MStar
In the Brooder
Hello fellow chicken people!
I've been scouring this site for a long time. All of you are such a wonderful community and a great source of information! So I finally decided to become a part of it. Here's a little novel about our chicken adventure.
I'm fairly new to chickens. We first got chickens from MyPetChicken 7 years ago and had only hens for a few years in Northern California. Then we moved to a Southern California apartment and I had to give them to my mom, so they would have a backyard. Unfortunately, there were a few hawks in the area, so they quickly disappeared
We got a house a few years back and so last year we decided to get chickens again. We ordered from MyPetChicken to get all hens and got 2 non-bearded Silkies (Snow White & Pippi), 1 Favaucana (Libby), 1 Blue Splash Maran (Coco), 1 Golden Laced Wyandotte (Goldie), and 1 D'Uccle Mille Fleur Bantam(Glory). I got our old coop/run back from my mom, and we tragically found out all about the predators that exist in urban Los Angeles! Raccoons are smart/vicious here and the cats are fast. We lost our beloved Pippi to a cat while she was free ranging in the back yard. Our sweet Glory was pulled out of the coop by a raccoon through a loose tray. Our favorite, Coco, was attacked by a raccoon in the run, it pulled her and trapped her against the roost/bars, and took a huge bite out of the back of her neck. Poor thing was walking around with part of the skin on her neck fully gone. So now I know about the best bird vet in the area, about chicken surgery, chicken anesthesia, and chicken antibiotics! Coco is just fine now, she's got some funny upturned feathers on her neck and is happy and healthy.
After our losses, we rescued a sweet black non-bearded Silkie Rooster, Pitch (Black), from the Humane Society. The hens took a while to accept him, and he got beat up a little at first. It was our first forage into having a rooster. I made a DYI no crow collar from velcro for him and thought we could make it work. He didn't like it at first, but he got used to it and it reduced his crowing to an acceptable level. My son and I build a big new chicken run and coop for them. We call it the chicken palace! The next morning after transferring the brood, I had found Pitch dead in the middle of the coop. I'm still not sure if it was from all the stress of the transfer, the collar, or if he fell and broke his neck.
My son was devastated, so to cheer him up, I decided that we would try to hatch some of the eggs in the incubator in case the eggs were still fertile from Pitch. The eggs were from Snow White (our white silkie) x 3, Goldie (our Golden Laced Wyandotte) x 1, and Coco (the Blue Splash Maran) x 3. One of the Silkie eggs had been refrigerated and some had been washed with vinegar or water. Honestly we were learning as we went on what not to do! So 2 of the Coco eggs were not fertilized and one developed a blood ring. During this time Libby decided to become broody, so we did a little experiment and though we'd stick 2 eggs under her to hatch and do 2 in the incubator. 2 or the sweetest little silkies hatched in the incubator - 1 full black, non-bearded and 1 bearded partridge. Libby hatched the mix (black non-bearded silkie/golden laced Wyandotte). It's black, a little larger then the full Silkie, has black skin, 4 toes on 1 foot 5 toes on the other, developing a single comb, and looks bearded! The other Libby egg dried out as it was hatching, it was super sad. It was black as well. We stuck the incubator babies under Libby and she's been a great Mama to them! The oldest egg that hatched was layed 10 days after Pitch passed!
Lastly we got a straight run of 6 bearded silkies from 2 local breeders. Then we added what was supposedly a 4 month old Blue Silkie Rooster (Silver Fox) although he's 5mo old now and not crowing. Next was a 1 year old white silkie rooster with a red crest and fairly light skin (Sultan - white/splash mix). Lastly two 6 week old Copper Maran hens (Nebula and Midnight), and one 10 week old gorgeous Coppen Maran rooster (Tackleberry Jr.).
Sultan is the only one crowing right now, but I found a really great solution for that. I work as a Labor and Delivery RN and got the soft belly bends from the hospital that we put on the mamas to monitor the fetal heart rates. I wrapped that as a rooster collar on Sultan and he didn't hate it! It's super soft and stretchy, so it doesn't bother him at all. It's on pretty snug, but he never backed up with it and never minded it while eating. He crows very little and very softly now, only once or twice in the morning. We stick him in the garage overnight so that he doesn't disturb the neighbors. He's very happy with all his hens, the collar doesn't impede him at all and he does his mating just fine. So I think I'm on to something! Before we had put it on, his crow was super loud and he was crowing all the time!
So our plan is to breed the Silkies and the Copper Marans and sell the chicks as pets. I've been learning a lot about chicken genetics and have realized how many mistakes I made in getting the birds that we got (Silkies with single crests, lighter skin, red crests!), but it should be a fun experiment! The rest are for the eggs and because we love having chickens.
I look forward to getting to know a lot of you!
