Dixie Chicks

[Amberjem]

Place to share some good times, bring out the old southern recipes, wave your good ole boy or gal flag, share lots of pictures, laugh until your stomach cramps, and generally bring a smile to our chicken loving hearts.

Be respectful, Don't forget your sense of humor, grab your favorite BBQ recipe.
Your welcome to join if you, have a sense of humor, told a joke, ever laughed at a good joke, like new jokes, can't find enough joke books, or if you ever heard a chicken joke and giggled.


Welcome

 

[hennible]

Hi jem
Let's start this thread off with some helpful pictures!

Comb types

Feather sexing

Based on the above information this is a pullet wing

And this is a cockerel wing

Here are some informative threads.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/common-egg-quality-problems
Egg quality
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...s-charts-and-lots-of-reading-updated-nov-13th
Anatomy
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/878773/attention-newbies-to-incubating
Humidity and incubation
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/261208/sex-linked-information
Feather sexing

Here's a useful link for diagnosis some illnesses with chicken poop
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2012/02/whats-scoop-on-chicken-poop-digestive.html?m=1
And this is a video about vent sexing

HOMEMADE ELECTROLYTE SOLUTION courtesy of The Chicken Chick
1/2 teaspoon salt substitute*
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon table salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 gallon water
*Salt substitute is readily available in most stores in the spice aisle near the salt, but if you do not have it, don't worry, the solution will still have most of the benefits intended to combat heat stress.

This electrolyte recipe also works well for use with other forms of trauma

 

[Beer can]

I couldn’t remember my password... for months. I was inspired to reset it today because I’ve finally attached my greenhouse to my coop, which I’ve been dreaming of doing since @Alaskan metioned it forever ago back in the cold folks home. Hope all is well with everyone

Awesome!!
I was talking to a guy way back that has Malay chickens in northern Pennsylvania. Keeps them in his greenhouse in the winter.
I actually half built one using a trampoline like Felix/vehve did, just never put plastic on it and used it... I'm slow, maybe this spring. It's a trellis for red noodle beans right now Lol. Ever grow them? Slowest growing beans I ever grew, just starting to flower, maybe I'll get some beans before it snows. Have them growing on wade's giant Indian corn also.

 

[Outpost JWB]

Some of you have heard this story already, but I will tell it anyways for the ones that haven't.

Hubby has heart issues, has had quadruple bypass surgery & can't be out in the heat. But last year he managed to plow up a good size plot of garden area for me.

My cousin & I set the date to plant the garden the day after Mother's Day. (Safe day from frost here in Ohio). Just a week before that day I had a mole removed from my face & sent in for biopsy. The day after Mother's day, my cousin came over & we planted all the plants I had started in the greenhouse, and all the seeds I had wanted to plant. We planted tomatoes, peppers, swiss chard, cabbage, watermelon, musk melons, green beans, (pole & bush type), potatoes, pumpkins, lettuce, kale, you name it, I think we planted it!

So less than a week after we planted it, dr called. Confirmed that the mole is basal cell carcinoma (skin cancer). Furthermore said they did not get it all & I would need to go in immediately to the Cincinnati skin cancer center for MOHS surgery. Whomever doesn't know what that is, its where they cut a hole to remove the cancer, they put it under a microscope & keep removing layers until it is all confirmed gone. Mine was massive. The size of a quarter or silver dollar.... Couldn't really tell because I was crying too hard. Right next to my nose. Then they had to cut the "hole" section out because the plastic surgeon could not sew a circle without massive scarring. So, she cut a V shape out of my face to create lines to sew together.

Needless to say, I was told the sun is not my friend at all. Basal cell is the most common of skin cancers. It is the most easily treated. It is the most likely to come back

.

The garden-DH and I weeded and rotor tilled in the evening when the heat and sun were gone, but by July, it was overgrown with weeds. We let the chickens eat the whole garden. They were super happy. I felt good that at least the garden didn't go to waste. They ate like kings for a week

.

The surgery healed fine and if you didn't know I had surgery, its not real noticeable. Here is a pic of post surgery and now. Sorry, it's graphic!



I am super blessed and I try to spread awareness about skin cancer. This year, we will have a garden. I will wear my big old bonnets and plenty of sunscreen and try to work before sunrise or after sunset.

 

[Alaskan]

here we go... butcher photos!

