LFG

Those are beautiful birds! Does anyone else LOVE to hear a rooster crow in the morning?

I have six roosters, and I love hearing them in the mornings. What amazes me is the multitude of sounds roosters use to communicate. My favorite is when they find a particularly tasty morsel. They have a trill to call the girls, and they won't eat until the girls eat. They screech when a hawk flies over, or a cat walks into the yard. After 7 years I have a Pavlovian response to the screech, I automatically look up. Roosters can teach you a lot about being a man

My husband just popped in the door to tell me that the eggs are here!  I just have time to settle them in the incubator before I leave for the day.  Hooray.  Start counting.

Awesome!!!

I hope the box was in good shape and none cracked

That's one of my favorites!! Maybe they need more practice..

They would, but the fat one has a bad scratch addiction. She keeps missing rehearsal

Do the Mamma & Pappas sing for you????

 

They are beautiful birds!!

They do, but the harmonizing on California Dreaming is horrendous

I don't have recent pictures of them, but here are the mamas and the papas back in January. They are much bigger and more colored now. I'll try and get some new pics by the weekend

 

 

 

Oops, I thought they would arrive tomorrow, but the tracking number says Friday. That won't be a big deal, I just hope the box arrives in good shape. You could see in the pictures that I pack them tightly, and the pine shavings act as a shock absorber so they are usually ok, but some drivers are worse than others. I did mark the box "fragile", but didn't note that there were eggs in the box. It has been my experience that USPS sees that as a challenge...

I should have asked whether they understand English above the Mason Dixon Line.......oh well, they will be bilingual!

Just don't say yinz guys, call them y'all

There was a time during wars that the government begged families to raise chickens.  Everyone should have them in their yard for more reasons than eggs.

 

Fertilizer

Insect control

Rodent control

Weed control

Healthy food

Connection with real life

Animal-soil connection

Kids adore animals

They sing!

And dance. Some of my roosters have got Travolta like moves

Right now the eggs are in Cross Anchor, SC.

Take that, soccermom

 

Arrived in Columbia, SC at 3:59AM. Should be heading north shortly

We were at Tractor Supply last week and I spent most of the time admiring the chicks. I sooo want a chicken condo and raise some of them when I get the time!

that's the best part about chickens, they are a low maintenance pet. It costs a little bit of money just to get set up to keep them, but after that feed them and water them and that's about all you have to do

I'll keep a running tab for everyone.  I just hope that one of my posts isn't, "had to shower three times in a row because a bad egg exploded!"

I have been hatching for 7 years, and I have honestly never had that happen. I have had porous eggs from Ameraucanas leak, but never explode. The marans eggs are not porous at all, they are extremely thick. That's why the low humidity incubation works so well with them.

These really are awesome birds. Black copper marans are highly sought after in general, and the Bev Davis line is one of the most desirable. Bev stopped selling a few years back, so she recommended the breeder I ended up purchasing from. This breeder got her birds directly from Bev, and never bred another line into them. It's hard to find Bev's birds that haven't been mixed with Wade Jean, Greenfire Farms, Little Peddler, etc... These are about as pure Davis as you can get. I have a 3 month waiting list for chicks.

I really hope you hatch plenty for yourself. These are my favorite birds I have ever had. Their disposition is just so docile, even as chicks, and of course they lay those giant chocolate eggs

Ok, now it's between you and the USPS...

The eggs are darker than they look in that picture. It was taken under fluorescent light and they look washed out.

I'm sending you 2 dozen. The 12 giant eggs are from second year layers, and should be at least 75% fertile. If you have room in the incubator, the 12 medium size eggs are from girls that just started laying a month ago. I don't know if they have learned to stop playing hard to get, and I haven't incubated any, so they may be fertile or they may not. If you have the room, give it a shot, nothing to lose. I'll be setting some myself tomorrow or Thursday. I have cracked 3 of them to eat, and didn't see a "bullseye", so it's a long shot but will be fun to watch anyway

The eggs haven't been washed, I never wash eggs for incubating. They are laid in very clean nest boxes and checked frequently. They are just that clean. The oldest eggs will be 9 days old on Thursday, so I recommend setting them by Friday at the latest. I have been turning them twice per day, but after 10 days viability starts dropping

No joke, these eggs sell for $35/dozen, plus shipping. It's my little gift to Doo-Bwa for the hospitality you guys have shown me. All I ask in return is you send business my way if anyone asks where they came from, and post pictures of the chicks in 3 weeks

I know that you know there are no guarantees in shipped eggs, but I really hope you get at least 6.

