BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[DesertChic]

Mama Lily finally got tired of being with her chicks, but she seems to be having a hard time fully adjusting to not being with them. One of her chicks managed to get into the neighboring nursery pen last night while I was at work, and I didn't notice until 5:30 this morning. It was the only chick laying in the corner near the human door, and on the other side of the divider was Mama Lily and the rest of her chicks. I reunited them before leaving to take my son to school, and found Lily begging to be released from parenthood when I returned a couple hours later. She races around to the chicks' outdoor pen, calls them over, and then leaves ago to roost with the other adults once she's satisfied that they're okay.

I haven't weighed her chicks yet, and they're a full week older than my other hatchlings, but they seem noticeably bigger than the ones I've been hand raising....and they're all NN Turkens. I'm really interested to do a weight comparison once I start collecting data on them.

 

[hellbender]

When you use oatmeal, do you use the flaked, or steel cut?

Flaked...just like the ones we eat. I cook ehem very quickly in the milk then add cornmeal to thicken what is there. Not the cheapest way to finish a bird but it really makes a difference for those who wish to go this direction.

There are chickens ...then there are finished with (extra BLOOM) chickens!

 

[hellbender]

I just 'offed' the last two Buckeyes. They're going back through the 'system'. We have too much to do and have better birds to deal with rather than contend with these.

For the right folks, Buckeyes are great birds and I saw some promise with them for a while but they don't make a pimple on a good Chantecler's butt nor for that matter, that of a good Naked Neck. Can't wait to make the NN cross with the Chanteclers and Dark Cornish!

Edited to correct breed (Dark Cornish)...lol

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

A little learning is a dangerous thing ;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring :
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
Fired at first sight with what the Muse imparts,
In fearless youth we tempt the heights of Arts ;
While from the bounded level of our mind
Short views we take, nor see the lengths behind,
But, more advanced, behold with strange surprise
New distant scenes of endless science rise !
So pleased at first the towering Alps we try,
Mount o’er the vales, and seem to tread the sky ;
The eternal snows appear already past,
And the first clouds and mountains seem the last ;
But those attained, we tremble to survey
The growing labours of the lengthened way ;
The increasing prospect tires our wandering eyes,
Hill peep o’er hills, and Alps on Alps arise !



Alexander Pope


Some will grasp the pertinence of this post and it will glide right over the heads of those who don't want to grasp it's meaning.

I think you just summarized this entire thread...

- Ant Farm

 

[bramblefir]

So what do you do in your spare time?

Just kidding.

I'm one of those goal-oriented people that keeps a written list of daily and weekly to-do's and takes great satisfaction in crossing them off.

 

[DesertChic]

I'm one of those goal-oriented people that keeps a written list of daily and weekly to-do's and takes great satisfaction in crossing them off.

Nothing wrong with that. I only make written lists now when my husband and son are involved with my projects, which is pretty rare. I've discovered that, amazingly, they can't read my mind.

 

[cyborg]

I also make elaborate to do lists, then forget where I put them!

 

[Beer can]

When you use oatmeal, do you use the flaked, or steel cut?

I prefer flake....chickens? Who cares, they'll eat anything lol.

I also make elaborate to do lists, then forget where I put them!

Put them on a 3'x5' calendar, what my 76 yr old father in-law does, everything goes on that calendar, temp, snow fall, day the peepers start peeping, first day he notices a Robin in the spring, when he plants what, when he changes the oil in his vehicles....can't lose a 3'x5'...

 

[hellbender]

I'm down to three Chantecler cockerels of my own. I think they are the best of the lot. Daughter and # 1 Son have three of them in their flock so there is no shortage of reasonably good Chantecler stock on this farm. I feel I have superior Chantecler pullets for a number of reasons. When things get less hectic around here, I'll try to get some staged (literally) photos of my best cockerels and pullets..the ones I plan to use for breeding in the spring.

I might even feature one or two of my 'special' Naked Necks that I did some 'wheeling and dealing' to get. They have no neck feathers or in a few cases, one feather on either side of the neck.

Ah, the inevitable EDIT: I've yet to cull my Dark Cornish pullets. I am keeping only 5 of 12 for breeding. The rest will get the 'finishing' treatment and will adorn our table in due time.

 

[bramblefir]

Nothing wrong with that. I only make written lists now when my husband and son are involved with my projects, which is pretty rare. I've discovered that, amazingly, they can't read my mind.

Haha! Me completing projects tends to motivate Mr. Bramblefir into helping out or finishing his own projects. He keeps his own little "reminder" list that sometimes crosses over into my "to-do" list.

I also make elaborate to do lists, then forget where I put them!

I used to lose mine when I wrote them on scraps of paper. Now I use a big notebook (the sort used for school) and keep it on my primary work area in the house. The only other things that occupy my work area are my laptop and my current knitting project, so it's pretty hard to lose.

Put them on a 3'x5' calendar, what my 76 yr old father in-law does, everything goes on that calendar, temp, snow fall, day the peepers start peeping, first day he notices a Robin in the spring, when he plants what, when he changes the oil in his vehicles....can't lose a 3'x5'...

I make similar notes too. What went into the ground and when, harvest amounts, livestock birth and breeding records, illnesses, appointments, meal plans, budget notes, first frost, etc. A separate notebook up at the barn records flock egg counts, setting and hatching dates, etc.