Such a stunning fowl. Too bad it is eb based, sigh. So much written on how to breed them for color, but can't use it for my Light Sussex.Would love to see photos if you get a chance! I stumbled across this real early rendition of the SOP on Columbians when I was browsing historical info. on Rocks...thought you (and others) may enjoy seeing it...Did not see a photo for the male though.
My mother grew up in Queens, and she said the next door neighbors always had chickens - "It was wartime, they were just trying to feed their family."
You can give her the half incubated eggs. They do not know how to tell time so she will snap into mother mode when they hatch.
What's the problem with giving her more?
uugghhhh, with nearly 50 "half grown" birds right now, they eat almost as much as my two teenagers, AND, I'm getting lazy!! Easier to let her brood them than for me to keep up with taking care of them!! LOL...What's the problem with giving her more?
I agree here too and all I can say it generally comes down to natural selection and survival of the fittest here, you either have good strong birds with an immune system to handle it or will develop this over a time through keeping good healthy birds and breeding for such. ALL it takes is ONE mockingbird flying over the pen to administer/deposit a lethal dose of "whatever" he has in his guts right out there for all that comes in contact with it. The birds that you raise either got what it takes to fend off such, or they die. Simple as that.
We raised up multi-thousands of broilers at a time here, at once upon a time. There were times when we would have outbreaks/ infestations with some disease or parasites,illnesses as most commercial operations have simply because of numbers dealt with, plus too the birds provided had no immune systems bred into them as they are only to live for 6 wks and go to slaughter. Anyway we had yard chickens here at the house, my Grandfather had chickens, my Uncle had them at his house-place on the broiler farm, we walked right in there and tended them with the same shoes and clothing on we had just toiled all day at the broiler farm in, our birds didn't kill over dead from this. We might have brought in a louse or a mite or two from time to time but so could've a visiting dove from a nearby pasture too. So yes the "bio-security" issue is blown out of proportion just a tad I'd say.
Nowadays I don't think you can have a neighboring backyard coop within a certain amount of area/vicinity of such an operation because of "bio-security" simply because the stuffs the "healthy" chickens that are laying eggs and living a perfectly normal chicken life have would kill the ones being grown for our food we buy from and eat at "walmarts", go figure.
Jeff
