A Journey Through a Different Way - Funny Story Pg. 69

[beefy]

Ruth a lot of my birds are related. in fact, all my mutts are. i started out with 5--all siblings. had 3 hatches from those totaling 20 chicks. all of those were very healthy (although one is missing her nail on her bird fingers). now taht some of those are adults they are breeding with their father/uncle but i dont plan on allowing anymore to hatch. as far as inbreeding goes it will increase homozygosity so this can result in more bad (usually recessive) traits being expressed overtime. by breeding Ruth's two offspring i think you would come out ok though, and in theory the resulting chicks should resemble their grandparents morso than their own parents.

 

[ruth]

Thanks Beefy - that's very helpful. I think the daddy is my big red Ameraucana who was supposed to be a true blue and came from a blue/green egg and even the breeder says she doesn't know why he ended up red. But Ruth was not blue, she was grey so these two babies got their blueness from somewhere and you're probably right, the daddy isn't blue (nor the mama) but the paternal granddaddy is.

 

[kyeschicks]

which is better to buy a golden comet or a salmon faverolle?

 

[ruth]

Quote:
Hi and welcome to BYC. I have no idea of the answer to your question but you might get lots of answers if you post it under it's own thread in another forum like Breeds, Genetics, etc.

Good luck.

 

[hcammack]

Quote:
Welcome to BYC this is not a good section for that type of question post under the breeds and genetics section and you will get answers there. I will answer your question on the new post I will not make Ruth's great post go of topic by answering it here.

Henry

 

[hcammack]

Ruth when would you put chicks out when the weather is in the 50's during the day and low 30's during the night? I have my blue and black copper in the shed with a light on them but would love to have them out in the tractor on grass and I am sure they would love it to. They would have a red heat lamp on them. I could also cover the three open sides of the tractor with clear plastic during the night.

What do you suggest they have been in for about 3 weeks.

Henry

 

[ruth]

Hi Henry - in my humble opinion, three week old chicks can go outside on a sunny day in 50 degree weather. Make sure they are in sunshine and just watch them. If they are running around and playing, as I suspect they will, they are fine. If they start huddling together, which I've never personally seen my chicks do in cool sunny weather, then bring them in. As far as being outside at night in 30s - if there is heat provided and no drafts they'll be warm. Just make sure they are secure and safe if you are using a tractor and if you cover it in plastic and have heat lamps, they'll be nice and toasty. I had that first batch that started this thread out in that hutch in 30s and draped plastic over it. Nearly baked them alive one night when, for extra warmth I put a heavy blanket over plastic. When I lifted the plastic the next morning I could feel the blast of heat that had nowhere to escape and it felt like an Easy Bake Oven in their hutch and they had drank all their water. So go easy on the winterizing.

Right now I have baby ducks, two weeks old, who are sleeping outside, on the ground with nothing and some nights have gotten down to 40s. I was originally trying to catch them and put them in duck house where I had a heat lamp but they would not stay in and kept running out. I finally decided that if they got cold enough they could go in on their own but they seem to like it outside which is where the big ones always sleep. One night I had DH "help" me because it was supposed to get to low 30s and we caught all the baby ducks and put them in a kennel with a light inside the duck house. Next morning we discovered that all the smallest ones had escaped through the gaps at bottom of hutch. Only the larger and older babies were still in hutch. So now I don't even bother with leaving a light on in coop.

 

[miss_jayne]

Quote:
i second all of this. if it gets too warm inside the coop, they also go in and out from extreme temps which, just like us, can really bring the body's resistance down. making one weak and more vulnerable to colds and what -not.

 

[ruth]

I agree Miss Jayne - it's best to let the chicks get acclimated to whatever temps your region has. There is a thread right now that's titled "How cold is too cold?" or something like that - and you'll see where people are posting that their chickens are out in -20 below and sleeping outside - their coops have no heat. Mrs. A.K.Birdbrain has a thread also about her chickens running around in negative degree weather.

I don't use heat lamps in my brooder/hutch outside during the summer time because it's already so hot and muggy and in the winter time, I only use it the first couple of weeks and then start turning it off during the day and on at night for another couple of weeks. By 4 weeks the chicks are feathered and running around and no longer get extra heat.

I've found, just from watching my brooder boxes, that extra heat seems worse than a little cool - they get lethargic and don't run around like they should and don't eat or drink like they should.

And in the summer time, most people on BYC report their chickens are dropping dead from the heat - but in the winter time you don't see many people posting that their chickens froze to death while running around outside.

Of course, the type of confinement also enters into the equation. If they can run around and have enough space they can regulate their body temps better. If they are locked in a hot or cold box, there's not much they can do.

 

[hcammack]

The tractor has plenty of space and I have started putting them out during the day I think next week they will be outside every day come in for the night for another week and then be out all the time. Thank you for the advice.

Henry