Hi there. I saw that you guys were so helpful in identifying some breeds for mevnmart, and I was hoping you could help me with mine also. I bought the ornamental layer collection from McMurray Hatchery if that helps a bit. There are a couple of top hats, which I take are Polish ones? I think there are some Easter Eggers in there too maybe. Thanks so much for looking.
Here's the first of four pictures:
Same group a minute later:
Different group:
Cochins of some sort maybe?
Ooooh, I'm so jealous. I wanted to order them, but I wanted too many specific breeds. It's kinda tough to judge Cochins without seeing their feet, at least for me *G*. Do they give you any ideas of the "possibles"?
Hi Catmad! Yes, here are some of the possibilities that they list:
"We are now offering a special combination of chicks from our Rarest of Rare Assortment and Top Hat Special which will be FEMALE BABY CHICKS! Nothing like this is available anywhere else in the world! Imagine buying such things as Cochins, Campines, Red Caps, the exotic Polish varieties, and many many more in pullets only. Best of all: you can buy this ORNAMENTAL LAYER COLLECTION and save money! We are putting a special price on these female baby chicks much lower than what you'd have to pay to get them individually. We guarantee you at least 8 different kinds in each order of 25. If you are short of space, or don't like to hear roosters crowing but still want the most unusual of the world's exotic poultry breeds, try our ORNAMENTAL LAYER COLLECTION."
Thanks so much for trying to help! Maybe I can get a closeup of their feet.
Here are a few more from the first group.
Another from the first group:
I'm really interested in what the black and white one with the top hat could be:
Last one:
The black and white one is pretty clearly (to me) a silver laced Polish.
First pic, one with a golden head and speckled wings (above center) looks like a campine.
Thanks so much, CMoxon! I think you're right about the Silver Laced Polish and Golden Campine. I posted on a chicken forum also and got some of these as responses:
Buff cochins for the yellow ones.
Welsummers or EEs.
Mottled Houdan (black and white crested chick)
White Polish
EEs
Partridge cochins
Black Cochin rooster
White Crested Black Polish
Black Cochin hen
Silver Laced Polish
Thanks so much for your help!
Is this one the rooster? They were supposed to be all female chickens!
This one is the Mottled Houdan:
Hummm....that little guy sure does look like a roo to me. Strong comb development for his age, and a clear stance that suggests roo-ness. The sexing of day old chicks is an art more than a science. They are rarely 100% correct.
I have never had Houdans and was baffled by that chick because it sort of looked like a Polish but not any colour of Polish I could come up with. How cool! I need a Houdan now!
Thanks so much for your help, CMoxon!
Owning my first and only Polish... I am totally in love with this little bird... I so want more.. But alis, I only have one... hopefully she will make me more babies when she is older..
Didja HAVE to post that picture?? I had managed to forget that I was considering Mottled Houdans as my white egg breed. Sigh.
Now I have to find some.....
Sigh
*G*
Clare... The Plumeria/Brug Queen is now a chickenhead? I love it!! Welcome to the Poultry Forum! So good to see you here!
I love your new babiez!! This just made my day!
LOL, G! She's a cutie for sure.
Hi Joyce! Thanks so much for the welcome. I do love chickens. I used to own some in Buellton about 10 years ago but had to give them away when we moved. Yeah, I haven't posted on the plumeria forum in a while. I've been too busy lately for much computer time. You're sweet to refer to me as the plumeria/brug queen! LOL! Most of my plumerias are in the ground now and a lot less work thankfully. I still love them though. I have just a couple of brugs in the ground, but I'm worried now that I will have to surround them with chicken wire because I think they are listed on the poisonous list in the book that I bought. Do you have chickens, and what do you do for yours around your brugs? I've also recently planted a bunch of bananas that I will have to protect from getting pecked! It's nice to see you here too. I hope your plumerias are doing well.
I only have a "few" brugs in the ground also.. I don't have any Plumeria now.. I was never very successful with Plumeria... I had so many brugs, I couldn't even count them.. it was great, but too much work.. Now I am just waiting for them to come back from the roots.. I hope I hope.. :)
Now I have chickens again. They are so much fun.. I really love em.
