BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[DesertChic]

Bah! Fickle Poultry buyers are the worst.

Someone convinced me to part with my only Wheaten Sulmtalers cockerel for a relatively good price (50$ for a 4-month old.), she "needed the breeding stock", so I offered to meet her, drove 45 with a P.O'd bird, got to our meeting place, and the girl was a no show. I'm not happy.

That really sucks!

You're nicer than I am. I'm more of a "If you want it, come and get it," kinda gal.

 

[bnjrob]

Bah! Fickle Poultry buyers are the worst.

Someone convinced me to part with my only Wheaten Sulmtalers cockerel for a relatively good price (50$ for a 4-month old.), she "needed the breeding stock", so I offered to meet her, drove 45 with a P.O'd bird, got to our meeting place, and the girl was a no show. I'm not happy.

I feel your pain. Have had similar problems on multiple occasions. It has made me seriously consider never letting a bird leave my property again. Selling poultry is more hassle than it is worth unless you are running a full time business that makes money off of QUANTITY sales.

 

[GabrielBane]

I feel your pain.  Have had similar problems on multiple occasions.  It has made me seriously consider never letting a bird leave my property again.  Selling poultry is more hassle than it is worth unless you are running a full time business that makes money off of QUANTITY sales.

That's the plan in the long run, right now selling chicks/juves is very much either getting rid of spare birds and such. Our full-scale hatching plans on our property won't come along for at least a year or so. Just a shame another poultry enthusiast (someone who understands how small the margins already are) would be this inconsiderate.

On the bright side, the cockerel picked up a name on the drive home, so it looks like he's gonna stay permanently.

 

[DesertChic]

That's the plan in the long run, right now selling chicks/juves is very much either getting rid of spare birds and such. Our full-scale hatching plans on our property won't come along for at least a year or so. Just a shame another poultry enthusiast (someone who understands how small the margins already are) would be this inconsiderate.

On the bright side, the cockerel picked up a name on the drive home, so it looks like he's gonna stay permanently.

And the name would be...????

 

[GabrielBane]

And the name would be...????   

We named him Hyde, he has a Silver Wheaten cockerel buddy who we've named Jekyll, we thought it'd be cute.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

Bah! Fickle Poultry buyers are the worst.

Someone convinced me to part with my only Wheaten Sulmtalers cockerel for a relatively good price (50$ for a 4-month old.), she "needed the breeding stock", so I offered to meet her, drove 45 with a P.O'd bird, got to our meeting place, and the girl was a no show. I'm not happy.

Ugh, what is it with people these days?????????????

I hear of this happening far too often. No respect for other people's time and effort- just plain rude. Shame on her, I hope Karma repays the no-show favour.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

I've also been dealing with a huge slow-down in egg production here in southern AZ. Two days ago I got 9 eggs for the entire day from roughly 50 hens/pullets, and nearly all of those were pullet eggs. We're in the midst of a nasty heat wave. Yesterday it hit 97* at my house so I've still had to run the A/C for my meaties, though only for about 4 hours instead of all day long. I am so ready for the 70-85* temps that are normal for this time of year.

It seems like most of my hens got together and decided to stagger their heavy molting, which is kinda helpful. Just as a handful come out of molt and start laying, another group stops laying and starts growing their feathers back. Since everyone's stressed anyways I decided to take advantage of this time to perform my fall coop cleanings and then rearrange the housing of my birds into targeting breeding groups.

Most severe slow down I've ever had and with more chickens on hand too. I'm getting NO eggs right now....16 older hens, 9 new pullets not quite at POL, some birds in full molt, some barely molting. NOT one egg in the nest.

That's okay...I'm butchering soon, that always seems to spur some egg laying real quick and in a hurry. Seems like even the rooster tries to squeeze one or two out after butchering starts.

Mine have really slowed down as well - 6 eggs from 25 girls today (12 of which are just past POL). Then again, in the young layer coop they have dry fowl pox. They're mostly just fine, but I bet that may have something to do with it...

Quote:
I've been so pleased with the GNHs - 5-1/4 lb at 16 weeks, 6+ lbs at 20 weeks. George Jensen has talked about them "putting on feather" early therefore slowing down in potential (on the GNH thread) - hence my idea to cross with NN! Fewer feathers may lead to even better growth in the cross, I'm hoping!!! Here's a re-post of the weight charts of the GNH boys (orange), with the NN curves in grey for comparison. (Red is the splash CM, lowest three are GNH pullets)

Quote: Go chickies!!!!!

If I wasn't traveling some over the holidays, I'd consider starting to hatch soon. I will in January

Quote:
Thanks!!! They are seriously pretty yard ornaments. And the GNH boys talk to me while I do chores - it's hysterical. They sort of have these deep throated gobbles like turkeys...

Oh - and they aren't crowing yet!!! (Some of that may be that the splash CM is dominant in their pen, and crows enough for all of them. They are super laid back cockerels...)

Fire Ant Farm, beautiful NH's! How's the pullets look?
You got me really wanting to try to get hatching eggs from 8acres...
I really don't need another breed though... And then those Ixworth GreenFire has now, very tempting, wonder how much $$ they're going to be...

