Farming and Homesteading Heritage Poultry

[gjensen]

We've been having an unseasonably warm November, so the flock is still getting some good tucker out on range...they look great and are doing great. This spring's pullets and cockerel will be turning 6 mo. old the day after Thanksgiving, so I'll be looking for eggs soon from that lot. The cockerel is filling out and looking great...he's real sociable, confident and calm which I love and a much better flock master than his sire already. Breeding well, gentle for such a young bird but very thorough all the same. Quiet, like I like 'em.

The pullets are filling out well also and a few really catch my eye frequently as I watch them come and go in their chickeny lives. Last year's breeders are really showing their true colors as we go into winter and only one will make the cut in next year's culling. She was my favorite from the beginning and I'm glad to see my instincts on her were not wrong...she was the first to mature, had the best conformation and was the best broody, while laying the biggest and most consistent egg and is still laying daily after getting back to the coop nest from raising her brood. I'll be breeding her again, for sure, along with the best two of the pullets.

This next spring is the start of my own line, so I'm pretty excited to see how it all goes.

Winter coop is all snug and warm, sunny and airy. Taking 14 birds into the winter, feed mix is like I want it and many bags of leaves stored for bedding. I'm ready.

Looked at my records for when the last year's breeders went broody and will be planning my breeding schedule around those times next spring...got some new ideas for how I want my breeding pen set up and can't wait to try a few little experiments.

I enjoy this part of it Bee. I am looking forward to the coming hatching season. I have, for the most part, decided on my pairings. I know who will be with who. I have a schedule.

It is a pleasure to head down your own road. I have enjoyed that about my Catalanas. They are my own. The work of my hands. I decide what I like, dislike, what I will not tolerate, and what I will tolerate.

And again, I enjoy the seasonal rhythm. I cannot do as I have in the past, but I can still enjoy them.

 

[NanaKat]

Finishing up with a clutch of bantam eggs and a few hatches of pheasant this next week. Will sanitize the incubators and hatcher one last time for a rest until hatching begins again in earnest in February. There are two Bantam hens sharing a broody nest. They will get the chicks that hatch.
I chose not to use lights this year...letting the hens go thru their natural rhythm. I do have a red heat lamp in the brooder room in the barm for the month old chicks. It is plugged into a thermal plug so it comes on when the temps drop to 35 degrees.

 

[Beekissed]

I'm feeling a burr of excitement as I look at the pullets hatched this spring and see those I really liked early on starting to show good secondary sexual maturity signs, right on time at the beginning of their 6th mo. Seems like it happened over night for a few of them and I expect to see eggs soon. They've been showing breeding marks for over a month or more, but now they are starting to look like they are ripe for it.

I'm pleased that those I liked for their body style and feathering early on are also those that are maturing earlier than the rest. And they are most lovely...snow white softness, big breasts, wide hips, cherry red combs and wattles, yellow-orange, shiny legs. The cockerel is filling out accordingly, with comb and wattles gaining in size and his body filling out...by spring he'll be quite the flock master.

I can't wait to see what these youngsters will produce! I know I can't put all the chicks on the ground that others can and will, but I'm excited all the same at producing any at all and to see the positive changes in the body style and feathering that have already been produced, just with what little breeding and hatching I've already done here.

Supposed to get good weather this weekend, so I'll try to take some good pics of the flock and these changes if I can. I'm pretty tickled with what I've seen in the male and a few of the pullets thus far, and have Mr. Weaver and Fred to thank for helping me get a good breeding male to get me started. Can't say enough about that kind of kindness and generosity that would help a total stranger get a start in good flock genetics. I hope I can turn out good things from that act of kindness.

 

[gjensen]

Finishing up with a clutch of bantam eggs and a few hatches of pheasant this next week. Will sanitize the incubators and hatcher one last time for a rest until hatching begins again in earnest in February. There are two Bantam hens sharing a broody nest. They will get the chicks that hatch.
I chose not to use lights this year...letting the hens go thru their natural rhythm. I do have a red heat lamp in the brooder room in the barm for the month old chicks. It is plugged into a thermal plug so it comes on when the temps drop to 35 degrees.

What kind of pheasants?

I have mostly gotten away from lights. I may use them late this winter though. I want to double up this spring.

