The Middle Tennessee Thread

[Ravynscroft]

 

[Penny Hen]

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope everyone had a good one. I got some pictures of my chickens on the phone camera but have no idea how to upload them to my computer. I will have to borrow my son-in-laws phone and have him email them to me.

One of the cockerels I have is out of the Sapphire hen, Tizzy, that I got from Donna. She was crossed with my Silver OE and he is blue barred on his neck, back, shoulders and tail and solid blue on his chest and belly, His tail bars are two inches wide. He has a yellow beak, yellow legs and YELLOW EARLOBES! Has anyone seen yellow earlobes before? He is so stunning that it makes me want to try to breed some EE's for this color pattern. Anyone have an idea what color hens would most likely help produce that? The Silver roo was out of Bev's OE's (Marans/Am/EE).

I also have a white roo with what looks like a lemon glaze on his feathers. He is out of Tizzy and the Bantam Silver Penciled Wyandotte roo. He is extreamely hadsome in a swashbuckling way with his single spiked rosecomb and is exceptional at free ranging. His choice in roosts are always safe from owl attack.

And a got a Chickem "garden gnome" for Christmas! I will have to show you a picture of that too.

 

[DMRippy]

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope everyone had a good one. I got some pictures of my chickens on the phone camera but have no idea how to upload them to my computer. I will have to borrow my son-in-laws phone and have him email them to me.

One of the cockerels I have is out of the Sapphire hen, Tizzy, that I got from Donna. She was crossed with my Silver OE and he is blue barred on his neck, back, shoulders and tail and solid blue on his chest and belly, His tail bars are two inches wide. He has a yellow beak, yellow legs and YELLOW EARLOBES! Has anyone seen yellow earlobes before? He is so stunning that it makes me want to try to breed some EE's for this color pattern. Anyone have an idea what color hens would most likely help produce that? The Silver roo was out of Bev's OE's (Marans/Am/EE).

I also have a white roo with what looks like a lemon glaze on his feathers. He is out of Tizzy and the Bantam Silver Penciled Wyandotte roo. He is extreamely hadsome in a swashbuckling way with his single spiked rosecomb and is exceptional at free ranging. His choice in roosts are always safe from owl attack.

And a got a Chickem "garden gnome" for Christmas! I will have to show you a picture of that too.

I have a pen of Cockerels that I am feeding some corn and man the yellow is POPPING in that pen. Leghorns I didn't know for sure had yellow legs are expressing it in that pen... also yellowing the ear lobes. If you feed is corn based might try something else and see if it goes away.

 

[Penny Hen]

I have a pen of Cockerels that I am feeding some corn and man the yellow is POPPING in that pen. Leghorns I didn't know for sure had yellow legs are expressing it in that pen... also yellowing the ear lobes. If you feed is corn based might try something else and see if it goes away.

I'll see if that is the case. Flamingos are actually white. It is their diet of shrimp that makes them pink. Still even if the ear lobes are just dyed yellow I am intrigued about the thought of seeing if I can stablize his color pattern (within the B/B/S range of course) for an Olive Egger/EE. I am going out to work on the chicken coop now and I will see if I can get a good picture of him.

I have too many beautiful roos. My senior roo Long John Silver died of old age this last week but left a son of the same silver mottled pattern only flashier and with a more Ameraucana comb. John's comb only looked pure Ameraucana because half of it froze the first year and I dubbed the damaged comb off. I lost my Bantam Wyandotte hen but she left behind a son of hers and Lord Argent that is a stunner. Then their is one of Long John's older sons that is a calico silver pattern with white and black and mahogany red splotches with silvery grey underfluff. He has arthritic feet because he hatched a day early and jumped to the floor of the incubator and broke his toes as a chick. He is in the coop with the hens. The other roos are free roaming at the moment. There is also the white swashbucking roo who is from Lord Argent (the bantam Wyandotte) and Tizzy (the Sapphire). He is the canniest at free ranging, always roosting where owls can't swoop in and nab him.

It occurs to me that putting up the hens and leaving the roos out to free range does have the effect of sorting out the better survivors who then get a chance to be housed with the hens to produce good free rangers.

