BDutch's bantam flock & natural breeding projects #5 🪺 🪺 and #6

[BDutch]

I especially found it interesting to see the ways to monitor mites and the repurposing of the children's playhouse. I mainly wanted to read this thread due to you also being located in the Netherlands, a lot of American ways to keep chickens aren't always applicable here.

You are right some things are different here. There is a thread ‘Peeps in Europe’ where you can ask about things that are common or apply in EU.
There are more threads you might find interesting if you free range or want to understand more about chicken behaviour. Like Shadrachs thread that started with the care of a large group of ex-batts on a community field with veggie gardens (moesstuincomplex) I forgot the English name for it.

I thought it was especially funny that somewhere around page 50 someone asked for a Too Long Didn't Read, and here I am just binge reading through it all!

I do generally prefer broodies, because I think being raised by an actual member of their species will always be better. But then it does become more difficult to to get them tame and treat them against diseases for example.

Right. Raised by broodies has benefits in skills and I don’t mind if my chickens are not cuddly. When it’s dark , its easy to grab a chicken from their roost if they need treatment.
If you keep a ‘closed’ flock and only buy eggs for fresh blood, chances are very low to get a new disease in your flock.

At the moment I have two six year old pekings ducks, 2 mixed breed hens being 4 and 5 years old and a 1 year old ayam cemani rooster. I am looking to expand in the very near future. Just preparing and reading up for all of that.

I am curious how black your future chicks will be with such an intense black rooster. Is the black skin and beak dominant?

As for the app, thanks for your answer. I probably won't use it then and just stick to writing in a notebook everyday and input that into microsoft excel.

Please let me know if you have any news. I don’t mind if people post here, as long as it interesting, funny, friendly or/and about chickens.

 

[Skyeknight]

You are right some things are different here. There is a thread ‘Peeps in Europe’ where you can ask about things that are common or apply in EU.

I am following that thread, so I will stay on top stuff. Won't read the 400 pages though lol.

Like Shadrachs thread that started with the care of a large group of ex-batts on a community field with veggie gardens (moesstuincomplex) I forgot the English name for it.

I am reading a few of their articles around natural behaviour and jungle fowl method of keeping chickens.

When it’s dark , its easy to grab a chicken from their roost if they need treatment.
If you keep a ‘closed’ flock and only buy eggs for fresh blood, chances are very low to get a new disease in your flock.

True, but since its dark it will be harder to see and do stuff even with a light. Also that would be more stressful for them than them being accepting of human contact.
At the moment I am looking to buy specific purebred adult hens since I do not want roosters that I could have avoided. After I buy those I will probably only get new roosters every few years and quarantine them. So hopefully that will be enough to prevent diseases in the future.

I am curious how black your future chicks will be with such an intense black rooster. Is the black skin and beak dominant?

It is co-dominant. So how it works is that since I have a fibromelanistic rooster and non-firbro hens they will create sexlinks. The pullets born from this will show the black skin while all the roosters will not. The roosters do still carry the genes though and their offspring can be fibro. As for feather colour, the F1 will primarely be black with leakage like some of your Dutch bantams.

 

[RoyalChick]

I am following that thread, so I will stay on top stuff. Won't read the 400 pages though lol.


I am reading a few of their articles around natural behaviour and jungle fowl method of keeping chickens.


True, but since its dark it will be harder to see and do stuff even with a light. Also that would be more stressful for them than them being accepting of human contact.
At the moment I am looking to buy specific purebred adult hens since I do not want roosters that I could have avoided. After I buy those I will probably only get new roosters every few years and quarantine them. So hopefully that will be enough to prevent diseases in the future.


It is co-dominant. So how it works is that since I have a fibromelanistic rooster and non-firbro hens they will create sexlinks. The pullets born from this will show the black skin while all the roosters will not. The roosters do still carry the genes though and their offspring can be fibro. As for feather colour, the F1 will primarely be black with leakage like some of your Dutch bantams.

A headlamp with a red light setting is an invaluable tool in caring for chickens. It won’t disturb them and it lets you see what you are doing.
One if the many things I learned from Shadrach is how to take them off the roost at night. If you push your arm or hand against the back of their legs just above the feet they will step back into your hand and you can carry them that way to wherever you need them. No stress.
of course they may be stressed during the few seconds when you pop a pill in them or whatever you need to do but they settle back down almost instantly.

 

[Molpet]

A headlamp with a red light setting is an invaluable tool in caring for chickens. It won’t disturb them and it lets you see what you are doing.
One if the many things I learned from Shadrach is how to take them off the roost at night. If you push your arm or hand against the back of their legs just above the feet they will step back into your hand and you can carry them that way to wherever you need them. No stress.
of course they may be stressed during the few seconds when you pop a pill in them or whatever you need to do but they settle back down almost instantly.

Mine didn't get the memo, when I tried that they crashed into the wall in a panic. But I was trying it on cockerels that were broody raised.

 

[RoyalChick]

Mine didn't get the memo, when I tried that they crashed into the wall in a panic. But I was trying it on cockerels that were broody raised.

