Mosby @ 25 Weeks
Do you remember back in February when I brought this little 12 week old blue orpington cockeral home?
He started filling out real nice by 19 weeks.
Just 2 weeks ago I thought he was awesome.
But look at him now at 25 weeks.
Isn't he a knockout?
Can you figure out how big you think he is? He is HUGE!
Just another little tidbit - He won't be fully grown to his adult size until he is 18 months to 2 years old.
:)
I love your incubator info, but where did you find that thermometer?
Walmart. In the section where you find plumbing, switches and such. They generally tuck them in a small space so you will have to walk the aisles between light bulbs and filters to find them.
WOW!! He is beautiful!! Any special feeding program?
Hide him away, Angie, or someone will steal his feathers for a hat! He's gorgeous!
Hi there,
I noticed your blog today, and enjoyed reading about your family/life. What sent me to your site was my search for hatchling eggs. I teach 5th grade in Quinton, just east of Richmond, and one of my students brought in duck eggs for us to hatch. I tried, like you, to build a homeade incubator, but wasn't as successful as you. Well, it turned out, the temperature was too high for a period of time, and the eggs got cooked a little. It turns out they weren't fertilized, whew! Well, after reading some of your entries, I thought I would ask you if had any extra eggs for hatching? I would like to try again before school ends in mid-June! In the mean time, I'm going to adapt my incubator to look more like yours!
Talk to you soon,
Brock
What a handsome boy! I can't wait for my 2 Australorps, Achilles and Hector, to get big. They're already showing me to be very calm and gentle. Let's hope it sticks!
Wow, Didn't know they could look so beautiful!!
What breed is the ones that lay the blue eggs? I just love your blog, very interesting as well as educational.
Friend from Mississippi
Blue eggs are laid by true breed Araucanas or Ameraucanas. The eggs with much more of a green tint are from mutt cross bred chickens with one of the Arua or Amera in their ancestoral history. Meaning at some point there was a hen or rooster in a different hen house and the gene got passed on. The color is the last thing to go on an egg before the hen lays it. The green tint comes from a brown egg layer with a resessive gene for the blue and it is laid over it and there fore the color is anything from a blue-ish green to an olive green. You will see many people not aware of the problem with hatcheries selling mutts and they think they have a pure bred chicken when in fact they have a mutt with unpredictable offspring outcome. A true auraucana is rumpless.
Angie,
Thank you for taking the time to answer that question.
Also, I can't even imagine how much that beautiful boy weights. Please keep us informed.
Linda in Ms
Lovely roo Miss P! I passed on some blue orp bantam eggs, but plan to get some later. They are striking birds!
He is beautiful! I will definitely plan on getting some of these birds as I expand.