Are you ready?

 

Are you ready for spring? Because we are! Our waiting lists are now open. We have organized them a bit differently this year, and a deposit is required to get a spot on the official waitlist. Too much time was being used contacting people on waitlists who had forgotten or changed their minds, so we are hoping the deposit will change that! We also have a new offering this year - custom hatches. For a small fee that covers incubation, vaccination, and early brooding, we will hatch out groups of chicks, ready for their new homes! Hopefully this prepaid option will allow those who missed the hatching egg waiting list to still obtain babies this year.

And speaking of hatching eggs, the waiting lists are open for those, and for chicks and pairs. We will ship hatching eggs, but birds must be picked up in Raleigh, NC. Limited numbers of spaces are available for hatching eggs, chicks, custom hatches, and pairs, so get those orders in quickly!

So here are some links for you - please make sure you read and understand the wait-list process. As usual, please feel free to ask clarifying questions.

2023 Hatching Plans

http://www.greengrables.com/p/2022-hatching-plans1.html

Waiting List and Prices

http://www.greengrables.com/p/waiting-list-prices.html

Hatching Egg Policy

http://www.greengrables.com/p/hatching-egg-policy.html

Hatching Shipped Eggs

http://www.greengrables.com/p/how-to-care-for-shipped-eggs-shipped.html

Green Grables Website

http://www.greengrables.com

A time to rest

 

We are taking our summer siesta rest! Breeders are tired from the heat, birds are molting, and everything is being repainted and cleaned. Hatching is over for the year, and hatching eggs are no longer available (we feel summer heat and molting stress hurt the quality of hatching eggs). A few eggs may become available in the fall when the heat subsides and nutrients have been replenished with supplements. 

But rest for the birds doesn't mean rest for the farmer! Cleaning and repainting have begun, so that the next season can start fresh. New grow outs are evaluated weekly, and next year's breeder selection has begun. A very limited number of birds will be available as we evaluate birds. They will be listed on our Instagram and Facebook pages.

EGG WAITING LISTS

I may have a few spots open for Watermaal/d'Anvers and Ameraucana bantam hatching eggs, but the 2022 Belgian d'Uccle hatching egg waitlist is closed. If I am able to fill the remaining orders and have extra eggs, those will be listed on my Instagram and Facebook pages as they become available.

Those lemon sablepoots just didn't get laying this season. I have one baby and two more eggs, but that's it, and I'm keeping those! They hatched out in early fall, and seem to be late layers, but keep an eye on my social media pages for updates!

Silkies....I may be getting out of silkies. May keep a couple pullets for company for Chewbawka, but they may be moving to pet and incubator status.

February Update

 I have Watermaal/d'Anvers eggs available and the waitlist is open! These spunky little breeds are sure to spice up your flock. Both are clean legged breeds. Watermaal are also tasseled, with a cute little tuft of feathers on their heads. Grab them up quickly, because I may switch to projects soon, which means no more eggs. Babies will be black, white, and mottled.

Hatching eggs: $85/dozen plus extras, $25 shipping

A very very limited number of black Watermaal pairs (chicks) will be available over the next month. Please contact me immediately if you are interested. Several carry mottled. Some white cockerels may be available alone or with a black female also. And a tiny handful of straight run d'Anvers chicks will also be hatching weekly for the next month. After that, Watermaal and d'Anvers hatches will probably be over for the year here.

$85/pair

$125/trio

No shipping of birds due to HPAI this year. Pickup in Raleigh, NC only.

As for our other breeds, I'm afraid nothing is available yet. The silkies are broody, and I'm not selling their eggs this year. The d'Uccles and sablepoots are not laying yet, and neither are the Ameraucana. Since I don't use any supplementary light and heat, they don't usually get going until late March. With the HPAI situation, I am unsure about the hatching season. I probably will not have a large hatching season this year, since the HPAI issue is so deadly serious. We have closed the farm to visitors and cancelled the spring shows, so we don't have as many options available for selling. And since we want to keep everything biosecure and all poultry under roofs and behind tarps, grow out space is extremely limited. I will post availability on Facebook and Instagram. If birds haven't sold yet, I will update my website also. I will open waitlists on eggs as they are available, but no wait lists on birds, as they will be in more limited quantities this year.

