Bullying, Bathing, Runts, and Handling Hens

[mg15]

Lita riding on my dash......aahhaaa....too much

 

[Dook]

Here's Lita Riding On My Dash.

THAT IS ADORABLE <3 All silkies I've experienced hate humans, even when raised from an egg =(

 

[Yartenrag]

Just wanted to add a note about cats and chickens.... I have two indoor/outdoor cats that spend a good deal of time in and around my coop, my older cat follows me inside run everytime I go in and she often goes inside coop as well...the chickens were scared of her at first espeacilly when they were younger and smaller but now that they are as big as she is they seem to take little notice of her unless they look up and notice they are alone or cornered by her approaching. This same cat , Luna, used to sleep as a kitten in the pen I had my guinea pigs in, extremly cute to walk in room and all 3 pigs and cat would be snuggled up together asleep.

 

[chooks4life]

Quote: That's supposed to be the time when all the nutrience is at its most concentrated and easily assimilated.

 

[Farmer Viola]

Tabatha!!! That is the cutest thing I have ever seen X-D, omg I want a silkie house chicken now.. I am turning into a chicken lady!! haha.

Update on my flock -
I have something embaressing to admit, I was using the wrong type of Apple Cider Vinegar. I read the directions, but somehow I didn't realize how incredibly important it is to get the ORGANIC Apple Cider Vinegar with the LIVING MOTHER (yeast organism) inside the vinegar. I hope someone else can benefit from my mistake, lol.

Sooo, they're on OACV now. They seem to actually enjoy the flavor of the water, my SO created 3 separate waterers out of 2 liter bottles; one for OACV (1.5tsp/2liter); one with fresh crushed garlic (1 clove/2liter); one regular water. The garlic water being drank the most, followed by OACV, and the regular water is barely touched.

These waterers are inside their run, and the ladies have been spending literally the entire day up closer to the house, away from the run. They discovered they love to dig for bugs underneath bushes, particularly the ones closest to the house. I love it, I can watch them from inside! But I was worried they weren't drinking enough water and it's been hot out. So, I made them a (gross) concoction of OACV+garlic water in a shallow dish. I figure if they insist on being up here, they can deal with that water lol. The good water is down the hill a little ways. I will probably offer them all 3 water types well beyond the initial 7-day vent gleet treatment, since OACV and garlic offer such amazing immunizing and healthful properties.

Baths/butt squirts are still happening on an as-needed basis. I also started treating their vent with garlic water (fresh crushed clove -- my house smells *awesome*) as recommended by Juliette de Baïracli Levy.

They are still getting a little acidophilus in their grain. They're primarily free ranging though, munching grass, leaves, and bugs. I also started giving them chunks of watermelon, omg they love it! They pick the rhinds completely clean.

The 3 new chickens are doing well, they've been here 1 week now (17 weeks old)! The Americana is still timid and seems to be at the bottom of the order. The two Black Australorps are somewhere in the middle, Penny and Lightning are still working it out with them lol. The barreds and Cersi remain at the top. It's crazy that I know this. I spend waaay to much time with them! XD


Chicks love watermelon!

 

[mg15]

Thanks for the update: Sounds like brunch everyday !

 

[chooks4life]

Great to hear and see it's all going well!
Quote: Yeah, sorry, that's really an oversight on the part of those of us recommending it. Note to self: specify!
Quote: Just the right amount of time, I'd say. And as you get more and more familiar with them you will be able to glean the same amount of info from much less time with them. In so many unexpected ways, spending enough time to notice what you've noticed there will be of great and indispensable use to you and your poultry; all that info is relevant. It will help you make all kinds of diagnoses in good time rather than finding out the hard way when the problem's too far advanced for you to fix. It will help you pick your best genes and best characters (those two traits are linked in my experience for the most part) and lots of other bits and pieces you need to know for their sakes and your own.

(You may think you're not going to breed them, but if you've been bitten by the chook loving bug, I bet you right now, you will in future breed them. Even if you can't have a rooster where you are, or don't want one... A lot of people temporarily agist chooks out, like leave them at a friend's place to get fertilized eggs).

You're ahead of me in the fact that you have a photographic record of your birds. I've raised hundreds but never got a camera until a few months ago; now my flock's agisted elsewhere and I can't easily document them as I'd like to. There are so many reasons I wish I had a photographic record of my flock; one of the reasons is that I can now spot phenotypical markers of bad genes that I couldn't spot back then, as well as positive indications. This would help my breeding program a lot. And it's great to have photos of what you're doing with your life. We all look back thinking we remember it perfectly only to sometimes be amazed by the discrepancies or extra details a photo can provide. All the best wishes!

