Eggs, day 7! - RIP, Gallidia

Last night I checked every single egg, and guess what? I have [b]two[/b] confirmed little fetuses. One, of course, is from Goledenrod/Llena, and the second is from Yellow! There are quite a few I really don't think will make it, and some others who I'm going to let grow for a week more and see how they develop.

In the long run, I think it is just our rooster. He's got curled toes, so mating for him is hard. And, to my experience when frying eggs, I rarely come across one that is fertile. (don't worry, all I end up eating is a tiny white dot of a couple cells.)

The sad news is that this morning, my dear Turken, Gallidia, died last night. I found her in one of the nesting boxes, and really hope this was just something that was gaining on her overtime, and not something that will spread. Again.



I feel really upset only for two reasons - One, I don't have any recent/decent photos of HER either, and the other is that my flock seems to diminish slowly over time. She's always had random troubles and gotten through them (except the fact that the only one who accepted her so well was her mom, me) and I figured she was going to pass at sometime soon, but I just hope it isn't because of something bad. Gallidia was my most "special" of girls. None of the other chickens accepted her, and she often went under different sicknesses or injuries, so her and I had quite a bond. She was an absolute sweetheart, and during her last few weeks she was really maturing, and looking quite beautiful! I just hope that she's in a better place now, not constantly chased around and afraid of whatever living thing that is approaching her or near her.

One thing of question is that she never ever laid any eggs in her nearly 7 months of life, but when I found her, she was right next to an egg. It was small and brown, and slightly round. I do not know of it was just a Wyandotte's egg or her first, but it could, just may, be one of the reasons she died.

Anyway, here's a little photo-story of her life, from chickhood to pullet-hood!









As you can see on her neck in the last photo, she has had some scars before. (one was even of dire emergency, created by a previous rooster who didn't really like younger chickens) But, from the second photo - She always had me. She was very intolerant of the cold, and so I even had to make her little neck-sleeves, which she didn't particularly like but kept her warmer, and she, for a month or so, had a leg weakness that disabled her balance. She got over it all, especially with our record warm winter, and now. . . She's over with life. But she will never be in my mind.

Eggs, day 6 - Babies!!

So I was fed up with the anticipation today. For the past 6 days all I have been seeing are orange eggs with dark spots (the yolk) and hardly an air sac. It has been killing me - There is no veining, no nothing. Soooo I finally got a better, brighter flashlight, and. . .

I'm seeing baby fetuses!!! Goldenrod's first egg is a definite confirmed baby, I can see a little tiny fetus, complete with an eye and a curled up body, and veins that spiderweb out to the rest of a large portion of darkness in the egg. Goldenrod's 2nd egg looks promising, but not fetus. Same with both of Yellow's two eggs. I'll wait a couple days for those. It is also confirmed, though, that Raven's egg is too porous and Tufted's egg is NOT fertile. I figured though, but wanted to try anyway.

Here's a checklist of the eggs, by the way yes I did say "My babies!!" When I first saw the fetus. Oh how I wish I could post photos.

Goldenrod 1 - Confirmed 2 - Possible
Yellow 1 - Possible 2 - Possible
Red 1 - Quite porous looking 2 - Quite porous looking
Cloud Blue - Probably not fertile, but I will check later
Chatta 1 - Probable, will check later 2 - Probable, will check later
Surprise 1 - Not sure, but it has what looks like a crack in the shell 2 - Not sure, will check later
Raven - Too porous and probably is a goner
Moha 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 are Probable, will check later. Some are pretty porous, like 1 and 3

Marc Antony, our EE Rooster, was once again let loose to spend time with the girls again. It is the weekend, and weekends are his time. He, again, is mating with Mila, which is a good thing, but sadly I cannot incubate her newly fertilized eggs. . . The incubator is in use. Next time, Mila - Next time.

Chicken Plan

Well, I've been talking about how I house my roosters a lot lately, and it seems kind of confusing to just talk about - So here's a simple GIMP drawing of it.



1) - The rooster's sleeping third. This is a very small room, currently unoccupied. When we have more than one rooster, or, when I'm done fixing it up - It will be where all our roosters can sleep and seek sanctuary.

2) - The tack/supply room. Where we keep our feed, supplies, and baby chicks to raise during their first months.

3) - The hen house. This is a good sized room with two doors, one north and one south, that will allow the hens to look out south to the rest of the property and also to the sun, and run off north to their multi-acre pasture. Inside is a simple, open room with large perches about five and a half feet above ground made out of the timber we cut from our forest. The rest of the room is full of nesting boxes and just. . . room.

