Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[Muggsmagee]

Quote:
Seriously? Wow, I'm so sorry

But honestly I'd love to have that right now. Lots of cheap dog food. . . . Right now hatching alone and having chicks live beyond 2 months old is oddly hard for me.

When you factor in time, money, feed, electricity to incubate, grow out time (as I'm assuming you don't feed your dogs baby chicks

)...and are you defeathering/skinning? Again, more time...growing out roos is NOT CHEAP dog food. It is merely resourceful and an alternate purpose for extra roos by feeding them back to your dogs.

 

[enggass]

At about what age will a Lav Ameraucana Roo become fertile?

 

[Goose and Fig]

Quote:
Hi Steve-
I'm pretty sure any of your roos will be fertile before your pullets even start laying. You have any new pics? Time really flies- they must be huge by now.

I listed some birds for sale and had them described as 3 month olds, only to go back to find their baby pics and discover they are 5 months. Ooops! Bantams are sneaky like that.

 

[Illia]

Quote:
Seriously? Wow, I'm so sorry

But honestly I'd love to have that right now. Lots of cheap dog food. . . . Right now hatching alone and having chicks live beyond 2 months old is oddly hard for me.

When you factor in time, money, feed, electricity to incubate, grow out time (as I'm assuming you don't feed your dogs baby chicks

)...and are you defeathering/skinning? Again, more time...growing out roos is NOT CHEAP dog food. It is merely resourceful and an alternate purpose for extra roos by feeding them back to your dogs.

I free range them, feed per day isn't much and I feed as much homegrown stuff as possible, I skin them (all processing is done pretty manually) They get processed at 4-5 months old. About half of them are usually raised and incubated under broodies.

The normal dog food we feed our dogs, sorry, is very expensive. Plus, cost aside, raw chicken is very healthy and filling for them.



I will admit though, probably more than half the roosters they eat are from other people. I can't keep up with a good enough rate, so I go hunting for people's extras, culls, unexpecteds. WAY cheaper that way

 

[Muggsmagee]

Quote:
If you have a young roo that may be attempting his business, you could always gather up an egg or two from his favorite hen and crack it open to check for fertility...the little white bullseye on the yolk. Just like people, roosters will vary at age they "mature". My Lav Am roos have not attempted relations before 5 months. Though I would imagine they can be fertile in as little as 4.

It takes longer for the hens, my ameraucana hens especially, to start laying and to receive the roo, 7 months or longer.







Edited to add a complete thought...

 

[Muggsmagee]

Quote:
When you factor in time, money, feed, electricity to incubate, grow out time (as I'm assuming you don't feed your dogs baby chicks

)...and are you defeathering/skinning? Again, more time...growing out roos is NOT CHEAP dog food. It is merely resourceful and an alternate purpose for extra roos by feeding them back to your dogs.

I free range them, feed per day isn't much and I feed as much homegrown stuff as possible, I skin them (all processing is done pretty manually) They get processed at 4-5 months old. About half of them are usually raised and incubated under broodies.

The normal dog food we feed our dogs, sorry, is very expensive. Plus, cost aside, raw chicken is very healthy and filling for them.



I will admit though, probably more than half the roosters they eat are from other people. I can't keep up with a good enough rate, so I go hunting for people's extras, culls, unexpecteds. WAY cheaper that way

It begs to be asked....raw bones and all? Raw bones are excellent and won't cause all the problems that cooked chicken bones will give to dogs.

 

[enggass]

Quote:
Hi Steve-
I'm pretty sure any of your roos will be fertile before your pullets even start laying. You have any new pics? Time really flies- they must be huge by now.

I listed some birds for sale and had them described as 3 month olds, only to go back to find their baby pics and discover they are 5 months. Ooops! Bantams are sneaky like that.

Hi Amy,
I will try and get some pics up soon. Of the 6 that hatched, I have re-homed one Roo. I have a beautiful Roo named Goliath - he will be re-homed at some point. I cannot keep a Roo(I don't think)...

Of the remaining 4, I know 3 are pullets and one is still questionable. He looks nothing like Goliath, who is definitely a Roo, but his comb is suggesting Roo at some point. My cross-beak girl is still doing OK for now...
Steve

 

[Illia]

Bones and all. The only thing left out are inedible guts, which go either to the crows or compost.

 

[pinkwindsong]

Quote:
Don't know the answer WRT coloring/size, once you get away from any sex-linked traits. But WRT the hen determining the sex, it's because birds follow a ZZ:ZW format, where the roo is ZZ and the hen is ZW, vs the standard XY:XX format of most mammals where the male is XY and the female is XX. So where in mammals the male determines sex, depending on if he passes an X or a Y chromosome to his offspring, in birds the hen determines the sex based on if she passes a Z or a W.

thanks that make sense.. I thought it was funny when I read back over my post I couldnt figure out why I ould type the word Grump..

. then I figured it out they went in and changed B**ch to grump.. when that is what a female dog is. a B**ch.

. oh well. now I know to type female...

 

[pinkwindsong]

Quote:
ooo good question I need to know too