If it's the one I think she's (((JGXRIR)XRIR)xBA). There is a slight possibility that she's one of the EE crosses (same father) but they've just hit 16 weeks so it's probably a bit early. The BA cross is 20 weeks. The BA laid distinctly pink eggs. These are the same pink, just with a blue tint...
From my perspective, if I am paying for a rare breed I am, by my financial support, contributing to its continued survival. I feel no guilt at doing whatever I want with the birds. If I didn’t buy the chicks, they would get no support from me at all.
It would be a different matter if I...
All of the above. Comb and wattles are way too pale for a cockerel that age. Even those who mature later all have that one thing in common. The picture isn't clear enough to say for sure, but I see no pointy hackle feathers. No dangling or pointy saddle feathers or other boy feathers on the...
In my experience, between 24 and 30 weeks. If they haven't settled by 30 weeks, I assume they're not going to.
I let the girls make the decision of who to keep. They won't stick around an abusive rooster if they have a choice, so often the bad ones end up free ranging by themselves. If the hens...
Attacking the young girls who are not ready to mate is one of my zero tolerance behaviors. I get rid of any roo that tries this. In the most recent generations, only those bred outside my flock have shown this behavior. In the first few generations it was quite common, but I seem to have...
Since I only harvest enough for slips the following spring, the kitchen counter or a cardboard box is usually sufficient.
As well as the tubers, they make amazing fat feeder roots that dig deep. I let them die over the winter and all that turns into new soil and breaks up the clay.
Depending...
The BYM is gone. The girls avoided him, he was wandering alone, and he was going after the 12 week pullets so he was eliminated last night.
I let the other out this morning and he has already acquired a couple groupies. He went rather nuts chasing the girls when I first let him out, but he...
I put the final two girls up in the rafters and they didn't skip a beat. The next night they were up there without coaxing.
So ten. Five still to shift, which I believe includes 3 Kraienkoppe (all boys) and at least 1 girl which I believe is American Game.
I had two boys that I was dithering...
I usually use them for soil conditioning, but I keep some for slips the following year. I have never bothered to cure them as such, just harvested after the first frost and spread them out to dry for a couple weeks. I have close to 100% long term survival. I can't speak to flavor.
Not
Not the least of which is that sometimes the post office decides to irradiate packages for "safety." If I can grow it myself, harvest and plant my own seeds, I know precisely what I've got, how it was grown, and I have more seeds for 0 cost.
I do as well. For the most part, the only commercial seeds that come into my house at this point are gifts.
This year, when I'm starting adaptation to a new area and new soil, some of my dry sand desert adapted seeds didn't do well with cold wet clay, so I had to start over and buy some things.