Coop Project: Maken the Plunge & Getting Chickens

[Rock Home Isle]

My family has a deep and meaningful love and appreciation for the outdoors. I love the outdoors. I love Hunting, Fishing and Camping; and I cherish the memories made and the time spent with family and friends while doing these outdoors activities. My daughter's Fiance', my wife, and I have been doing a little fishing lately at some of the old fishing holes that I used to frequent as a kid. Unfortunately, the weather has not been cooperating very much at all. Seems every time we go there has been a thunderstorm. This last time we sat through a down pour that lasted over an hour...there was no delay between the flash of lightening and the boom of the thunder. It was right on top of us. We've had some very strange weather this summer here in Colorado; Drought, Fires and now Floods...it's been Biblical.

While we were headed home from fishing, we noticed that the ditch-rider had shut off the water to the irrigation ditch that runs behind may parents' house...this is where I grew up, the home where we had poultry when I was a young kid.

Cajun Boil was on my mind when we hit the canal the next morning, with 5 gallon buckets and seines. My Dad, the Fiance', my Son, and I spent nearly 2 hours wading the shallow waters of the canal collecting Crayfish. The waters were murky and the catch, by hand, was challenging. We probably saw one tenth of the crayfish that were in the areas that we hunted; we caught about a 3rd of what we saw. When we got them home I needed to flush-out the crayfish for a few hours in fresh clean water. I emptied out the duck's water tub, washed it with bleach and in went the crayfish to wash them out before everyone arrived for dinner. We ran a stream of fresh water through the tub for 4 hours to help flush-out the crayfish. Usually I like to do this for 24 hours, but time did not allow.



The ducks didn't seem to mind that we were using the tub. But the chickens were very curious as to what we were doing with the "Pond".



About an hour before our guests arrived, we sat down and started sorting out the crayfish. We definitely had more than we could eat in one sitting. We went through the catch and sorted out all the largest of the catch. This is about half of the amount that we caught.



While we were sorting, Richard said to me, "What's up with your girls?" I looked over and they were gathered in a circle about 3 feet away...seems that while we were sorting crayfish, they were stealing the crayfish out of the bucket and running away with them. Problem was, after they took them...they didn't really know what to do with them. The two girls pecking the ground are trying to figure out what to do with a few more crayfish that they managed to get out of the bucket while we were otherwise occupied. The two in the foreground, are waiting for us to look away so they snatch another couple of crayfish.....sneaky...sneaky...sneaky.



After the guests started arriving, my daughter took grandma out to show her how she calls the girls, and share stories about the birds.



For dinner we had Sausage & Chicken Jambalaya; Red Beans & Rice, Fresh Corn on the Cob, several bowls of fresh Crayfish and ice cold Watermelon.



It was an evening of good times, great memories, and wonderful people.

 

[Time-Out]

All of our chickens from last year are laying and we've just hatch 69 chicks last weekend. Last night, after dinner, my other half asked me if I thought the chicks would like the left-overs. I said they're a bit young to be eating things they shouldn't. That made him stop and think. He hadn't realised he'd still been calling our hens chicks, even thought they've been adults for a good few months now. They grow up so quickly... *sigh*

 

[Clumber]

Dang we love your saga!

I prefer lurking a long time on forums where I don't know squat about the subject yet, but I have to decloak to ask : So did your girls and ducks figure out how to eat the crayfish? My beloved spouse wonders if the chickens thought they were just huge bugs... LOL

Thanks and cloak RE-engaged....

~ Tracy

 

[Rock Home Isle]

Dang we love your saga!

I prefer lurking a long time on forums where I don't know squat about the subject yet, but I have to decloak to ask : So did your girls and ducks figure out how to eat the crayfish? My beloved spouse wonders if the chickens thought they were just huge bugs... LOL

Thanks and cloak RE-engaged....

~ Tracy

While we were sorting, I made the mistake of giving them a few minnows that we found in the tub. The ducks just went nuts when they got a taste of a minnow. After that, they almost acted as if the crayfish was theirs and "how dare we" not let them have them....

They managed to sneak about 8 crayfish out of the bucket. Once they got one of the crayfish open and got a taste of what was inside...yeah they learned real quick and became very proficient.

