BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[Dead Rabbit]

Earlier someone mentioned using bantams. I thought if this yrs ago. I used to raise SQ. OLD ENGLISH BANTAMS. Those little birds had the meatiest most compact bodies. Tiny yet a lot of meat packed in a small area. They didn't lay good but I swear the OEGB eggs have the best flavor of any type I ever raised. Even penned raised using commercial feed. The eggs were excellent.

I can imagine this could be a good project for those that don't feed a lot of people have very limited space and limited funds They can be raised in small cages. Consume next to nothing in feed. Can forage well on their own. And much more pleasing to the eye than the much mentioned turkens Buckeyes, hampshires, Cornish. Etc.

 

[Dead Rabbit]

Have I posted this before? He is a UKC CH. and ARBA World Ch.

Fine looking specimen. I have a very deep appreciation and love for the canine. After fowl the dog is a very close second. Then the horse comes in a distant third. I do love to ride.

 

[Dead Rabbit]

No laughing here. I have a homemade partition in the hatcher of my cabinet Bator- 4 separate hatching areas. ;-)

It's notched so the two pieces fit together and don't move.

It does, of course, have a screen lid also

RR I'm fascinated with the bird in your avatar. A beautiful. Heritage rir . Actually the best I've ever seen. I love the build. If he has a frame and muscle tone to match what I see on the surface than I'd have to call him perfect. Just my opinion. I'm not up on the standard. I breed for what I like to see. I don't have an aversion to feathering. I'm of the old thought that a heavily feathered fowl is a well bred bird. I don't mind feeding extra protein for heavy featheration. Feathers are there for a reason.
In my opinion the only fowl that I'd allow poor featheration is the commercial layers. Which I support and use and then some of the oriental breeds or their crosses

 

[RedRidge]

No laughing here. I have a homemade partition in the hatcher of my cabinet Bator- 4 separate hatching areas. ;-)

It's notched so the two pieces fit together and don't move.

It does, of course, have a screen lid also

RR I'm fascinated with the bird in your avatar. A beautiful. Heritage rir . Actually the best I've ever seen. I love the build. If he has a frame and muscle tone to match what I see on the surface than I'd have to call him perfect. Just my opinion. I'm not up on the standard. I breed for what I like to see. I don't have an aversion to feathering. I'm of the old thought that a heavily feathered fowl is a well bred bird. I don't mind feeding extra protein for heavy featheration. Feathers are there for a reason.
In my opinion the only fowl that I'd allow poor featheration is the commercial layers. Which I support and use and then some of the oriental breeds or their crosses

Thank you. No he is not perfect. There is no such thing. Lol. He was just a youngster in that picture taken early last fall and hatched last spring. He took Reserve BOV to one of my pullets in Dec. He's a neat boy.
I rarely show, but when it's close to home it's hard to resist. I have two hens in mind for him but am holding him back since I'm using his father again this year. One of the things I like best about him is that he's from hens who are very productive, laying more than 75% in the breeding pens last year and they began laying at 26 weeks. It doesn't matter to me how beautiful a bird is if it isn't productive. There are too many RIR out there that don't lay well and hit pol way past the age I would like to see.
Appreciate your comments.

 

[bnjrob]

This will be my first year hatching off my birds so I have the parents with either a yellow or red zip tie on their ankle the chicks will be marked with a red or yellow and a blue zip tie to tell me what their parents are and what generation they are. I have a notebook with colored binder separates so that I can keep notes according to their color and breed.

I am hoping this will work.

I have two pair of Buckeye in separate pens one yellow and one red
I have a trio of Chantecler

Then I am doing the same with my turkey's.

The only thing you have to do with the zip ties (and plastic spiral bands) is to change them out periodically before the UV exposure degrades them and they break off. But otherwise, they work fine so you should be good with them.

