Wisconsin "Cheeseheads"

[kristip]

Thanks KJ... bittersweet is all.

Chad.. there are a few of us in the area. I will check with Carol (WIchickchook) to see if she has any duccle she is looking to get rid of. She and I have a couple of duccle she was working on breeding. I just have one living at my house. I am in New Glarus with a coop a little bigger than yours!

Going to integrate my teenagers this week if it will stop raining. Dont want them to all be inside the coop vs the space with the run with new ones there...might make it worse!

Got my small garden planted and next is the big one once it stops raining.

 

[GhostRider65]

Oh. Well I guess I'm just going by what I heard as far as most people are saying that Amerecaunas are daily layers. So skipping a day once in awhile I thought maybe wasn't a big deal at all, but for a "daily layer" to go 10 days (today's day 11 and nothing yet, but it's still early) I thought would be a sign that she's too old, going broody, or that somthing's wrong? IDK.

I have EE's and they do lay every day they are probably my best layers I have 29 hens and have been getting 24 to 30 eggs a day, since last fall when these girls started laying....... 1 problem with them is they are late layers alot of people have had them start at alost a year, maybe she hasn't yet started laying? do you have a rooster is he breeding her? if not I'm not sure how to tell if she is laying yet? but roo did ot start covering these pullets until they were ready to start , because shortly after that is when I started getting blue eggs....a few started at 26 weeks an a few were 9 months or more....before first egg...... I would just wait and see what happens........... Kim

 

[Chad the Chicken Man]

Kristip, I remeber talking to you in the past. if you have any other bantams that your interested in selling, please let me know. im not stuck on one kind, but as long as there young (under 1 year) and are really nice looking bird and perferably larger bantams, we would take a look at them. its just as a backyard hobby so we want a nice looking flock. we just got our garden planted last week and good thing we did the rain with make everything explode. We planted watermelon, cantalope, winter squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, sweet corn (first time on sweet corn, cant wait to see if it turns out) bush beans, potatoes, and onions. we also planted strawberrys but we probably wont get any untill next year. We just bought our house a year and a half ago, so we are still trying to get our garden beds and our whole yard for that matter under control and the way we want...

 

[PsycoPeep]

Well, the lady I got them is a reputable breeder. I can only go by what I was told. I was told they were Amerecaunas and about a year old. 3 of them are various shades of brown, rust, maybe a litle black, and the 4th is black. The black one is the one that lays large pink eggs. The other 2 that are laying are med. sz eggs and I guess I don't really know if they're green or blue because I don't have an egg of the opposite color to compare it to. So I guess it's just a matter of personal opinion of the person who's looking at them. But they're pretty much the same color. Yes I do know who's laying and who isn't. I still have them seperated right now. No, I don't have any adult roosters. Just these 4 1 yr old hens and that's all I have. The rest are inside of my house and range from 1-6 weeks old.

Here's a pic of the 1st eggs we got. The top 2 were layed by different hens. The color seems to change the longer they sit cuz when I go back later to look in the fridge, they're practicall identical in size, shape, and color. But in this pic the rt one looks slightly greener. The pink eggs were from the same black hen,just layed 2 days apart.

 

[delisha]

Well took the babies outa the incubator this am, I have 18 chicks of 22, 4 are no pips thinking they are dead, or clears that I missed, but will leave them until tomorrow morning and see if anything happens. I bought a candler off ebay and it totally sucks, I did better with my flash light.! I could not see inside almost all the eggs set, which were colored blues, and few browns. Very cute Little fluff butts with my EE's I think they are the cutest chicks......lotts of blue/yellows in this batch, a few wild type with the chipmunk stripes, and 1 solid black.....
I will post pictures of them later, as soon as my son gets up so I can get my camera back.........ggggggrrrrrrrrrr I hate it when he borrows my stuff and it never gets put back in its spot
So thats it for now I guess, still haven't found any hay close nearest is peshtigo, and 6 bucks a bale for 40 lbs........ They have all lost there friggen mind.............Kim

Oh. Well I guess I'm just going by what I heard as far as most people are saying that Amerecaunas are daily layers. So skipping a day once in awhile I thought maybe wasn't a big deal at all, but for a "daily layer" to go 10 days (today's day 11 and nothing yet, but it's still early) I thought would be a sign that she's too old, going broody, or that somthing's wrong? IDK.

Happy Tuesday! Hope everyone had a great long weekend! Sounds like lots of gardening was done! It was chilly here and rainy. Not as rainy as it is going to be though! Really, you would think we live in Seattle or something!
My Garden survived the frost. I pretty much covered everything besides the brocc, cauli and Brussels. Tips of the tomatoes look a little light, but they will live (all 22 of them) LOL `` big family, bigger garden! Besides my life would not be complete without torturing my children with the weeding of the garden... I would sssoo miss the crabby faces, rolling of the eyes and big heavy sighs with the slumping of the shoulders

The little peeps seem to be happy in their coop and getting more friendly each day. I made a little run for them while the big pen is in progress; the labs think they look quite delish

.. they are fine with the older hens, but the little peeps seem to be a lovely snack size! Gonna brave up and try to get them together this weekend.... kind of nervous...I will feel terrible if anything happens. One of my favorite gray feathered chicks made some attempts at crowing this morning <sigh> I had a "feeling" he was a roo, but I was really holding out that I was wrong!