During the sorting, we really had to watch them. I was a bit surprised at how fast they were at grabbing and bolting away with their prize, the whole flock streaking across the yard playing keep away. Then a bit later they would slowly stalk in close for another go; the braver ones in the front. They became rather bold about grabbing them out of the bucket.

If a chicken could have facial expressions, I would say that they looked almost shocked that we didn't want them to take the crayfish and that we were pushing them away...Silly Chickens.

 

[Clumber]

Bahaah! Awesome - Thank you!

 

[Rock Home Isle]

Last night, I took my wife out for a great dinner at a very nice restaurant in Ft Collins. It was a very nice evening.

While we were in bed, something set off the animals at 3:00 am this morning...the dog was barking and the ducks were quaking. The ducks are still sleeping in the run under the Coop at night. They refuse to go in the Coop on their own and I let them have their way. The pullets were all locked up safe last night.

From the behavior of our dog, it had to be more than a simple something that set her off. Normally if something disturbs the dog at night; she runs outside; barks a few times; chases whatever it is out of the yard; then comes right back inside and its over. Last night she behaved very different. Sophie would not go outside; she would only run up and down the hall while she was barking. The last time that she acted like that, I encountered a person attempting to get into my daughter's bedroom window. So needless to say Sophie's behavior really got my attention.

I quietly got up and checked the whole house before going outside to check things out. The ducks never did settle down, which means I never was able to settle down. I finally let the ducks out into the yard at a quarter to 5:00 am; that helped a bit.

I've had a restless night to say the least.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

Went out last night to put the ducks away and close the run. I found blood all over the back patio near the big black water tub. After a bit of sneaking, dodging and herding I was able to catch and examine both of the ducks, (the ducks don't come to me like the pullets do, unless I have a treat).

Gerty has a big cut across the middle toe of his left foot. It had stopped bleeding by the time that I had gone out into the backyard. The injury had to have occurred in an area of the yard, near the water tub. The cut goes right through the skin and into the muscle. Today after I get home from UNC, I get to go through the yard and try and figure out what it was that made the cut. As far as I can tell this morning, Gerty is suffering no ill effects from the cut. I notice only a slight step dance made each time that he comes onto the patio, he favors his good foot when stepping "up".

 

[Rock Home Isle]

Breeding Programs: Phenotypic Selection vs Genotypic Selection...

Food for Thought:

There are many breeders among us here at BYC. Breeders all have their goals with their breeding programs; whether it be maintaining a heritage breed; the venerable Breed Improvement Plan; the development of a line of perfect animals for the show ring; increased meat production or an egg a day for an entire year.

Breeders know all their animals in their flock, and the off-spring (the progeny) of their programs. The good breeders have kept detailed notes on the progress of their breeding lines. They use this information coupled with the progeny performance to select breeders and prepare matings for the following year. In a skeletal nutshell; this is the traditional approach to establishing and maintaining a breeding program. I'm not going into details on Inbreeding, Out-Crossing, Line Breeding or Clan Structures within the flock. That will be for another day.

What I'm getting at are techonological advancements that are becoming available to anybody in the very near future. For Example: Imagine; after analyzing your collected data and making your breeding selections, you then take a blood sample from each animal active in the breeding program; and send it off to a genetics lab. In a few weeks, the lab returns the results of your selections.

From this analysis, you now know the genetic make up of your selected breeders and what material they carry. You know in general terms which animals carry genetics for fast feathering; weight gain; egg laying ability; medium, large & extra large eggs. You know the genetic loci for how dark the brown coating on the eggs will be, and who carries the genes for this trait (Think Marans & Welsummers). You can study the genetic report and adjust your matings to eliminate genes that reduce viability and harm hatch rates. From the genetic report, you can better determine which of your selected roosters carries the genes for high egg production, so that it can be effectively passed onto his daughters. The report will conclusively indicate which hens have the genetic material for high egg production that is located in a region allowing it to be passed onto their sons...these are only a few of the obvious genetic enhancers that can be detected. The chicken genome project was completed almost 10 years ago and the genomic makeup of the chicken has been explored ever since.