My chickens didn't even bother with my brugs.. I figured if I saw one sitting in the driveway chanting and rolling her eyes around... I'd be worried.. LOL But no, They never even pecked at them..
If I had a chicken in the driveway chanting and rolling her eyes around, I'd be running for the video camera! Then I'd be calling CNN! LOL!
Clare... The Plumeria/Brug Queen is now a chickenhead? I love it!! Welcome to the Poultry Forum! So good to see you here!
I love your new babiez!! This just made my day!
Two Claire's here. There's me. Claire. And then Clare_CA. Different spelling. Slightly confusing but no worries, we have it sorted out!
No brugs here. Brugs are brugmansias. Pretty, poisonous plants. I don't grow them because
a) my sheep get out sometimes
b) they're annuals here in Iowa
c) my goats get out sometimes
d) did I mention that my sheep and goats get out sometimes?!
Brugs have a fragrance that is just as addicting as chickens.. if not worse. Once you get a whiff.... it's all over but the buying... Pure heaven! You pay the price for that intoxication though... they are difficult to keep year after year.. some of them are bug magnets..
But really, you have got to see some of Clare_CA's plumeria!! OH heavenly colors!!
Here is a better pic of a brug
Claire, I've read that some tribes have used Brugmansia in rituals. They give it to a member of the tribe, who sits by the fire, rips off his clothes, foams at the mouth, mumbling and rolls his eyes for a few days, if he survives, he is considered a Holy Man.
Wow. That is fascinating! I doubt that I would survive. I'm definitely not a holy woman!
There are also some really horrible stories about modern people who have eaten Brugs to get high....the results are so terrible that I can't relate them here. Apparently, among other effects, is the unbearable need to urinate coupled with an inability to do so. This has led to body parts going missing through the use of garden shears.
Anyway...I have some too and they are wonderful! Striking and intoxicatingly fragrant.
But not something you would want around livestock, pets, young children or teenagers.....
Wow, what an alarming phenomenon. Lorena Bobbitt might have been better off to feed her husband brugmansia, then. :-)
In livestock, they contain certain alkaloid compounds, including atropine, which is also present in deadly nightshade. Nasty stuff! When my sheep did eat some, by mistake, they did begin frothing at the mouth almost immediately.
The livestock aspect is a tricky one. I have wild datura, which is similar. When I got cows, I went out and pulled every plant i could find in the field. I was terrified they'd find a stray plant and die instantly. Later that year, I found them wading thru a patch I'd never found.
They never touched a leaf, that I could tell. They may be much smarter than I gave them credit for.
Datura foliage smells awful. One of the worst plant smells I know...like stagnant, mildewed, swamp water. I wouldn't eat it either...
Around here there is a lot of wild Datura...you can see where the livestock grazes around it. I keep sneaking up on it in the morning to see if I can smell the flowers...like Brugmansia they are supposed to be most fragrant at night.
So far, no luck.
Hi everyone, thanks for the info. Joyce, you are so right about brugs being a lot of work. I had 35 or so at one time, not counting seedlings, but I eventually got rid of all but 3, and only two of them are in the ground. I'm very glad to hear that they will probably ignore my brugs, but I'll probably put a little fencing around them just in case. I know I'm going to have to put fencing around my banana plants because members over at the banana forum that I belong to have said that their chickens peck at the banana plants. The book I have on raising chickens actually listed Datura stramonium as the deadly plant to chickens, but I figured that the authors didn't know enough to include brugmansias with that as they often lump in brugmansias with daturas even though they are different plants.
