BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[CanadianBuckeye]

My cockerels are finally separated out from my pullets. Just in time, even though they aren't crowing yet the cockerels are practicing on each other- and here I was worried that they would not know what to do with the hens if they were kept apart.

 

[Beer can]

Rattlesnakes are definitely on my "Respect Greatly" list. There's only one rattlesnake here, the Massassauga rattler, lives on the Bruce Peninsula, and it's endangered.

We have big timber rattlers, pretty elusive though, not many sightings, one guy was bit in our town a few yrs ago weedwacking around his summer home bordering state forest. Saw pics of another that was mounted, huge, not something I'd want to find behind my house.
I was just looking up Massasauga's, swamp rattlers (Chippewa (Ojibwa to you Canadians) language, "massasauga" translates to "great river-mouth" and probably refers to the snake's preference for wet habitats, including riverine bottomlands.),
had a couple water snakes that wouldn't leave us alone bullhead fishing at night last weekend, freaked us out, I was for sure copperheads, we have them in NY but not around here it turns out, never saw anything like it, all water snakes I've saw were more black, mostly huge ones, turns out water snakes look like Massasaauga when smaller, we have them in NY but only in a couple really small areas now not near here, so we were freaked out scared of a couple harmless water snakes....Lol!

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

We have big timber rattlers, pretty elusive though, not many sightings, one guy was bit in our town a few yrs ago weedwacking around his summer home bordering state forest. Saw pics of another that was mounted, huge, not something I'd want to find behind my house.
I was just looking up Massasauga's, swamp rattlers (Chippewa (Ojibwa to you Canadians) language, "massasauga" translates to "great river-mouth" and probably refers to the snake's preference for wet habitats, including riverine bottomlands.),
had a couple water snakes that wouldn't leave us alone bullhead fishing at night last weekend, freaked us out, I was for sure copperheads, we have them in NY but not around here it turns out, never saw anything like it, all water snakes I've saw were more black, mostly huge ones, turns out water snakes look like Massasaauga when smaller, we have them in NY but only in a couple really small areas now not near here, so we were freaked out scared of a couple harmless water snakes....Lol!

Those black water snakes are fearless and I hear they will bite! I'll stick with the garter snakes, I like those. I found one the other day dead, the chickens had pecked it to death :-(

 

[lpatelski]

#115 update...





68 days today 1,472g or 3 1/4 pounds.
3 weeks older than Auggie and a 1/4 pound lighter.

this PULLET Dressed(skinned) out at 2 pounds 7.7 ounces or 1,125g at 78 days(11 weeks)

 

[Mini Meat]

FINAL UPDATE chick#115 day 78 7/14/2016 Very nicely done. I think you are on a very good tract with your birds. Enjoy the fruits of your hard work.

 

[Dave C]

Looks a very good shape

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

@lpatelski that is one very nice dressed bird. To me the body shape is just perfect- right proportion of light to dark meat.

 

[NanaKat]

Loving the chicken history stories and the snake stories

I grew up in town but my mom talked about her life growing up on the many small farms her dad would buy, build up and sell to get another one. We always had a small garden and we're fans of Rodel and Organic Gardening. In 1985 I married my hubby and he had always lived in the country and mostly on farm land enjoying poultry, cattle and garden produce. His mother at one time had a Lamona flock of 2000 hens and roosters supplying eggs to small grocery stores and individuals.
We finally bought our own farm in 1996 and now have 248 acres, a large herd of Angus and Brangus cattle, and my many chickens. My favorites are my Columbian Wyandotte that I've been breeding to the SOP and my BBS Cochin. We also have Australorp, BSL, Buckeye and several Bantam breeds including the Delaware, d'Anvers, OEGB, Rosecomb and a single precocious Silver Seabright rooster named Ansel.

As for snakes, hubby thinks all snakes are poisonous...phobic. He calls me to kill the bad snakes but has learned to tolerate the big black snake in the barn. We have killed a few pigmy rattlers in the past few years. A snake in the hens houses is dispatched quickly.

 

[Beekissed]

FYI on the black snakes, folks....I lost 20 chicks newly hatched out of 4 separate hatches this spring to a pair of black snakes. I also had always heard that if you have black snakes in the area that copperheads wouldn't co-exist in that same area, but we found a copperhead here the other day for the first time in many years. Sadly, the other snakes that have been living nearby for the past 5 years are curiously absent...could have been eaten by the black snakes. We used to have a garter snake in the shed each year, a beautiful milk snake in the lumber pile and a very productive eastern brown snake that provided the flock with many baby snakes for the eating, but this year they are all missing.

 

[angry rooster]

angry rooster, it sounds like it's tough to eke out a living on The Rock, congratulations, well done if you can grow tomatoes! Do you have to grow them in a greenhouse?

Up I think I'm doing OK
The green house is made from all old windows and shipping crates

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The last one is of a view from my padio can you see the giant heat suckling monster (iceberg) it has been in the single digits the last two weeks