Dark Egg Breeds Thread

[rarebreedeggs4u]

Quote:
See, I have yet to have an agressive Pene roo. Mine are great with the hens, great free ranging with the mixed flock (extra roos), the cockerels don't fuss with anyone in the grow out pen at all and NEVER even consider being nasty with people. My HENS however are super territorial towards other birds and don't allow any strange birds in their pen at all. The roos have all been very easy. I've also been able to keep 2 roos together with just 4 or 5 hens with no problems at all.

 

[drom]

Quote:
See, I have yet to have an agressive Pene roo. Mine are great with the hens, great free ranging with the mixed flock (extra roos), the cockerels don't fuss with anyone in the grow out pen at all and NEVER even consider being nasty with people. My HENS however are super territorial towards other birds and don't allow any strange birds in their pen at all. The roos have all been very easy. I've also been able to keep 2 roos together with just 4 or 5 hens with no problems at all.

So rarebreed, you have all three breeds; which do you like best?

 

[drom]

Don't forget the oranges!

Drom: Beautiful pics!

Thank you! Do you have citrus trees Tammy? I have 3 that were here when I bought my property, so I don't really know what they are. One is a mandarin I am pretty sure. The fruit is small, the skin is loose and easy to peel off and the taste is tangy AND sweet

The other two have bigger fruit and I don't know what they are. But they sure are hardy-all of them.​

 

[rarebreedeggs4u]

Quote:
See, I have yet to have an agressive Pene roo. Mine are great with the hens, great free ranging with the mixed flock (extra roos), the cockerels don't fuss with anyone in the grow out pen at all and NEVER even consider being nasty with people. My HENS however are super territorial towards other birds and don't allow any strange birds in their pen at all. The roos have all been very easy. I've also been able to keep 2 roos together with just 4 or 5 hens with no problems at all.

So rarebreed, you have all three breeds; which do you like best?

Egg laying and color, the Penes (plus I had a broody one this year that sat, hatched & raised her babies and foster babies). Hot weather tolerance, egg color and temperament, the Marans, but they took 9 months to lay reliably. Easy going nature and unusual egg color, Welsummers. I really like all three

 

[tammyd57]

Quote:
Thank you! Do you have citrus trees Tammy? I have 3 that were here when I bought my property, so I don't really know what they are. One is a mandarin I am pretty sure. The fruit is small, the skin is loose and easy to peel off and the taste is tangy AND sweet

The other two have bigger fruit and I don't know what they are. But they sure are hardy-all of them.

I have one orange tree that I planted at my brother's house about 20 years ago that makes the biggest, sweetest oranges I've ever tasted! However, at MY house, we have so many gophers coming into the yard from the back field (especially after discing the weeds down) that just about anything I plant in the ground gets eaten within a week or so. I have been building raised planting beds with hardware cloth on the bottom that seems to keep them out, but I can't cover the entire 10 acres with hardware cloth

I planted a Blood Orange tree here about 5 years ago, a very large one, hoping it was too big for a gopher to eat. They didn't have any problems killing it. I even tried a fig tree, which is supposed to have toxic sap, they ate that after allowing it to grow almost long enough to make figs, about 3 years.

 

[drom]

Quote:
Thank you! Do you have citrus trees Tammy? I have 3 that were here when I bought my property, so I don't really know what they are. One is a mandarin I am pretty sure. The fruit is small, the skin is loose and easy to peel off and the taste is tangy AND sweet

The other two have bigger fruit and I don't know what they are. But they sure are hardy-all of them.

I have one orange tree that I planted at my brother's house about 20 years ago that makes the biggest, sweetest oranges I've ever tasted! However, at MY house, we have so many gophers coming into the yard from the back field (especially after discing the weeds down) that just about anything I plant in the ground gets eaten within a week or so. I have been building raised planting beds with hardware cloth on the bottom that seems to keep them out, but I can't cover the entire 10 acres with hardware cloth

I planted a Blood Orange tree here about 5 years ago, a very large one, hoping it was too big for a gopher to eat. They didn't have any problems killing it. I even tried a fig tree, which is supposed to have toxic sap, they ate that after allowing it to grow almost long enough to make figs, about 3 years.

Little stinkers.

I have lots of ground squirrels but they don't damage the plants. They just put holes in the ground that make me worry my horses are going to step in a hole and get hurt.

 

[drom]

Quote:
Are you ok Geebs?

 

[drom]

Quote:
So rarebreed, you have all three breeds; which do you like best?

Egg laying and color, the Penes (plus I had a broody one this year that sat, hatched & raised her babies and foster babies). Hot weather tolerance, egg color and temperament, the Marans, but they took 9 months to lay reliably. Easy going nature and unusual egg color, Welsummers. I really like all three

I haven't seen many Pene eggs and the ones I have seen were only in pictures, but they were beautiful and very dark. They looked like more of a brown color than the reddish color that the Marans lay. Does the egg color fade with the Pene eggs over the lay season? Is the dark color a coating on the outside of the shell?

