Alaska Chicken Lover's Soup for the Cold!!

[Mrs MIA]

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The BCM roo was in the layer coop... he was just laying out there in the middle of the run with a flock of girls pecking at him. He could have gone anywhere to get away from them...

I just don't get it. He's missing the sphincter muscles, so he has no control over his bum at the moment...

It's not horrible, but I don't have much hope. But you know me... I've got him in a hospital brooder by himself, letting him settle down and heal a little. We'll see.

I wish I had room to work with all the breeds I'd like to have, but we're trying to downsize to a manageable flock... but thank you for the offer. I'm still going to put her in with Bob to see what we get.

She's growing very slowly, but looking good.
I didn't see the photos of your blues... I'll have to go back and look!

 

[Mrs MIA]

Quote:
No wonder I missed these... you posted while I was at the Fair, and I never went back to "catch up"...

Bluebell looks like a pullet. So does PJ. Button might be a roo, but a full side shot in the sunshine (if you can find it) would be helpful.

With the blues, look for shiny dark feathers in the hackle and saddle feathers. At this point they will be coming in right at the base of the tail, and they'll "sparkle"... that's a roo. If the feathers are all nicely rounded, matte flat color, then you'd have girls. BBS Orps are hard to distinguish by the combs because they develop rather slowly. Also, look at the body stance... the boys stand erect, like a T-rex, whereas the girls are little footballs of fluff.

The size of the legs is a factor, too. But looking at my 17 week olds, the combs are the same size, boy to girl, but the boys sparkle.

 

[Alaska animal lover]

Mrs. AK-Bird-Brain :

Quote:
No wonder I missed these... you posted while I was at the Fair, and I never went back to "catch up"...

Bluebell looks like a pullet. So does PJ. Button might be a roo, but a full side shot in the sunshine (if you can find it) would be helpful.

With the blues, look for shiny dark feathers in the hackle and saddle feathers. At this point they will be coming in right at the base of the tail, and they'll "sparkle"... that's a roo. If the feathers are all nicely rounded, matte flat color, then you'd have girls. BBS Orps are hard to distinguish by the combs because they develop rather slowly. Also, look at the body stance... the boys stand erect, like a T-rex, whereas the girls are little footballs of fluff.

The size of the legs is a factor, too. But looking at my 17 week olds, the combs are the same size, boy to girl, but the boys sparkle.

No kidding about the slow development! My Blue Roo is gigantic, and the oldest roo in the coop, but he's not crowing, doesn't have any "roo attitude" and his long tail feathers are just barely appearing. He was hatched in March!

I call him Baby Huey.

Today is the start of our butcher weekend. It finally arrived Tori, lets hope I retained some of the info from you and Jeremy at your plucker party.
Steph and I ordered the cornish roasters from Murray McMurray wanting a bigger bird, so I'll come back and update on some of the weights.


We were initially going to order 50 to split between us, but we figured we might need to order extras to make up for the ones we lost in shipping, or as they grew. So we ordered 75. Then MMH sent us 10 extras, and out of 85 birds, we've lost 2. Two! So now we have 83 birds to process.

 

[Mrs MIA]

Isn't that how it goes? You overcompensate for a possibility that doesn't happen, and you're overrun!! I will NEVER grow out more than 40 meat birds at a time... ever.

I hope the plucker party goes well. I'm also hoping that this rain stops so that our 4H plucker party tomorrow is dry.

Just holler at me if you have any questions!! Good luck!

Carmen, I'll see if I can get some side-by-side shots of boys and girls to show you what I'm talking about.

 

[Ban seabhag]

Tori, I am sorry about the chick. The pics are beautiful, though I can't be of any help on sexing. I have a BLRW at 24 weeks I was certain was a pullet, but now I am not so sure (small head comb barely there like the other pullet I am sure of,) ...

, so you can tell I haven't a clue when it comes to that! I should get a picture of those two. I am baffled.
Bonnie, i will be over this afternoon to check your eggs with yopu (drum roll)....

 

[Ban seabhag]

A good news, bad news story Aimee! But that's a lot of birds to process all right!

 

[Mrs MIA]

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Post some full-body side shots here, ok?

 

[Wolfwoman]

I've still been processing my meaties... 2-3 a day til they're done. I had someone ask my about buying them and at first I didn't think he was serious, and then when I told him $3.25 lb I thought I'd never hear from him again... he's coming over tomorrow to get FOUR!!!

That pays for 1/2 my FEED for this batch!!!

See ya shortly Donna!

 

[Mrs MIA]

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We charge $3.50, and have had an order for 40 of them...

I think this "natural" meat thing is catching on!

 

[Wolfwoman]

Mrs. AK-Bird-Brain :

Quote:
We charge $3.50, and have had an order for 40 of them...

I think this "natural" meat thing is catching on!

Works for me! If I can just sell enough to pay for the FEED for ALL of em... WOW!! I'd be happy!!

I got another egg today... now I'm wondering.... my Norwegian Jaehron was in the nesting box most of the day today, or at least everytime I went in there for 9am-2pm today... about once an hour or so. But her face and comb are WAY pale... I thought they all reddened up when getting ready to lay? I was gonna pop her upside down and check, but didn't want to upset the process if it was her.​