Oh yeah, one more thing; the giant eggs are from a blue rooster over 5 blacks and one blue, so each of those eggs will have a 50/50 shot of being black or blue. There is a 25% chance that you could get a splash if there is a cross between the blue rooster and blue hen in those eggs. The medium eggs are from a black rooster over black hens, so all of those will be black.

Good luck!

 

 

 

Heading to the PO. Will post pics in a bit

 

 

 

Yes, the mess for just one would be bad. I'm hoping one of the butchers like in Troutville will process her and give her to an older couple I know out there.

They do have a different taste, and they are more lean, but a dressed chicken costs less at the store than I can grow one that size for. Hybrid chickens can get to butcher size in 7-8 weeks, my purebred take 4-5 months. I would still process them just because I always have too many roosters, but my wife ain't having it

Having proccessed a few chickens in my day I can assure you that going to the local market and purchasing one is a whol lot easier and cleaner. That suits many of us a lot better.

No doubt

Good deal! It's a skill that needs to be acquired before buying or getting chicks or you will easily overrun a chicken coop with birds that are relatively useless. I doubt I will be able to harvest them myself (although I know how) but I have no problem with someone else having a great chicken dinner, and knowing that bird will never suffer in its old age. Obviously they don't go to a vet normally, so most people just let them die painfully. That's really cruel and it's not going to happen here.

Mean roosters are easy to process. Sweet pets, not so much...

It's ready and I even bought a second thermometer to make sure I have it right. Now to find a spot in the house not covered by seedlings!

 

They are absolutely beautiful eggs. Yippee!

 

If anyone on here is looking for good quality chicks in a month or so, then let me know because I will not be keeping roosters or extra hens. Now to figure out how to sex a chick!

 

Anyone ready for an old hen? She's up for grabs for Sunday Dinner. I hate to do it but sooner or later she will start suffering the ills of chicken old age and I don't want to do that to her.

If you want, I can ship them out next Monday or Tuesday. That would get them to you before the weekend.

I'll tell you the number one trick I've learned hatching these black coppers. Of course temperature is important, but I incubate dry for the first 18 days. The eggs are so dark that they don't lose enough moisture by hatch day at 35%, and a lot of chicks will drown after the internal pip. The first time I tried it, I thought it was crazy, but my hatch rates went from 50% or less to 75-90% every time. I've even had one 100% hatch. I don't care what you read online about humidity, trust me. These are my eggs, and the more I hatch the more I sell. Running dry for 18 days will give you a much better hatch rate. On day 18-19, fill up your channels and shoot for 65%+

I'm not very good at sexing day olds, but if you can post a picture at 4 weeks I could give you a pretty good estimate

Hey Petee! My last set was 50% fertile, and that was 3 weeks ago. You got that incubator dusted off yet?

Black coppers on the left. Look at the size of them compared to the eggs on the right. Large egg carton will barely close around them

 

Chickens. Keep chickens in your yard and you will never see another tick

My mom said that whenever she was a little that at Easter they received colored(dyed) chicks for Easter gifts.

You don't see that much any more, guess it may be kind of inhumane. What that was was ink injected into the egg right before hatch, usually with silkies because their feathers are so soft. When they shed their downy fluff, the color went away

We raised Rhode Island Reds when I was in my teens. I think we had around 50 of them. The only time I can ever remember the coop/shed stinking is when the temperature rose into the high 80's & above, plus the added humidity made us kids clean it out faster.

The only thing I didn't like about chickens were the furry critters that thought they were invited to come on in!! Rats mostly...I always took the 410 with me. I knew I wasn't going to miss either. My brothers took care of the other type of critters.

I dispatched a furry critter last week. After the first couple of years losing chickens, my pens are like Fort Knox now. They still try and find a way in, though. I trap, but I'm not real big on relocation. The best part of a Have-a-Heart trap is it eliminates the need for a scope...

Penn State is an agricultural college. How could State College possibly ban chickens? You hit it at the right time of the year when the college spreads its manure the whole town smells like down on the farm.

I could see hundreds or thousands of chickens making a smell. I used to live near a turkey farm, and it was horrendous. Small scale flocks can be almost odor free by composting. All lawn clippings and leaves go directly into my pens. Even with as many birds as I have, customers always comment on the lack of odor

Now you see why we miss Bon when she's not around.

I'm the new guy. I didn't even know she was missing until she told me

Summerville is going exactly the wrong direction with this. They should be organizing a good program that allows a controlled chicken habitat. They are working on having a food desert.

Killing my business, too. How are you going to be my spokesperson when no one can buy aigs?

You did it!!

That's odd, I usually have the opposite effect on people. Maybe it's the accent...