Livestock chickens coming

[Faroe]

We lost a few older hens this year.
Outta the blue, BF suggested maybe there is still time to get some before the weather gets too cold for them in the Fall.

Him: "What was that breed you always used to admire?"
Me: "Silver Dorking."
Him: "Are they just fancy ((I think here, he was getting them mixed up with the goldfish.)), or do they lay well?"
Me: "Ill check."

Fifteen Silver Dorking hatchlings are going to be shipped from MurryMcMurry on the 11th of July. That's good, because we are moving this Spring, and I won't have ANY time to fuss over baby chicks then.

Fencing on the land is finished. We are talking with a contractor about putting in the slabs for some outbuildings and a house. Can't wait to get out of this ghetto of a neighbourhood!

 

[summerthyme]

Cool!! I'd take the "lays well" with a fairly large grain of salt... at least compared to almost any of the modern hybrids/sex linked birds, and some of the other, "heirloom" types which were bred for laying ability for generations.

But they'll certainly lay better than, say, the Giant Cochins (who have very strong broody tendencies and often spend more time setting on eggs than laying them), and they are really pretty birds.

You'll want to provide some additional light when they reach 20 weeks, or else they may well wait until Spring before they start to lay, and feed isn't cheap. DO NOT count on "cool" LED lights for this... they require "warm" (red-yellow-orange) light spectrum for it to affect them. Apparently, they absorb the light through their skull into their pineal gland, and blue light can't penetrate!

I splurged on some Whiting's True Blue chicks in April. They are a new breed/strain developed for laying blue eggs. I just had to have some! I'm hoping to cross them with my Americaunas, and see what egg colors I can get! I raised a batch of Americauna/Slow White (with a few Cuckoo Maran crosses in there) crosses last winter, and they're laying eggs that range from "Robin's egg blue" to a dark olive green. And they lay really well... during the winter, half my flock were Americaunas, but 3/4 of the eggs were in shades of green.

Summerthyme

 

[Faroe]

Well, if we don't like them, we'll just eat them. Known for laying in winter - which is a big plus. We'll see...

I didn't know that about the yellow absorption in the light. I always have extra LED's for the vivs, so that's what I might have used.
Thanks.

Blue eggs are pretty. Several years ago a neighbour gave me some free pullets. One grew up to lay an olive green egg, and another layed a powder blue egg. Very pretty egg, but the shell was always delicate, even though the hens had access to oyster shell. All the other chickens inc. the green egg hen layed eggs with strong shells - not sure what the problem with the blue was.