Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[flocksalot]

Fred's Hens :

Quote:
I don't think there is an auditing department. Sounds like you have a life time of great experiences.

Yeah but I also used to dress the chickens up in my dolls cloths when I found a pullet that would let me. Never did bother me to eat her later though. My kid's the same way. Last thing he said to the pig was "bye Hammy! See you for dinner".

I'm going to try to read through some of this tonight, but holey cow you guys musta been shootin the breeze. I might even have to get my reading glasses on. Let's see if I know everything that's already been said. Still that's a lot of pages and I cleaned a coop today so who knows how late I can stay up.​

 

[NYREDS]

Quote:
Is this a fact ? what reference book/source ?

This has only been a fact for about a half hour. Unfortunately it's a fact with no supporting data & a great deal of opposing data. In other words it's just not so.

 

[NYREDS]

Quote:
then you do not have a "true game" rooster. a true game cock can not be mixed in with any other rooster. either the game cock will kill the rest of them, or he will make their life miserable by chasing them esp. if they are in a small area.

"game" is used loosely in the world of fowl. alot of so called games are just games by name sake. but that does not make them a game rooster. its not an individual rooster trait, its a breed trait.

I bow to the more superior chicken man who knows more than I do.. without even seeing a picture of my four roosters, he can tell me exactly what I do or do not have.. I will still stick to what I have been saying.. It all boils down to the individual rooster.. I am not going to argue about it.. that is my stand, and you have your opinion.. I can respect your opinion even if you cannot respect mine.. just FYI,, my roosters are purebreeds..

I've never seen your birds or how they behave so I can't contradict you. What I have seen is hundreds of Old English Game cocks that would try very hard to kill all the males in oyur pen.

 

[mississippifarmboy]

Quote:
Is this a fact ? what reference book/source ?

Here, my cochin bantams and a few of the Orloffs will go broody every year, usually with only one egg or no egg in the nest as we gather eggs twice a day. Several other breeds will go broody every now and then, but I don't think any of them can count.

The cochins are just my wife's yard decorations though, so I couldn't care less if they lay. Broody suits me fine on them as I just let them hatch a setting or two, the wife is happy and I can ignore them the rest of the year.

The Orloffs I am trying to keep the broody trait while keeping productivity up. So far my breeding program is right where I want it. They lay good but about a third will go broody at some point in the year.

 

[fowlman01]

Quote:
Is this a fact ? what reference book/source ?

This has only been a fact for about a half hour. Unfortunately it's a fact with no supporting data & a great deal of opposing data. In other words it's just not so.

You probably don't believe in Santa either.........

I like the notion that everything posted here is fact until someone responds otherwise. It really seems to work that way.

Walt

 

[centrarchid]

Quote:
I base following on observations of American games.

When progression through reproductive cycle is natural, hens seem to have a set number of eggs / lumps that must come into contact with breast to induce hormone changes causing broodiness. I have watched sequence many times and the growly broody behavior becomes increasingly evident as the number of eggs in nest increases. For my individual hens that I have watched repeatedly during the process of setting a clutch, where no gains in egg number came from cuckholdry or losses came from eggs being removed, the number of eggs accumulated before hen committed to become broody was fairly consistent. Some hens set when clutch size approximated 12, some 20, some 9 or 6 so number varied from hen to hen. Where eggs were harvested everyday, many hens would eventually still become broody at a much lower number of eggs and sometimes that number was zero. The cycle's normal function appears to be easily disrupted by our husbandry.

 

[Gypsi]

I don't think production reds go broody - or should I say, "I'm still waiting?"

 

[centrarchid]

Quote:
I bow to the more superior chicken man who knows more than I do.. without even seeing a picture of my four roosters, he can tell me exactly what I do or do not have.. I will still stick to what I have been saying.. It all boils down to the individual rooster.. I am not going to argue about it.. that is my stand, and you have your opinion.. I can respect your opinion even if you cannot respect mine.. just FYI,, my roosters are purebreeds..

I've never seen your birds or how they behave so I can't contradict you. What I have seen is hundreds of Old English Game cocks that would try very hard to kill all the males in oyur pen.

I am in agreement with jvls1942 in respect to his observation of a gamecocks not always killing all other males in pen with them. If enough nongame birds are present and adequate volume is available to get away from attacker, the gamecock may not switch into the fight till you die mode. In contrast, even in a free-range setting, if only a couple of non-game roosters are present and one gets sassy and fails to back down from gamecock quickly enough you can easily have gamecock running victim to point of exhuasting and then doing him in, especially if non-game fails to leave the flocks range.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
I don't think there is an auditing department. Sounds like you have a life time of great experiences.

Yeah but I also used to dress the chickens up in my dolls cloths when I found a pullet that would let me. Never did bother me to eat her later though. My kid's the same way. Last thing he said to the pig was "bye Hammy! See you for dinner".

I'm going to try to read through some of this tonight, but holey cow you guys musta been shootin the breeze. I might even have to get my reading glasses on. Let's see if I know everything that's already been said. Still that's a lot of pages and I cleaned a coop today so who knows how late I can stay up.

Bwhahahah.....

The neighbors named their Steer... Sir Loin.... Aeons ago.

 

[RWD57]

Quote:
Is this a fact ? what reference book/source ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clutch_(eggs)
I've read it other places also, it's the nature of the bird (some breeds more than others), would'nt be many chickens if they went broody for one egg.