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For the first time in several years I hatched out more pullets than cockerels. I've already eaten most of the cockerels. The pullets look okay except most of them are small. Very small. And the smallest ones were sired by my largest cock. Grr. The size difference was evident from the day they...

In my opinion the back line is important because it is a significant part of the overall appearance of the breed. I don't think it is particularly important to production values unless you've got an extreme. Evaluating the back line can be tricky. I watch each bird carefully as it moves...

I hate culling cockerels. They are so young and full of themselves and they haven't had much chance to live yet. If I had nothing but good birds I'd try to sell them rather than eat them. Not there yet, One of today's culls is an almost decent bird. My largest cockerel, longest back in the...

This evening I was separating pullets from cockerels, noting weights and physical features in the process. One cockerel had a back so roached it felt like he had half a tennis ball stuck on his spine. Yikes! The gentle curves I had considered roached backs in the past were nothing compared to...

Some of these numbers are not making sense to me. 84 weeks is over a year and a half old. 70 weeks is well over a year old. Did they mean 84 and 70 days?

I've been trying to increase the size of the birds in my flock. Figured if I paired my biggest hen with my biggest cock they'd produce big chicks. Ironically that cross produced some of the smallest birds in my flock. I did get a couple of decent size birds from them but nowhere near the results...

Hope my iPad lets me respond. I haven't been able to get Ovations to work. Love this whole discussion. I got my foundation stock of Black Javas from Urch. After the dogs broke into my yard and killed half my flock I picked up some more Javas from a friend who has been working with his line...

Well done! And your birds are beautiful. Keep up the good work!

I'm not fond of showing either, but I'd rather show than have a root canal. Showing is helpful for getting feedback on the birds. You can always drop off your birds and then leave for a while. It helps break up the tedium.

Time to cull more hens to free up a pen for this year's grow-out. Decisions were getting difficult. My "laying flock" is starting to look pretty good. (They are my back-up breeders.) One cull decision just became easy. Egg production in a pen of 9 hens dropped overnight from 6 eggs a day to two...

HaHaHaHaHa!!! Isn't chicken-washing FUN? Not. I usually let my birds air-dry when it's warm out. They will tolerate being picked up and carried around, but they want nothing to do with blow-drying. I do my best to make them presentable (aka not filthy) and leave it at that. If I ever had a...

It's a spring show, Bee. You won't be the only one there with rangey-looking birds. No worries. At our local shows people sometimes slip cardboard between the cages to prevent fights. Should be okay, but you might want to check with the folks running the show first. Hope you got a video of...

My hoop coop goes through 2-3 tarps/year. Even UV resistant tarps can't take the sun and the heat here in southern Arizona. Over the long term the hoop coop has been way more expensive than my frame coops that have plywood and shingle roofs, due to the constant need for tarp replacement. I won't...