By Divine Design Farmstead • Hindsight is Always 2020

[RememberTheWay]

A couple updated photos of the Salmon Faverolles pullets plus a surprise

The mottled chick (possibly cockerel) was actually a gift from a Faverolles project pen. At first I was thinking it was jubilee Faverolles, but now I'm not so sure. Is it possible that it will actually just be a black and white mottled Faverolles? Could the brown coloring shown there just be a juvenile type of feathering that it will out grow? Comb is right. Skin color is right. Has four toes, Faverolles have five but easy fix. My particular line is also carriers for recessive white. Hoping to get some black Faverolles and mottled Faverolles as well as white from this line. But color and show isn't the focus for the favs. They are utility birds for our farm. Meat and production. I intend to breed towards the standard with them. Maybe slightly heavier though. I wasn't too breed them back to their original purpose - TRUE dual purpose birds. Extra males for processing and hens for production especially in winter. I choose American Bresse as our dual purpose breeds to shine for laying during the summer when my favs will probably be taking a break.

Overall I am very pleased with these birds so far and really glad I found the breeder I did locally as she has similar goals so this line has already been being bred to my goals for 9 yrs before I got them

 

[RememberTheWay]

Feeding the dogs this evening I was in for a small surprise. The last few months, I have really put in a lot research and effort to increase nutrition around here for my flock. Tonight was the verification that I'm going in the right direction! Check out these egg yolks I cracked into my dogs feed! They are orange!

 

[RememberTheWay]

The High Tunnel greenhouse we will be taking down and moving to our property shortly. It is finally paid off! Yes! Feels really good

We will be hiring help to take it down and put back up at our location so that will be really nice.

The plastic sheeting on it is brittle in places and has huge holes in places. I plan to try to salvage what ever I can from it for other small projects possibly. The shade cloth is intact. I am trying to brainstorm ideas for covering it again once we have it rebuilt. I have my own thoughts on how to go about it and what kind of materials to use but if anyone else has some suggestions, I'm all ears.

 

[2ndTink]

I can't advise on what birds to cross to get to your end goal, but they are all really pretty!

 

[RememberTheWay]

Photo taken- 8 p.m. October 20- 2024

Opal Legbar Pullet

 

[RememberTheWay]

I noticed something interesting today while feeding. Up until now all the chicks I've ever grown out went through an ugly duckling phase and their feathers during those growth periods tended look quite tattered and ratty. I always thought it was just the way it was and they grew out of it. For the better part of this year I have been studying poultry nutrition. I also recently changed everyone's feed here. And today I saw hard proof of the fruits of my labors. I have never seen grow out chicks with such beautiful feathers. They are hardly tattered at all, nicely structured, and so vibrant and shiny!

The black and white chicks feathers are a pretty good example of what most of the chicks here would go through as a phase. Not terrible but definitely had some scraggly ness to them. The black chick and the all white one have grown out their feathers on the new feed. There is a stark contrast to the quality of feather between the examples. At least in my humble opinion

 

[2ndTink]

I noticed something interesting today while feeding. Up until now all the chicks I've ever grown out went through an ugly duckling phase and their feathers during those growth periods tended look quite tattered and ratty. I always thought it was just the way it was and they grew out of it. For the better part of this year I have been studying poultry nutrition. I also recently changed everyone's feed here. And today I saw hard proof of the fruits of my labors. I have never seen grow out chicks with such beautiful feathers. They are hardly tattered at all, nicely structured, and so vibrant and shiny!

The black and white chicks feathers are a pretty good example of what most of the chicks here would go through as a phase. Not terrible but definitely had some scraggly ness to them. The black chick and the all white one have grown out their feathers on the new feed. There is a stark contrast to the quality of feather between the examples. At least in my humble opinion

I've had a bit of both, tattered looking and sleek in my grow outs. What feed did you find that works?

 

[RememberTheWay]

I've had a bit of both, tattered looking and sleek in my grow outs. What feed did you find that works?

I switched everyone to Kalmbach Flock Maker. I had actually ordered Kalmbach Formula for Champions (might be the name? ) But the feed store didn't actually carry it so while I waited for that to come in this wk I bought Flock Maker because I have spent the last month or better reading every feed tag I could get my hands on and emailing all my local suppliers to get their stock list and prices so that I could compare what was available to me locally. It's been a daunting task. The one reason I hadn't already settled on flock Maker was due to the fact that I also have quail I raise and they need more nutrients then what FM has in it. I wanted a feed I could feed to everyone from start to finish. I may not have found what we will use long term yet but it is very encouraging to see visual results. I look at it like at least I know I am moving in the right direction with everything, ya know?

 

[RememberTheWay]

Easter Egger Project - Pretty sure this one is a Pullet. Why does she look like an angry owl

 

[2ndTink]

I switched everyone to Kalmbach Flock Maker. I had actually ordered Kalmbach Formula for Champions (might be the name? ) But the feed store didn't actually carry it so while I waited for that to come in this wk I bought Flock Maker because I have spent the last month or better reading every feed tag I could get my hands on and emailing all my local suppliers to get their stock list and prices so that I could compare what was available to me locally. It's been a daunting task. The one reason I hadn't already settled on flock Maker was due to the fact that I also have quail I raise and they need more nutrients then what FM has in it. I wanted a feed I could feed to everyone from start to finish. I may not have found what we will use long term yet but it is very encouraging to see visual results. I look at it like at least I know I am moving in the right direction with everything, ya know?

That's what I've been using this year as well for all my birds. This last hatch was raised in it, but the previous hatches got the Kalmbach chick starter. I think the feathers are better with the flock maker, I had some rough looking chicks earlier this year. They all outgrew it but their first feathers were shredded looking. With this last hatch I only have one like that and she's not too bad either.