What's wrong with their feathers?

[Chicken Chaperone]

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I know what you mean! I've been following this thread almost from the beginning with all the ups and downs
and crossed fingers and prayers and pictures that make me drool. The one feeling I keep having is "I wish I
had more chicken raising experience under my belt to I could help the project along in some way", but I know
the best thing for me to do is watch, read and learn but darn, those are some precious babies!!

I sent some pictures of these gorgeous fluffies to a friend here in Texas who's more of a 'cattle man'
than a chicken guy and his response was "I don't think you want to raise chickens at all- you want
to raise Muppets and have a stuffed-animal farm!!" lol!!!!

 

[quiltnchik]

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[Jubaby]

Hello Everyone! I know I have been AWOL for a while, and I will be trying to catch up with everyone's posts during the next week. I have had a rough few months because my mother was hospitalized in January and passed away in February. It took a real toll on me. Now my daughter and son-in-law and grandbaby have just moved in with us while they are waiting on their house to be finished. It's really crazy around here! LOL!

I do have some good news to share about the silkied ameraucana project. I now have seven fluffy hens in with the fluffy rooster. At least 4-5 of them are laying and the others should start any day now. I just hatched 13 chicks (12 full blood, and 1 F1) about a week ago and all are doing well. I also have 11 eggs under a broody hen, and those are due the middle of next week. And 20 more in the incubator.

My full-blood black ameraucanas were decimated during the winter cold spells. I have only 2 hens left. I have put them in with a black ameraucana rooster to try and hatch some more full-blood black ameraucana chicks to build up my stock again.

I have only three F1 hens that survived from hatching last year. And one of those has just started laying eggs. I put Ozzie in the pen with her and will try to hatch some of those eggs soon. That would be the first F2's.

I need to clean-out my mailbox, and try to get back into the swing of things. Looks like some of you have had some successful hatches!

I'll take a picture of the chicks this evening and maybe post tomorrow.

 

[welasharon]

Thanks for the update. I am glad things are going better. I am just one of the lurkers who likes to keep up with this and how things are going. I was afraid for a while that they may die out completely! I am sorry for your family situation. Hope this year proves much better people and chicken-wise.
sharon

 

[phasianidae]

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Sorry to hear about your mother, I cant wait for pics!

 

[ChooksChick]

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I'm so glad to hear from you, Julie! I've wondered how it was going for you. I still have a Silkied Splash roo (Blondie), a Silkied Calico roo (Tuco), and three Silkied Splash pullets, with a blue F1 pullet. It's been a rough winter, with lots of sub-zero temps, tons of snow, and brutal durations, but everyone is maturing now and I'm starting to look for first eggs in the next few weeks. I have 2 Black Ameraucana roos, a Lav Am roo, and a whole flock of Blue and Black Paint Ameraucana project birds next door, so they're becoming acquainted through the fence. There will be much magic in the future, as I have Wheatens and Lavenders growing out and hatching...

For those who love the Paint Silkies, one of my ultimate goals is Paint Silkied Ameraucanas. A blue laying muppet with heft!

Jeremy- I got my first one by accident and have been working to duplicate her coloring. My first lays a large green egg, but one of her daughters with perfect leg coloring and good Ameraucana conformation lays brown- she's in with a deep-blue-egg-color gened blue paint boy, where another of the black paints lays a gorgeous dark blue egg. Two of the blue paints have begun to lay and have a teal egg of good depth, more blue than green, but too much green for my liking. This will take some work, but it's gong been and will continue to be lots of fun. The Blehm roos will help with the egg coloration and since a few still have a bit of yellow tinge to their feet, that will help there, too. It will be fun to work out, but Paint x Paint breeds true, so I'm still doing that and hoping some of the faults will wash out. I lost my paint roo recently, and have a calico blue paint in over most of the paint girls...

I haven't been sharing a lot of eggs, but have some as a prize in Mahonri's Easter Hatchalong- we set eggs tomorrow at noon if anyone wants to enter officially and try to win them!!

 

[KellyHM]

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Sorry to hear about your mom. Glad your birds are doing well! I can't wait for more fluffy birds! I have my first F1xF1 eggs in the bator and the first batch is due in 3 days! I hope I get some fluffies!!!

 

[Jubaby]

Here are photos of the recent chicks:

And here are the seven hens and rooster (Junior)

 

[KellyHM]

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[BeardedLadyFarm]

Julie do you have an all white bird there? Or just a really light splash?