BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[DesertChic]

I just wanted to share a story that warmed my heart this week...


I have a tendency to post a lot of photos of my birds on my Facebook page and was surprised one day when I was contacted by a former classmate of my husband's requesting some chicks from me. His son really wanted to raise some chickens for eggs, and I had just happened to have hatched my first groups of eggs from my own birds with the intent of perpetuating my good layers. They bought four chicks from me, hand-picked by the boy, who just happens to be exceptionally good at working with animals. Two days ago they got their first eggs at 24 weeks, and my cell phone and FB page were flooded with images of one very happy boy and his adoring flock of Barred Rock & BR/Australorp pullets.

Yeah....that feels good. Seeing children developing a passion and appreciation for raising their own flocks and really appreciating where our food comes from....that's a wonderful thing. (Oh...and this kid also helps his father raise a garden and routinely goes hunting and fishing with him too. Awesome!)

Anyway....I just want to share some of the warm fuzzies I've been enjoying.

 

[hellbender]

I just wanted to share a story that warmed my heart this week...


I have a tendency to post a lot of photos of my birds on my Facebook page and was surprised one day when I was contacted by a former classmate of my husband's requesting some chicks from me. His son really wanted to raise some chickens for eggs, and I had just happened to have hatched my first groups of eggs from my own birds with the intent of perpetuating my good layers. They bought four chicks from me, hand-picked by the boy, who just happens to be exceptionally good at working with animals. Two days ago they got their first eggs at 24 weeks, and my cell phone and FB page were flooded with images of one very happy boy and his adoring flock of Barred Rock & BR/Australorp pullets.

Yeah....that feels good. Seeing children developing a passion and appreciation for raising their own flocks and really appreciating where our food comes from....that's a wonderful thing. (Oh...and this kid also helps his father raise a garden and routinely goes hunting and fishing with him too. Awesome!)

Anyway....I just want to share some of the warm fuzzies I've been enjoying.

I'm out! lol

 

[Mini Meat]

I use triangle shaped tractors made from 3/4-inch PVC pipe, hardware cloth, and painted plywood. The black bear could not tip the triangle shape, but certainly did get the corner up on the house-shaped tractor. The house shaped one now has pressure-treated 2x4 base, with four built-in nest boxes in a row in back ... oh, and about a week after the bear hit us we has electric fence netting as a perimeter. I only know of one other neighbor on this series of dirt roads who does electric fence (registered Angus and Lowline cattle) so the bear seems to prefer softer targets. I'll have a better idea of how well the electric fencing works over the next month, as she and her cub work on fattening up before hibernation.

Right now, I am doing small groups of breeders. My F1 GLWs are from one cockerel and three pullets. I have my "Meaties" as a group of six, another GLW cock, three pullets, and one black sex-link hen (the suspected dam of Bertha, the huge crossbreed pullet from the test mating), and I have five pullets who just came into lay that will soon get a breeding cockerel instead of the young yard ornament currently in with them.

I have a growing number of Silkies here to handle the main incubating, hatching, and brooding, along with a couple Ameracauna hens from Luanne, and so far one Ameracauna capon who is inclined to nanny/brood chicks. I now have an electric incubator, for "off-season" hatching and also in case Bossy decides to quit again.

That sounds like a good set up. I don't have the tractors too little flat ground and it is needed for other things. I do have electric fence. I love it.

My mind wants to sort all the birds in equal groups. all pens having the same. I don't have to do it that way though do I. My neighbor has offered to trade a Jersey Giant pullet for a DC pullet. I gave her the DC pullet but I declined the JG. I couldn't imagine having on odd bird in my pattern. I'm over it now. I'm going to have her save that pullet for me... why not.


I have read that silkies make good broodies, and they are fairly easy to come by. If I ever run short on broodies I may try some. How much are they able to teach the chicks the raise. I can't imagine that silkies are very good at free ranging. That is my only concern with the breed, and I may be wrong.

 

[Mini Meat]

I just wanted to share a story that warmed my heart this week...


I have a tendency to post a lot of photos of my birds on my Facebook page and was surprised one day when I was contacted by a former classmate of my husband's requesting some chicks from me. His son really wanted to raise some chickens for eggs, and I had just happened to have hatched my first groups of eggs from my own birds with the intent of perpetuating my good layers. They bought four chicks from me, hand-picked by the boy, who just happens to be exceptionally good at working with animals. Two days ago they got their first eggs at 24 weeks, and my cell phone and FB page were flooded with images of one very happy boy and his adoring flock of Barred Rock & BR/Australorp pullets.

Yeah....that feels good. Seeing children developing a passion and appreciation for raising their own flocks and really appreciating where our food comes from....that's a wonderful thing. (Oh...and this kid also helps his father raise a garden and routinely goes hunting and fishing with him too. Awesome!)

Anyway....I just want to share some of the warm fuzzies I've been enjoying.

I know what you mean... kids and animals... and knowing you had some part is very warming.

