Naked Neck/Turken Thread

[drumstick diva]

Where did the black tail come from? Maybe he took it from another roo when it was sleeping. LOL

 

[jarvis]

No she didnt. Everyone went on egg laying strike today! That one is from yesterday

 

[islafarm]

@supersymmetry and @Kassaundra thank you so much for your responses, and great questions supersymmetry.

The aim for my main flock is harmonious egg production: most of my hens and pullets are naked neck over isa browns (they came from a sideline project from one of the main production egg layer hatcheries). About 20% are naked neck barnyard mixes. I'm not so interested in meat production, eggs are my main focus.

My project flock is showgirls, as far as I can research there are no showgirls in CR. Hence my interest in keeping my white feathered, fibro cockerel. My silkies are small so this project involves learning AI. @Kassaundra I am so inspired by your birds

My silkies are housed away from the other birds.

My hens (currently only 4) and cockerel free range about ¾ acre daily, the area includes orchard, forest and open grass. At night they have a henhouse, but they're only in there from dusk til dawn. They have about 16 foot of roost space.

The little 'uns, 20 of them, are housed in a 200 square foot run, the coop is open to the run (the run is very secure and it's hot here). Of the 20 I believe 8 or 9 are roos and I won't be keeping them (unless my cockerel can't cool it).

Maybe part of the problem is that the run used to belong to the hens and cockerel, I moved them out about 3 months ago, and their new henhouse is close, about 30 feet away. The cockerel is down there every day pacing around looking in and essentially studying the younger birds.

Thank you for your observations and suggestions, I'll wait a bit longer until I let them all out together, the cockerel and the hens can be in their henhouse for part of the day while the younger ones get to roam a little further.

Thanks again, I so appreciate this thread and all the awesome, knowledgeable and generous souls that frequent it

And @jarvis those are some pretty birds, I love the black tailed white!

Ancel

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

I moved the Tank x GNH chicks outside into their tractor this afternoon. They are 8 weeks old today - it is WAAAAAAY past time, they were very cramped in the brooder (I haven't plotted their weights yet today, but am hoping that didn't cause any stunting - but I really wasn't ready with their tractor before now). It's sunset now, and predictably, they are in there crying and scared at the unfamiliar, and have not oriented to the roosts yet (although I had them roosting on little roosts in the brooder). Even though I knew it likely wouldn't work, I just went to see if I could place them on the roost, but they kept flying back down. I'm going to have to wait until it's properly dark to do it. (sigh)

They look good - the biggest boy and the second biggest are now about the same weight, just under 4 lbs at 8 weeks. Accurate weights are getting harder to get, though, as they are big and squirmy. Going to have to start using the bucket method.

I'm going to go see if it's dark enough yet.

- Ant Farm

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

All on roosts and settling down now.

Here are the weights - you can see how #5 came back up this week. I think last week's weight was a bad one (maybe he had his foot off the scale and I missed it). You can see the pullets beginning to split off, weight-wise.





Pictures were a nightmare because I need a bigger scale for them and also they were squirmy. So they aren't very good - and the two biggest boys wouldn't look at the camera, so I'm including #5 because he was nice and posed for me.

Two biggest boys, both at 46.42 oz this week (photos were at an awkward angle, I had to remove my hand and take the photos really quickly before they made a run for it):




#5, cooperating with the camera:


Two of the pullets, "loving" the camera:





I can't stress enough how much I love these birds!!! Meanwhile, at age 1 week, the S&G chicks that have survived are doing fine, but seem to be REALLY focused on eating and are pooping a lot. Keeping an eye on that...

- Ant Farm

 

[chickengr]

All on roosts and settling down now.

Here are the weights - you can see how #5 came back up this week. I think last week's weight was a bad one (maybe he had his foot off the scale and I missed it). You can see the pullets beginning to split off, weight-wise.





Pictures were a nightmare because I need a bigger scale for them and also they were squirmy. So they aren't very good - and the two biggest boys wouldn't look at the camera, so I'm including #5 because he was nice and posed for me.

Two biggest boys, both at 46.42 oz this week (photos were at an awkward angle, I had to remove my hand and take the photos really quickly before they made a run for it):




#5, cooperating with the camera:


Two of the pullets, "loving" the camera:





I can't stress enough how much I love these birds!!! Meanwhile, at age 1 week, the S&G chicks that have survived are doing fine, but seem to be REALLY focused on eating and are pooping a lot. Keeping an eye on that...

- Ant Farm

beautiful birds!

my lonesome chick has been focused on eating too all the time. she will be 4 weeks old on sunday. her droppings are bigger than rat's, lol.

 

[DesertChic]

@Fire Ant Farm - if you ever find that larger scale, please let me know where, make, model etc. I've been searching for one for a long time for the reasons. The do NOT like standing on that scale once they reach a certain size. Not that I blame them. I never like standing on the scale either.

 

[Kev]

@Fire Ant Farm - if you ever find that larger scale, please let me know where, make, model etc. I've been searching for one for a long time for the reasons. The do NOT like standing on that scale once they reach a certain size. Not that I blame them. I never like standing on the scale either.

me neither..

Have you looked at postal weighting scales? Someone on a poultry show breeding group posted he uses them for weighing adult birds. Many models have broad enough of a base to put the bird in a basket or cage if need be.

keep missing out on weighing the cx nn but to be honest.. they don't seem to be growing all that much. hope it was not a massive waste...

 

[Kev]

Ok so here are pictures of my 3 turkens . The calico is the one i plan on using to start this project ... hes got a bow tie ... so prety much only gunna get 1/4 -1/2 turkens from crossing him over non turken hens correct? Also gunna cross the little white hen to him. .. or one of my best typed cochin roos...

And as a random bonus .. my standard turken roo

Somehow I did not catch on he was already NN! That's a very nice bird. Cool colors and pattern. If you don't want to fight poor chochin type I'd just breed him over pure cochins. With the white NN hen he will make cute birds but a bit away from cochin type.

Him over a cochin= half NN half not. Mind, with small hatches it will always seem to skew towards more or less NN or not.

Him over the white NN hen= 75% NN. Most of these will have big bowties.. the pure for NN often will seem to be something like average of one out every 4ish NN with big bowties.


That LH rooster is beautiful. Not too often you see such a clean white body with a clean black tail!

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

@Fire Ant Farm - if you ever find that larger scale, please let me know where, make, model etc. I've been searching for one for a long time for the reasons. The do NOT like standing on that scale once they reach a certain size. Not that I blame them. I never like standing on the scale either.

Quote:
Weighing really is a big pain, esp. since I'm raising so many birds this year. I just keep reminding myself that the data is really valuable. I missed the 2 week start of weighing for the Aloha NNs, but they are kinda small, so I'm going to start weighing them at 3 weeks.

I think I'm going to start looking into hanging scales that I can move and hang in the coop. After all, once they're out of the brooders, trying to use a stand-on scale (and have it level and get an accurate reading) is a nightmare.

- Ant Farm