 

[Cowgirlgrace]

Quote:
Seafood and berries. That's where it ends. You can grow ANY and EVERY kind of berry out here, but good luck trying anything else without a greenhouse. Potatoes and Cabbage and the common sort do well, but things like Tomatoes, Fruit Trees, Nut Trees, Grapes, Squash, and Melons REALLY need some attention, care, and a greenhouse if possible.

Illia, you forgot the apples! Seafood, berries and APPLES. LOL

Mmmm, but the berries are wonderful. I was born and raised in So Cali and lived there over 30 years. We now live in Washington and been here better than half of 30 (don't try to figure my age!) Anyway, what I miss most is the citrus and avocados but they can be shipped. What they can't ship is the ability to grow produce year round without a greenhouse. I have been growing produce in WA for Farmers Markets and a co op for several years and Yes tomatoes and peppers do better in a greenhouse but I do both and still get a pretty good crop grown outside. I have pretty much grown every crop successfully up here outside the greenhouse so I'm happy. Yes a little too much rain but just think of the trade off. We have WATER. Which means a lawn and trees. And if you have horses or livestock they can actually enjoy a real pasture. There is a lot more I disliked about Cali than here. Those dang gophers, had to put in lined beds to grow anything but you can't line the whole property. I would trap 10-20 every week and more would just move in to the vacant runs. Squirrels didn't damage trees they just picked all the apricots to get to the seeds and let the fruit rot on the ground. Water was rationed and if you went over your aloted amount there would be a hefty surcharge so you couldn't grow more than you could afford to water. You pretty much got two seasons, a short spring and a long summer. Even though the garden shuts down for 3 months in WA I really enjoy having 4 real seasons. And the heat I never got used to in Cali. Love the mild temps in WA. and so do my chickens. This summer was a little too mild, could have used some warmer days and I really get sick of the rain but I can deal with it better than the heat. And sun damage as a child before they came out with sunscreen, don't even want to talk about that. Love the green in WA. But my husband thrives in heat and really misses Cali. Everyone is different I guess.

Chicken question here, Marans website says to create a Golden Cuckoo you cross a BC roo to a cuckoo hen. You then take the roos and cross them back to BC hens. Thats as far as I got and the hatch was supposed to give you some Goldens. I have an all black hatch with half of the chicks with white spots on their heads. No Goldens. Another BYCer says she read you are supposed to take the first generation roos and breed back to the cuckoo which seems to make more sense than doubleing up on the BC. Is anyone else doing this and what did you do? Which is correct?

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:
Seafood and berries. That's where it ends. You can grow ANY and EVERY kind of berry out here, but good luck trying anything else without a greenhouse. Potatoes and Cabbage and the common sort do well, but things like Tomatoes, Fruit Trees, Nut Trees, Grapes, Squash, and Melons REALLY need some attention, care, and a greenhouse if possible.

Illia, you forgot the apples! Seafood, berries and APPLES. LOL

Mmmm, but the berries are wonderful. I was born and raised in So Cali and lived there over 30 years. We now live in Washington and been here better than half of 30 (don't try to figure my age!) Anyway, what I miss most is the citrus and avocados but they can be shipped. What they can't ship is the ability to grow produce year round without a greenhouse. I have been growing produce in WA for Farmers Markets and a co op for several years and Yes tomatoes and peppers do better in a greenhouse but I do both and still get a pretty good crop grown outside. I have pretty much grown every crop successfully up here outside the greenhouse so I'm happy. Yes a little too much rain but just think of the trade off. We have WATER. Which means a lawn and trees. And if you have horses or livestock they can actually enjoy a real pasture. There is a lot more I disliked about Cali than here. Those dang gophers, had to put in lined beds to grow anything but you can't line the whole property. I would trap 10-20 every week and more would just move in to the vacant runs. Squirrels didn't damage trees they just picked all the apricots to get to the seeds and let the fruit rot on the ground. Water was rationed and if you went over your aloted amount there would be a hefty surcharge so you couldn't grow more than you could afford to water. You pretty much got two seasons, a short spring and a long summer. Even though the garden shuts down for 3 months in WA I really enjoy having 4 real seasons. And the heat I never got used to in Cali. Love the mild temps in WA. and so do my chickens. This summer was a little too mild, could have used some warmer days and I really get sick of the rain but I can deal with it better than the heat. And sun damage as a child before they came out with sunscreen, don't even want to talk about that. Love the green in WA. But my husband thrives in heat and really misses Cali. Everyone is different I guess.

Chicken question here, Marans website says to create a Golden Cuckoo you cross a BC roo to a cuckoo hen. You then take the roos and cross them back to BC hens. Thats as far as I got and the hatch was supposed to give you some Goldens. I have an all black hatch with half of the chicks with white spots on their heads. No Goldens. Another BYCer says she read you are supposed to take the first generation roos and breed back to the cuckoo which seems to make more sense than doubleing up on the BC. Is anyone else doing this and what did you do? Which is correct?

Hi Cowgirlgrace! Please forgive me .....in the process of cleaning out my inbox! I'm not ignoring you!