Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[sparton]

Craigslist chickens can be very spotty. Many of them are either crossed with another breed or the colors are randomly cross so you don't have a clear idea of genetics Since we are breeding for BBS as well; we want to know exactly what we are breeding in and out. Brown being a big pain in the butt to get out of a line

 

[Duck Drover]

OMG! I have never seen little baby Bantam chicks. Absolutely adorable.

That is a Coturnix quail and an Easter Egger chicken hatched on the same day. The quail are so tiny, smaller than bantams.

 

[Duck Drover]

The Easter Egger is dry now and the striping is showing up better.

I let her visit with the quail in their brooder but they kept biting her toenails and they go after the egg tooth too. I was afraid she might step on them but they were chasing her around biting her toes so I put her back in her brooder. She looks huge next to the quail, lol.

 

[ForrestGump]

I love the bright green and blue eggs plus anything in between. The birds people call Easter Eggers now have been really diluted with crossbreeding so I am trying to get back to the original type.

If people are selling EEs that are crossbred and lay brown eggs, then they aren't being honest about what they are selling, unfortunately. EEs should carry blue eggs genes. I did have a lady once that wanted pink eggs from her EEs, but this is a rarity.

My EEs are bred to resemble European Araucanas (bearded, crested, tailed birds that lay blue eggs). While they are all technically mixed breeds, they are crested cream legbar crosses with ameraucana, so they can only produce blue egg layers. The colors of the chickens and the eggs are amazing! I have also purchased hatchery EE birds for my layer flock that lay nice blue eggs as well.

 

[Chickielady]

I did a high protein / low carb diet when it was popular years ago and I felt healthier without the carbs. I read a book about carb addicts and realized I was one. I should give it a go again.

I hope it works for you !

I am going to have to go on a total semi-liquid diet, or what is called a "mechanical diet"

Mechanical, gluten free, high protein~~~~~~~~~
Thankfully I have my trusty dual Ninja Blenders !

 

[Chickielady]

I used to eat toast every morning but I stopped for awhile and then went back to it. I never seem to get enough fruit and vegetables so I should focus on just eating vegetables primarily. Sometimes I eat alot of potatoes and then I take a break for awhile. I like variety so I avoid eating the same thing all the time.

My weakness is hash browns I make, soft cook taters in the mic, steamed in a bag, then grate & griddle fry in organic canola oil til crispy...OMG I cannot resist...and gravy, thickened with corn starch..........my weaknesses !

Thankfully, they are things we eat rarely.

 

[Chickielady]

My little coop and run is coming along.......almost ready to move the babies into it.

Cool ! It matches my house !
I have taken pics of the brooder with pipe tape wire in it, before the addition of sand...but have yet to upload the photos.
But just so you know...15 watts per foot is heavy, use 2 X the length of the brooder box, and 5 watts is useless even in a warm room.

Ten would seem to me to be perfect, indoors.....outdoors (now) the 15 watt wire would be perfect.
The wire (15 watt) in my hot frame....is controlled by a wafer therm that is inside the box & so can measure temperature, which we cannot do in a brooder box as there is no lid...
I am working on uploading the pictures.

 

[Chickielady]

ok.....

here is a view of how the wire is wrapped around & spaced with fire bricks.......................
before the sand is poured on top.



So excuse my messy barn....



water proof heat shrink closure on the ends..........as seen below, that is the black end you see:

 

[Chickielady]

Thanks for the offer! I think she decided to wait on getting the chicks. I go to Chehalis once or twice a week so we should be able to meet up there when she wants them.

Just give me a heads up...if ya need me.

 

[Chickielady]

Today I hatched my first 2nd generation Easter Egger (more due to hatch but only one so far) and it is not as striped as I expected. I took a picture of the chick with the egg shell but it was dark and the flash washed out the shell color a bit so I need to take better pictures later when it is fully dry and fluffed up.

I should probably grow out the first hatches until POL to verify that the egg color and bird characteristics are what I want before I sell chicks with any guarantees of expected outcome. My first generation lays bluer eggs than my second generation green egg layers, although I expected the Quechua to deepen the blue genetics in the second generation so I would get beautiful blue-green eggs. The green eggs are the pretty bright green I like rather than the light olive green I don't like as well so putting blue back in should result in some brighter blue-green eggs but I can't be sure until I see the egg color.

I can certainly sell the chicks and let egg color be a surprise as long as they breed true with beards, muffs, pea combs, and slate legs since that is the way it is with Easter Egger eggs but I need to know what I am hatching before I produce too many unknowns.

I am trusting that my Quechua rooster is purebred since I got him from a breeder but the hens are unknown since one came from the feed store and one from a mutt breeder who made false claims when he guaranteed colored eggs (some in the group of chicks I raised layed beige eggs so I sold all but the one I kept since she had a broken toe when I sold the rest and she was my favorite in regards to her appearance). I had lost my second blue egg layer from the feed store when she turned over a plastic feed bin on herself and suffocated to death so the two hens I started my Easter Egger project with have very different genetics. I originally just wanted them for layers, not breeders.

I liked the first generation hens from each of my two hens but I only kept my favorite from each hen to see what they produce breeding back to the Quechua. This chick is technically 3/4 Quechua so maybe that is why it is not as boldly striped as my first generation that was half Quechua. I expected the Quechua to keep the breed characteristics of the original Easter Eggers (not the mutts that are called Easter Eggers) and the chipmunk stripes are typical for the breed. I don't know why the stripes are not more pronounced so now I am not sure what to expect from the bird when it matures.

I don't usually crossbreed so this is a first for me. There are so many genetics involved that I hope I don't get some undesirable mutations I did not want. The only way to know for sure is to raise a smaller sample and keep a close eye on how they mature. I had no trouble selling my first generation test hatch so I suppose I can sell chicks and only keep a few to study if I decide to keep hatching my fertile eating eggs. I actually need to use them to test a cabinet incubator we built so if the incubator is a success I will have more chicks than I want to track.

My biggest problem has always been keeping records, on who I breed to whom, and when they were set, and after this mess of various eggs hatch, who is whom ?
At this point I see awesome results & have NO IDEA which mating is the result...LOL
And I do this every year, LOL
This year I dug out my hatching baskets to keep eggs separate in the hatching bator...so now I know which egg produced which birds...but even still, then the babies must be marked in some manner so in a month we will still know which are which.
I have always admired a person who can work on one breed, endlessly, undistracted.
I always have so many breeds I am working on that it can get lost....like, my F-2s Barnevelders get lost with a big hatch of F-1 beilefelders, and F-2 Silver barnevelders....geeze, the babies look so much alike !!
Is that an Exchequer Ameraucana or an Exchequer Spalsh ?