Arizona Chickens

[lacymorgan]

I have a question. I've had chickens since the end of September. How do you know when they are eating enough? Some of my girls are 5-6 months old and still thin. Well it's my buff orpingtons. The rest are fine. I am feeding them mainly fodder now. Two 1 pd seed trays a day that are 3-4 lbs when they are done. I have 19 but 6 of them are a heritage broiler so they eat more than the others.

I can't actually answer that since my hens get unlimited feed. They only eat when they are hungry and are less stressed about when or where the food is going to come from. If she seems to be getting enough to eat check the droppings in the coop and see if there are any signs of worms or other parasites.

 

[aviddamy]

Everything I've seen looks good, but there I'm new to this chicken thing. I think if it were parasites it would affect all of them not just the youngest. Maybe eventually I will just cull the broilers. Or perhaps I could feed them separately. The difference in feed is why I do that. The broilers would eat themselves dead if I let them.

 

[moms3cuties]

Good news! @ChuskaMtns
4 of 7 white orphington chicks have hatched in my brinsea advanced incubator tonight!!...
Pics from my slr canon coming soon! Hope I can upload 7 or 9 megapixel of pictures. My kids were so excited!

 

[Sill]

Well, since I couldn't find a home for them, and I couldn't keep them much longer, the two Welsummer cockerels had to go to the big coop in the sky :-\. It was my first culling, DH and I did it together, and while it certainly wasn't pleasant, I'm not emotionally scarred I don't think (always a risk since I'm a big sensitive wuss). It sucks but it's part of the job of keeping chickens.

I haven't heard anything but quacks from the coop this morning, we'll have to wait and see who else 'develops'. I might have BLRW cockerels in the future, since those are straight run.

I've been researching those cream legbars...they sound right up my alley (I love blue eggs) ... Maybe by the time I'm ready for a new flock they won't be so rare (read: expensive) XD

It does get easier after you have to do it a few times. And it's always nice when the next day it's real quiet!

Yeah....I'm about ready to perform my first cull of a BR rooster who's too aggressive towards me (and really, really noisy). I've now got 33 chickens and roughly half of them are cockerels, so it's time to get serious about culling. I'm not looking forward to that first kill, but honestly I'm most concerned about catching this bad boy without getting too beaten up by him right now. I think my husband is just planning to stand back and watch how I handle this first one. He tells me he'll "help" but he's told everyone else we know that he's planning to watch and not participate, just to make sure that I understand exactly what I've gotten myself into.

Yes on taking him off the roost at night and crating him until you're ready to process. Empty crop and no chasing around an aggressive bird.
My DH doesn't help at all, he's too squeamish. I usually have my daughter help with dispatching the chickens, she holds while I cut, then I finish the processing. With quail it's super easy to do alone, and they only take a few minutes start to finish.

Pick the bird off his roost the night before and hold him in a carrier until you can process him in the morning. Less stress on you. Plus it gives his crop time to empty, which makes the whole procedure a bit easier.

My first cull was the hardest. Now it is less than a minute of sadness, followed by anticipation of a yummy meal. Only a few seconds of sadness when the bird was a mean one. Revenge can be sweet.

Processing the culled bird is a whole lot easier with a good pair of poultry shears.

I love poultry shears for processing a bird! Makes everything so quick.

 

[Sill]

I have a question. I've had chickens since the end of September. How do you know when they are eating enough? Some of my girls are 5-6 months old and still thin. Well it's my buff orpingtons. The rest are fine. I am feeding them mainly fodder now. Two 1 pd seed trays a day that are 3-4 lbs when they are done. I have 19 but 6 of them are a heritage broiler so they eat more than the others.

Laying hens are often slight of build. They put all their energy into making eggs not muscle. Unless you get a true dual purpose breed that has some meat on the carcass, the strictly laying breeds are just thinner.

 

[girlchick]

Everything I've seen looks good, but there I'm new to this chicken thing. I think if it were parasites it would affect all of them not just the youngest. Maybe eventually I will just cull the broilers. Or perhaps I could feed them separately. The difference in feed is why I do that. The broilers would eat themselves dead if I let them.

Have you watched them while they are eating? The older birds might be chasing the younger ones away from the food and not letting them eat enough. Just a thought.

I don't have broilers, so I free feed my girls. They eat when they want to.

 

[aviddamy]

That makes sense that they would be naturally thinner and I'm sure they could use more food. I'll try to separate them to see if I can get the Buffs more food, maybe let them eat first. They are definitely not as high in the pecking order. It's funny I have 4 barred rocks. They are not intimidated at all by the bigger birds. They peck right back and keep on eating.

 

[MagicChicken]

That makes sense that they would be naturally thinner and I'm sure they could use more food. I'll try to separate them to see if I can get the Buffs more food, maybe let them eat first. They are definitely not as high in the pecking order. It's funny I have 4 barred rocks. They are not intimidated at all by the bigger birds. They peck right back and keep on eating.

Maybe feed them something in addition to the fodder? They might not be getting enough protein, or missing some element in the feed. Or the orpingtons might just flesh out slower than the other birds you have. I don't think of orpingtons as being thin. Usually they are pretty chunky birds. Are you sure your birds are orpingtons? "Buff" is a color found in several different breeds. Could they be buff colored something-besides-orpington?

 

[moms3cuties]

OK! Here's whats all the commotion is about at my house! !! Cell pics though. ..

White Orphingtons! 5 now....2 more to go and it's only day 19 yesterday! Wow!

@ChuskaMtns Are they auto sexing? Or is the the word auto sexting?

 

[ChuskaMtns]

OK! Here's whats all the commotion is about at my house! !! Cell pics though. ..

White Orphingtons! 5 now....2 more to go and it's only day 19 yesterday! Wow!

@ChuskaMtns Are they auto sexing? Or is the the word auto sexting?

I must have given you a mix. Looks like you have some blues and maybe lavenders too or some splashes. My BBS pen are 100% English, Fancy Chick line, the roo is 16 lbs and the girls are all about 9 lbs and a couple are Old Orchard lines. The Lavender pen is Fancy Chick and Ewe Crazy lines with a Lavender roo and a mix of lavender and lavender cuckoo hens. Also 100% English and large.
Sorry! They really are gorgeous birds but they do eat a lot. I must have got my egg gathering baskets mixed up that day and you got the mix. The parent birds all have wonderful temperaments, including my whites. My white Orpingtons are my line, I've been breeding them for quite a few years now and bred for comb size, temperament, overall size and SOP standards.
I hope you enjoy them!