I've been working with a non-profit that promotes animal welfare and sustainable farming. The website (EthicalAgriculture.Org) officially launches on Jan 1st, but we've just started a Facebook page to help promote what we're doing. Check it out, give us a "like", and please share any posts you...
I have about 200 chickens in several different flocks. Some are in small breeding flocks of 10 hens and a rooster, and then a flock of about 90 hens and 10 roosters in a pastured hoop house that is moved to fresh grass every day.
The hens in the pasture had been laying about a month when they...
Does the speckled sussex breed have the mottled gene (mo) or is the
color pattern the result of something else?
I'm asking because I'm looking for a good dual-purpose breed that
has the mottled gene. I have Anconas but they don't have much meat
on them plus they are a bit on the wild side!
The newest proof my wife has that I'm a total wacko:
We will be using this as a day-range shelter during the growing season with a 165' poultry netting surrounding it.
I might need to put a shade cloth or tarp on it during parts of the summer or risk turning it into a giant solar oven.
It's...
Now that we actually have had some rain, you can really see how pasture reacts to the chicken tractor.
Here you can see how the chicken tractor got its name. Even these small birds really tear up
the ground. These are 5 week old white rock cockerels(soon to be capons) and my daughter's
EE...
I have a solid black duckling that hatched out of a clutch of silver appleyards. They are pure appleyards from Holderread show quality stock. There is no chance that any other drake contributed to the gene pool so this duckling is pure appleyard.
Has anyone ever heard of a black appleyard?
Here are some 2nd generation Freedom Rangers. There are some Blue sex-links, Black sex-links, and a few CX in there as well.
In the bottom photo you can see an F2 Ranger cockerel next to three Blue sex-link cockerels that where all hatched on the same day. Those 4 were 5 weeks old in that photo.
Sd -- Sex Link Dilution. Reported by Munro (1946) Closely associated with Sex Linked Barring (B) Sd males are barred, Sd Sd males are white. Sd females are bluish ghost barred, sd females are barred.
Does anyone have any information on this gene?
such as:
- Whats the common name for this...
I saw firsthand today how not to transport your mature breeding stock.
I have a friend who is working with me to start a little micro-hatchery as
a hobby. We each can only have so many breeding pens on our meager
properties so he will raise some breeds and I'll work on others.
Anyway, he...
After having dug to a depth of 10 feet lastyear,NewYork
scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 100
years and came to the conclusion, that their ancestors
already had a telephone network more than 100 years
ago.
Not to be outdone by the New Yorkers, in the weeks that
followed a...
I have lost many birds (and rabbits!) to owls, dogs, opposums, and racoons.
It seems whatever I put outside is considered a buffet by the local wildlife.
So I finally built something that seems to keep them out.
Here it is during constructon:
Its roughly 50' x 50'. Its 6' high chicken wire...
PULLIET (played by a barred rock pullet):
O Roostero, Roostero! Wherefore art thou Roostero?
Deny thy butcher and refuse thy name;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I'll no longer be a barred rock.
ROOSTERO (played by a big red rooster):
Shall I hear more, or shall I crow...
Does anyone know anywhere to get barred hollands
that actually lay white eggs?
Or can you tell me where NOT to get them from because
they wind up laying brown eggs.
One of my ducks laid her 1st egg last week. She has been laying about
two eggs every three days. Here is a pic of her 1st egg beside her latest:
WOW! That is a huge difference. Is this the normal changes in the eggs
of a new layer?
We were walking out to the coop this afternoon and found an egg.
It was a nice, brown chicken egg but it was ouside of our pen.
After looking around, look what we found outside the pen as well.
She must have slipped out yesterday when we were cleaning and fixing
the coop. I think its funny...
I have a flock of Freedom Rangers and Muscovys from JM Hatchery and
am hoping to breed my own replacements.
I ran out of feed and had to go get more today. Well, since I was thinking
they might be getting nearer to laying I guessed that it might be time
to switch from broiler feed to laying...