Our birds are just 20 weeks old and on Friday we got our first egg and yesterday we got our second egg. We have 3 light brahmas, 8 black astralorps and 7 buff orpingtons. No clue which one it was but we're very excited and can't wait for the rest to start laying.
On the left is a store bought...
I looked in our local phone book. But for us the nearest processor was 2 hours away (in one direction) and you had to get the birds there at 6AM, which means leaving the house at 4AM, kinda crazy. So hubs made a killing cone out of a piece of ductwork metal and processed our couple of meaties...
Mine are right now 11 weeks, that pic I posted is from when she was about 8-9 weeks old. Mine seem to have more black than yours. I got mine from McMurray. I wish I would have ordered more than just 3 of them. They are the sweetest birds. Gimpy is my favorite one. She loves to be handled.
He doesn't look like my light brahmas do. Here's a pic of one of my females. I would say yours is a cockerel, because of the redness above the beak. Mine have no red at all.
This is gimpy sitting on my husband's leg. (She doesn't really gimp, she just has 2 toes fused together is all).
We put our buff orps outside in their coop when they were about 7 weeks old, but it was much colder here then so we had kept them inside the garage longer. But we kept the heat lamp on for ours for an additional week in their new coop just to get them adjusted.
Well I was kinda thinking that's what he was. But not entirely sure since I'm new to this but the legs and feathered feet kinda help in deciding. But he's quite shy, maybe because when he was younger he was picked and what not unfortunatly. But he's 100% better from that now and he's looking...
Hi my name is Favio and my mama thought I was a Salmon Faverolle. But now she's not sure what I am. I was free as a "rare mystery chick" from McMurray Hatchery. But my mom's new to all this chicken stuff.
I have 5 toes and feathered feet. My mom thinks I'm a roo. I am almost 10 weeks old, but...
We bought a couple of the cornish roasters from MM and processed them between 6-7 weeks of age. The cockerel dressed at around 8.5lbs and the pullet around 6lbs. We were going to wait a bit longer but the pullet started having leg problems and not walking and it was just better to process a...
We had 2 cornish roasters along with our other chicks and had them together for about 2 weeks feeding them the same as the rest. Then after that we put the 2 cornish roasters in a dog crate for the rest of their stay with us and we fed them 12 on and 12 off so that they wouldn't over eat.
My husband made his own killing cone out of a sheet of metal ductwork from home depot. He traced the shape onto it and cut it out and used metal rivets to hold it together. Then just attached it to a tree out back. It sure worked good and cost us less than $10 to make.
In the April/May 2009 volume of Backyard Poultry they have a special section all about alternatives to the cornish cross. My husband and I are going to buy some "colored" versions and see how it goes. They are supposed to be slightly slower growing and not have any of the leg problems that are...
Being a first time chicken mama I have tried to handle them all since the day we received them, some like it more than others. However I must say that my light brahmas are more friendly than my buff orps or black astralorps. But even the cockerels light to sit with me, I think it's about...