He is so pretty....

any suggestions on putting them together to ease my mind ??!! Older ones will be put next to them for most of the week before they all become one big happy family!!

Welcome back Colton!
Welcome to AmyB874

Judge, Glad you are feeling better....yuck!

Quote:

Well, the lady I got them is a reputable breeder. I can only go by what I was told. I was told they were Amerecaunas and about a year old. 3 of them are various shades of brown, rust, maybe a litle black, and the 4th is black. The black one is the one that lays large pink eggs. The other 2 that are laying are med. sz eggs and I guess I don't really know if they're green or blue because I don't have an egg of the opposite color to compare it to. So I guess it's just a matter of personal opinion of the person who's looking at them. But they're pretty much the same color. Yes I do know who's laying and who isn't. I still have them seperated right now. No, I don't have any adult roosters. Just these 4 1 yr old hens and that's all I have. The rest are inside of my house and range from 1-6 weeks old.

Here's a pic of the 1st eggs we got. The top 2 were layed by different hens. The color seems to change the longer they sit cuz when I go back later to look in the fridge, they're practicall identical in size, shape, and color. But in this pic the rt one looks slightly greener. The pink eggs were from the same black hen,just layed 2 days apart.

Ameracuana's lay blue eggs. They have slate colored legs. This web site will give you a ton of information.
http://www.ameraucana.org/standard.html
Ameracuana's are very strict on if it is or is not an Ameracuana. If you have one pure Ameracuana and breed it to another pure Ameracuana, all the chicks can be EE's. It does not make the person a bad breeder, unless it is repeated with full knowledge they are EEs. Some people buy Americanas at hatcherys and honestly think they are Ameracuana's.

That takes us to your other question about breeding colors.
BBS is Blue Black and Splash..those can be bred together
White is bred to white
Gold Laced is bred to Gold laced
Buff is bred to Buff
Partridge to Partridge...etc
There are exceptions in some breeds. I think silkies might be the only breed where cross breeding colors is done. It is not recomended, but it is still done. You can still end up with a mess and leakage and a beautiful Silkie can look horrible because of bad color choice.

this is a site for chicken color calculator. You can add what color you have and what you will get from those colored breeding.

http://kippenjungle.nl/kruising.html

I hope this helps.

 

[JustJohn]

Ameracuana's lay blue eggs. They have slate colored legs. This web site will give you a ton of information.
http://www.ameraucana.org/standard.html
Ameracuana's are very strict on if it is or is not an Ameracuana. If you have one pure Ameracuana and breed it to another pure Ameracuana, all the chicks can be EE's. It does not make the person a bad breeder, unless it is repeated with full knowledge they are EEs. Some people buy Americanas at hatcherys and honestly think they are Ameracuana's.

That takes us to your other question about breeding colors.
BBS is Blue Black and Splash..those can be bred together
White is bred to white
Gold Laced is bred to Gold laced
Buff is bred to Buff
Partridge to Partridge...etc
There are exceptions in some breeds. I think silkies might be the only breed where cross breeding colors is done. It is not recomended, but it is still done. You can still end up with a mess and leakage and a beautiful Silkie can look horrible because of bad color choice.

this is a site for chicken color calculator. You can add what color you have and what you will get from those colored breeding.

http://kippenjungle.nl/kruising.html

I hope this helps.

Thanks Vicki

I had forgotten about the chicken calculater and how much fun I have playing "what if"

 

[vickiw]

Hi Dan!
Thank you! I had thought alfalfa was "a good thing" and was even sprouting some for my girls to offset the late spring green up but one of those "chicken blogs" on FB did a post of a list of potentially toxic plants growing in your yard and alfalfa was at the top and I thought "Oh &$+@#" I better check this out just to be safe.

Gave the chicks their first worm a little while ago. They grabbed it and took off but it was hilarious when it dawned on them it was wiggling! Both pieces were thrown on the ground and they just cocked their heads and stared, trying to figure out what to do with food that moves till the third chick came flying in and showed them!!!

 

[BlackBrookPoultry]

Oh no, its happened again. My lavender orpington eggs hatched today and the chicks were black and funky brown striped colors. I wasn't sure what happened until I saw the feathers down the leg and one toe. That darn bantam faverolles/cochin rooster that wasn't going in his coop at night was jumping the fence and breeding my lav. girls. Now I have another bunch of mutts on my hands. And the one is super cute.

 

[judge]

Quote: x2 My Ameraucana has finally started laying more regularly after MONTHS.

 

[NDchickens]

Whew! 180 posts to read from last Thursday.
Welcome back, Colton!
Welcome Amyb.