I know that I have decided not to pursue the Cubalayas as my main breed. After seeing my one year old grand daughter able to pick up and haul around ANY Cuba she takes a fancy to (pullet or cockerel). Even at 8 months (the roos) old she can haul a Cuba Cockerel around, no fuss, no attitude, just tolerance. I really want to find a way to keep some. So I will use them as broodies and hope that they pass that docility on to the DC's they raise. I

I very much enjoy watching her enjoy the chickens.

P.S. She is now almost 2 and carries a stick when we go to the chicken yard. If a DC cockerel gets within ten feet of her she runs it of with her stick. The DCs wanted to get her. We had one charge her a few months ago. I gave her the stick taught her how to run them off and she took it from there. They steer clear of her now.

 

[Beekissed]

Quote:
Most excellent!!!

 

[hellbender]

I know what you mean... kids and animals... and knowing you had some part is very warming.

I know that I have decided not to pursue the Cubalayas as my main breed. After seeing my one year old grand daughter able to pick up and haul around ANY Cuba she takes a fancy to (pullet or cockerel). Even at 8 months (the roos) old she can haul a Cuba Cockerel around, no fuss, no attitude, just tolerance. I really want to find a way to keep some. So I will use them as broodies and hope that they pass that docility on to the DC's they raise. I

I very much enjoy watching her enjoy the chickens.

P.S. She is now almost 2 and carries a stick when we go to the chicken yard. If a DC cockerel gets within ten feet of her she runs it of with her stick. The DCs wanted to get her. We had one charge her a few months ago. I gave her the stick taught her how to run them off and she took it from there. They steer clear of her now.

A woman with a stick is a dangerous thing. Even I know that.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

OK, so I'm going to ask on the Emergencies/illnesses section of BYC, but thought it couldn't hurt to ask here as well. One of my Cream Legbar pullets, Jenny, laid one first egg earlier in the week, maybe a second a few days late (hard to tell from he other pullets' eggs), but not much. Not a big deal, as she's just starting, but over that past couple days, she's been acting a bit standoffish compared to the others, she goes to roost early, and yesterday she wouldn't range outside the coop except a very little bit near the door. She actually stood in the corner a lot of the time, just looking out. This morning she was pecking at some bedding in the coop weirdly. So this morning I got hold of her to look her over. And both her eyes have very narrowed pupils, that to me look like they're scarring shut. This is a photo I could get of the eye with the smaller pupil (the other is a little bit bigger, and the pupil is irregular/oval, pulling closed from one side, it seems). I didn't notice it at first because it's not dissimilar from her usual eye color from afar. (Her eyes are more greenish than orange.)





Ideas?

(These three are officially pets, so I'm not probably not going to cull her as a first thing to go to like one might as a breeder or if these were meat birds...)

- Ant Farm

 

[DesertChic]

OK, so I'm going to ask on the Emergencies/illnesses section of BYC, but thought it couldn't hurt to ask here as well. One of my Cream Legbar pullets, Jenny, laid one first egg earlier in the week, maybe a second a few days late (hard to tell from he other pullets' eggs), but not much. Not a big deal, as she's just starting, but over that past couple days, she's been acting a bit standoffish compared to the others, she goes to roost early, and yesterday she wouldn't range outside the coop except a very little bit near the door. She actually stood in the corner a lot of the time, just looking out. This morning she was pecking at some bedding in the coop weirdly. So this morning I got hold of her to look her over. And both her eyes have very narrowed pupils, that to me look like they're scarring shut. This is a photo I could get of the eye with the smaller pupil (the other is a little bit bigger, and the pupil is irregular/oval, pulling closed from one side, it seems). I didn't notice it at first because it's not dissimilar from her usual eye color from afar. (Her eyes are more greenish than orange.)





Ideas?

(These three are officially pets, so I'm not probably not going to cull her as a first thing to go to like one might as a breeder or if these were meat birds...)

- Ant Farm

She hasn't laid another egg since? I wonder if she could be egg bound. ???

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

She hasn't laid another egg since? I wonder if she could be egg bound. ???

Possibly - but it's been difficult to also determine who's laying what, so I'm not sure (I'll need to look up those signs and symptoms). But unfortunately, I have some suspicion that this is ocular mareks disease, to which CLs can be particularly susceptible. She's vaccinated, but efficacy isn't always so great. (sigh)

- Ant Farm

 

[Kev]

Possibly - but it's been difficult to also determine who's laying what, so I'm not sure (I'll need to look up those signs and symptoms). But unfortunately, I have some suspicion that this is ocular mareks disease, to which CLs can be particularly susceptible. She's vaccinated, but efficacy isn't always so great. (sigh)

- Ant Farm

Very sorry about your hen.. looking at picture at full size shows much better detail.

Looked around a little bit about this, did you see this one? There's a good picture showing something that looks similar and it has necropsy pictures also.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...st-lying-around-and-it-has-been-5-days-now/10