It turns out that there is a bigger predator around here to my baby chicks. I lost a chick to a red-tailed hawk the other day. I have been so distraught. I was in the house and heard the commotion but didn't see anything by the time I got outside other than a few chicks had escaped through a very small opening in the side. I had put chicken wire around the temporary veggie bed and not over the top. I had no idea that a hawk would swoop down and take one of my babies. When I went to bring them inside later that afternoon, I saw a hawk nearby, and later, I saw two hawks circling above. Anyway, they took my little Anabelle, and I am beside myself with grief. I should have protected her better. We are now in the middle of building a large coop and run for the chickens, and it will be covered with fencing and completely enclosed to protect them from predators. All free-ranging activity will have to be closely monitored because there is a nesting pair of red-tailed hawks living closeby.
This was Anabelle:
IM so sorry about your lil anabelle :0( you have such a kool selection of chicks tho. I looked up the mottled houdans and i would say thats definaly the lil one ya got if ya look at this page it shows some chicks that look just like yours.
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGD/Houdan/BRKHoudan.html
Many apologies Claire_Ca....
and I still stand by my comment on Cmoxon...
I know she is related to Mother Nature
Thanks so much She_Wolfie and MissJestr. Yesterday, the hawk returned to the veggie bed while I was in the house, but my husband was outside. The veggie bed is completely enclosed now, and the hawk can't get to the babies, but they were scared to death nonetheless. My husband rushed the hawk to scare it, but it didn't go very far. We actually saw four hawks circling in the area. The chicken run that we are buidling will be completely enclosed so they will be protected at least while they are in there, but I'll have to monitor them while they free range.
Yes, I definitely agree that Ruth is a Mottled Houdan. So far, I have Black Cochin, Blue Cochin, Buff Cochin, White Crested Black Polish, Silver Laced Polish, White Polish, Mottled Houdan, Welsummer, Golden Phoenix, Partridge Cochin, Barred rock or Dominque, and possibly a Brahma or two. They are a lot of fun. Thanks for your help with identification!
What a great mix! I'm very envious of the Houdan. It's so sad about the little one and we feel so responsible when things like that happen. I try to remember that it is "nature's way" but that doesn't really make it easier. The one positive thing I can think of is that all of those chicks have learned a valuable lesson to hide when the hawk shadow is around. I hope they have a little hut or something they can go into if they are frightened.
MissJ - Mother Nature and I go waaaay back! ;-)
Question about the covered run thing: One of our friends has an outdoor run, and we have a LOT of hawks around here. She criss-crossed neon twine over the top so that the birds above (and the chickens below) wouldn't want to fly in or out because the string made it look tricky for flying. We're building our run next week. For now the "toddlers" are in the new coop, seemingly safe from predators. Has anyone heard of this string idea, and does it sound reasonable, or should I be buying chicken wire for the top? We're doing hardware cloth for the sides. Thanks!
P.S. So sorry about Anabelle - it's so hard not to get attached, and then when something happens, it's horrible.
Thanks so much, Claire:-) I think you're right about the chicks learning to hide. They did get quite a fright when the hawk returned the other day. We did make them a small area with overhead protection in the corner, but now that you mention it, I will make them a more enclosed hut while they are in that temporary area. The run and hut should be done in a few more days, and then they can transition to that area. Here's the chicken run that we are building below:
Thanks, Mevnmart. Yeah, I was in love with them all after Day 1. It made me very sad to lose her. I am very sorry that I didn't protect her better, but now I know that I must cover their run. I belong to a chicken forum: http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/index.php and when I lost my Anabelle, I went to that forum and did a search for hawk and read all sorts of terrible hawk stories about hawks snatching baby chicks or killing big ones on the ground and eating them right there. I think wire or netting is recommended over the top. I don't think string will deter a hungry hawk. Racoons can also climb fences and get in there and cause massive death once they are in. I've heard of them reaching in through chicken wire to grab a chicken as well and eat the head or feet. Someone said that they can lure the curious chicks over with a cooing sound. It's too bad these cuties have so many predators!
This is where the kids sleep at night. Can you all see the super little one? She is black with a white head. I think she might be a Barred Rock. I am concerned about her because she hasn't grown much at all. She seems to be eating and drinking well. The others used to be the same size as her, but as you can see, the others are so much bigger now.
