***Edit: discovered it is green muscle disease. ***
Processing our meat birds today. Going along nicely and then I cut into this one. What the heck is wrong with this bird? The b breast meat is the only place I saw it. The leg & thigh meat seemed normal. Nothing smells bad.
Out of caution, I...
I have 5 of them from Hoovers, 27 weeks old, started laying at 23-24 weeks. These are the eggs I’m getting from them. I’ve done a lot of spying on the chicken cam to figure out who is laying what. The speckled one, I was actually standing in front of the hen when she laid. The one next to it...
This past spring we let a broody hen sit on a mixed clutch. The rooster was Light Brahma and I chose eggs from Light Brahma and from Easter Eggers. The EE mix hens are coming into lay and I’m amazed by the outcome. The eggs are beautiful so far. One olive and one lighter olive with brown spots...
It’s just part of having chickens. My rooster even gets in on the squawking some days. Not sure there’s anything to be done about it short of just not having chickens.
One of my flock laid this pretty egg today. Not sure what breed, but I thought it was interesting because of the lighter spots. I have several breeds: buff Orpington, Welsummer, gold lace Wyandotte, cinnamon queen, light Brahma, and EE. I can eliminate EE because all six of them lay either pale...
After a horrendous day yesterday of losing our rooster and two hens, along with more than 8 of our neighbor’s flock to roaming dogs, and said dogs being put down, I figured our girls’ first lay wouldn’t happen this week. I figured too much stress would delay them.
But this morning, I heard the...
I do hand feed them scratch in the evenings. Yesterday I held her to the ground firmly until she calmed, let her up and did it again. I’ll continue this method and hopefully she will figure out who’s boss.
She’s 100% definitely not a cockerel. She’s identical in size and stature to my other cinnamon queens, and her comb is actually smaller than a couple of the others. I think she’s just mean.
My flock of 25 pullets and one cockerel are 19 weeks old. Some of the girls look about ready to come into lay. They are all generally friendly birds, with the exception of one very aggressive cinnamon queen. It’s as if she identifies as a cockerel. 😂 She takes a defensive stance when I enter the...
Ok. I’m stumped. What breed is this beauty? My order included Welsummer, Cinnamon queen, and EE. Her feathers make me say cinnamon queen, but that comb is throwing me. She’s also a fairly large bird, so not leaning toward EE. Could be the hatchery threw in something random? 😂
My flock consists of 4 week old chicks of the following breeds: “Americana”(EE), Welsummer, cinnamon queen, gold lace Wyandotte, & buff Orpington. I ordered all females, from Hoover’s.
This particular one is much more aggressive than all the other chicks, has a longer neck, and very thick...
Our previous flock was dual purpose. We sold eggs, kept a lot for our own use (Mayo, angel food cake, etc) and we harvested the meat last fall (they make great braised dishes like cacciatore).
After butchering our flock last fall and taking a long RV trip, we have started a new flock!
Ordered an assortment of 30 females from Hoover’s and received them Feb 24. 10 EE, 5 Buff Orp, 5 Cinnamon queen, 5 Gold Lace Wyandotte, 5 Welsummer.
Two Welsummers were DOA and one buff Orpington...
Heading out for an extended trip and butchering our flock over a month’s time. Today we harvested 9 hens about 18 months old. I was amazed at the quality meat and volume of fat. Mix of Jersey giant and EEs. We rendered 20 oz of Schmaltz. Scrambled the un-laid eggs and fed to the remaining flock...