Wow! There's a lot going on here the last few pages. It has been end of term and I've been too busy to enjoy the blog.
Rudy makes an awesome point about the need for a system. Our experience has been that we really need the flow of a good system to get the best results. This could mean a housing flow, from chick to fatterning or breeding spaces, or the flow of our slaught set-up. When the flow is right, it makes everything seem to feel easy and stress-free(er). We have our chick spaces set up and ready to go. From there, around the 8 week point, they go to growing pens divided by sexes. From there they go either to the slaughter or to breeding pens. We hatch and cull along the way in accord with our housing.
Like Rudy, our schedules only allow for so much record keeping. The most important kind of record keeping I can think of is the toe-punch. Toe-punching is how you track your breedings, thus pedigrees. If you don't have a toe-puncher, it costs about $3.00 from Smith Poultry supply. For breeding, it's the best $3.00 you're going to spend. I'd love to be able to trap-nest, but, alas, our schedule does not permit. There are, however, old school body assessments that can be applied at different points of growth and lay, which are strong indicators of a bird's productive capacity. Don Schrider, a fascinating chicken man, did the materials for the ALBC on poultry assessment. Check them out. They're great reads and well worth the time.
Addresssing the question about separating the sexes as they grow, it really is essential to achieve the best results, free-range or not. If you have a small flock with one, healthy and vigorous cock, and you're going to only hatch out a few clutches with broody hens, you could probably free-range this scenario out of the barn and your cock would do fairly well at keeping the peace. If, however, you hatch in number and use artificial incubation, you must separate your sexes or the pullets will suffer. Between 8-ish and 16 +/- weeks the cockerels will bully your females. After 16 weeks, when the breeding urge sets in, they'll run them senseless. Once one cockerel gives chase, four others will start in. You'll see three cockerels lined up behind a mounted confrere, each waiting his turn. This type of stress placed on your pullets will keep them from eating and growing well. They will be in horrible condition. Might there be exceptions to this? Sure. Is this the common scenario--without a doubt.
Floor-space requirements/practices seem to vary. "Rules" are great as guide posts, but there are several variables that could make or break the situation. The breed and strain you raise might tolerate confinement better than another. Our Anconas tolerate confinement better than our Dorkings. Our Dorkings need to be on free-range by, say, three months or there's $&@% to pay. If a growing bird does become a butt-shark (if you've had adolescent picking you know this title works perfectly) I break the culprits neck, no questions, gone, period, arrivederci, au revoir. I don't mess around with remedies, old-fashioned or otherwise. The rest hit free-range instantly, which tends to break the behavior.
The male Dorking tail, like the male Ancona tail, needs room to grow. If they are too cramped, their tails will be full of broken feathers. White birds get soiled too quickly to be raised in a crowded fashion.
All of our birds have a night time coop and then we have runs of various sizes. Some are nice and large and stay green all the time. Others are smaller and do not. There are reasons for both. In an area you want to stay green, you need to get a feel for your bird's activities and then stock the space accordingly. 120 sq ft per bird is a ritz carlton. In our runs where there is no vegetation, we layer fresh straw with fair regularity and through a daily scratch of wheat, barley, and oats. This keeps them clean, scratching, and happy. Moreover, the straw mixes well with the manure. We just keep piling more on. We lime in the spring and autumn. When the ground level's getting high, we dig them out and use them in our gardens. The compost is pitch black and the night crawlers are like snakes.
When birds have access to out-door space, we practice the 3-4 sq' per bird rule. You may find that some breeds need more, others less. Our Anconas can be more packed than our Dorkings. Even if they aren't molesting each other, I enjoy this floor-space ration because it keeps me from haveing to clean too frequently. Air quality is so very importanat for flock health. So, if I have too many birds in a space, I have to muck stales more than i'd like in order to keep the air fresh enough to insure general health. We all manage things in the fashion that works best for us, but we will reap the benefits or difficulties in accord with our birds' capacity to adapt to our system. At the end of the day, our birds are in good condition or they are not, and what we are doing for management has a powerful influence over this. The proof is in the proverbial pudding. Barring the backs of bred hens in the summer and those getting ready to molt last year's garb for a fresh suit, our birds should be generally clean with few broken feathers (breed raised and time of year influnces this). If birds are looking ratty, it's not a bad idea to check "The Three Pillars of Poultry Health": diet, floor space, cleanliness. If your birds are clean and in good condition, your system is probably working well.
Unfortunately we were not able to make it to the Crossroads. It's not a convenient weekend for a teacher to try to get to Indiana from NH, with birds no less. The usual national is The Ohio National on Veteran's day, which is much more feasable. However, this year we won't be there either.
I am in no way surprised that there are only 1/2 a dozen Dorkings there. I have been looking for SQ Dorkings for years, and i don't mean some little search. I have busted to find Dorkings. I've come to the conclusion that there are none, and if there are, well, they don't count for much becasue they're inaccessible. About three weeks ago, a rather prestigious judge was out to our farm. He think we have some of the best Dorking in the country and certainly the best Whites, which is not to say that they are good--no false humility here, indeed. Are they SQ? Absolutey not. Are they heading in a good direction? Yes.
This is what it means, though, to work with a truly rare breed. We either catch this fowl now or it's gone. Period. Whites, Reds, Silver Greys, and Coloreds. These are the primary varieties, and those which have the best chance for survival.
I enjoyed reading the last few pages. It seems that some meaty questions/issues are coming up for conversation, the kinds of issues that, when resolved, lead to the type of system that will help the breed rebound.
