BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[Kassaundra]

A judge takes a bird from its show cage and methodically checks the bird from head to tip of tail and wing tip to wing tip, as well as body and legs. This process is show handling. The bird is held in one hand with the head facing the elbow of the holding hand. This frees the other hand to manipulate the body sections for review. With a flighty or aggressive bird this routine of stroking and control is calming and good training. Ansel, a Silver Sebright, is becoming more agreeable and seems to now enjoy the stroking and handling. He also enjoys the hand feeding of a few treats....and he has dropped a wing and even danced for me...a great personality.
Yes, beautiful Ansel is now with my flock. He is coming out of quarantine this week and I have two lovely hens set aside as companions for him. Robin had some difficulty finding hens he would not flog. These two Bantam hens have been flying up to a hanging roost near his wall pen and chattering with Ansel. He tries to call them closer to share from his feed cup and has danced for them so it may be a match of his choosing. Robin now has my single Cochin Bantam cock for her Cochin girls. I agreed to give Ansel a forever home.

Awesome, I knew you had ansel, just didn't know he had been flogging, he always has had personality plus for sure, he always fit right in w/ the big guys, he had no clue he was tiny, but had never been mean or aggressive.

 

[DesertChic]

if not look like you'll need to get some hatching eggs! Any breed you want to hatch out?

I have no shortage of fertile eggs....but with nearly 70 chickens already, I'm kinda maxed out.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Several of my boys are cuddlers. In fact, the majority of my cuddlers are boys....and some of them need to be culls. You're smart to avoid this. It's going to be really hard for me to cull those guys because they're so incredibly affectionate. Even my husband is charmed by them and has told me on more than one occasion, "You can't cull THIS one. He's too nice!" He's said that about six cockerels so far.

Yeah, as soon as I put two and two together and realized I would have to choose between them and cuddling would make the hard, I stopped letting the boys in my lap. But two of them (Mouse and Neo) still came running up to me and hung around me a lot - I just tried not to engage. It was rough to cull them, especially as some of the first I've done. I just had to keep reminding myself that there was no other option to keep them, but Mouse was the worst, because he was very trusting. I'm not getting close to the boys in the future. I compensate by cuddling shamelessly with the girls, whom I know I will keep.

- Ant Farm

 

[hellbender]

Not that anyone is likely to give a flying-flip but the Vet. is coming today to inseminate the last 5 yearling does. I could do it but I have precious few straws of this old semen from Helen Hunt's herd and I don't wan't to waste it. If these gals 'take', I think I will sell the rest of the straws to a few folks who have expressed serious interest in it.

About 1/3 of the herd carries this Toggenburg strain and it has really improved the rear pasterns but at the expense of neck length....That's ok...Actually that's a pretty good trade-off. I have yet to get so much as one ounce of milk from a goat's neck.

In the interest of full disclosure, a few of the hybrids have somewhat larger pockets than I like but that can be addresses with future Sannen infusion that my buck carries. Gonna' hold back about four bucklings this year from the best milking does since we are going on test again and planning to ever increase the size of the herd. Totally closed herd.

 

[miss heny]

That's awesome Hellbender!

 

[dfr1973]

It will be a few months or so before I can join the dairy goat convo, but I did pick up two rabbit does Saturday evening at the livestock auction. One is a black mini-Rex to match George, my bunny I bought the month before, and the other looks to be a Rex/Lop cross. I simply adore the soft velvety fur of the Rexes. Oh, I also have a name and number of a lady who wants to buy kits from George and Gracie - she was probably going to try to outbid me on Gracie except I decided to pay the amount the other rabbit in that cage went for ($11) that the top bidder wanted. The livestock auction is so much FUN for me - and I scored some good deals there as well, getting a good sized three-hole cage for the rabbits, the two does, and a white Silkie rooster (cockerel?) who has good size to him. I have unimaginatively named him Whitey.

I've been asked to post up some more pics of my capons in particular, but right now I only have the one chick-nanny, Pollux. I'll be caponizing all but Bigfoot out of the October hatch, and it now appears I have a lot more pullets than I thought. I do have pics of Pollux and Bigfoot now, but can't get them off the mem card until I get a new thing to plug the card into to plug into the computer. It's technical enough that I let hubby deal with the issue. Two pullets have big enough feet and shanks that I put them into the cockerel pen, and the Meatie looks similar enough to Miss Meathead I now think I have another pullet. There are also two in the pullet tractor I suspect of being too-feminine cockerels, so I will try caponizing to know for sure.

We are going to eat one of the pied guineas - the rest of the flock reject this one. When it was in with the rest, they pecked an open sore on it.

I'll actually be relieved when the holidays are over. TSC has been busy-crazy enough as it is, and that is probably the sanest store right now. I don't dare try to go into Mall-Wart until the 27th at the earliest. I just don't do "full contact shopping" anymore.

