Recent content by CowgirlJules

Amy Beth, he has a rose comb. The bantams' combs look very slightly different in texture than the large fowl's do, at least to me. They're very pretty, and have a good shape. The only chickens I have left are six bantam Partridge Wyandottes.

Amy Beth, my Andalusians were good layers in the heat, but they did drop off in the winter.

I'm having health issues and my husband is getting tired of caring for my birds, so I need to reduce my flock some more. Is anyone interested in two mature toms, a Black Mottled and a Blue Palm, both from Porters? I also have six half-grown turks that show black mottled but may have some Blue...

Amy, my ducks are huge (Jumbo Pekins) but the ones that don't just drop eggs everywhere lay in an old plastic dog house. They can get in and turn around, and I can just lift the roof to get the eggs. My runner likes to make her own nest, and has claimed the whole chicken coop while she's...

You see a lot of game birds for sale on craigslist. But I went as far as getting the application to raise them domestically, and one of the things they want to know is where you got your stock. I didn't have any yet, but I imagine it would be pretty hard to document the birds you had if you got...

Pheasants, like Valleys and Mountains, are a regulated game bird, and to raise them you need a permit from DFG, and from US Fish and Wildlife for migratory birds (which these are not.) And they require some serious fencing, I believe. I've never got into them. I was just keeping the quail to...

Amy, I bought my quail for eating, but then I discovered that Coturnix dont taste much like wild quail. I don't care for the meat all that much. We eat the eggs; they're pretty good layers, but they're more of a novelty. I'll be getting rid of mine soon, as I have enough to feed without added...

Since he's crowing and has definite hackle feathers, it's pretty clear that he's a cockerel even without a good shot of the comb.

Those red shoulders are a pretty typical cockerel coloring for EEs.

Ha ha, no! But I have been known to show people how to do it themselves now and then. It's really not all that hard. I am self taught from threads on here, but I do have a lot of experience butchering and processing other things, from college and from hunting. I don't have a plucker or anything...

Yes, Hello Kitty is a cockerel. He has very distinctive hackle and saddle feathers - the long, thin ones along the back of his neck and right above his tail. That's a rooster trait. I think your buff colored chicken is probably a pullet.

Spoiled, but it's not a blood-and-guts photo, just the finished product: I didn't have anyone with me to take pictures this time.

A little more, but not a ton. My usual scalding pot caused most of the hold up. Perfectly fine for chickens, but too small for turkeys or ducks. And the feathers were a little harder, but the body cavity was bigger and easier to get into than the little cockerels I process when I have extra that...

Amy Beth, my non-hatchery Wyandottes were a little slower to POL than a hatchery bird would be, maybe 22 weeks? They laid about every other day, and the heat didn't seem to bother them much. They produced a much bigger carcass than any of the hatchery birds I ever had too. The best layers that I...

That splash to the far right looks like a pullet to me.