BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[Chicken Egg 17]

Exactly. Just like anything else with livestock, it's always best to have a back up plan. My dog was getting some age on him~now 10 yrs old~and he let a hawk take a few chicks two falls ago(my fault for having fall chicks in the first place), so I had to plan for getting him a working partner. Got him a pup last hunting season and that pup is now 8 mo. old, has been here since 2 mo. of age, and he's a dandy...hasn't harmed a chicken, is guarding well, is quiet until he needs to make sound, etc. The older dog helped me to train up the younger dog and now the older dog can catch his valuable afternoon naps after being up all night guarding the property. It's a good system. The new pup.... Here he is as a new arrival, feasting with the chickens on a deer gut pile... He's still got some growing to do, but he's coming along. Hasn't made his first kill yet, so time will tell how he does on preds. He's being taught by the master, who has held off coyotes, bear and all manner of lesser predators for years now on his own, since his last partner got too old and had to be put down. Both dogs ate an entire yearling road kill deer a few weeks ago...had it completely gone in 5 days. Usually, though, they don't eat much at all for the work they do, so are well worth their keep.

What breed is he

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

Yep...I sure do! What in the world do you do with a pack of sled dogs other than sled? Do you use them for pulling a sled? That's so neat, if so! I think that would be the coolest thing to do with dogs. Around here we don't have enough good, packed snow for sledding but my older dog would just love to pull...I've often thought of getting some work harness and letting them pull a cart for working around here.

Nothing so nice as a dog with a job...they always seem much happier if they are working.

I used to scooter with them, the snow here isn't very reliable and the only trails are for snowmobiles- but they got so crazy wanting to run, I couldn't just leash walk them any more, so we stopped doing that- they are getting older now and the only roads I can use are paved, and the traffic has increased too much lately for safety - we used to live in the country but now it's all getting very urban, and it was taking a toll on their joints. So now I walk them on ten foot leashed sled dog harnesses- they like to lean into those and we pretend to sled, we stick to a fast walk. Usually, not always- I've been pulled off my feet and been dragged quite a few times, if they decide to pull really hard together. The can go from 0 to 40 in about a hundredth of a second it seems

I can only walk them two at a time. They get walked in pairs twice daily, which seems to keep them happy. They have about an acre fenced off for them in the back yard, but nowadays they seem to prefer the couch
Scootering was a blast, the dogs absolutely loved it. It's not one of those kid's scooters, it's got 2 bicycle wheels and a heavy frame. I wore all the skateboard safety equipment- full face helmet, wrist guard, knee guards, elbow guards. I kind of miss doing it but if I go back to it leash walking becomes impossible again. I just wish I'd have gotten into sledding/scootering with dogs 20 years ago, now it's too late and we don't plan on getting any more dogs after this generation- time to do some traveling.

 

[Beekissed]

That sounds so fun!!! I'm wondering if you have any bike trails locally where you could do some bikejoring with them? That would spare their joints but they could still get a good run and you'd be able to participate at times or not, depending on the grade of the trail. I live out in the country and it's very hilly, so I no longer have the strength to do the hills but bikejoring seems like a fun, fun sport for dogs that like to run.

If you can ignore the annoying music, this is a short vid on it....looks amazingly fun! If I had some flatter land around these parts I'd definitely be doing this with the dogs, even in my old body.

 

[Beekissed]

What breed is he

He's a mix of three livestock guardian breeds...a mix some are now calling a Colorado Mountain Dog, but is not a recognized breed at all as of yet. He's a mix of Great Pyrenese/Anatolian Shepherd/Maremma.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

That sounds so fun!!! I'm wondering if you have any bike trails locally where you could do some bikejoring with them? That would spare their joints but they could still get a good run and you'd be able to participate at times or not, depending on the grade of the trail. I live out in the country and it's very hilly, so I no longer have the strength to do the hills but bikejoring seems like a fun, fun sport for dogs that like to run.

If you can ignore the annoying music, this is a short vid on it....looks amazingly fun! If I had some flatter land around these parts I'd definitely be doing this with the dogs, even in my old body.

LOL it is fun! until they take off at 90 degrees to the direction of travel when they see a squirrel!
The scooter is safer, you stand on the platform and your feet are only a few inches off the ground, your centre of gravity is lower than on a bike. Actually I probably could find a dirt road for them to run on, I don't know if there are any bike trails within easy driving distance.

 

[DesertChic]

I butchered my extra Bielskie cockerel today (Bielefelder/Silkie) and was pleasantly surprised by the amount of meat on him for a bantam. He processed out at 2.64 lbs at 25 weeks, and I could even get my hand inside of his carcass. I guess that infusion of Bielefelder really helped, and this is the leaner of the two. The other one I'm keeping for breeding...I think.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

I butchered my extra Bielskie cockerel today (Bielefelder/Silkie) and was pleasantly surprised by the amount of meat on him for a bantam. He processed out at 2.64 lbs at 25 weeks, and I could even get my hand inside of his carcass. I guess that infusion of Bielefelder really helped, and this is the leaner of the two. The other one I'm keeping for breeding...I think.

Was that chicken really as blue as it looks on my screen????

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

He's a mix of three livestock guardian breeds...a mix some are now calling a Colorado Mountain Dog, but is not a recognized breed at all as of yet.  He's a mix of Great Pyrenese/Anatolian Shepherd/Maremma. 

Ya I was just going to geuss Great Pyrenese my aunt and uncle had one but she didn't stay at there house so they had to sell her she was a beutiful sweet dog

 

[Beer can]

We have thousands of acres of state forest in our little town, just checked, just in our little town; 9,615 between Steam Mill, Pine Hill and Arctic-China State forest, miles of Finger lakes trails, goes through our town, public and private land, don't know how many miles are in our town, but close to a thousand miles in the state. Many, many miles of back dirt roads in our town and every adjoining town. Snowmobilers use the main roads here when there is snow, so many areas a sled dogs could run. I used to see 'sled doggers' all the time during the winter on our back roads, back in the 80s into the early 90s. One guy I heard placed in the Iditarod, I have always loved seeing them run, big fan of Jack London books when I was a kid. Always wanted to get into it when I got older. Haven't seen anyone here doing it in years. Old things seem to die out here. Loved those vids. Only thing out of the ordinary I see now traveling our 'back roads' is beagle snowshoe hare runners, guess a couple of out of towners found out we have a good population of them. I see them, nice dog boxes on the back of their nice trucks, runnin their beagles, cool as crap. I made the mistake of talking to them, they only run the hares, cool, kinda like catch and release fishing, then they preceded to bad mouth the local hare runner that runs them with his beagles and shoots and eats them..... my little brother... Don't see them much now, I still wave to them and talk to them when I do see them, but they aren't very sociable anymore...

 

[Beer can]

Was that chicken really as blue as it looks on my screen????

Crossed, blue, if it was pure would have been black, TSC silkie rooster 5lbs live weight, I'd have to weigh him again for dressed weight, haven't tried him yet,


well, maybe he's a little blueish also, young giant (omg the drumsticks were huge!) silkie, langshan, very young welsumer EE cross. Nobody had good growth for their age, but the giant had huge dark very tender turkey legs, all the rest were tough, haven't tried the silkie yet.