Do NOT open unless you are happy seeing butcher photos

blood spatter and head sailing.

a duck in a noose about to be chopped.


the head sailing through the air


boy with a dead duck



two hanging ducks


artistic blood splatter





tada

 

[Razadia]

Hey folks, long time no see. I'm not entirely sure I was ready to come back here yet, but I kinda feel like everyone I used to talk to a lot should know why I've been gone. I didn't think just being on the site would upset me so badly, but I guess I'm still not over what's happened.

Shortly after I disappeared I was forced to sell my chickens and it's left behind a strange kind of hole. I always thought that I'd be fine if I ever had to sell them all, but I'm not. For the first time in my nearly 28 years of life, I don't have chickens and I don't have them 'safe at home' to look forward to. They're all gone and, after returning here a few moments ago, I realized I'm not ok.

I keep trying to tell myself they're just chickens and I'll get more when we're in a better place money-wise, but waiting for that to happen actually hurts more than I thought it would.

I had a choice and I sold the chickens rather than letting them starve. I had to decide between my horse and my chickens and my horse won because I can't bring myself to send him off into the unknown after all the abuse he suffered at the hands of previous owners.

I made the right choice, but I never thought it would leave a hole like this. And now I'm crying even harder because I noticed I was given BYC Friend while I was away and it means so much to me that people like me that well.

 

[Razadia]

So sorry dear! Of course we have missed you! sorry you are having a rough time, but you are strong and will get past it, and eventually have birds again.

One day! I didn't sell my incubators, at least, so when it's time I'll get eggs so I can get it all out of my system in one go.

 

[Beer can]

@hennible
Have you ever grown Indian corn? I'm pretty sure I've seen pics of corn in your greenhouses? Painted mountain corn, grown in the mountains of Montana might do real good up where you are. I harvested my first ear, early, worried about rot. The tassels are done but they are not dried out, we're still having nice weather. Not sure when to pick the freaking things. Flour corn. The wade's giant Indian corn still needs some time but I'm not sure of this painted mountain corn, I'd like to wait till it dies down but I don't want it to rot, the end of this one was mushy. Maybe the rest will be alright till we get cold weather and it dies down, IDK? Any input? Should I pick it all or wait? Can't find much info on the net except for the plants are supposed to be dead, brown, dry...

 

[Alaskan]

Felix hasn't been on here in ages. Think the last time - he told us they had split up.

Yeppers... I remember that too.

And... he got a job!

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

WARNING: If chicken guts disturb you, scroll past my post please!​

For black skinned chooks, basically you may have any e-series (in non-genetic terms, it is basically the e-series is the soup broth the bird is made on) plus a whole host of plus or minus modifiers. The blackest feathered birds do benefit from being based on E tho. Mutations from wild type (RJF) will inhibit or intensify the two colours in plumage (black or red, no pigment = white). There are many genetic mutations to alter SKIN colour from wild type. PLUS these mutations will alter skin colourations on the surface and from my photos below, these mutations may even be more than jest skin deep.

BREED Booted Bantam female in the Mille Fleur (what I call Mille de Fleur- MDF) VARIETY​

Now we all should know that all SOP breeds (shape) may be ANY variety (colour pattern) and more simply put, any shape may be any colour pattern basically...

Jan 13, 2016 - some real blooded bantam Chanteclers​

The only bantam Chants I may show in a recognized variety is the one on the far right (self-white; Higgin's White Dove line) and the middle one (partridge). All the rest of this handful of productive girls from our flocks are unrecognized varieties of the Chantecler breed.

Recognized BREED

(Chantecler bantams) in UNRECOGNIZED VARIETIES

L-R = F2 generation in Gold Laced out of Buff base, Blue Laced Red, F2 gen Gold Laced out of Partridge base​

Not necessarily recognized like my Blue Laced Red bantam Chanteclers ARE in that they are a recognized variety, jest not a recognized variety within that BREED. So you enter them as an unrecognized variety and the rules state they are never to win past best or reserve in that VARIETY but we all know rules are meant to be broken (why our first poultry show had Rosy as a Blue Fawn Call hen go Reserve in Breed...not allowed officially speaking but still happens!).

BONUS questions for any colour gurus
​

What ONE dose of colour genetics alters the lacing from black to blue and two doses of it for a buff lace??

​

Here's a hint...only dif between these two Pied Chant roos below is this one dose of what colour genetics??

One dose of what colour genetics changes the tail colour??​

Again, the stark visual of what ONE dose of colour genetics will do to a bird...

What gender linked series are these two hens expressing...like polar opposites by one dose of what??​

Here's something to do...look at the base...the colour pattern is the same...but the bases are different. l00k with new eyes.