 

[Farmer Viola]

Great to hear and see it's all going well!
Yeah, sorry, that's really an oversight on the part of those of us recommending it. Note to self: specify!
Just the right amount of time, I'd say. And as you get more and more familiar with them you will be able to glean the same amount of info from much less time with them. In so many unexpected ways, spending enough time to notice what you've noticed there will be of great and indispensable use to you and your poultry; all that info is relevant. It will help you make all kinds of diagnoses in good time rather than finding out the hard way when the problem's too far advanced for you to fix. It will help you pick your best genes and best characters (those two traits are linked in my experience for the most part) and lots of other bits and pieces you need to know for their sakes and your own.

(You may think you're not going to breed them, but if you've been bitten by the chook loving bug, I bet you right now, you will in future breed them. Even if you can't have a rooster where you are, or don't want one... A lot of people temporarily agist chooks out, like leave them at a friend's place to get fertilized eggs).

You're ahead of me in the fact that you have a photographic record of your birds. I've raised hundreds but never got a camera until a few months ago; now my flock's agisted elsewhere and I can't easily document them as I'd like to. There are so many reasons I wish I had a photographic record of my flock; one of the reasons is that I can now spot phenotypical markers of bad genes that I couldn't spot back then, as well as positive indications. This would help my breeding program a lot. And it's great to have photos of what you're doing with your life. We all look back thinking we remember it perfectly only to sometimes be amazed by the discrepancies or extra details a photo can provide. All the best wishes!

That is so funny you say that, because just this evening I was talking to my SO trying to convince him how we might eventually maybe get a rooster to mate with the girls we want to breed on, and how we might select them, and how we might create a separate run to segregate whoever isn't breeding, etc. We'd probably want to wait until.. Dec-Jan? Chicks hatched in Jan would lay by May? And realistically, we should probably just kill/eat whoever isn't going to be bred, but we still can't fathom it heh..

How do you select the breed of Roo you want? Is it important to get similar genes (eg brown eggs)? I think a speckled sussex crossed with all the breeds I have currently would be really pretty.. I also want to get a female silkie house chicken!

I take a lot of photos of our yard/chickens/garden/home, and I feel the same way I wonder what genes I'll notice. Honestly none of the RIRs might be gene keepers, the red rejects. They're all just so skittish and squirmy and untrusting.. I have hopes that once they grow up a bit, become "adult" hens and start laying, they might adjust to their personalities and warm up a bit. Also, giving it time. I really enjoyed 100% of your post chooks4life, thank you.

 

[lfunderburk]

about the cats, When I first put my chicks out in the pen(only in day when we where out) my cats where very interested in the chicks. Every time the cats try to get to the pen I would spray them with water hose, after a couple of days of this my cats barley even notice them any more

 

[chooks4life]

Glad I may be saying something of use.

Regarding breeding, there's no need to discard some hens around breeding season because you've chosen to not breed them, they may come in handy as egg suppliers while others are brooding, or other random helpful uses. I usually have some non-breeders who earn their keeps well and thus aren't culled. I've not been thrilled with the quality of the purebreds from various breeders I've tried, and my focus has turned to mongrels and I'm working on my own breed.

I've got many different chickens of many breeds and mongrel mixes and am breeding primarily for useful traits under the old guiding axiom that 'no good cow is a bad color.' I figure once I've locked the traits I want in, I'll put more emphasis on refining the aesthetic side of the genes. My criteria are: they must be useful for or showing potential strengths in at least one of the following: dual purpose production, good feed economy, maternal instinct, hardiness, and lack of or small amount of non-serious undesirable genes. Each chicken is rated on a mental score for the points it gets for how many of the desirable traits it carries. There is one crucial rule I don't allow any bird to breed in defiance of; if it isn't nice natured and calm and nonviolent, it's gone. This showed immediate results in the gentleness and calmness of all the random birds hatched from then on, but I think good nutrition and freeranging to their heart's content has a lot to do with it too.

Other factors I breed for are good feathering and I've removed leghorns and white pekin/silky genes as well as some strains of black australorp almost entirely from the flock due to leucosis. I've ended up with many bizzare birds in the interim but currently have mainly silver dorking-like/welsummer/jungle fowl coloration, not actually recognisable as that just in terms of the patterning types. They're beautiful and chicken theft is booming in Aus! I've had my best two stolen.

