BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[Fire Ant Farm]

Then a fully feathered neck 'turken' or 'naked neck' is what it is, it isn't something else.

It may be a matter of semantics, since the breed name is also descriptive. That is, Naked Neck as a breed, versus a chicken with a naked neck, which is just a chicken with genotype NN - which could be a hybrid with another breed, or even a meat mutt backyard line brought to NN genotype over generations (something a lot of folks enjoy working on, especially in hot climates)...

I think as draye points out, it's just important that if there will be a transaction involved (e.g., selling naked neck chicks), there should be full disclosure.

- Ant Farm

 

[bramblefir]

@bramblefir The cockerel is a fine looking bird as the pullet. It's funny...you're selling off goats and we're gearing up for the biggest kidding season in memory. Gotta' use up some old straws stored at a neighbors. He's selling out of dairy stock and going into beef cattle. Claims he will not need the tank??? It's for sale at a fairly reasonable price but I can't really justify owning one since all our semen will be used up this season. It's still nagging at me and the family has no opinion...NOW..THAT'S A SURPRISE.

Well, you're probably not 6 months pregnant AND in charge of mucking all the pens and stalls. In our case the goats were almost entirely wethers for the purpose of brush clearing. They've done a great job at that - it's just time to take some things off my plate for a bit.

 

[JRNash]

Wethers????

 

[Beer can]

Wethers????

X2, heard this term used recently, maybe something to do with pygmies?
Off to Google....
Edited; Lol! I thought it was a good easy to raise goat breed or cross from what I gathered on another thread.
Its a capon, a steer, a gelding of the goat world Lol.

 

[bramblefir]

Wethers are what you call castrated males in the goat, sheep, and alpaca worlds.

 

[Dead Rabbit]

Interesting info on turkens. Backs up what I've read on feathered turkens.

http://www.cacklehatchery.com/turken.html

 

[Kev]

Interesting info on turkens. Backs up what I've read on feathered turkens.

http://www.cacklehatchery.com/turken.html

That last sentence could be confusing..

it actually is very easy to either develop a line that will throw 100% naked necks forever (just keep and breed the small bowties or no bowties)

OR

make a 100% NN hatch no matter the hens(even could be hens of other breeds), by using roosters pure for the NN gene.

I am not sure why the hatcheries continue to use NN and Nn birds in their breeding stock. The only guesses I can come up with is some people prefer the large bowtied birds over the small or no bowties and some show breeders like to avoid too many generations of NN to NN as they feel it makes them 'too naked'. I have not noticed any inclination towards nakedness in the birds in simple NN to NN breedings but...

 

[gjensen]

It is nice to see a discussion on inheritance, genetics, etc. Something other than color to.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

That last sentence could be confusing..

it actually is very easy to either develop a line that will throw 100% naked necks forever (just keep and breed the small bowties or no bowties)

OR

make a 100% NN hatch no matter the hens(even could be hens of other breeds), by using roosters pure for the NN gene.

I am not sure why the hatcheries continue to use NN and Nn birds in their breeding stock. The only guesses I can come up with is some people prefer the large bowtied birds over the small or no bowties and some show breeders like to avoid too many generations of NN to NN as they feel it makes them 'too naked'. I have not noticed any inclination towards nakedness in the birds in simple NN to NN breedings but...

I was wondering about that as well, wondering if, at volume (e.g., hatchery production goals/conditions/flock management), there is a downside to have a pure NN x NN or pure NN x ? breeding plan. After all, that's what I plan to do - it gives me more control if I have at a minimum a good NN rooster (and a back up, of course), and can choose the hen to get what I want. Of course, I don't care as much about color, which could be a reason to make other decisions...

It is nice to see a discussion on inheritance, genetics, etc. Something other than color to.

While I will admire a pretty bird as much as the next person, unless I'm breeding to SOP (which I am not likely to do), I only care about color when it affects predator resistance in birds that I might consider free ranging without overhead protection. Not there yet, but it's one reason I like my Cream Legbars - they are the same dark grey color of my dirt. Whenever I get around to getting my muscovies, which would likely range more freely by default, I will only get dark ones (likely chocolate), even though the blue and white ones are pretty to my eye. But if we had significant snow and rocks/granite, I could see those same blue and whites blending in...

- Ant Farm

 

[NanaKat]

    I've watched documentaries on Tv regarding bird migration patterns. You can almost bank on a flight path of where they are going and have been and when they will return. Unless there is a natural disaster, they are quite repetitive of their routes. To me that means the diseased birds can be tracked to where the problem is generally coming from. Their habitat must have somehow changed for them to become a virus carrier. We never know what nature is going to saddle us with. I can only imagine that the DNR in many of our states are taking this very seriously but the communication to the public is sketchy at best. I wish we were more informed on how to deal with it so we could better protect our stock.

We have wild Canadian geese that stay around 10 months out of the year....even have a pair that has raised goslings here for 15 years. They have become quite trusting, coming to the near gates and almost to the barn.
And has anyone else noticed a lot of death in the sparrows? I have been finding about three a week for the past few months. Never had this happen before.

I would certainly rather deal with extreme cold over extreme heat any day. I hate when it's hot out.....a lot.

Yes, I can always add a layer of clothing when it is cold...but...the folks during past our house on the highway during the summer aren't impressed by nudity.