 

[chick-a- doodle]

Assuming the above images have downloaded properly:
I currently have 4 "chicken tractors", full-time home of 18 hens and pullets. This is my second winter with chickens. I have really enjoyed the eggs and this adventure with pasture pens, but, I am planning to build a permanent run and coop this spring. My goal is to have grazing frames throughout a corridor, utilizing the hoop coops as "rooms" off the center run, as rotational grazing. I have not seen anything like this in my research thus far, so, I will be posting pictures about it later! I will be using the containers (pictured above) as new nest boxes (not stacked), so, I am going to introduce those to the girls previous to moving into the coop by simply putting one in each tractor in hopes they will recognize them in the coop later. Since the tractors are beside each other and they are familiar with each other as much as that allows, what kind of introduction method should I employ to get them to become one flock? I know there will be a period of jostling among them for rank. [Right now, each tractor's residents get along as a unit of 4 to 6 per tractor.] My theory is to add a group, which have been neighbors, to the roost at night. As neighbors, the 3 RIR & 2 WL hens have been beside the 5 sex-link pullets, who have been beside 1 PR hen w/2 BA pullets, who have been beside 4 BA pullets, and this was the order I was going to introduce them to each other without barriers. Or, should I just put them all in the coop one night and let them all wake up together and let them work it out then?

[I am not asking advice about size of run and coop. Just how to combine the separate tractor's residents into one flock with as little drama as possible!]

Donna

 

[rjohns39]

I will be interested in what others think about this. I had two cornish X recovering from injury next to my dels. As they grew I moved them all to the same shelter and all seemed fine for a few days, then one day I came out and the dels had killed both cornish.

 

[GardenWren]

Assuming the above images have downloaded properly:
I currently have 4 "chicken tractors", full-time home of 18 hens and pullets. This is my second winter with chickens. I have really enjoyed the eggs and this adventure with pasture pens, but, I am planning to build a permanent run and coop this spring. My goal is to have grazing frames throughout a corridor, utilizing the hoop coops as "rooms" off the center run, as rotational grazing. I have not seen anything like this in my research thus far, so, I will be posting pictures about it later! I will be using the containers (pictured above) as new nest boxes (not stacked), so, I am going to introduce those to the girls previous to moving into the coop by simply putting one in each tractor in hopes they will recognize them in the coop later. Since the tractors are beside each other and they are familiar with each other as much as that allows, what kind of introduction method should I employ to get them to become one flock? I know there will be a period of jostling among them for rank. [Right now, each tractor's residents get along as a unit of 4 to 6 per tractor.] My theory is to add a group, which have been neighbors, to the roost at night. As neighbors, the 3 RIR & 2 WL hens have been beside the 5 sex-link pullets, who have been beside 1 PR hen w/2 BA pullets, who have been beside 4 BA pullets, and this was the order I was going to introduce them to each other without barriers. Or, should I just put them all in the coop one night and let them all wake up together and let them work it out then?

[I am not asking advice about size of run and coop. Just how to combine the separate tractor's residents into one flock with as little drama as possible!]

Donna

In my personal opinion, I would integrate them all together at once. They're going to squabble for pecking order status regardless how you do it, but if done all together, it'd be "one and done". I would also think, in theory, one mass introduction/integration would be less stressful in the long run, esepically since they'll all be introduced into "neutral" territory. I'd just be sure to keep a close eye on them and be ready incase serious pecking occurs.

 

[chick-a- doodle]

I will be interested in what others think about this.  I had two cornish X recovering from injury next to my dels.  As they grew I moved them all to the same shelter and all seemed fine for a few days, then one day I came out and the dels had killed both cornish.

I did have to separate a few that were not getting along, but, I found a good balance. Except, one sex-link pullet, I had to sell b/c she was being picked on by the other sex-links, and I couldn't take it! I will certainly watch for any aggressors, in case I can step in before it comes to death.

 

[memphis]

Hey folks! Anyone going to have Sweetgrass or Tri-Mottled turkeys this spring? Or even Calico or Narri. Let me know.

 

[Wasson6Pack]

Hey folks! Anyone going to have Sweetgrass or Tri-Mottled turkeys this spring? Or even Calico or Narri. Let me know.

I'm interested too! I will have a sweetgrass pen and a Narragansett pen this year. Unfortunately when we bought ours from Porters we ended up with only 4 females out of the 12 birds were have left. I have a royal pain female, but her mate will be a Narragansett for now. These guys were born early last May and should start laying soon, I Hope!

I am looking into getting some blue slate as well.