 

[gjensen]

I'm feeling a burr of excitement as I look at the pullets hatched this spring and see those I really liked early on starting to show good secondary sexual maturity signs, right on time at the beginning of their 6th mo. Seems like it happened over night for a few of them and I expect to see eggs soon. They've been showing breeding marks for over a month or more, but now they are starting to look like they are ripe for it.

I'm pleased that those I liked for their body style and feathering early on are also those that are maturing earlier than the rest. And they are most lovely...snow white softness, big breasts, wide hips, cherry red combs and wattles, yellow-orange, shiny legs. The cockerel is filling out accordingly, with comb and wattles gaining in size and his body filling out...by spring he'll be quite the flock master.

I can't wait to see what these youngsters will produce! I know I can't put all the chicks on the ground that others can and will, but I'm excited all the same at producing any at all and to see the positive changes in the body style and feathering that have already been produced, just with what little breeding and hatching I've already done here.

Supposed to get good weather this weekend, so I'll try to take some good pics of the flock and these changes if I can. I'm pretty tickled with what I've seen in the male and a few of the pullets thus far, and have Mr. Weaver and Fred to thank for helping me get a good breeding male to get me started. Can't say enough about that kind of kindness and generosity that would help a total stranger get a start in good flock genetics. I hope I can turn out good things from that act of kindness.

I hope that you do to Bee, but I am sure that you will. It will be interesting to see what you have 3 and 5 generations after this one.

24 wks is a good POL for this breed. Earlier than that is a problem, and much later than that starts becoming less than efficient.

It is good to hear that you are excited about the process. You have moved from saying to doing. Now you can work towards what you want. Your selections. Your birds. Your process. Your ideals, and your goals.

Just be prepared to evolve along the way. If you remain committed, you will. What you think is best now, will not be precisely the same a few generations from now. We evolve to.

 

[Beekissed]

I don't know...I think I'll always value good laying, hardiness, feed thrift, good feathering, good mothering, good foraging, meaty carcass, laying longevity, calm and friendly temperament, etc. That's all pretty basic, isn't it? Well...maybe not..other folks don't value them as much as I do, maybe. Those are things I've always valued in any chicken I've had and one of the reasons I chose this breed, as those things are characteristic of the breed.

For now it's really nice to see some better quality~in looks anyway~birds out on the grass and the real satisfaction will come when I can consistently turn out birds that look good and ARE good, according to the traits I want to preserve in the breed. I'd like to honor both ideals...the SOP for the breed, but also will not give up the integrity of the performance of this breed. That may keep me working longer and culling harder than most on a flock, but I don't mind. In the meanwhile I get food, bug control, compost for the garden, beautiful lawn ornaments, and a way to express myself creatively, not to mention it's just plain fun! It's a win/win.

 

[NanaKat]

Finishing up with a clutch of bantam eggs and a few hatches of pheasant this next week. Will sanitize the incubators and hatcher one last time for a rest until hatching begins again in earnest in February. There are two Bantam hens sharing a broody nest. They will get the chicks that hatch.

I chose not to use lights this year...letting the hens go thru their natural rhythm. I do have a red heat lamp in the brooder room in the barm for the month old chicks. It is plugged into a thermal plug so it comes on when the temps drop to 35 degrees.

What kind of pheasants?

  I have mostly gotten away from lights. I may use them late this winter though. I want to double up this spring.

I have Ringneck pheasants. They are spooked easily and are flighty. Will be working on releasing them on our farm. The Ringneck line I have has not been bred for captivity very long and will be able to forage and survival rates are very high.

 

[Beekissed]

I don't do lights either. I get to rest from a lot of things in the winter months, so I let them do the same if they are so inclined.

If I light them up in the winter, how will I know which birds are naturally good winter time layers vs. those that are not? I'm breeding for that, so I need to see what they can do without artificial stimulation of hormones.

 

[bluebirdnanny]

Got to figure out who is laying the double eggs. Somebody must have finished molt or a daughter is doing it now. NOT the trait I want... though it did make a good diner tonight.

 

[ronott1]

Got to figure out who is laying the double eggs. Somebody must have finished molt or a daughter is doing it now. NOT the trait I want... though it did make a good diner tonight.

She should stop soon. It is common for the first eggs and after a molt.