We use a combo of colored/numbered aluminum *permanent* bands, along with zip ties and spiral rings. The aluminum bands let us know YEAR of hatch by the color, the zip ties and spiral rings let us ID at a glance by hatch (first, second, third in a year), bloodline, parents, and individual. And if the spiral rings or zip ties break off before I change them out, then I have the aluminum band that has their number and I can go back and see what colored spiral/zip bands they had on to be able to replace them. I like the idea of the wing bands, but I don't feel like having to chase down a chicken to figure out who it is. And when watching chickens in a group for evaluation, or trying to catch an injured chicken, it helps to have the colored bands to know which one you're looking at so they can't blend into the crowd.

 

[chickadoodles]

Quote: I watched my NPIP agent have a terrible time trying to get the metal leg bands on. That is the main reason I was going with the zip ties. I have to keep my birds in pens or runs as my dogs are not chicken friendly.

 

[bnjrob]

I watched my NPIP agent have a terrible time trying to get the metal leg bands on. That is the main reason I was going with the zip ties. I have to keep my birds in pens or runs as my dogs are not chicken friendly.

I haven't had a problem putting on the aluminum bands, even by myself. I just stuff the bird under my left arm and use my left hand to hold their leg out and the band, and with my right hand I bend the band around their leg and use the crimping tool that crimps the button over the hole in the band. I get the adjustable size bands that come together like a rivet or grommet, I don't use the bands that the ends butt together. Maybe that is the difference in being able to do it easier.

 

[jbkirk]

I noticed a couple times through out this thread that toe marking was mentioned

The way to do this is through punching or cutting the toe web. I started out with punching but quickly left that for cutting. I found either the punches grew back or tore out or never really was a good clean punch to start.
Cutting the web was a lot more effective. It lasted forever. And there is no mistaking what you have done. A tore out punch looks like a cut. Go to pharmacy store and buy a pair of cuticle scissors. They are sharp and tiny. Perfect for marking. I liked to cut out entire web between the toes. Not just a cut. This way you can see the mark even from a short distance. Do this at a day old or less and there is no bleeding. Wait a couple days and the webbing is slightly thicker and even easier to cut still little to no bleeding. But the chick is livelier and little harder to hold steady

Another way to mark is by actually notching the nostrils. The flap of skin. Over the nostril. I've never been able to actually notch it. It's too tiny. But it can be totally cut off. With little trouble and no bleeding. Seems to not cause any pain at all. I rarely used this method. Not having that many fowl on my yard but have done it before

Thanks for finally answering my question!!!!!

 

[Heron's Nest Farm]

Next Questions:

Where do you get your spirals? Numbered zip ties?

What size rings do you buy for chicks? Adult heavies?

 

[bnjrob]

Next Questions:

Where do you get your spirals? Numbered zip ties?

What size rings do you buy for chicks? Adult heavies?

Zip ties do not come numbered. You just have to get whatever color you want/can find.

We get our spiral bands through various online sources - whoever happens to have the color/size we want in stock for a decent price. Some places only sell packages of them that are one color, other places sell multi-colors in one package, and then you have to see if you want multiple sizes in one package or just one size. We just get whatever we're needing at the time.

You get the size rings that fit your chickens. There are a lot of places that have recommended sizes for different breeds - adults. They don't work for us. None of the size charts have our breed, so when we looked at a breed they did have, that is similar sized to our breed (Rocks), and tried the recommendations, the recommended sizes are way too small for our birds. Every chart I've seen recommends something like a size 12 band for a cock and a 10 for a hen - our cocks wear 14s and 16s and the majority of our hens wear 12 and 14s.

You can get small rings for chicks, but you just have to size them according to what fits and gives them room to grow but not be too big to fall off. We used to band every chick after about 3 days old - the smaller spiral bands do not flex well and are hard to get apart. They are so difficult to put on without really squeezing the chicks legs, so we only did it after their legs got a little bigger - worried about breaking a newly hatched chick's leg. These days, we don't band until they get older, now that we are accustomed to our breed. Every once in a while we will band a chick to watch them, but we generally just use zip ties in that case. Sometimes it's just too difficult to find the time to change the bands as they grow, so waiting until they are older is easier unless there is a really good reason to band them young.