Wow - I don't even know where to start. I've been away from BYC for 2 days, and I come back to find myself 350 posts behind (took all afternoon to catch up, but it's a good way to pass a snowy day), and to find the ONLY OTHER thread I read locked and Bee gone! I'm over 120 posts behind there, too. Whatever happened, I hope Bee will come back to the OT thread soon. The reason I love the OT thread - the realistic approach to chicken raising. I've had chickens off and on for over 25 years. Other than an unsupervised 10-month old lab puppy (ours - lesson learned), owls one year when the chickens chose to roost in the trees and coyotes one year (after they cleaned out all of our barn cats) we haven't had alot of losses due to predators and none to disease. Then I started reading BYC and learned of so many other things that I'd never seen or heard of. As far as I know, we've never had a huge problem with worms. No respiratory issues, or bumblefoot. They didn't freeze their feet when because they couldn't cover them on a 2x4 roost. I live in MN - if they were going to freeze their feet it would likely happen here. Anyway, I just wanted to say that I appreciate all the good information here.
I was reading a few pages back about breeding, leg-banding and toe punching. I'm going to breed my Buckeyes this spring, but my plan is so much more simple than all I've read here. I'm not breeding for anything other than to have some eggs and meat, so my plan was to band my current hens and rooster. Process their offspring for however many years my hens keep laying and then start over with fresh hens and maybe rooster if I need to. Does that seem like a reasonable approach for what my goals are? I have 6 hens and my rooster will be coming soon. I do have some other chickens running around that I will also be using for egg production.
Thanks again Al, Walt, Fred, and especially Bee for your valuable advice.
PS - Fred, go for the pink incubator! It's so cute!
I was reading a few pages back about breeding, leg-banding and toe punching. I'm going to breed my Buckeyes this spring, but my plan is so much more simple than all I've read here. I'm not breeding for anything other than to have some eggs and meat, so my plan was to band my current hens and rooster. Process their offspring for however many years my hens keep laying and then start over with fresh hens and maybe rooster if I need to. Does that seem like a reasonable approach for what my goals are? I have 6 hens and my rooster will be coming soon. I do have some other chickens running around that I will also be using for egg production.
Thanks again Al, Walt, Fred, and especially Bee for your valuable advice.
PS - Fred, go for the pink incubator! It's so cute!