California - Northern

[capayvalleychick]

Speaking of turkeys, we had a nice surprise this year. I love turkeys but don't have any because I don't have the means to manage them at this point.

We planted one of the pastures with a grain mix, last Fall. Put the cows, horses & sheep out there to graze it, last month. They either grazed or stomped the entire pasture down, except for one spot. There was about a ten foot circle of tall grain left standing, that none of the animals touched.

My husband told me there was a calf in the clump. I said, no, all calves are with their mothers. He insisted and went out to look. There was a wild turkey hen, sitting on eggs. I was really surprised that all the animals had respected her space!

One day, we went out and she was gone. 10 hatched eggs in the nest, one unhatched. I was happy to have been able to have turkeys for a short time. I wish that I could have seen the poults.
The critters grazed the grain after she was gone.

 

[debs_flock]

Quote:
All this discussion of doves caused me to go look up doves and pigeons around the world. First, I love zebra doves. I remember them well from my trips to Hawaii. The eye ring on the diamond doves icks me out a little though.

But apparently I need to move to the East Indies, I love, love, love the nicobar pigeons and all the different varieties of fruit doves. Gorgeous! (all pictures lifted from the web - but now I have a new destination, EOS in hand)

Nicobar pigeon


A small sampling of fruit doves, but there are dozens of varieties, each one colored more fantastically than the one before!








I think I'm in love!

 

[sewandgrow]

I need some advice about my micro-flock of 2.
My 6 wk LB is growing a comb and the overwhelming opinion on the 'guess my gender thread' is Henny is a cockerel.
Being in town, I have to get rid of "Henny" before she starts crowing, but I have a couple months to get my EE Penny another flock, right?
My feed store has their last chick batch, so I got the last Australop and a very scrawny (bones showing) black sex link.

I should have looked a bit closer at the BSL that didn't run off with all the others and was easy to catch. It looks pecked upon.
Should I get a stronger chick since there were plenty others to chose from and I could give the weak chick to my special needs kitty who is on a live prey (mostly feeder mice) diet?
How important is it to start with the strongest chicks? Will this pecked-upon and half-starved chick do fine in a small flock or will she always be at a disadvantage?
Here is a better picture of how bad she looks:

Her breathing is a lot more labored than the Australop.
I guess between knowing I'll be culling my pretty LB at some point soon has made me a bit more callous/Darwinian about choosing which chicks to raise. I don't need any more special needs babies - an anorexic kitty is enough for me.
Thanks for the input!

Coleen, I would be concerned with the health of the weak chick & not feed it to my cat. Good Luck

 

[QueenBubbles]

Thank you for the input @capayvalleychick. You are right about Davis chicken people - every chick is sacred. I suspect it is a reaction to the truly callous and inhumane use of animals in the science labs.
I hope I haven't offended anybody on this thread. I wish I could do emoticons from my phone

 

[caychris]

My daughter is fairly concerned about how 2 of my Dels behave around the buffs. Red face Penny/Pete even was so bold as to try and bite one that was sitting in my daughters lap.

I think I'm just going to keep them separated until the buffs are much older and only put them together for supervised visits. Right now the Buffs are very afraid of the "Big" meanies. Which I find hillarious because they were the big meanies to the Foster buffs. Of course one of the fosters eventually became the queen of the roost in the brooder box. She was brave enough to stand up to the bigger birds and they all got along eventually. They were only 3 weeks apart though and same breed so I think it was easier. The Dels are 4 weeks older and a faster growing breed too. I still am dithering back and forth as to if Penny/Pete is pullet or cockerel. I suppose Ill know soon enough about only 6 weeks more till I should start expecting eggs. Everything Ive read says they generally start laying at 20 weeks. It will be 2 months later before the Buffs which are supposedly reliable at about 24 weeks should be laying. Pretty sure the kids will have all settled in together by then or Ill have had to remove one or 2.

I've heard that I should separate the aggressive one. Can anyone give me more input. I'm thinking I may have to get rid of her but as of yet she has caused no injuries and we have been interceding to stop any aggression because I have not yet been able to leave them alone unsupervised. Ill be adding hiding spots and more shade this weekend so I can let them self integrate better.