I've been scouring this site for a long time. All of you are such a wonderful community and a great source of information! So I finally decided to become a part of it. Here's a little novel about our chicken adventure.
I'm fairly new to chickens. We first got chickens from MyPetChicken 7 years ago and had only hens for a few years in Northern California. Then we moved to a Southern California apartment and I had to give them to my mom, so they would have a backyard. Unfortunately, there were a few hawks in the area, so they quickly disappeared
We got a house a few years back and so last year we decided to get chickens again. We ordered from MyPetChicken to get all hens and got 2 non-bearded Silkies (Snow White & Pippi), 1 Favaucana (Libby), 1 Blue Splash Maran (Coco), 1 Golden Laced Wyandotte (Goldie), and 1 D'Uccle Mille Fleur Bantam(Glory). I got our old coop/run back from my mom, and we tragically found out all about the predators that exist in urban Los Angeles! Raccoons are smart/vicious here and the cats are fast. We lost our beloved Pippi to a cat while she was free ranging in the back yard. Our sweet Glory was pulled out of the coop by a raccoon through a loose tray. Our favorite, Coco, was attacked by a raccoon in the run, it pulled her and trapped her against the roost/bars, and took a huge bite out of the back of her neck. Poor thing was walking around with part of the skin on her neck fully gone. So now I know about the best bird vet in the area, about chicken surgery, chicken anesthesia, and chicken antibiotics! Coco is just fine now, she's got some funny upturned feathers on her neck and is happy and healthy.
After our losses, we rescued a sweet black non-bearded Silkie Rooster, Pitch (Black), from the Humane Society. The hens took a while to accept him, and he got beat up a little at first. It was our first forage into having a rooster. I made a DYI no crow collar from velcro for him and thought we could make it work. He didn't like it at first, but he got used to it and it reduced his crowing to an acceptable level. My son and I build a big new chicken run and coop for them. We call it the chicken palace! The next morning after transferring the brood, I had found Pitch dead in the middle of the coop. I'm still not sure if it was from all the stress of the transfer, the collar, or if he fell and broke his neck.
My son was devastated, so to cheer him up, I decided that we would try to hatch some of the eggs in the incubator in case the eggs were still fertile from Pitch. The eggs were from Snow White (our white silkie) x 3, Goldie (our Golden Laced Wyandotte) x 1, and Coco (the Blue Splash Maran) x 3. One of the Silkie eggs had been refrigerated and some had been washed with vinegar or water. Honestly we were learning as we went on what not to do! So 2 of the Coco eggs were not fertilized and one developed a blood ring. During this time Libby decided to become broody, so we did a little experiment and though we'd stick 2 eggs under her to hatch and do 2 in the incubator. 2 or the sweetest little silkies hatched in the incubator - 1 full black, non-bearded and 1 bearded partridge. Libby hatched the mix (black non-bearded silkie/golden laced Wyandotte). It's black, a little larger then the full Silkie, has black skin, 4 toes on 1 foot 5 toes on the other, developing a single comb, and looks bearded! The other Libby egg dried out as it was hatching, it was super sad. It was black as well. We stuck the incubator babies under Libby and she's been a great Mama to them! The oldest egg that hatched was layed 10 days after Pitch passed!
Lastly we got a straight run of 6 bearded silkies from 2 local breeders. Then we added what was supposedly a 4 month old Blue Silkie Rooster (Silver Fox) although he's 5mo old now and not crowing. Next was a 1 year old white silkie rooster with a red crest and fairly light skin (Sultan - white/splash mix). Lastly two 6 week old Copper Maran hens (Nebula and Midnight), and one 10 week old gorgeous Coppen Maran rooster (Tackleberry Jr.).
Sultan is the only one crowing right now, but I found a really great solution for that. I work as a Labor and Delivery RN and got the soft belly bends from the hospital that we put on the mamas to monitor the fetal heart rates. I wrapped that as a rooster collar on Sultan and he didn't hate it! It's super soft and stretchy, so it doesn't bother him at all. It's on pretty snug, but he never backed up with it and never minded it while eating. He crows very little and very softly now, only once or twice in the morning. We stick him in the garage overnight so that he doesn't disturb the neighbors. He's very happy with all his hens, the collar doesn't impede him at all and he does his mating just fine. So I think I'm on to something! Before we had put it on, his crow was super loud and he was crowing all the time!
So our plan is to breed the Silkies and the Copper Marans and sell the chicks as pets. I've been learning a lot about chicken genetics and have realized how many mistakes I made in getting the birds that we got (Silkies with single crests, lighter skin, red crests!), but it should be a fun experiment! The rest are for the eggs and because we love having chickens.
I look forward to getting to know a lot of you!
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We are glad you joined our flock!
Glad you joined the flock!
BYC is a fun and informative site for someone who is interested in chickens, ducks, quail etc.. Hope you enjoy BYC as much as we do!