The pullets look lovely - I got some photos (forgive the fowl pox). I got chicks, but I hear Luanne packs her hatching eggs very well. I would highly recommend her, she's great. If you're interested, go ahead and contact her - she often has a waiting list.

I have three - named them after the Golden Girls - Blanche, Rose, and Dorothy (who also goes by Maude when she's being a bad girl - she sometimes tries to sleep in the oak tree). Rose refused to pose for me.

Blanche (who sometimes likes to mount the little cream legbar girls

):


Dorothy/Bea/Maude:

Dorothy/Bea/Maude in the tree:


Next weekend I'm finally taking the Speckled Sussex to my friend, and will move these three girls in with Tank. They are squatting and at least one is laying, so I think it'll be ok. I can't wait to hatch their babies with Tank!!! He's full NN so all the babies will be Nn.

- Ant Farm

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

I got a prompt reply from S&G regarding the Naked Necks.


"Thank you for your email. We are not sure at this time if we will offer the Naked Neck next season. Please check back in January. We will not ship less than 100 chicks.

Thank you..."

So, while not surprised that they said no. I am feeling a bit concerned that the resource may be lost at any volume.

Hmm, thinking....

Yes that's how I read it also- not offering at all next year with possibility of dropping the line altogether.

Would like to know why and if dropping the line I would be even more tempted to go ahead and order.

Sorry I missed this at the time. Hmmmmm.... I had just talked myself into just skipping the whole S&G idea and then I read this. I must be strong, I must be strong, I can't raise 100 chicks, I can't raise 100 chicks. Maybe I'll be spared the decision if they stop carrying them (though I wonder if anyone has their stock).

Quote:

Since realizing the local poultry feed has gone totally vegan and noticing problems most likely associated with it(drop in egg production, feather picking).. I've started to mix eggs into their feed. They absolutely love it.. break the eggs over the regular poultry feed and stir to coat.

as for the chicks on chick starter I like to add black oil sunflower, wet the mash- stir it and then break eggs over it and stir again to coat the whole thing.

they all love this so much they go nuts when they see the bowls for this mix.. the hens are back up to laying levels they were at before the vegan feed, feather picking stopped(in the mild cases though- the hard core pickers like the EE chicks continued to pick, the only solution was culling).

be a good way to use up the excess eggs after feeding the dogs?

Wonderful - I'm going to try this. Raw egg is ok? (Why was I thinking that you had to cook them - egg eating, maybe?)

@DesertChic and @lpatelski - y'all are making me drool with these dark cornish and crosses. I REALLY need to NOT get any more ideas in my head. I totally have my hands full. I'll enjoy their impressive growth vicariously, I suppose.

I'm so bummed! My top breeding NN rooster, Shiloh, died unexpectedly today after being chased by two of my up-and-coming cockerels. I was still distributing feed, had just seen him settle into their favorite dust bathing area, and not five minutes later he was laying there dead. My morning chores doubled while I immediately set to work processing him so as not to lose out on the meat, but it was NOT a good way to start the day.

Gonna miss the ole boy. At least he gave me some outstanding offspring to work with, but I had big plans for him.

Shiloh in his prime:

So sorry to hear this. I always liked him form your photos - he reminds me of Tank.

Saddles work fine, the hens get used to them in a hurry (but they did not like the ones that crossed over the front). If they fit well, they tend to stay on. I made mine out of heavy pet window screening. They stay dry and clean, and allow air and sunshine onto the hen's backs.


I just cut out a rough shape from the screen using saddle measurements I dug up from the Internet. I got cheap elastic from the dollar store. The dart at the back was not necessary, this was a prototype and I tweaked the design a little for later models- there are lots of pictures of good ones floating around. They worked fine. My original ones were made of cloth, I did not like that they got wet and dirty.

I really need to do this. Snape, my big NN cock bird, is wearing out the NN girls' backs. He's beginning to show signs of misbehaving with me as well. He may end up as soup next year (after hatching his babies, of course).

More read back later, I gotta go to bed.

- Ant Farm

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

Wonderful - I'm going to try this. Raw egg is ok? (Why was I thinking that you had to cook them - egg eating, maybe?)



- Ant Farm

Raw egg whites contain a protein called Avidin which can bind Biotin and make it unavailable. However from what I understand there's plenty of biotin in the egg yolk, more than enough to compensate so as long as there's yolk as well as white raw eggs should be fine. I always give my dogs eggs eggs over easy- with the whites cooked and the yolk raw, but I'm not sure that's entirely necessary. Mostly it's because I find it easier to clean up cooked egg rather than raw. Chickens get cooked eggs too.
I figure that if they are cooked, they taste entirely differently than raw eggs and I don't want the chickens to start helping themselves to their own eggs. I'm not entirely certain that a chicken can make the mental leap from broken raw eggs to eggs in the shell, but better safe than sorry! It's so easy to hardboil a few dozen, mash them up shell and all and feed them that way.

 

[jbkirk]

Is there anything more charmingly amusing than watching little chicks feather out? Does the chick on the far left have a tuft developing atop its head, or is it just the fluff growing out?

Crested breed usually have a tuft up there from hatch. I really have no idea...