 

[QueenBubbles]

About turkey's - I'm not surprised the nest on your pasture was left undisturbed. Turkeys can be quite vicious - esp Moms. We have roving gangs of turkeys in Davis and they attack bicyclists on the bike trails when they decide it's part of their territory. Maybe it's moms protecting nests, because when they graze thru neighborhoods, they move along if you get too close. They certainly are unique birds - fearless and inquisitive.

 

[SpringPeeper]

I need some advice about my micro-flock of 2.
My 6 wk LB is growing a comb and the overwhelming opinion on the 'guess my gender thread' is Henny is a cockerel.
Being in town, I have to get rid of "Henny" before she starts crowing, but I have a couple months to get my EE Penny another flock, right?
My feed store has their last chick batch, so I got the last Australop and a very scrawny (bones showing) black sex link.

I should have looked a bit closer at the BSL that didn't run off with all the others and was easy to catch. It looks pecked upon.
Should I get a stronger chick since there were plenty others to chose from and I could give the weak chick to my special needs kitty who is on a live prey (mostly feeder mice) diet?
How important is it to start with the strongest chicks? Will this pecked-upon and half-starved chick do fine in a small flock or will she always be at a disadvantage?
Here is a better picture of how bad she looks:

Her breathing is a lot more labored than the Australop.
I guess between knowing I'll be culling my pretty LB at some point soon has made me a bit more callous/Darwinian about choosing which chicks to raise. I don't need any more special needs babies - an anorexic kitty is enough for me.
Thanks for the input!

I'm not going to touch the live-feeding issue, but aside from the already mentioned feeding of what you believe is a sick animal, I would be really wary of in any way encouraging my other animals to view the chickens as an easy and acceptable source of prey. It can be enough of an isssue even without muddying the waters.

 

[caychris]

All this discussion of doves caused me to go look up doves and pigeons around the world. First, I love zebra doves. I remember them well from my trips to Hawaii. The eye ring on the diamond doves icks me out a little though.

But apparently I need to move to the East Indies, I love, love, love the nicobar pigeons and all the different varieties of fruit doves. Gorgeous! (all pictures lifted from the web - but now I have a new destination, EOS in hand)

Nicobar pigeon


A small sampling of fruit doves, but there are dozens of varieties, each one colored more fantastically than the one before!








I think I'm in love!

All I can think about is fruit loops. I love them.

 

[ronott1]

Thank you for the input @capayvalleychick . You are right about Davis chicken people - every chick is sacred. I suspect it is a reaction to the truly callous and inhumane use of animals in the science labs.
I hope I haven't offended anybody on this thread. I wish I could do emoticons from my phone

I doubt any one was offended on this thread. We are all level headed here.

I am sorry you have to deal with a sick chick.

 

[sewandgrow]

Speaking of turkeys, we had a nice surprise this year. I love turkeys but don't have any because I don't have the means to manage them at this point.

We planted one of the pastures with a grain mix, last Fall. Put the cows, horses & sheep out there to graze it, last month. They either grazed or stomped the entire pasture down, except for one spot. There was about a ten foot circle of tall grain left standing, that none of the animals touched.

My husband told me there was a calf in the clump. I said, no, all calves are with their mothers. He insisted and went out to look. There was a wild turkey hen, sitting on eggs. I was really surprised that all the animals had respected her space!

One day, we went out and she was gone. 10 hatched eggs in the nest, one unhatched. I was happy to have been able to have turkeys for a short time. I wish that I could have seen the poults.
The critters grazed the grain after she was gone.

What a nice story Kim. How sweet that they left her be to hatch her poults.

All this discussion of doves caused me to go look up doves and pigeons around the world. First, I love zebra doves. I remember them well from my trips to Hawaii. The eye ring on the diamond doves icks me out a little though.

But apparently I need to move to the East Indies, I love, love, love the nicobar pigeons and all the different varieties of fruit doves. Gorgeous! (all pictures lifted from the web - but now I have a new destination, EOS in hand)

Nicobar pigeon


A small sampling of fruit doves, but there are dozens of varieties, each one colored more fantastically than the one before!








I think I'm in love!

OMG.....................me too. Can we get some?????? LOL