Black Copper Marans discussion thread

[DMRippy]

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Well that just takes all the sport out of Chickens!!!

 

[GeoKan]

My grandparents use to have a couple of chicken catchers they used when they had to catch their chickens. These were long pieces of heavy-guage wire that had a hook fancied on the end of it and a handle on the other. It looked exactly like this.

I would presume, looking back, this was not the best method of catching chickens. I would think it would cause injury to the legs and/or feet. Possibly even breaking their leg. I've not seen any posts regarding its use on BYC. What are your thoughts on using one of these? My gut tells me, "no."

 

[BarnGoddess01]

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Well that just takes all the sport out of Chickens!!!

, both of them!!!

 

[BarnGoddess01]

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I tried one of those. My roosters would boot off as soon as they saw me coming with it. I couldn't get near them!!!! I never did manage to hook a bird with the hook.

I'm still doing the chase and chase and chase method and herding.

 

[OwensMom]

Rustywoman, I love the idea of the net> Never thought of that!! Right now I use a pole from a rake minus the rake head. I "peck" the ground in front of him to et him to back up. If he attacks I hold the pole so that it hits him in the chest. He has had enough run-ins with thw pole that he sort of respects it but if I don't have the pole with me watch out. I have stallions and a ram who would not dream of being so disrespectful!!!

 

[Lotsapaints]

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My husband has made me several of these and I love them for catching the bird I want quickly. I just pull the bird towards me and pick them up and it works really well with big turkeys...he used an old golf club replacing the head with some stainless wire bent similar and I'm waiting for a much smaller young chick catcher. I use the net too but it causes much more panic again though some birds can only be caught using the net......

I use the net with young roosters going thru that tough stage. I tried wrapping them with a towel and carrying them around more work for me than punishment to the rooster....that net saved my Mr Frog from the dinner table of course he's finally a year old and not as proddy

 

[Sphinx]

Hey, MathAce.... I keep referring back to your BCM sexing study you did with all those gorgeous pictures. Did you ever organize them so that you can see the whole growing up process on another page? I'd love to see it.

Also, when you guess their genders in the beginning, were you doing it with feather sexing? If so, was it the primary/secondary feather technique, or comparing the line of feathers (i.e. the first 3 feathers or so stick out significantly longer than the rest)?


My BCM cockerel is a proud papa. We hatched out four chicks almost a week ago that have EE mothers. I gave them to my SIL, and I'm already obsessing on gender for her, since they can't have roosters. I'm trying to decide if feather sexing would be at all accurate, since they do have those EE genes in them, even though they look more BCM than EE.

Here's the chicks I hatched, since I love showing them off.

They are 3-4 days old here.

And just under 24 hours here:

 

[Ivywoods]

That's a handful of cuties!

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

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x2

They remind me of the babies I got when Mrs. Fluffy Puffy crossed with a black bantam boy.

~ Aspen

 

[alaina]

@ GeoKan: yes, I used to have one of those leg grabber chicken catchers that worked wonders!! The only way to nab a particular chicken, usually best used in a group setting. Unfortunately I lost it during one of my moves and have never been able to find another, the ones I have tried to make are too flimsy, so when I need to catch a chicken or 3, I wait until night time and go out with a flashlight!