I have all my fingers and good tasting home grown chickens LOL
What??
You know that one chick that starts showing itself to be of a more pleasing size and shape than all the others? If one is fortunate, they will see many of those in the yearly offerings, but usually I only see the one and a few also rans. Well....I found her...or him...whatever the case may be. With these WRs it's usually very difficult to tell until around the 4-5th mo. whether you have a girl or a guy on your hands.
I'm sure hoping this one is a girl. She's got that pleasing gravy bowl shape, great tail and heavy breast, long back and good head. I'll try to get a pic of her soon and then a pic of one of the rabble so you can see how different she is.
The garden is coming along, growing as well as it can in this second year of BTE. Put up another Jap beetle trap this morning....they've been attacking my taters, rhubarb and apple trees.
Laying is picking back up since the broody scourge I had this season, wherein I had 9 out of 13 hens go broody at one point or other. Three are currently raising or done raising their hatches and one lost her entire hatch to a black snake. The others were penned until the desire for brooding went away and two broodies disappeared into the deep green of the forest to do their brooding, ne'er to return. One was my big egg layer, so hated to see her go...but if they persist in establishing nests way outside the dog's boundaries, they will eventually get picked up by the local grey fox or coyote pack.
That's called survival...the wary and intelligent birds get to pass along their genetics and those that are not, do not. Out here, it's necessary for flock development to breed for survival instincts, so that all fits well into my free range methods. It may seem harsh to some, but to me it makes perfect sense....I live in the middle of thousands of acres of woodland and have the only flock of chickens for miles, so I need to have some pretty savvy chickens if I want to have any at all.
What??
You know that one chick that starts showing itself to be of a more pleasing size and shape than all the others? If one is fortunate, they will see many of those in the yearly offerings, but usually I only see the one and a few also rans. Well....I found her...or him...whatever the case may be. With these WRs it's usually very difficult to tell until around the 4-5th mo. whether you have a girl or a guy on your hands.
I'm sure hoping this one is a girl. She's got that pleasing gravy bowl shape, great tail and heavy breast, long back and good head. I'll try to get a pic of her soon and then a pic of one of the rabble so you can see how different she is.
The garden is coming along, growing as well as it can in this second year of BTE. Put up another Jap beetle trap this morning....they've been attacking my taters, rhubarb and apple trees.
Laying is picking back up since the broody scourge I had this season, wherein I had 9 out of 13 hens go broody at one point or other. Three are currently raising or done raising their hatches and one lost her entire hatch to a black snake. The others were penned until the desire for brooding went away and two broodies disappeared into the deep green of the forest to do their brooding, ne'er to return. One was my big egg layer, so hated to see her go...but if they persist in establishing nests way outside the dog's boundaries, they will eventually get picked up by the local grey fox or coyote pack.
That's called survival...the wary and intelligent birds get to pass along their genetics and those that are not, do not. Out here, it's necessary for flock development to breed for survival instincts, so that all fits well into my free range methods. It may seem harsh to some, but to me it makes perfect sense....I live in the middle of thousands of acres of woodland and have the only flock of chickens for miles, so I need to have some pretty savvy chickens if I want to have any at all.
It doesn't seem harsh at all. It does seem foolish though. After all these are domesticated chickens not wild turkeys. Seems to me if David could kill a bear and a lion that were attacking the flock he was in charge of, the least I can do is work to keep my chickens safe. I'd rather follow Davids example of keeping a flock.
When Big Delores got taken by a fox I followed the feathers into the woods, found her and brought her back. She recovered to lay many eggs and hatch chicks. The fox ran off.
1Sa 17:34
And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock:
1Sa 17:35
And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him.
Seeing as how David actually witnessed these attacks, I'm sure he was able to take action. Since I've never seen a fox take one of my chickens, it's kind of hard to do so.
Seems foolish to you, maybe. I provide shelter, food and adequate protection within the boundaries of the dogs protection and even some measure beyond is enough to keep foxes away from the central living area. Beyond that, the chickens are fair game for predation. I've never seen any fox take my chickens or I would no doubt follow up on that trail, but I can safely assume they've been eaten if they do not return to the coop at night. Since I've lost a total of 2 birds in 40 yrs of free ranging to unknown predators such as a possible fox or coyote, I don't think of it as foolish at all.
You may have different goals for your flock, so your methods seem right to you...though they seem very foolish to me, I might add.
I work to develop a flock that can survive on free range in the middle of the woods, so my methods seem perfectly adequate for my needs. While your chickens may be domesticated, mine are only so to a certain degree and I'm working to develop a flock that's even less domesticated as I go along. These aren't pets, they are a working flock that must produce their own food and their own offspring as independently from my help as possible if I'm to keep food and operation costs to a manageable rate.
As such, breeding birds that are wise enough to avoid straying far into the woods is pretty important....not only is it not foolish, but it's imperative that I allow those genetics to express themselves in the nature of these birds if I'm to weed out those that will produce offspring that are natural survivors. I can't be hovering over these birds at all times to see if they are safe...I depend upon God, the dogs and their own instincts to keep them safe. Thus far it's been as successful or more so than those people who keep pet flocks in pens when it comes to predators taking them.
Each to his own methods and goals for the flock.
The point was that David took care of his flock. He kept watch over them. Leaving them to be, fair game, or preyed upon is wrong. I had hoped to convince you not to do so, but it looks as though I was wrong too.