One starts to get colour genetics when you can SEE past the colour and note the pattern
​

Oft times then, you quit throwing the baby out with the bath water and actually start to breed birds for colour properties as in the VARIETY in the BREED!

Heck, there are NO bad coloured birds...when in one future generation, you can cover it ALL up with self white and hide any issues you had in the F1's colour pattern/variety, eh.



On to one of me colour genetic projects...the development of the dark skinned white feathered Booted Bantams...

BREED Booted Bantam female in the White VARIETY
NOTE, skin colour is INCORRECT for White Feathered Variety in Booted...MUST not have this dark skin!



March 15, 2014 - these female booteds are extra DARK...their eyeballs ooze blackness!​

Variations of the black pigment (eumelanin) is expressed based on plus or minus modifiers...basically in colour genetic idiot speak...we are talking about making selections for the darkest (or the lightest) pigmented birds' skins. You as a breeder choose how dark or light pigmented you want your breeding stocks.

Here is the hurdle...you want one dose of recessive white in yer MDF's to get the colourations to POP off the feathers as per wise old Gordon Ridler would advise...in the Booted Bantam Breed, the MDF variety has DARK skin and the White variety has light skin...so if you cross yer Whites with yer MDF's to get the one recessive white to POP the colours on the MDFs...yer skin colour on the MDFs and the Whites is screwed...you are gonna get a mixed bag of skin colours...choose the wrong skin colour for the feather colour and you cannot exhibit that bird at the sanctioned shows.

White Booted has light skin
MDF Booted has dark skin​

Dilemma solved...you do what I have been doing for the past decade and a half ...making a dark skinned white feathered chook in the Booted Breed and fixed problem in getting one dose of the recessive white in the MDFs and maintaining the dark skin you want in the MDFs. You cannot SHOW the dark skinned whites...that is a Disqualification in the SOPs. But we all should know that what is put in the BREEDING PENS is not what is often seen in the SHOW EXHIBITION PENS. Nyuck nyuck nyuck!

Now how dark is me White feathered but dark skinned Booteds...???

DIS DARK...

April 15, 2014​

The females are as black skinned as an exhibition Silkie should be (keeping in mind, many are crossing silkies and losing the DARK skins!)...

And the females are thru and thru BLACK to their very core...tis the BLACK BONES and ORGANS you want...BLACK

​

When yer internals are this black...you got it going on, eh!

Heart, ribs, foot...BLACK as EBONY!
​

And nope, dark skin is not rare at all in the chook world. As Deb says, Silkies are ancient breed, written about in the 13th century by Marco Polo...

Nope, black skinned chooks are not rare one iota. Every Breed listed in the SOP with dark pigmented skin (part of the standard for the breed), that is an expression of melanistic colourations.

These ones have dark shanks and toes...note that I said shanks and toes...not skin...

Polish, Lakenvelder, Crevecoeur, (Houdan in mottled has dotty dot shanks and toes), La Fleche, game birds...naked neck, Ameraucana, Andalusian, Catalana, Minorca, Spanish, Red Cap, Orps, Australorp, Java, Jersey Giant...

The point you have to ensure...that the SKIN colour is correct in birds with dark shanks and toes...the Jersey Giant fer example, in the ECONOMIC QUALITIES of the APA SOP has yellow skin. The Polish which is in the top 16 breeds, no mention in the two SOPs (maybe I missed it some place...not my breed) of skin colour...so you could find dark skinned Polish. Repeating, top 16 breed in bantams in North America...NOT uncommon at all.


One of the kewl things I've noted from my dark skinned Booted females, their egg shells are dark pigmented...there is an excess of dark pigments (that may be depleted over time as eggs are laid and the dark pigment reserves are used up...when not laying eggs, they hens bank up their pigment reserves again and one can even see how many eggs a hen has laid as the pigment gets lighter in the egg shells she produces!).

July 14, 2014 - Day old "Pinto" as I called it​

And jest because I like to mess with yer colour genetic virgin minds...you can get half and half expression in pigment of the skin...

​

Cockerel I hatched two years ago in July 2014 ... my friend Dr. Crawford said my Booteds were not likely as black to the skin depth as Silikes are, but from the photos above, sum of them are indeed black to their very bones.

And waz is EXTRA kewl...the expression of light and dark pigment is distributed on the bod
​

This one above has black at the top of the shanks...kewl or what, eh! If'n yer a colour genetics junky I guess.

Get yer Standards of Perfection out and begin reading up on the dark colouration in the breeds peoples.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada