breeders and reading about which crosses create sex links. It's common to have a pure black BSL pullet especially when a Black Australorp is used.

Oh, so it's a different kind than the BR/RIR cross? Interesting.
Quote:

When using an Australorp, it would be the roo or you wouldn't get the sex linking. Here's a link to a great thread here on BYC that gives a huge amount of information on sex linking. About halfway down page 1 they show the breeds used for BSLs. And yesterday when Kathy and I talked to Pam at Rain Creek she said that even when crossing a BR hen and RIR rooster some of the resulting pullets will have little or no red feathering. She wasn't at all surprised when I said mine looks like a small australorp. BTW, I really like my BSL, I'd get another just like her any day.

 

[CarolynF]

Well I don't know what happend,, but I went out this morning to check on the girls, one hen that I hatched back in April was sitting on the coop floor. It was no biggy untill I noticed that her legs were laying straight out behind her and that her comb is partly missing with blood runn8n down her beak! I picked her up and she can not move her legs. I am probably gonna have to cull her. I don't have any clue as to what did this to her.

I'm SOOO sorry! What a terrible thing to find, the poor little girl!

 

[Slinglings]

Must get these chickens out of my garage. Week one of quarantine will be done tomorrow. I'm not sure my garage will ever smell the same. One of the hens, probably the BSL, is laying a small light brown egg every day, but it's been cracked every day except one. Garage floors aren't very forgiving of egg shells. I have been cooking it and feeding it to the aracauna with the injured neck.

The little araucana's neck seems to be a little better. Still odd looking, but not as bad as it was the first day. I think she bumped her head or someone pecked her hard. She's definitely at the bottom.

When I do introduce the new four girls to the old four girls...is there some sequence I should go in to make the pecking order transition easier (like highest to highest or my old middles to my new lowest, old lowest to new highest?) or do I just let them have it out and figure it out on their own? I have my coop set up now to be two small coops with a sliding door between. One coop enters the yard and the other coop enters the run. So I think my plan is to put the new girls in the coop attached to the run for a few days, separate from the old girls, and then if all goes well, one night when they're asleep, open the door between the two coops. Then they'll get up the next morning and forget they were ever separate...right? Or would it be better to let the new girls out into the yard one day and keep the old girls penned up in the run for a while.

I just now realized that the new hens won't have nest boxes if I don't let them in the other side of the coop. I'll have to make a temporary one and put it in during the day.

Just thinking out loud. I'm trying to avoid talking endlessly about chickens IRL and on FB. I'm becoming 'that lady'. I had a physical on Monday and the doctor asked me about my exercise habits. I really used to be very good about exercise..lifting weights 3x a week, I even started running around Green Lake....until I got chickens. I seriously haven't done a moment of formal exercise since I got the chickens. And I've been paying for a gym membership. Saying it outloud to the doctor made me realize how dumb that is.

 

[FirewifeJess]

Quote:

Are you sure it's a BSL? They should have red feathers around the neck and head.

Yep I'm sure. Originally I thought they were supposed to have red feathers, too. But over the past year I've spent a lot of time talking to various breeders and reading about which crosses create sex links. It's common to have a pure black BSL pullet especially when a Black Australorp is used.

Oh, so it's a different kind than the BR/RIR cross? Interesting.
Quote:

When using an Australorp, it would be the roo or you wouldn't get the sex linking. Here's a link to a great thread here on BYC that gives a huge amount of information on sex linking. About halfway down page 1 they show the breeds used for BSLs. And yesterday when Kathy and I talked to Pam at Rain Creek she said that even when crossing a BR hen and RIR rooster some of the resulting pullets will have little or no red feathering. She wasn't at all surprised when I said mine looks like a small australorp. BTW, I really like my BSL, I'd get another just like her any day.
COol! Thanks for the info. I'm pretty sold on them, hoping to snag some this spring! I might also still get a barred rock or two though, because I realllly want the pretty coloring and it looks like only males will have barred feathers for the sex links. Bummer.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Hey y'all, busy, busy, busy and at least I get the dentist to look at my broken tooth today.

But, yeah: busy.

 

[TerrorBird]

Quote:

Are you sure it's a BSL? They should have red feathers around the neck and head.

Yep I'm sure. Originally I thought they were supposed to have red feathers, too. But over the past year I've spent a lot of time talking to various breeders and reading about which crosses create sex links. It's common to have a pure black BSL pullet especially when a Black Australorp is used.

Oh, so it's a different kind than the BR/RIR cross? Interesting.
Quote:

When using an Australorp, it would be the roo or you wouldn't get the sex linking. Here's a link to a great thread here on BYC that gives a huge amount of information on sex linking. About halfway down page 1 they show the breeds used for BSLs. And yesterday when Kathy and I talked to Pam at Rain Creek she said that even when crossing a BR hen and RIR rooster some of the resulting pullets will have little or no red feathering. She wasn't at all surprised when I said mine looks like a small australorp. BTW, I really like my BSL, I'd get another just like her any day.
COol! Thanks for the info. I'm pretty sold on them, hoping to snag some this spring! I might also still get a barred rock or two though, because I realllly want the pretty coloring and it looks like only males will have barred feathers for the sex links. Bummer.

If you're getting BRs from a breeder, I've read that it's possible to sex BRs by looking at the silver patches on the top/back of the head. They're sized and shaped a bit differently. I don't know how easy it is to distinguish between the two, but it is doable. I've had three BRs and they've all been great, very friendly and cuddly. If you can get hens, I'd highly recommend them.

 

[Dearth o Gallus]

Quick question.....are Plymouth Barred Rocks and Barred Rocks the same? Are they different? I thought that BR was just a short way of referring to Plymouth Barred Rocks....or is that not correct?


Thanks!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Quick question.....are Plymouth Barred Rocks and Barred Rocks the same? Are they different? I thought that BR was just a short way of referring to Plymouth Barred Rocks....or is that not correct?


Thanks!

very same thing

 

[Slinglings]

Quick question.....are Plymouth Barred Rocks and Barred Rocks the same? Are they different? I thought that BR was just a short way of referring to Plymouth Barred Rocks....or is that not correct?


Thanks!

Plymouth Barred Rocks (also called Barred Rocks) are a type of Plymouth Rock, which comes in other colors other than the Barred variety. It would be more clear to me if they were called Barred Plymouth Rocks