Wow. Strange. Mine are not people friendly. My sense is they can see in red light but not well. So I tend to aim the light up or to the side. I am sure they hear me and smell me but no mad panic as there would be if I had normal light.

 

[BDutch]

True, but since its dark it will be harder to see and do stuff even with a light. Also that would be more stressful for them than them being accepting of human contact.

I find my chickens rather calm and accepting when they are sleepy. I just take them inside the house in a towel, for a good inspection.

Interesting how things seems to work in one flock but not in another. (Thanks for sharing Royalchick and Molpet)

At the moment I am looking to buy specific purebred adult hens since I do not want roosters that I could have avoided. After I buy those I will probably only get new roosters every few years and quarantine them. So hopefully that will be enough to prevent diseases in the future.

I am very hesistant to bring new chickens into my flock.
I gathered hatching eggs from my own cockerels twice (daughters Black & Pearl and second time Janice) All other hatches were with bought hatching eggs. This way you don’t need to quarantine. Very little diseases pass through eggs.

In the Netherlands its easy to buy hatching eggs. Some BYC owners offer them on the Dutch Marktplaats. And a few times I contacted people through a Vereniging of a breed I’d liked to have. And a few times I contacted BYC owners who had an add on Marketplace to sell chickens.
Breeders (for shows) often like to hatch the first egg they can collect themselves. But April, Mai and June eggs are easy to become. And this is the best time of the year to give chicks a good start in life.

Only once I ‘bought’ a lonely adult hen, who belonged to a girl who couldn’t keep her. This lonely hen had been alone for over 6 months. So I couldn't imagine her being sick with something that can be passed on. She fid have a bit of a mental issue and is mainly a free loader. Lays less eggs then my even older Dutch bantams.

 

[Skyeknight]

One if the many things I learned from Shadrach is how to take them off the roost at night. If you push your arm or hand against the back of their legs just above the feet they will step back into your hand and you can carry them that way to wherever you need them. No stress.

I actually did pull off something similar to this with one of my hens. But I do feel like it would differ per individual. For example I do not think I could pull this off with my rooster, although I haven't actually tried.

I am very hesistant to bring new chickens into my flock.
I gathered hatching eggs from my own cockerels twice (daughters Black & Pearl and second time Janice) All other hatches were with bought hatching eggs. This way you don’t need to quarantine. Very little diseases pass through eggs.

I guess we have different opinions on this and that is completely fine. I am not that hesitant concerning diseases, I have the time, space and materials to keep chickens in quarantine and treat them if necessary. To me it's more important to not bring even more roosters into this world. It's really sad to see how many are free on marktplaats.

And a few times I contacted people through a Vereniging of a breed I’d liked to have.

This is actually a great idea I didn't think about! I will be looking into this.

 

[BDutch]

To me it's more important to not bring even more roosters into this world. It's really sad to see how many are free on marktplaats.

The breeders get 50% male chicks too. If you buy hens, someone else deals with the cockerels. Commercial breeders often kill the male chicks directly after the hatch. Some breeders kill the surplus males after a few weeks when its clear they are dealing with too many boys. Many BYC keepers keep them about 4 months for the meat.

Only a few hatcheries for factory farming have supermodern systems that can determine the gender in the eggs around 11 or 12 days.

I

 

[Skyeknight]

The breeders get 50% male chicks too. If you buy hens, someone else deals with the cockerels.

Yes you are right that 50% of hatches will be male, which is something I will be dealing with myself this year. There are hens available on marktplaats from people that can't keep them anymore or that do not have the right requirements for breeding. And there are some shops that sell animals (which is moving the "problem" to someone else).

I only need one hen per breed for the project I want to do, so I rather buy a single hen of that breed from someone than hatch eggs from purebreds and deal with roosters that have no meat on them and is no market for because there are already so many free purebred roosters on marktplaats. If I can avoid that right now then I prefer to do that.

In the future I do want see if I can breed more meat into my chickens, so that roosters do have a specific purpose if I don't use them for breeding. I do see the hypocrisy in my own statements.

My apologies if I come off as rude, this is not my intention. I believe this just comes down to different management of our beloved chickens.

 

[Molpet]

Yes you are right that 50% of hatches will be male, which is something I will be dealing with myself this year. There are hens available on marktplaats from people that can't keep them anymore or that do not have the right requirements for breeding. And there are some shops that sell animals (which is moving the "problem" to someone else).

I only need one hen per breed for the project I want to do, so I rather buy a single hen of that breed from someone than hatch eggs from purebreds and deal with roosters that have no meat on them and is no market for because there are already so many free purebred roosters on marktplaats. If I can avoid that right now then I prefer to do that.

In the future I do want see if I can breed more meat into my chickens, so that roosters do have a specific purpose if I don't use them for breeding. I do see the hypocrisy in my own statements.

My apologies if I come off as rude, this is not my intention. I believe this just comes down to different management of our beloved chickens.

I figure people eat quail and the cockerels I got free that were bought from the pullet bin dressed out around 2 and half lbs skinned. I think they were 5 or 6 months old barred Rock.