B.Y.C. Dorking Club!

[cukooformarans]

Karen, does he look familiar ?

Nice boy there! How old is he??

 

[kimberly35042]

He's an Easter weekend hatch so April 1 ish and 5 months. How are your guys coming along?

 

[cukooformarans]

I got my first dorking egg Friday. There are three pullets in the oldest group and I officially have one laying. At a tad over 30 weeks old, I am thinking the other two will start soon. The second set is right around four months. We culled several cockerels (early I know, but we are in the process of moving and had to temporarily downsize. ) We usually cull between 6 months and one year. It was amazing how tender they were but I miss the flavor of the older birds. All in all, I believe we have a good start with two cockerels and 7 hens.

 

[cukooformarans]

Oh yes! Friday night I spotted a copperhead in the pen. DH tried to shoot it and missed so now I am terrified every time I go in the pen. Anybody have any suggestions??

 

[LilyD]

Oh yes! Friday night I spotted a copperhead in the pen. DH tried to shoot it and missed so now I am terrified every time I go in the pen. Anybody have any suggestions??

Wow that's super scary. I live in VT and we don't have many snakes that are venomous here but we do have tons of other predators.


Here are some pictures of my boys and girls from this year.



















These are my girls from this year. They are sweet. There are 5 girls and a lot of boys lol.

 

[ki4got]

I thought so too, but he was the only red and much more "leggy" than the pics make him look. I have 2 SGs (one has gold leakage) and 2 golds from your group and 6 pullets of varying shades of red and one weeble hen.
I do have 4 Troxel red cockerals, but they are only babies - 3 months. In the winter, I might can ship you a red depending on how everybody grows out. should know more in December, and what a great present for yourself *lol*

well, i'm hoping to hear back from the person I got thing2 (and a few others) from to see if he's got any more cockerels available... crossing fingers.

and yes, I've noticed the reds tend to get leggy before getting their type settled in... my favorite red hen, 'orangey' was something akin to a super model as a pullet... I was ready to pull the trigger on her but had some things come up that put her on the back burner. glad I held off.

 

[BlackPanther]

Oh yes! Friday night I spotted a copperhead in the pen. DH tried to shoot it and missed so now I am terrified every time I go in the pen. Anybody have any suggestions??

Get yourself some King snakes

They eat poisonous ones and are immune to their venom. 'Course, they might eat your eggs, too...

 

[ki4got]

Quote:
blacksnakes too (black rat snake)... they do eat eggs and can eat chicks too, but I haven't lost any birds to the blacksnakes. just eggs when a broody hides a nest. I can live with that over the copperheads we used to have.

 

[cukooformarans]

How do you attract them?? Or do you buy them at the pet store??

 

[ki4got]

How do you attract them?? Or do you buy them at the pet store??

for us, hubby kept a feed bag in the back of the truck with cord to tie it closed with... just driving along if he saw one sunning on the side of the road he'd stop, snag it (forked snake stick to grab behind the head from a distance) and bag it... always check the belly tho. black (rat) snakes have checkerboard belly, others don't... if it doesn't, get out of striking range before releasing it... just in case..

he wasn't always successful in catching them, but after placing 1 male and a couple females on the property (down by the horse's hay shed) we felt pretty sure they'd stick around... males tend to have a long smooth taper from above the vent to the tail, while females would be much thicker at the vent then taper rapidly. especially when gravid.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaphe_obsoleta aka western rat snake (tho it's found east and central us, go figure.)