Blue and Green Eggs

   / Blue and Green Eggs #1  

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When I heard about green and blue eggs, nothing would do until I got me some blue and green egg chickens. Americaunas they called them. I had to wait two months and earn some credit on my so-called credit card before I could send away for the chicks, and when I got the phone call from the local post office that my babies had arrived I couldn't get there fast enough.

I brought them home and tucked them into the little coop with the lights in it that I had lovingly prepared weeks before their arrival. It was summer time, warm out, lots of fresh air and sunshine. They thrived.

Roughly four weeks after I got them a storm blew through. A bad one. The first thing I noticed upon pulling into the yard was the fact that the shed roof was missing. Apparently the wind had come through gusting up to sixty miles per hour. I raced around frantically in the pouring rain covering up feed and machinery and finally got everything stable. About that time my daughter came flying around the corner from the hen yard and informed me rather haltingly that the baby chicks were all strewn about the coop, wet and....not moving.

"What?!" I shouted.

One look at them and I was devastated. Their roof was still intact, but the rain had blown in from the sides and drenched them, then the cool wind had done it's bit and I had some motionless baby chicks on my hands. I wanted to cry!

Together we gathered them up. I don't know why. Only a few of them were barely peeping. By the time we got them into the house I was sniffling. As I searched for a light to set up hoping to put out enough warmth I was outright bawling. My baby green and blue egg chickens appeared to be gone. But something inside said, don't give up. Just don't give up.

I grabbbed a stack of dry clean towels and set to work drying them. After each one was dry I set it in into a laundry basket lined with towels and set under a flood lamp bulb in an old table lamp. Then I backed away, closed the door and went and sat on the couch. There was nothing left to do but wait and hope.

Barely twenty minutes later I heard a peep. Faint but distinct. I refused to get my hopes up. Some of them had been barely breathing and peeping before. Could have been the same ones.

I waited a full hour before I poked my head back through the bathroom door. Imagine my amazement and joy when I found that I had fluffly, dry, baby chicks all over the bathroom floor! Out of twenty four chicks I lost three, and to this day I am so grateful that that little voice in my head would not let me abandon hope.

My first little grape sized green egg was a monumental event. Everybody who knew me got a phone call even my sister long distance in Texas.

"I have a green egg! Right here in my hand!"

I now collect anywhere from one to two dozen green and blue eggs a day and I still wonder and marvel at these lovely natural easter eggs.
 
   / Blue and Green Eggs #2  
You done good, Cindi!!! When it comes to animals who are sick or hurt, I never give up. I always feel, where there's life, there's hope. Even if it's a million to one shot, I always give the animal the chance. And like you, they often surprise you, and survive. I believe that animals understand when someone is trying to help them, and it increases their will to live, and therefore increases their chance to survive!!!

We also plan on getting some Americaunas. Right now, I have 5 black opringtons that are a little more than half grown, that I want to add to my flock.

How do you handle adding new chickens to the flock? How old are they before you introduce them? I was thinking of putting the new ones in the hen house in the middle of the night, so that when they all wake up, they'll just be there. Some people tell me that adding new chickens results in a lot of bloodshed, and a lot of dead chickens, some people tell me that they never had a problem. We need to expand our flock and increase egg production. These five are a test, after that we will add at least another 2 dozen.

Also we free range them. With the first batch that became the flock, I kept them penned up around the hen house for a week, and then I let them loose. They always return to the henhouse at night and I lock them in for the night. But with all the adults, I can't put up a pen around the henhouse now, so I'm hoping the new guys just follow the adults around.

Whadaya think?
 
   / Blue and Green Eggs
  • Thread Starter
#3  
I have a hen yard with eighty or so chickens in it now and one rooster. Then I have about twenty or thirty that free range all over the place with another rooster. Some of them come back to the hen yard at night some of them roost where ever they please. Things are pretty calm. The roosters keep them from wandering away and as long as the two don't cross paths there are very few confrontations. I would do like you suggested. Put them in at night and let them wake up and discover their new environment.

There will be some pecking going on, there is a 'pecking' order that must be established and maintained. Some of them will stick up for themselves and find their place, others won't that's why I have some free range. I am happy with the arrangement though as it helps keep down the insects. Big Red and his girls patrol the front and back yards. Salem, our big black tom cat keeps them off the fornt porch, Elvis the dog keeps them off the back porch. It's a delicate balance /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
   / Blue and Green Eggs #4  
When I first saw the title of this post, I thought you were going to tell a story about food served in military mess halls! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif Believe me, I can remember seeing <font color="blue">blue </font>and <font color="green"> green </font> eggs occassionally in the chow line /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif.

When I was in college, I was active in the dramatic arts program. Over a couple of years, the active theater students became very close to one of our faculty advisors, who happened to be Jewish. It came to pass that she and her husband were going to be moving, so as good friends, all of the students volunteered to help them pack and load the trucks.

Well, she had a goldfish in a small bowl that she kept on her desk. I remember asking her how she was going to move it safely. She said that she was going to take it along in the car.

A week or so after they had moved, we received a letter from her. She wanted to thank us for all of the help we had provided, but she also wanted to tell us an interesting story. It sems that during the move, the fish bowl got packed away somewhere and she was unable to find it until they were unpacking at their new home. When she found it, the fish was floating belly up in the bowl. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif Not being that sentimental over a goldfish, she set the bowl on the counter and went about her business. A few hours later, she happened to walk by the bowl, and lo and behold, the fish was happily swimming around! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif She promptly renamed it Jesus ! /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
   / Blue and Green Eggs
  • Thread Starter
#5  
I think short of stomping on them, you can't really kill a goldfish. We were rushing out of he house one day, and were running late. I hear a thud from the bedroom but had no time to go and investigate. Took the kids to school, went to work and didn't get home until after five. there was the goldfish bowl on the floor in the girls room, fish on the floor still flopping.

Three weeks later, kindergarten girl desides to take it to school for show and tell so she puts it in her pocket in a little plastic bag with NO WATER in her coat pocket. I discovered it when I was buttoning up her coat. I have no idea how long it was in there.
 
 
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