Loave the green grass
Blue Egg Dreams.. :)
Yes thank you, we are blessed with five acres of this green grass. I must admit mowing season does take it's toll on me though...Oh well it's an ok trade off...Hay
This morning I received a call from Northwest Wildlife Rehab Center, I was a little surprised as I had not heard of them. Anyway they asked me if I would be interested in rehoming a mature Chukar. I told them I had never had any and I wasn't against it but I was not sure I knew enough to care for one properly. The lady told me she had heard about me from one my former customers and was assured I was probably best suited to do this. Yes I'm a sucker for a chukar. I picked her up this morning and she is so pretty. I have found she pecks harder than any chicken I have ever been pecked by. She is very pretty however and hope after a couple weeks of quarntine she will fit in with my pheasant...Tomorrow I will take a pic of her and post it here...Hay
Tooo cool! That is great! Funny too. LOL
What an honor. Do you know her history?
I have never heard of one.
Hay, my daughter Rarejem and I have been on another thread talking about our plans to start with chickens this year. Here was her response before we saw this thread about the lavender chicks:
"I have tentatively decided that my first group of chickens will have 2 blue Andulusians, 2 Aracuanas, one Rhode Island Red and one Wyndotte. I am really excited for this first attempt... have been waiting several years to have the time and energy to get ready for them (pen, coop, etc). We have the fence for the pen now, just have to get a coop built before spring!"
I must say I really liked the blue andalusians for their beauty, they are however not even close to being friendly, they are high strung, but great foragers. I have never had wyndottes so can't speak to them. The rest of her choices I like a lot. One thing I have noticed over the years is that all of our experiences are so individual, that I would really hesitate to try and tell others what they should try. I say it's a great adventure and just have fun, that to me is preeminate over everything else...Hay. I'm sure you will have lots of laughs, and maybe even a few tears but you will find it very worthwhile. The wonderful people of this forum are a great asset and will be very pleased to help with any questions. And yes we love pic's of all you activity...LOL
We do love pics!
I have thought the andalusians were very pretty. First time I ever saw one was a pic here at DG of a hen named Soup. Don't recall who she belonged to.
Soup? Was the name prophetic?
I cannot remember who she belonged to but she was a real looker. I doubt she ended up in the pot.
I just went out to change the babiez shavings and see how everyone's doin.. Mom came out and did the funniest flying trick I've ever seen.. all the while making a sound that cracked me up! I finally caught the babiez and got them out too..
My life is becoming a saga. Today I picked up an unwanted pigeon. I thought my new chukar might like a friend, even though I did not know if they would accept each other...LOL...Like the middle east where parents select the love birds... First the chukar, then the pigeon, last are my two chocolate seramas with their rooster.
The pigeon
My Chocolates
So is your match-making working out?
That is a good question Porpal, at least they are no fighting. Both are staying in their own end of an eight ft long pen. Funny enough though the wild chukar is the friendlier of the two...Go figure. The wildlife center did not know the history of the chukar so there was no way of knowing where it come from...Someone left it in a box with a note saying they found it on the road...Hay
ZZ's I'm sure there are lots of them but I have never seen chocolates like these two.
They are out of the original birds that I got from you. These two hatched together from Chloe and Rusty. Chloe is the daughter of cinnamon, and Rusty. is the son of Dot. Anyway I was and still am shocked at this beautiful color. For the longest time I thought one of them was a rooster due to a very large comb at three weeks old, but has never grown any since and they are now four and a half months old now... I have viewed lots of seramas and have never seen chocolate before. I was wondering if anyone else has...Hay
I know nothing about Seramas - except what I have learned from you - but they are certainly strikingly beuatiful birds!
I have never heard of a chukkar. It's pretty.
The pigeon looks like a white dove.
Cajun, the chukar is a bird that basically lives in hot dry and rocky landscape. Eastern Washington has loads of them. Eastern Washington is like another state compared to Wester Washington. Eastern resembles much of Utah
Cajun I'm really sorry about your gamerooster. Your right though, It is what it is. Hope you have a great day. P. S. How is Hubby doing? Well I hope...Hay
The chocolate Seramas are highly sought after by some people Haystack. There were a few on BYC who had them a year or so ago.. It was kinda like the Silkied Serama and pure white, some love em, some don't. They are pretty though.