This is a quote from the opening paragraph of an article released from the University of Milan entitled, "Animal Selection: The Genomics Revolution".

"The rapid improvements in high-throughput single nucleotide polymorphism

(SNP) genotyping technologies, ever-denser SNP arrays accompanied
by reduced costs for genotyping and for sequencing, open
the possibility of using genomic information in livestock selection. The
industry is thus facing the new paradigm of “genomic selection,” in which
genomic information may reduce costs and accelerate genetic gain by reducing​

generation intervals."


Modern Genetic Research is allowing the poultry industry to make advancements in breeding that would have taken decades using traditional methods. Now modern production methodologies are allowing this technology to be made available to anybody who will pay the price. This technology has advanced to the point that the through-put is now allowing the price to drop for this type of testing. Currently, a complete Genomic Blueprint and interpretation of the contents of the report for any animal in your flock can be had for under $200.00.

$200.00....sounds like a lot of money. But then look at the cost of maintaining offspring in a series of matings to see how the mating is working. By traditional methods, each mating is an experiment to see if the genetic material that you want the offspring to possess did in fact get transferred. If you know the genetic blueprint of your breeders, you can....with great accuracy....select breeders; select matings...and calculate the transference probabilities of the offspring...before the matings even occur. Your long term costs are then greatly reduced by knowing ahead the probability of success you will experience in the pairings that you plan to make....

Today the cost of this knowledge is a little under $200.00 dollars...in ten years it will under $20.00. This technology and knowledge will become more available, less expensive, with each passing year.

I wonder how this level of technology will affect our backyard breeds in the future? What will happen to Hatchery Stock?....What will happen to genetic variability of our Heritage Breeds?


Food for thought...

 

[Ashdoes]

I was sad to read that you're getting rid of the ducks. If you had gotten the right ducks do you think they'd have a different personality or that you would have liked them more? We've decided to get ducks next year, when we have time to build a pond, and I really like the look of the khaki ducks. I had hoped to get to know the breed as you wrote your story. Anyways, sorry about the duckies.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

I was sad to read that you're getting rid of the ducks. If you had gotten the right ducks do you think they'd have a different personality or that you would have liked them more? We've decided to get ducks next year, when we have time to build a pond, and I really like the look of the khaki ducks. I had hoped to get to know the breed as you wrote your story. Anyways, sorry about the duckies.

The Ducks were an awesome addition to our home flock. I don't know that I could like them any more than I do now; I will miss them dearly....This neat little pair have provided my family with many many fond memories. You have no idea how hard it was to let those two go today, it hit me real hard.

I have justified this in my mind for several days and for several days I just could not bring myself to post to this thread. It was a very hard decision.

But it boiled down to what we "needed in a bird" vs "what we had in a bird". We need birds that will lay eggs. That is the whole reason behind starting this project in the first place. We had originally wanted an egg breed for our ducks, and the Kahki Campbell was our primary choice. The lady that sold us our ducks presented them to us as Kahki Campbells, when in fact they are actually Swedish Ducks. A little under handed, but tollerable due to their wonderful characteristics.

With one of the ducks being a male...that is half the egg production gone. Since I have no present interest in breeding and hatching ducks; our male (Gerty) needed to go. But the two of them...together....there was no way that we could separate them; so we decided to sell them as a pair. We posted an add on Craigslist and within 2 hours a lady from Milliken called and was interested in the ducks as pets for her grand kids. They have 4 acres just outside of town and ....THEY HAVE A 1/4 ACRE POND.

As silly as it sounds, it was very hard for us to let our ducks go. I found out later today that each of us was quietly hoping no one would call; it was hard on the whole family to see them leave our home.

We know where they live, I've driven by their home many times. If it doesn't work out, they will bring them back to us....The ducks will have a wonderful home...and they will have a 1/4 acre pond to play and splash in. They will be so very happy.








Next spring we will again be looking for a pair of (female) ducks for our small egg flock. Ducks add such a neat dynamic to the flock, ducks will always be readily welcome in our flock. The Kahki Campbell is still our first choice....the Appleyard Duck would be a close 2nd choice.