BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[CanadianBuckeye]

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

You live in a beautiful spot. I'll bet the air is clean- here we've had 34 degrees C plus humidity, plus deerflies, and after I'm done walking dogs all I can taste is diesel even though we theoretically live in the "country".
Really I bet if you came back to Ontario you would be glad you left. I'd rather have icebergs than tomatoes myself.

 

[angry rooster]

You live in a beautiful spot. I'll bet the air is clean-  here we've had 34 degrees C plus humidity, plus deerflies, and after I'm done walking dogs all I can taste is diesel even though we theoretically live in the "country".
Really I bet if you came back to Ontario you would be glad you left. I'd rather have icebergs than tomatoes myself.

That is one thing I can't complain about the air here is awesome I work in confined spaces all the time so I am taking air readings all the time the amount of oxygen in Toronto is 19% on a good day and here in St john's is as high as 24 % on a cool day

 

[Kusanar]

That looks like somewhere my husband would like to live... he's a cold weather critter... not me though...

 

[Mini Meat]

I'm a mean, mean lady. Don't believe me... just go ask my birds.

Yesterday it was stinkin' hot. I went out to check the juvies and everyone was panting and miserable. So I asked myself... why not add insult to injury?

I hosed them all down till they were drenched.

Boy, you'd a thought I was killing them.

It's not like I had the sprayer set to jet... just shower.


Well, 2 seconds after the water stopped the set about fluffing and preening and were quite content. The trauma forgotten in the blink of an eye.

Chickens are tougher than a lot of folks realize.

Today I have clean, heathy birds and my deep litter started cooking like crazy. WIN WIN.

 

[Turk Raphael]

I'm a mean, mean lady. Don't believe me... just go ask my birds.

Yesterday it was stinkin' hot. I went out to check the juvies and everyone was panting and miserable. So I asked myself... why not add insult to injury?

I hosed them all down till they were drenched.

Boy, you'd a thought I was killing them.

It's not like I had the sprayer set to jet... just shower.


Well, 2 seconds after the water stopped the set about fluffing and preening and were quite content. The trauma forgotten in the blink of an eye.

Chickens are tougher than a lot of folks realize.

Today I have clean, heathy birds and my deep litter started cooking like crazy. WIN WIN.

Too bad you didn't finish the job. I think I would have turned the spray on myself for a few minutes. Chickens shouldn't have all the fun!

 

[DesertChic]

So I am now the adoptive mother of a single baby Gambel Quail rescued by one of my egg customers. The poor little thing can't be more than a day old and is the lone survivor of an attack on the nest. This is my first quail...and it's sooooo tiny! Just when life begins to feel routine someone always throws me a curve ball.

 

[Mini Meat]

Here are a few pics of my young birds. I took over 100 and only got these few worth sharing.

8wk old Bresse cockerel


6 wk old White Rock cockerel.


From left to right. Dark cornish, Marans, Bourbon red turkey, Bresse. All 8 wks. All cockerels except for the turkey, he is a jake... I think that is what young male turkeys are called.



And just for eye candy, check out the colors on this little EE/Serema banty x RIR pullet. I think she is so pretty.

 

[DesertChic]

And just for eye candy, check out the colors on this little EE/Serema banty x RIR pullet. I think she is so pretty.

Wow! That feathering really is gorgeous!

 

[gjensen]

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.

Your black snakes, the rat snakes (Elaphe obsoleta) are nest robbers. The eat birds, eggs, young squirrels, baby rabbits, etc. As juveniles, mouse pinkies and lizards are their primary food items. As adults, they do not eat reptiles, and they do not eat snakes. Unless you are speaking of king snakes (out of their native range) Black racers (Coluber constrictor) will eat snakes. These are more opportunistic than some, and are not specialists. The rule is whatever they can over power. Despite their Latin name, they are not constrictors like your black rat snakes. They are quick and active diurnal foragers. Though they will be willing to eat chicks, they are not the avid bird eaters/nest robbers like your rat snakes which do not eat snakes.

 

[CanadianBuckeye]

Culled another feather picking #$$%^$@@^ cockerel yesterday, thought I had got them all. I think this one only just started doing it, a nice looking Buckeye/cornish cross which is too bad because he was on the potential keeper list.
I wonder where this trait comes from, neither of the parents or their siblings showed any interest in feather picking. I suppose it must be a recessive trait so it will be tough to get rid of.