Rudy makes an awesome point about the need for a system. Our experience has been that we really need the flow of a good system to get the best results. This could mean a housing flow, from chick to fatterning or breeding spaces, or the flow of our slaught set-up. When the flow is right, it makes everything seem to feel easy and stress-free(er). We have our chick spaces set up and ready to go. From there, around the 8 week point, they go to growing pens divided by sexes. From there they go either to the slaughter or to breeding pens. We hatch and cull along the way in accord with our housing.
Like Rudy, our schedules only allow for so much record keeping. The most important kind of record keeping I can think of is the toe-punch. Toe-punching is how you track your breedings, thus pedigrees. If you don't have a toe-puncher, it costs about $3.00 from Smith Poultry supply. For breeding, it's the best $3.00 you're going to spend. I'd love to be able to trap-nest, but, alas, our schedule does not permit. There are, however, old school body assessments that can be applied at different points of growth and lay, which are strong indicators of a bird's productive capacity. Don Schrider, a fascinating chicken man, did the materials for the ALBC on poultry assessment. Check them out. They're great reads and well worth the time.
Addresssing the question about separating the sexes as they grow, it really is essential to achieve the best results, free-range or not. If you have a small flock with one, healthy and vigorous cock, and you're going to only hatch out a few clutches with broody hens, you could probably free-range this scenario out of the barn and your cock would do fairly well at keeping the peace. If, however, you hatch in number and use artificial incubation, you must separate your sexes or the pullets will suffer. Between 8-ish and 16 +/- weeks the cockerels will bully your females. After 16 weeks, when the breeding urge sets in, they'll run them senseless. Once one cockerel gives chase, four others will start in. You'll see three cockerels lined up behind a mounted confrere, each waiting his turn. This type of stress placed on your pullets will keep them from eating and growing well. They will be in horrible condition. Might there be exceptions to this? Sure. Is this the common scenario--without a doubt.
Floor-space requirements/practices seem to vary. "Rules" are great as guide posts, but there are several variables that could make or break the situation. The breed and strain you raise might tolerate confinement better than another. Our Anconas tolerate confinement better than our Dorkings. Our Dorkings need to be on free-range by, say, three months or there's $&@% to pay. If a growing bird does become a butt-shark (if you've had adolescent picking you know this title works perfectly) I break the culprits neck, no questions, gone, period, arrivederci, au revoir. I don't mess around with remedies, old-fashioned or otherwise. The rest hit free-range instantly, which tends to break the behavior.
The male Dorking tail, like the male Ancona tail, needs room to grow. If they are too cramped, their tails will be full of broken feathers. White birds get soiled too quickly to be raised in a crowded fashion.
All of our birds have a night time coop and then we have runs of various sizes. Some are nice and large and stay green all the time. Others are smaller and do not. There are reasons for both. In an area you want to stay green, you need to get a feel for your bird's activities and then stock the space accordingly. 120 sq ft per bird is a ritz carlton. In our runs where there is no vegetation, we layer fresh straw with fair regularity and through a daily scratch of wheat, barley, and oats. This keeps them clean, scratching, and happy. Moreover, the straw mixes well with the manure. We just keep piling more on. We lime in the spring and autumn. When the ground level's getting high, we dig them out and use them in our gardens. The compost is pitch black and the night crawlers are like snakes.
When birds have access to out-door space, we practice the 3-4 sq' per bird rule. You may find that some breeds need more, others less. Our Anconas can be more packed than our Dorkings. Even if they aren't molesting each other, I enjoy this floor-space ration because it keeps me from haveing to clean too frequently. Air quality is so very importanat for flock health. So, if I have too many birds in a space, I have to muck stales more than i'd like in order to keep the air fresh enough to insure general health. We all manage things in the fashion that works best for us, but we will reap the benefits or difficulties in accord with our birds' capacity to adapt to our system. At the end of the day, our birds are in good condition or they are not, and what we are doing for management has a powerful influence over this. The proof is in the proverbial pudding. Barring the backs of bred hens in the summer and those getting ready to molt last year's garb for a fresh suit, our birds should be generally clean with few broken feathers (breed raised and time of year influnces this). If birds are looking ratty, it's not a bad idea to check "The Three Pillars of Poultry Health": diet, floor space, cleanliness. If your birds are clean and in good condition, your system is probably working well.
Unfortunately we were not able to make it to the Crossroads. It's not a convenient weekend for a teacher to try to get to Indiana from NH, with birds no less. The usual national is The Ohio National on Veteran's day, which is much more feasable. However, this year we won't be there either.
I am in no way surprised that there are only 1/2 a dozen Dorkings there. I have been looking for SQ Dorkings for years, and i don't mean some little search. I have busted to find Dorkings. I've come to the conclusion that there are none, and if there are, well, they don't count for much becasue they're inaccessible. About three weeks ago, a rather prestigious judge was out to our farm. He think we have some of the best Dorking in the country and certainly the best Whites, which is not to say that they are good--no false humility here, indeed. Are they SQ? Absolutey not. Are they heading in a good direction? Yes.
This is what it means, though, to work with a truly rare breed. We either catch this fowl now or it's gone. Period. Whites, Reds, Silver Greys, and Coloreds. These are the primary varieties, and those which have the best chance for survival.
I enjoyed reading the last few pages. It seems that some meaty questions/issues are coming up for conversation, the kinds of issues that, when resolved, lead to the type of system that will help the breed rebound.
