California - Northern

[ronott1]

I have a 3 year old Welsummer that flogged me the other day. I felt something come up behind me and hit my leg and was completely shocked when I realized it was him. He has always been such a gentleman with me and his ladies. Instincts took over and I slipped my foot under his belly and tossed him about 10 feet. He has not come within 50 feet of me since. I think he will behave himself for the next 3 years.

Good Job!

 

[PetRock]

My 28 week old giant blue Langshan cockerel has just begun crowing and trying to get the girls interested in him. The older hens just chase him away and the only ones who let him boss them are his two hatchmates. He's still not got his romancing the girls moves down and most of the time hurries to grab the treats. He will break up any disputes. If two hens are having a tiff, Thor comes running across the yard to break it up. He usually gets turned on and ends up running back the way he came. Pet, our oldest hen and the first chicken that we got, has a case of vent gleet and sour crop. When I caught her to put her in spa timeout, she protested being grabbed. Thor came running at me all hunkered down like a linebacker. He came to a dead stop about 3 feet from me. I snapped my fingers and told him, "Don't you be doing that!" Then I moved toward him and he turned and ran. I love this guy so I hope that he doesn't get any more aggressive than that.

Thor

Thor and his hatch-mate. He towers over all the girls including my Buff Brahma and my Coronation Sussex!

 

[Ali707]

It sounds like you need some Dark egg layers or Olive colored egg layers. I bet Jason can help you....

I do have the lovely Welsummer eggs that are nice and dark. I do need Olive eggs though.

So if you order is there a minimum of the number of each kind? I would love a few Silver Penciled Wyandottes if you order. Cubalaya's and Sumatra's are amazing! I love the tails. AND they have Sultans too, if I am on the correct site. Not a great Egg layer but rather cool looking.

 

[Ali707]

My 28 week old giant blue Langshan cockerel has just begun crowing and trying to get the girls interested in him. The older hens just chase him away and the only ones who let him boss them are his two hatchmates. He's still not got his romancing the girls moves down and most of the time hurries to grab the treats. He will break up any disputes. If two hens are having a tiff, Thor comes running across the yard to break it up. He usually gets turned on and ends up running back the way he came. Pet, our oldest hen and the first chicken that we got, has a case of vent gleet and sour crop. When I caught her to put her in spa timeout, she protested being grabbed. Thor came running at me all hunkered down like a linebacker. He came to a dead stop about 3 feet from me. I snapped my fingers and told him, "Don't you be doing that!" Then I moved toward him and he turned and ran. I love this guy so I hope that he doesn't get any more aggressive than that.

Thor

Thor and his hatch-mate. He towers over all the girls including my Buff Brahma and my Coronation Sussex!

He is beautiful!

 

[member 142084]

Quote: I found them for $9-$11 on amazon, and they are a nice heavy canvas, but the size is a tad big on the wings I just folded the elastic over and sewed it.

 

[member 142084]

I am loving this rain YAY! No watering the plants Woohoo!

 

[member 142084]

Regarding hens with bare spots ... other than molting and having too many roosters, feather quality may be a cause.

Some individual hens may have feathers which are not as strong and break easily. These hens will be the ones that stand out as looking ragged when all others look fine.

I've culled all the hens in my flock that showed excessive wear from poor feather quality, and I no longer see bare backs (except during molt).

I also feed fish meal as a source of animal protein. I wonder if those hens that are on the no soy, vegetarian diets can even get enough protein to grow strong feathers? Those with a number of excessively bare backs or scraggly birds in their flock might consider that.

I only allow one male in each group of mature hens. Anytime you allow more than one male in a group, there is going to be excessive mating because they seem to compete and may keep re-breeding hens in order to assert them selves as alpha.

As was mentioned, trimming spurs is a good idea. I've been told that a rooster can accidentally kill a hen if his spurs are too long. We just twist them off on a yearly basis.

Mine get fish when we have it. but they are soy free as well. I get my feed from www.modestomilling.com My birds are all very healthy. I add flax to the scratch and the sunflower seeds are high in protein.


My orps don't compete among the gentlemen. I have a dominant rooster that fends them off. Thank goodness.

Are you getting a lot of rain in Guinda? My hubby commutes 16. Hopefully winter doesn't close the road too often. Last year it wasn't a problem.. just dry as a bone -_-

 

[chickee]

Hatching eggs are so fun!

My husband just ordered a Hovabator 1588 -- Happy Birthday to me!

The new model has an LCD screen reader so that makes him happy too.

I might be a little excited about this.

I want to know about hatching eggs too, we want to do a NYD hatch if we can!

My chickens are almost all running loose. I don't have enough breeders separated to fill an incubator. Umm... really. 2 eggs. Yep that's all I'd have. The other girls are laying fine but I don't want to hatch out a bunch of mutts. Following this to see other people's ideas! Don't want to break the bank on eggs right before Christmas.

Did contact Papa with Papaspoultry in Redding. Put out feelers to see who I know that might be heading towards SAC from Redding around Dec 10. I don't trust the post office. They're clueless around here. I'm about to start chasing down postal workers to educate them on the proper handling of eggs.

Gotta run but looking forward to hearing who your favorite egg suppliers are.

I could meet you in Auburn so the eggs wouldn't have to be shipped if you would like some dark eggs for the NYD hatch. I should be able to come up with some golden cuckoo Marans eggs for you. I collected 12 (I get one or 2 each day) took a little less than a week. Set them and all 12 grew and are due to hatch Thursday. If you are interested just PM me

 

[PetRock]

He is beautiful!

Thank you! He has a lot more growing to do and hopefully will fill out more in the process. Langshans are a slow maturing breed. He is already taller than the 3 roos I have at the farm. They kept growing and filling out until they were past 1 year old so there is hope for him.

 

[ronott1]

I forgot @chickee too!