Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[Gatewayto]

Snowflakes is still in the same condition, she is separate. I did add Rose with her in a 6 by 6 run and temp coop. She was a little lonely. With Rose in the temp run/coop with her.. she seems a little happier.

Not sure if this actually have anything to do with her condition, I remember moving our 4 months chicks to laying pellet feed with this started. She doesn't seem to eat the feed at all. When I gave her cooked rice she is very interested and ate that up quickly. Will have to add calcium protein with her rice to make sure she is developing correctly.

Thank you for the suggestion.. I will collect her droppings and ask a vet to take a look at it.

 

[Gatewayto]

I got my Easter Eggers from a hatchery.



One of them doesn't have muffs or a beard. I think it is the one that lays cream colored/beige eggs. The dark brown one lays brown eggs and the other one lays green.

So not EE chickens lays Egg eggs? That is a nice color combo.. now you just need a deep olives? hehe

 

[Gatewayto]

It is a project I am starting with my two current hens, the result of raising about 30 chicks from 3 sources. I am hoping I will have a keeper out of this batch but only time will tell. Unless this white chick develops some interesting characteristics as it feathers out, it will not be a keeper other than to be a growing companion for the second one. I will keep looking for suitable eggs to see if I can hatch something I can use to produce the birds I want to put under my rooster but it is a specific looking Easter Egger I am looking for and most of what I see is too far away from the blue egg to take a chance on egg color.

I need the bluest Easter Egger eggs I can find with a small pea combed rooster over the laying hens. I want a variety of feather coloring but slate or willow legs and pea combs, plus muffs and beards, are essential characteristics I am looking for to bring the crossbred Easter Egger back to the original Easter Egger. There is a trend towards mixing breeds for olive eggs by adding more and more brown to blue egg genetics and I neither like the birds nor the eggs. I want both blue and the original green (from initial "improved" version) eggs, plus true pink (not rose beige) eggs, and not all the dirty green colors from too many brown egg genetics in the mix.

My Orpingtons are beautiful birds that lay nice beige eggs so I need my Easter Egger eggs to stand out from theirs once I mix the hens together again. We eat the colored eggs and hatch the beige eggs (to preserve a heritage breed) so I only need a good first and second generation to have blue and green eggs plus the breed characteristics that defined the original Easter Egger. I don't want to buy hens or chicks due to biosecurity (unless I can find some from a clean closed flock) so I need hatching eggs to get started and that creates a big unknown when people do not sell quality hatching eggs. I am not willing to buy shipped eggs due to the mishaps during handling shaking them up too much.

I know there have got to be some older lines out there but so many have been crossbred at this point that they are hard to find. Now I understand why people think of them as mutt chickens and not as the chickens that were popular over 25 years ago. Unfortunately I sold mine 10 years ago, unaware of how hard they would be to get back.

When I got back into chickens after a break from having any due to moving, I wanted to have Easter Eggers again but I could not find what I wanted so I fell in love with the Orpingtons and decided to raise them. I still like my Orpingtons but I miss having a nice mix of feather color under the same rooster. The Orpingtons have a number of standard colors but I can't mix the colors in good conscience and they will never have the "wild type" coloring I like.

Our codes have changed here in the past year so I can keep the roosters I have but I can't add roosters, so that means I can't change breeds. I have thought about just keeping ducks since they are grandfathered in and they live longer than chickens but for now I need to enjoy my right to have chickens since I had to fight for that right against a city that wants to join the urban sprawl instead of being the small town many residents thought they were buying into when they purchased homes here. Someday I hope to own agreage (I had to rent to have acreage in the past) but I need equity to afford acreage and that takes doing my time in a residential area.

If you like to start raising quails, I can send some fertile eggs to you for free. They are not heavily restricted.

 

[junebuggena]

Snowflakes is still in the same condition, she is separate. I did add Rose with her in a 6 by 6 run and temp coop. She was a little lonely. With Rose in the temp run/coop with her.. she seems a little happier.

Not sure if this actually have anything to do with her condition, I remember moving our 4 months chicks to laying pellet feed with this started. She doesn't seem to eat the feed at all. When I gave her cooked rice she is very interested and ate that up quickly. Will have to add calcium protein with her rice to make sure she is developing correctly.

Thank you for the suggestion.. I will collect her droppings and ask a vet to take a look at it.

You started 4 month old birds on layer? Layer feed is much lower in protein and has a lot more calcium added to it. It is only suited for mature birds that are actively laying. Growing, developing birds need to be on a grower, all flock, or flock raiser.

 

[Leigti]

So not EE chickens lays Egg eggs?  That is a nice color combo.. now you just need a deep olives? hehe

The little tiny egg was laid by my australorp

 

[Gatewayto]

A coon just got one of my little chicken dinners...

waaaaa Coon --

Sorry to hear about your lost junebuggena

 

[Gatewayto]

You started 4 month old birds on layer? Layer feed is much lower in protein and has a lot more calcium added to it. It is only suited for mature birds that are actively laying. Growing, developing birds need to be on a grower, all flock, or flock raiser.

yes -
Our chickens are free range from 1 wee old chickens to 2 years old chickens with over 10 feeding stations (we have been rehoming lots of unwanted chickens).

Yes, now that you pointed it out so clearly, I will have to change the feed to all flock and just add oyster shells around with the grit.

I hope the that is the problem... cross fingers...

 

[junebuggena]

Giving them a higher protein feed certain won't do any harm. I don't even bother with layer. I've got roosters, broodies, and chicks of all ages in my flock. Makes things much more simple to offer one feed that is safe for all.

 

[torrelee]

They're like fleas around here, just can't get rid of them! I've had a trap out with different baits for 2 weeks and can't catch our offending coon.
I had a coyote as I was getting ready for work yesterday am and had to waddle my big belly out to keep it from eating my cat!
I guess at least we havnt had a bear attack this year. Lol.

A coon just got one of my little chicken dinners...

 

[Chickielady]

A coon just got one of my little chicken dinners...

APPLESAUCE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You know it will keep coming back again now....darn it all.
Gonna have to sit out with the shotgun again....