Recent content by Newbean

While everyone is updating, I should probably as well. We failed at surgery at 6 weeks. We didn't lose the bird, but couldn't find the manly bits. We tried on both sides and never succeeded. It was a good experience though. It is much different than butchering a bird because of all of the...

Just wanted to throw my hat into the ring. We're having a capon experiment of our own. We like being somewhat independent and self sufficient. Add to that my father who can't eat much of the meat available at the store due to all the additives. We had been talking about getting Free Rangers...

some say you shouldn't. I've never had a problem. Maybe its just luck. I don't know. Last year I had turkeys in runs recently occupied with chickens with no problem. this time around I picked up 22 turkeys and 4 silkies. They are sharing an outside coop that was occupied by chickens...

silkies. I have both. The silkie goes broody easier. With good timing, you will get 2 hatches for sure, and possibly a 3rd. And thats with her raising them. With my cochins, I'm lucky to get 2 hatches...

I have 2 cochins and a silkie that I use regularly for hatching. I've found that they can successfully cover about 5-6 eggs. Any more and that was when my hatch rate went down. I just don't think they can cover more than that. Of course, I am talking about regular large eggs from my full sized...

they are a heritage breed. I'm not certain. They were given to me. My best guess is a bronze or a merriam, or another breed along those lines. when their wings are stretched the feathers are brown and white striped.

We just had our thanksgiving turkeys butchered, and we are pretty sure that we saved the mom and dad back to breed again next year. But I want to make sure. I have a feeling of dread that I made a mistake. Can anyone help verify that I have a female here and not 2 males? The male is much...

My older turkeys do tend to stay inside the pasture fence. But if they get spooked, with end up outside. When the hen had the babies and they would go through the pasture fence and eat on the other side, she would go over or through (she had lost some weight when on the nest) to follow them...

ok, long story short a pair of turkeys were given to me. Problem #1 - They free range 100% of the time. I'm worried about this for the winter. The hen managed to hatch 11 turkeys this past July. she raised them free range until they started to wander into the neighbors yards. they were...

I need some help. I've been trying to breed my own sexlinks and I've run into a hiccup. I've been successful with Black sexlinks and was trying for golden sexlinks and cinnamon queens (or whatever they're called). The birds - I've got a RIR rooster and RI whites and Silver laced wyandottes...

I had a silkie hatch 5 about a week ago. We lost 1 chick who dove into a bucket of water (first time letting the hens raise the chicks and it was a rookie mistake. didn't think they could get in!) she hatched out 4 RIR and 1 looks like either a black sex link or a barred rock. I have a splash...

Don't forget that you also need to pay for any damage your dog did to his coop. Also, I would err on the side of generosity when coming to an offer of $$. Yeah, a bag of feed, the initial cost of the animal, but you aren't even considering the time and effort - months and months, maybe a...

but would they lay like a sex link?

The father was a RIR, the mother was a golden sex link or golden rocket based on what she looked like and how she laid. I bought her from someone on Craigslist. So don't have her parents or anything like that. Or his for that matter. I'm still a newbie after 2 years.