Here is a cool link for Serama colors and great conformation!!
http://www.hamandeggsranch.com/live/animals/poultry/chickens/chickens_bantam/seramas/main.htm
Thanks ZZ's I did go to that sight and the chocolate on the far left looks just like mine. It's interesting as I have gone through a lot of seramas since my first flock and I have only two pure white hens, one pure white Rooster, and two chocolate hens. That is out of over two hundred birds. Thanks again ZZ's...Hay
I had one chocolate, and sold her.. was sorry the minute I let those words out of my mouth.. but she was not perfect for conformation, just a reeeeally pretty color..
Haystack, what have you gotten from your white trio? How about those chocolate hens, what have they thrown? Do you mix up the breeding or keep with the same roos?
I have not gotten anything from the chocolates yet as they are only four and a half months old
I don't have a white trio, the white rooster is the son of booker, and the two white hens are the daughters and I don't want to inbreed. I have been looking for a white roo to mate with my two white girls...hopefully I will find one soon. I just love the whites. One of the Chocolates has nice confirmation, the second one looks almost exactly like the pic you posted. I'm not sure what will happen but I want to mate bookers son with the two chocolates. They should be ready in about three more weeks...Hay
Hey there all! Just been a lurkin'! Im still not sure about the names of the colors yet but Im going to that website and check it out as soon as Im done here!
Haystack, I have a beautiful pair of pure white Seramas. At least I think I do! One started "crowing " several weeks ago to my surprise, but now that I have introduced them to the other birds it refuses to crow! The other one decided she preferred another Rooster, and they have definitely paired off, Im still waiting on their first egg. The "Crowing" Hen(?) is still looking for a partner! It is one day with a beautiful Roo and the next day it will be with all my standard Hens. Im almost as confused as it is!!
I'll post photos this afternoon. If I find that I do have a pair, I would be more than happy to send you eggs!
I have had lousy success with sending eggs, but doing an egg exchange would be great, What would we have to loose. A few bucks is all...I'd like that...Hay
Haystack, about all I've done is inbreed! LOL I have no problems with that at all..
That is cool that they have great conformation, it's so hard to get a good picture of them, I sure understand that! That's why I encourage more pictures.. some give our birds a bad rap! LOL
I got a report from a guy that bought some of my "dragon" style Serama's babiez.. and Wow.. they are NICE! I sold them when they were too little to see how they would turn out.. and the lil roo has that huge chest already. Another one was a lil pullet that is identical to Tina, my tiny hen.. I'm tickled that it was a good match.
Sure takes a long time to find out!!!
Here they are Hay. Still quite young, about 5 months old.
Oh ZZ's The world is made up of such complexities. I listen to so many opinions on seramas, and after while I just stand back and take a good look at what I see. It's then that I realize so many of the voices are just voices, they have no more expertise than you and I do. I would much rather listen to you because of your honest opinion based on experience. Some of these voices are just self appointed (experts)LOL. I do agree like humans the right pic means everything, and the wrong pic really does make them look bad. The reason I don't like to inbreed is that it tends to compound the weaknesses of any bird. Every single bird has it's weakness even if we don't see it. I see in the birds I received from you that the right match brought forth some excellent babies. Others I tried matching just did not produce good birds. An example of that was every bird I got from Dot and Murph mating just looked puny and without fail every female except 1 died between three and four months old. It took me a long time to figure it out. Now I pay specific attention to what I see before choosing who I put together.
Eufaula, are you sure you have a white roo, it doesn't look apparent to me, but then as ZZ's stated a pic does not always capture what the human eye sees...
I so respect that in you Haystack.. it's how I feel too.. I am too easily influenced by another "expert's" opinion some times.. I am very critical with Seramas.. and I try to encourage the good traits the best I can. It is exciting to see what is produced by who.. and it tickles me to no end to get a real winner from my combinations. :) I'm sure you know that feeling well!!!
Eufaula, your babiez are amazing!
Please excuse my experiment...Hay
Looks successful, but I can't quite read the scale...
Wow! I can't read it exactly, but I sure can see the -1- pound mark a mile away! LOL
She So Preeety! Itty Bitty teeny thingy!
Now I think I can see, it looks like it says almost 4 ounces... Haystack, did you set that at 0 before you started? No way.. am I reading it wrong? That's crazy..
I'm so glad the thumbnail could be enlarged, at first I thought you were potty training her!
This scale is so hard to set, and even harder to read, I was trying to take the picture in hopes you could read it for me. I thought it would show up better. The best I can determine is that she weighs in at ten oz. I'm going to look for a professional scale that is more dependable that this. That would be 280 grams. Maybe 290. I took her off of the roost last night for the pic and could not get her to stand up for a pose...She is such a sweet bird though. ZZ's just imagine she is out of booker which is no small bird...
This message was edited Feb 23, 2011 8:46 AM