 

[hellbender]

It will be a few months or so before I can join the dairy goat convo, but I did pick up two rabbit does Saturday evening at the livestock auction. One is a black mini-Rex to match George, my bunny I bought the month before, and the other looks to be a Rex/Lop cross. I simply adore the soft velvety fur of the Rexes. Oh, I also have a name and number of a lady who wants to buy kits from George and Gracie - she was probably going to try to outbid me on Gracie except I decided to pay the amount the other rabbit in that cage went for ($11) that the top bidder wanted. The livestock auction is so much FUN for me - and I scored some good deals there as well, getting a good sized three-hole cage for the rabbits, the two does, and a white Silkie rooster (cockerel?) who has good size to him. I have unimaginatively named him Whitey.

I've been asked to post up some more pics of my capons in particular, but right now I only have the one chick-nanny, Pollux. I'll be caponizing all but Bigfoot out of the October hatch, and it now appears I have a lot more pullets than I thought. I do have pics of Pollux and Bigfoot now, but can't get them off the mem card until I get a new thing to plug the card into to plug into the computer. It's technical enough that I let hubby deal with the issue. Two pullets have big enough feet and shanks that I put them into the cockerel pen, and the Meatie looks similar enough to Miss Meathead I now think I have another pullet. There are also two in the pullet tractor I suspect of being too-feminine cockerels, so I will try caponizing to know for sure.

We are going to eat one of the pied guineas - the rest of the flock reject this one. When it was in with the rest, they pecked an open sore on it.

I'll actually be relieved when the holidays are over. TSC has been busy-crazy enough as it is, and that is probably the sanest store right now. I don't dare try to go into Mall-Wart until the 27th at the earliest. I just don't do "full contact shopping" anymore.

Sounds like some really good deals.

If you want to get in to real meat rabbits, I can send you a trio of Florida Whites in the spring. You served our country and I will give you a trio for the cost of vet checks and shipping. I got my start from just about the top breeder in the US and had to drive almost to Toledo Ohio to get the first trio and we met him at a show in Cincinnati Oh for the last three.

The ride to Toledo Ohio seemed like we had driven to Toledo Spain!!!!It's a long way!!!

I will have no issues with sending you the babies if the weather is right but the cost might be around $250 bucks for shipping. That's a deal...My trios hit me for $450 per trio!!! Just let me know by Feb.

http://rabbitbreeders.us/florida-white-rabbits

 

[miss heny]

now, I am bias here but I sorta say look for silver foxes, good pelt and tasty meat.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

It will be a few months or so before I can join the dairy goat convo, but I did pick up two rabbit does Saturday evening at the livestock auction. One is a black mini-Rex to match George, my bunny I bought the month before, and the other looks to be a Rex/Lop cross. I simply adore the soft velvety fur of the Rexes. Oh, I also have a name and number of a lady who wants to buy kits from George and Gracie - she was probably going to try to outbid me on Gracie except I decided to pay the amount the other rabbit in that cage went for ($11) that the top bidder wanted. The livestock auction is so much FUN for me - and I scored some good deals there as well, getting a good sized three-hole cage for the rabbits, the two does, and a white Silkie rooster (cockerel?) who has good size to him. I have unimaginatively named him Whitey.

I've been asked to post up some more pics of my capons in particular, but right now I only have the one chick-nanny, Pollux. I'll be caponizing all but Bigfoot out of the October hatch, and it now appears I have a lot more pullets than I thought. I do have pics of Pollux and Bigfoot now, but can't get them off the mem card until I get a new thing to plug the card into to plug into the computer. It's technical enough that I let hubby deal with the issue. Two pullets have big enough feet and shanks that I put them into the cockerel pen, and the Meatie looks similar enough to Miss Meathead I now think I have another pullet. There are also two in the pullet tractor I suspect of being too-feminine cockerels, so I will try caponizing to know for sure.

We are going to eat one of the pied guineas - the rest of the flock reject this one. When it was in with the rest, they pecked an open sore on it.

I'll actually be relieved when the holidays are over. TSC has been busy-crazy enough as it is, and that is probably the sanest store right now. I don't dare try to go into Mall-Wart until the 27th at the earliest. I just don't do "full contact shopping" anymore.

I'm jealous of your rabbits - looking forward to when I get mine (eventually).

Meanwhile, I actually have a guinea fowl in the freezer (local farm), and was going to thaw it out for Christmas, but was wondering - what is the best way to cook it? Anyone?

- Ant Farm

 

[dfr1973]

I'm jealous of your rabbits - looking forward to when I get mine (eventually).

Meanwhile, I actually have a guinea fowl in the freezer (local farm), and was going to thaw it out for Christmas, but was wondering - what is the best way to cook it? Anyone?

- Ant Farm

My old cookbooks with guinea fowl in them all have instructions for roasting. I'll need to go find the instructions anyway for ours, so when I dig up the right cookbook (too many to fit on the shelves now!) I'll post if you haven't found better info.