Have a great February everyone!

A Little Break before the Storm

 

Spring is just around the corner. Hatching has begun, at least in the case of Watermaal, d'Anvers, and silkies. So I'm taking a social media break, reworking my website a little, and taking a mental break before spring speeds up. 

So far things are going well. I've got 3-4 possible mottled Watermaal babies in the brooders, along with a handful of white and black d'Anvers and Watermaal. I'm concentrating on mottled, so keep an eye on the available page for chicks coming up! I've also got a handful of silkies and showgirls happily bumbling around in the brooders. I've switched around goals for my silkies - I'm concentrating on getting some nice showgirls and silkies with a gorgeous white rooster that I got from Red Barn. All of Chewbawka's babies will stay here and grow up, along with a handful of silkies and showgirls from her daughter Parton. So no silkie eggs will be available this year.

The d'Uccles, booted bantams (sablepoots), and Ameraucana have not started laying yet. They tend to start up later in March. Which works out well, since my new breeding runs probably won't be ready until then. I haven't started a hatching egg waiting list yet - moving to new digs can mess up laying, so I won't have a good grasp on what will be available and when until we get closer to finishing those pens up.

I've got a new page on the website with hatching plans for this year. Hopefully it will work, although broody hens sometimes have other ideas! 

Hope everyone is staying warm and happy this winter. Tomorrow is going to be COLD here - a high of 29. Brrrrr. Bundle up and enjoy every day!

Winter Planning

 

Winter is the time for planning here at Green Grables. And so I'm watching babies grow, hatching a few silkies and soon Watermaal and d'Anvers. My husband is working on new breeding pens, and I'm making breeding plans. It's a big year, a project year. I will have my first true lemon mille fleur pens with lemon mille fleur, blue lemon mille fleur, and cream mottled (lemon golden necks, like Cici above). My Watermaal pens will finally start producing a few mottled Watermaal, my end goal for those pens. It's definitely challenging to select for a recessive quality. Once you get splits, only 1/4 of the babies will show the quality, in this case mottled. Although I also have recessive white in there which can mask mottled and takes my chances down...And then you have to pick the best of those. And only half of those (if you are lucky) will be girls. And you only want the best.... so to get two flocks going with hopefully 4-5 girls each it will take... um where's the calculator? So say you want at least 10 to pick 5 from.. one flock's worth of girls means I need to hatch 10x2x4x2 = 160, so for two flocks I'd need 320 chicks... the head spins. That's what I did to get the lemons, by the way. 

But boy oh boy those lemons are worth it. I'm not sure what I'll be offering in them this season. Probably some sablepoots. Not sure about d'Uccles yet, as they need more work, and I need more for my own flocks. The other d'Uccles are doing well and gorgeous this year, and the roosters are the best I've had so far, including the frizzles. 

The Ameraucana bantams are in a big year, as I'm concentrating on adding a lot of genetic diversity to make at least three new lines. I'm using some blacks from a BBS line, a gorgeous black pullet from Brad Stonebarger, and some lav cuckoo d'Anvers to make new lines, increase beard size, and add in lav cuckoo. So I will have some black splits and lav or lav cuckoo bantam Easter eggers available this year. Can't wait to meet those little guys. All the Easter eggers I've made with the lav Ameraucana have been amazing, so it will be fun to see what these will be like.

The silkies - I'm always on the edge about them. I'd probably get out of them, except I adore Chewbawka. And after taking her to her first show, I really realized what an amazing gem I have in her. So I got her a fancy new man and I'm concentrating on getting as many chicks from her as possible. She's almost four, so her eggs are slowing down a bit. I may actually sell Mopster (the sizzle rooster) and two hens with him and just concentrate on Mr. Right and Chewy. 

I have a new page on my website - 2022 hatching plans. It will probably change a bit, but I'm publishing my pen and pricing plans there, and we will see how it goes.

Well that's it for news here right now. I hope everyone is staying warm and healthy!