BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[RattlesnakeRidgeWV]

Very interesting stats on those Hy Lines, thanks for posting that. If anyone is in a small scale egg business that would be the way to go to get started with a highly guarded breeding line that you could breed for $3 a dozen, WOW!
Kurt

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

Yes, light brown for most of them. I have 17 pullets that started laying eggs last week.

Last year, two out of 7 laid white eggs.

I wish I could get some of those eggs here, it would be a great way to get the elusive brown eggshell inhibition gene into my hardy peacombed white eggshell layer project. Those 2 hens would come in handy right now!
Although I think there's a loophole about bringing in eating eggs across the border.........

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

She actually refused the glue suggestion, saying it would be better to heal "properly" since I'm already so stitched up. I've got a tube of the stuff here at home though and it's looking pretty darn tempting. Not that I'm in any hurry to be stuck with the responsibilities of doing laundry and washing dishes again, but I'm not even supposed to raise my arm, which makes it hard to do some menial tasks as washing my hair or putting on a T-shirt. (The incision is located in my right armpit, the entire width. She removed a mass the size of 2 golf balls, which she informed me about yesterday when I saw her. No cancer though, so it's all good!)

Now that's scary! Glad to hear it was good news though, the inconvenience will be temporary. But I suppose that Murphy being what he is, you are probably right handed, of course.

 

[Kassaundra]

Whew, finally caught up!!! This isn't about chickens, but I just did a estimated count of my meat buns, man o'man I have some harvesting to do. I raise mine colony style so it's easy to get away from me.

Here's a pic of me breaking all the rabbit rules.

 

[lpatelski]

DOH 4/28/16 - picture journal 5/4/16 for #115
3/4 Dark Cornish (Bob-50%DC/50%WCR & Marion-DC)
day 6








Chick #115 said this was fun for like two seconds. She was not happy and cooperative this morning.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

DOH 4/28/16 - picture journal 5/4/16 for #115
3/4 Dark Cornish (Bob-50%DC/50%WCR & Marion-DC)
day 6








Chick #115 said this was fun for like two seconds. She was not happy and cooperative this morning.

That's funny lpatelski, it looks like the chick checked out her weight and wasn't pleased with what the scale said.
Sounds familiar!

 

[holm25]

My Buckeyes are growing fast! Really happy with them so far!


And my old project roo whos days are numbered. He nearly killed my Cochin roo with the help of my tom.

And a future breeding roo that I got from a fellow BYCer along with 2 Legbar pullets. They were hatched the end of February.

 

[lpatelski]

DOH 4/28/16 - picture journal 5/5/16 for #115
3/4 Dark Cornish (Bob-50%DC/50%WCR & Marion-DC)
day 7




Packing on the pounds grams, note the tail feathers coming in. I believe this is a pullet.

 

[DesertChic]

DOH 4/28/16 - picture journal 5/5/16 for #115
3/4 Dark Cornish (Bob-50%DC/50%WCR & Marion-DC)
day 7




Packing on the pounds grams, note the tail feathers coming in. I believe this is a pullet.

Interesting coloring on this little one too. Your birds really do impress the heck outta me!

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Do broody hens ever STOP being broody after not being allowed to hatch eggs over a period of time? I'm getting quite a workout removing and relocating these girls over and over again and am desperately hoping they'll just get tired of it and go back to being hungry and "normal".

I just had my first broody experience - Lissa, one of my Cream Legbars, went broody on her first birthday. I used frozen water bottles (swapping them out as they thawed, and moving them back under her if she switched nests) because I was swamped and it was the best I could do at the time. She was very determined to hatch out those water bottles for a few days...


I was going to put her in a cage this weekend to break her, but it looks like she is already broken now - she was off the nest this evening, and stayed off and wandered around outside. To be sure, I picked her up, and she was cooler and didn't growl, so I walked around with her with her belly exposed just to be sure, then sat down and watched the babies (HER babies, actually, hatched in the incubator at Easter) - she's not my friendliest hen, but she really seemed to enjoy it (including me blowing on her belly)...

I'm reaching a point of high frustration. I had minor surgery a little over a week ago and while feeling great and recovering well, I discovered yesterday that I managed to pull part of the incision open again, though the stitches are still intact. The surgeon instructed me yesterday to get good at doing nothing for the next two weeks.

Not only am I NOT good at depending upon my husband and son to care for the chickens, I've got a lot of plans that I need to be acting on now to keep us from getting overwhelmed as my recent hatches continue to mature....and I can't do a darn thing about it. I had finally reached the mental point of being ready to cull extra cockerels and hens, rearranging housing, etc. and instead I'm dead in the water.

Oh well....at least all of my spreadsheets look fantastic.

So sorry to hear this - I know it's so frustrating. Part of why I've been away is that my back seized up pretty badly, which was very painful and kept me from doing a lot of stuff that really needed to get done, at work and at home. (Fortunately, while this happens to me sometimes, it gets better - but it takes time.) It's infuriating to know that there's so much to do and not be able to do it. Here's for speedy healing.

Speaking of spreadsheets, I've been so swamped I haven't even gotten weights on my GNH chicks (which I really need to do). I'm going to try to get them this weekend.

- Ant Farm