Then, there's the breeding pen, a large open area filled with cut up tree bits and stumps to perch on, and plenty other space to put selected roosters and hens in for breeding projects. After that is the Rooster pen, where the bachelors can stay during their day. This way, they can interact with hens but not bother them. Last and certainly not least is the main pasture - a Multi-acre field that wraps from the "East Pasture" around the back to "West Corner." It was a forest until September 2009, and now is a growing field of grass, weeds, stumps, tree bows, and other random bits left from logging.

All of this is penned up with a four foot field fence, lined on the bottom with chicken wire, and lined over the top with white-tape electric wire.

Eggs, day 5!

Eggs are still somewhat fine. I went off to Sequim today to get more supplies, and also to spread the word of our new stock coming. Hopefully I'll give some extra chicks to the Co-Op, so plenty locals can enjoy blue, green, and chocolate colored egg layers.

The reason they are somewhat fine is that when I got back, the temp read about 103 degrees. Really not good. I hope they'll make it. For the mean time, I lowered the incubator's temp and let it air out for a couple seconds. The incubator tends to keep a good, steady temperature for a while, then go up or down for a bit every once and a while (about every two days)

One new issue that arose to me is what feed to give chickens. Proper feed. Like most other people, I feed my hens some layer pellets - But a problem I should have thought of and haven't until now is Soy. Soy is really not good for birds, let alone even people (and especially now that it has been modified so much) and is in just about everything, just like corn. So, we've been looking into getting chicken feed that doesn't have soy. The feed is twice as expensive and usually found online, but in the longer run much more natural and healthy for my flock! For now, we're studying into how to make our own feed so that it is just right. So far it is a complicated and expensive thing, so let's see where we go with this.

What ARE these eggs?

Here's another look at what the eggs I've got in the incubator are a cross of. Remember that I do not have batteries for my camera yet still, but here's pics from December.

Most of the eggs will be a cross of our roo, Marc Antony, and our Silver Laced Wyandottes. The eggs that the new chicks will lay should be green.





And, of course, a couple are pure New Hampshire Red, Easter Egger, and one is a Brahma / Easter Egger. The only Brahma cross's mom, though, looks like this:



This is Raven, one of my three Light Brahmas. She doesn't really look like one, though, except for her color - But looking past her single comb and very erect tail - She still has the personality, eggs, and feathered feet of one. This is simply hatchery-quality breeding.

Our New Hampshire Reds are an improvement of the Rhode Island Red, and are a bright orange in color. They're a simple looking chicken - No beard, no feathered feet, and wonderful, friendly personality. Here's a pullet named Mahogany.

Eggs, day 4!

Don't panic self, 36% humidity and apparently that is how it should be. Sooo why are websites telling me otherwise?

Anyway, eggs are doing just fine. We're in the process of ordering 12 hatching eggs, each, of blue Ameraucanas, blue/black splash Jersey Giants, and Black Copper Marans. Aaaah the excitement! I'm surely going to cross an Ameraucana to my best polish, Rix, and try to get a bearded, capped light blue egg layer. Oh, and of course we're going to make some good Olive Eggers!

Today is cloudy, like yesterday, but nice and warm and best of all - NOT raining. I'm in the middle of cleaning out one of our many unused buildings, and am going to transform it into a new "Rooster Pad." It will be for our current EE rooster, our new male chicks, and the new male chicks after that. Wish me luck!!

Eggs, day 3!

New batteries for camera are on their way.

The eggs are on day 3, and I finally got a hygrometer. . . Humidity? 35-40%!! My god, are my chicks going to die before they even are. . . alive??

I added a sponge in there, and the humidity is rising, but not enough so far. Everything else is fine. Too bad it is too early to see veining or fetus progress.

As for the chickens - Right now is prime time for Bald Eagles to come around, so while penning all the girls and boy up in a temporary fence so I could bug-bomb a new (well, old, really) coop/building for the rooster(s) there were two Eagles soaring around at dangerous levels. I had, well, a paintbull gun ready. Not the best, but effective. Luckily I had no use for it, and all went well in the end. During their temporary caging moment, though - Raven and Tufted really needed to lay an egg, and constantly complained until they got loose three times.

Oh, I have a new poll up - This will help me decide what breeding program I should go into. I love Sultans, but the family doesn't because of their cow-hocked appearance. I also love different cross-breed ideas, such as Polish/EE/Turkens, or even to just go with Ameraucanas with the best blue or green of eggs - I'm not sure. Either way, we're getting Black Copper Marans this spring. Dark chocolate eggs, here we come!

Really can't wait until I get the camera back up and working.

Eggs, day 1.5!!

