Adorae’s Family Flock and Farm

[Adorae]

The whiting True Blues

 

[Adorae]

Turken/Naked Necks

 

[Adorae]

Silkies

 

[Adorae]

Lakenvelders

 

[Adorae]

Columbian Rocks

 

[Adorae]

The Columbian Rocks and the Naked Necks are getting some heft to them. You can tell there's a difference between them and the egg layers or decorative birds in the flock. I kind of expected more from the Dark Cornish, but they are still pretty small and light weight, though some of their legs are looking thick. I have read that LF Cornish are slow to develop.

All the babies have been practicing flying. I feel so bad that they are running out of space to move around in. I'm really hoping to get them out in the coop to finish brooding after this weekend is over. I still need to get the wall under the eve's up and finish the plywood around the inside so that I can paint it with the rubber paint stuff before I can move the babies in.

One of my Whiting True Blues, the dark brown one, is starting to show some barring, which is interesting. Also another bird that stands out is a big Columbian Rock that seems to be extra curious. I'm gonna go on a limb that it's a cockerel. He likes to investigate everything I put into the brooder, but isn't much of a fan to being handled.

One of the white Silkies is noticeably bigger than the other. Both of them and the dark blue are bigger than the light blue one and the 2 blacks. But it will be another 6 weeks before I am suppose to be able to determine which are pullets or cockerels.

All of the chickens are Straight Run except the Whiting True Blues. Of those I am suppose to have 7 pullets and 3 cockerels, but they weren't labeled in any way so it'll be a while before I can determine whose is who. I'm going to try to spend some time with them this weekend to see if any of their combs and wattles stand out.

 

[Adorae]

I have a friend that will be teaching me how to process some of the boys when they hit 20 weeks. So I think starting at 10 weeks I will start weighing the meat birds every two weeks to determine which will need to go. So that will be the Dark Cornish, the Columbian Rocks, and the Naked Necks.

The idea of weighing them every 2 weeks is to determine when each group reaches a respectable weight to process, and kind of get my baseline set for my meat bird project. If the Dark Cornish are really behind by 20 weeks, I might exclude them from my plans. I may likely have to get some breeder stock for what I am wanting. If they have respectable breast meat, but are lacking in size, then I can work on that with some hybridizing. I'm wanting 4lbs dressed weight with a good balance of white to dark meat by 12 weeks? I have no idea if that's a crazy goal yet or not.

My plans for the Whiting True Blues is to breed the white and the blue colors to continue my egg flock, and I will allow the brown\red colored pullets to lay, but will remove any brown\red boys. hopefully I have at least one cockerel in the white\blue group. I am hoping to sell the blue eggs at the farmers market to help offset the costs of feeding all of the chickens. Also for my own eggs. Right now I'm not a huge fan of how flighty they are, and I'm somewhat worried about containing them in the electric fence when they start going outside. I guess if they wonder off then that shows it wasn't meant to be.

Then the reason for the Silkies. I got the Silkies for a couple reasons. The first one being to hopefully brood chicks for me, so I will not have the hassle of trying to brood all of the chickens I plan to do. The 2nd being their dark meat. My Sister in Law is Korean and has loosely expressed an interest in the black chicken meat. The problems with Silkies as is, are that they are tiny, which makes it hard for them to brood many eggs at a time, but also that there is very little meat on them. So I would like to do a Giant Silkie project like a few other people have done here on BYC. Mine will be slightly different because I have a few quirks I want to change on mine. I'm not a fan of feathered feet. Here in Missouri my land is mostly clay soil and when the runs get muddy, the poor birds will be a mess. So my "Silkies" will not have leg feathering. I also adore blues eggs, so I will breed that into them. And I would love to try to move them into a single comb if possible. I understand that I may only be able to get them to Pea comb if I want them to lay blue eggs.

Other future bird plans include getting some English Orpingtons. I adore the look of those birds and I am interested in breeding and showing them. I haven't gotten them for my first chickens, because they are expensive, and if I end up making mistakes, I don't want to make those mistakes on expensive chicks. So far I think everything has been great though with these current babies.

 

[notabitail]

I have a friend that will be teaching me how to process some of the boys when they hit 20 weeks. So I think starting at 10 weeks I will start weighing the meat birds every two weeks to determine which will need to go. So that will be the Dark Cornish, the Columbian Rocks, and the Naked Necks.

The idea of weighing them every 2 weeks is to determine when each group reaches a respectable weight to process, and kind of get my baseline set for my meat bird project. If the Dark Cornish are really behind by 20 weeks, I might exclude them from my plans. I may likely have to get some breeder stock for what I am wanting. If they have respectable breast meat, but are lacking in size, then I can work on that with some hybridizing. I'm wanting 4lbs dressed weight with a good balance of white to dark meat by 12 weeks? I have no idea if that's a crazy goal yet or not.

My plans for the Whiting True Blues is to breed the white and the blue colors to continue my egg flock, and I will allow the brown\red colored pullets to lay, but will remove any brown\red boys. hopefully I have at least one cockerel in the white\blue group. I am hoping to sell the blue eggs at the farmers market to help offset the costs of feeding all of the chickens. Also for my own eggs. Right now I'm not a huge fan of how flighty they are, and I'm somewhat worried about containing them in the electric fence when they start going outside. I guess if they wonder off then that shows it wasn't meant to be.

Then the reason for the Silkies. I got the Silkies for a couple reasons. The first one being to hopefully brood chicks for me, so I will not have the hassle of trying to brood all of the chickens I plan to do. The 2nd being their dark meat. My Sister in Law is Korean and has loosely expressed an interest in the black chicken meat. The problems with Silkies as is, are that they are tiny, which makes it hard for them to brood many eggs at a time, but also that there is very little meat on them. So I would like to do a Giant Silkie project like a few other people have done here on BYC. Mine will be slightly different because I have a few quirks I want to change on mine. I'm not a fan of feathered feet. Here in Missouri my land is mostly clay soil and when the runs get muddy, the poor birds will be a mess. So my "Silkies" will not have leg feathering. I also adore blues eggs, so I will breed that into them. And I would love to try to move them into a single comb if possible. I understand that I may only be able to get them to Pea comb if I want them to lay blue eggs.

Other future bird plans include getting some English Orpingtons. I adore the look of those birds and I am interested in breeding and showing them. I haven't gotten them for my first chickens, because they are expensive, and if I end up making mistakes, I don't want to make those mistakes on expensive chicks. So far I think everything has been great though with these current babies.

You should get some Buff Orpingtons. They are easy and friendly.
Your chickens look great!

 

[Adorae]

Thank you! I'm not sure about getting any buff. I'm not a fan of the red/orange colors.

 

[notabitail]

Thank you! I'm not sure about getting any buff. I'm not a fan of the red/orange colors.

I like the darker colors better. Abigail is reddish but brown as well.