I set such loose parameters to begin with as I'm breeding things as diverse as silky mixes to layer hybrids to heritage mixes. Gradually, actually surprisingly quickly, I wound up with a general standard outline of the bird that carries these qualities I'm after. They're getting huge though and I may breed more banty into them, but they're extremely feed economical and the best girls I've been producing lately are prolific layers and great mothers. Both genders are very plump but not fat, the meat quality's really getting tender and juicy and nicely flavored in the latest generations. On that note silkies can contribute black flesh and bones which are usually considered medicinal, the flavor's fine, but for the sake of the easily grossed out I've bred back to whiter meat.

Some random traits I've encountered in chickens I've not heard of prior to keeping them: they can have vastly different colored eyes, anything from black to blue to green to red to yellow to white, or two-toned like red irises with green rings around the pupils, or black rings around the irises. They can have each eye a different color. They can have noodle feathers, not frizzle or silky but tightly curled proper feathers with corkscrew spirals. Like soft smooth dreadlocks. They can have double claws, as in the toe is extra wide with an extra wide claw with a depression showing where it wanted to be two toes. (That's from the extra toed bloodline of course). Females can grow proper spurs and crow and mate with other females and still be great hens. They can have claws like cats in their wings, at the frontmost joint carried closest to their breasts, not the shoulder, nor the 'elbow', but the 'wrist' joint, a bit like a hoatzin; it ranges from a sharp straight forward pointing spur to a proper realistic cat's claw of the same size, or even two per wing, and they use it in fights and to hold onto nests and stuff. (They start to lift the nest with them once you try to check the eggs after they've got those claws). Also they can grow straight backwards pointing spurs as long as their proper leg spurs from the same wing joint which they stab with. This grows well and truly before their leg spurs have gotten adult length, and is anchored on bone and fully usable. I theorize this is actually a more primitive trait and the reason roosters as well as angry hens hold their wings in that tilted position: it's a visual threat to stab, adopting a velociraptor pose because they are in fact armed about the same. Also, they can grow multiple leg spurs. Also, eggs can hatch at 14 days. Eggs can be left to freeze through winter and survive on half an hour's heat a day and still hatch. They just take weeks longer to develop because of how long they spend in suspension. This is all true, though I wouldn't blame anyone for not believing me! I'd never heard of it all myself before trying to breed my own. Edit: I forgot: some chickens have rainbows on their feathers. These can be oil-spill style, blended perfectly, or striped without blending the colors. The colors include purple, green, pink, gold, blue, and red. This shows best on the black parts of the feathers because it is sheen rather than actual pigmentation.

I don't select for egg color, only quality. Also it shouldn't be too small nor too big relative to the hen's body size, and due to the risks to the hens I no longer breed those prone to two eggs a day or double yolkers. It's harsh on them. The egg should be glossy and strong shelled with a rich bright orange yolk and strong jelly like white, preferably yellowish tinged. If its watery or the yolk's pale, you've got either an unhealthy bird or one who genetically hoards the nutrition to herself. Layer breeds and their hybrids are classic examples of that, they tend to produce bigger but weaker and inferior eggs. More water, that's all. Many bantams have the same sized yolk in their half-the-size egg, and when their chicks hatch they practically burst from the egg whereas bigger eggs often produce bloated and weakly and slow chicks who take a day or several to get up and around. The egg type that's appearing more often now is pinkish or dusky rose, often with white or purple spots, which is pretty.

Watch for incorrect leg scaling because that will lead to 'outie' or 'innie' spraddlers. You can't fix these because unlike proper spraddling this is an anatomical deformation. They will usually gain their feet after a week or so but will always suffer for it. Breeders often give you birds to breed with bad legs without saying why. Nor do the books tell you. I found out the hard way. Now I can check a newly hatched chick and know if it's a culler or not. Which is a sad thing to have to weed out of your flock at a later date so I urge you to check their legs and make sure you don't breed any misaligned leg scaled birds. The parents may walk fine but the babies won't; it's recessive but only just, and one parent carrying the trait is too many. I may be an idiot for this but I dig those wing claws and spurs so much I want to keep breeding them into my strain; they did in fact pop up on my best birds and appear to come with the traits I'm after so it would be hard to weed it out, and since it was always the nicer birds that had them, I'm hoping it's not a potentially dangerous choice --- breeding chooks with more weapons! :/ But it's so fascinating...