All the eggs are in the incubator now! Here's a checklist:

2 Llena - EE/SLW
2 Chatta - EE/SLW
2 Yellow - EE/SLW
2 Red - EE/SLW
1 Cloud Blue - EE/SLW
2 Surprises - EE/SLW
1 Raven - EE/LB
1 Tufted - EE/EE
5 Moha - NHR/NHR

( EE = Easter Egger / SLW = Silver Laced Wyandotte / NHR = New Hampshire Red / LB = Light Brahma )

We're on day 1.5 now and everything looks fine. I do not have a hygrometer, though. The incubator was less than $100, is a still-air, and is styrofoam. So its a good one for first time users and pretty cheap, comes with everything but that. Sooo I need to get one asap, because the water rings on the bottom of the incubator are sooo hard to read when it comes to how much water is in them.

Aside from that news, Mila, one of my three Light Brahmas, is back in season starting today! She started up hear season's loud chatter, pacing around and back and fourth, braaawwk, brrawwwwk. . Over and over. Finally, things went quiet and she was flattened out in the nesting box. Aaah peace and quiet.

Once the eggs reach day 10, I will certainly have my camera ready and I will start posting photos of the candling. Then, after they hatch, I will post a photo every day of the development of the chicks. Since, for the moment, there are so many - I will only do one chick per crossing. (one EE/SLW, one NHR, and the only EE/LB and EE/EE crosses.)

Almost ready!

First - Let me just say that I thought rechargeable batteries should last a little over a year. I guess mine don't - Because after finally finding my charger, and charging the camera - The batteries are still dying, then dead. Sigh. Sooo. . . . No new photos.

Anyway, I'm just 3 eggs away from being completely ready for incubation! I think what I am going to do is basically stick all my current ones in at midnight, then nab the last 3 the next morning and quickly sneak them in then. Hopefully that will leave a small enough time-gap to not worry of.

Oh! And my Wyandottes - They're all colored and recognizable now! Hahah - I marked the secondary feathers on each of their wings, and now they each have individual colors and names according to the colors. The markers, don't worry, are non-toxic and have been used in this situation before. They last for months, even though northwestern winter rain, and don't harm the Wyandottes' normal lives. So, here are the colors/names:

Cloud Blue, True Blue, Spring Green, Goldenrod/Llena, Pink/Chatta, Umber, Red, Yellow, Lilac (slightly ill right now) and Orange.

This weekend, Marc Antony has been let loose from his rooster-pen, and has been allowed to fertilize some eggs. Previously, Rumpless was already loose and had his time with a New Hampshire Red, Moha. Sooo - Here are the eggs going into the incubator:

Cloud Blue, Llena, Chatta, Yellow x 2, Red x 2, Raven x2, Moha x 4, and Tufted.

It is only guaranteed that Llena, Chatta, Yellow, Red, Raven, and Moha's eggs have been fertilized. I'll put this off on a last note - This is not how I wanted it, I will admit. I would have loved to get all three White Crested Black Polish eggs, twice, making six different polish cross babies with possible colored eggs - But no. Marc Antony is too lame of a rooster to think of mating with Crested Polish chickens.

RIP, Rumpless

It has been a looong time since I have updated this. Well, to tell all the recent news in a small paragraph - It snowed, Mila went through a short moment of faux-moulting, all the Wyandottes and New Hampshire Reds are now laying, we get a dozen eggs a day, and . . . Rumpless, the New Hampshire Red Rooster, is dead. He died at 8 AM on Jan 21st, 2010. He came down with a terrible sickness that left him extremely lethargic, in which he could not use his legs much. Help came along too late, and he eventually gave up after 24 hours of symptoms. One of the last two NHRs, "Moha," stayed by his side and even tried helping him up just before his death. I have never known a chicken to have such emotions - Even if I moved Rumpless, she would follow me to his new place. He was the perfect rooster, too. He wouldn't boss the hens, he didn't even mature and crow or even mate with others until two days before he got ill, and he only mated with "Moha." With him being such a good rooster, I still to this day collect Moha's fertile eggs to carry on his perfect genes. It is such a shame that this is my last photo of him - He really did grow up to be such a handsome rooster in such short, late time! It was actually only during his last week of life that he looked like a true rooster. And his crow.. Aaah so cute, he only howled!

My other rooster, however, ( Marc Antony, the Easter Egger ) has been kept away from the girls for weeks on end and was finally let loose today to do as he pleases with his harem, so we can hatch some babies. The good thing is that since he was locked up, he's learned to be a gentleman. He now only mates a hen if she submits after his showing off, and he doesn't chase them halfway around the yard as he used to.

I don't have any new photos, as I cannot find my charger for the batteries to my camera right now, but tomorrow - Photos galore! I'll show the progress of my flock, because my have they grown! The "gang" no longer is "gang-like," the "kids" have grown up, and now almost everyone lays eggs. Tufted, my bearded babe, still lays the largest eggs I have ever known!