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

[Marty1876]

I love perogies!! That's different than a big ball of dough. They are filled with potatoey goodness!

And cheese, don't forget the cheese, and the bit of onion.... Yumsters! Now your making me hungary.

 

[bobbi-j]

Well, since one of the reasons they apply diapers is to keep the rooster from breeding her, then the eggs are not potential children, just blanks. She's shooting blanks.

And if you disguise the eggs as fluffy, cooked foods the little dears won't know they are eating their blank non-babies.

Whew! Thanks for clearing that up for me, Bee! Now I'll be able to sleep tonight... (I'm kinda chicken-diaper-challenged - I just thought they were to keep the poo off the couch. I feel much more enlightened now.)

 

[therapydoglady]

My dad told me that you can put golf balls into the hen's nest. The snakes will not know the difference between the golf balls and eggs and they will eat them. The golf balls will get trapped in their systems and the snake will die. I had a big ol' black snake that ate 2 golf balls in one day. I can't say for sure that the golf balls killed the snake but I didn't see it after that. Maybe you can try that.

My Great Grandmother used porcelain doorknobs in her nests with all her Dominiques ("the best chickens in the world" according to her ). I was just a little bitty thing, but I found a large black snake in a hollow treetrunk that had swallowed one of her doorknobs. I went to check on that silly snake every day to check his progress...it took him MONTHS to die! Don't know why I didn't tell someone he was there, but I never told anybody. They'll die all right, but it's a long, slow one... My grandfather, (her son) put fish hooks in eggs and nailed the string to the nest box to catch snakes. He caught several, as I recall, and he caught his favorite coon hound, too! Granny was fit to be tied, demanding that the "**** dog" be killed, but grandpa loved to run coons too much and refused. I remember a long stretch of high tension!

 

[fowlman01]

Sounds painful. I'm not real big on any sort of animal mutilation unless it's spay or neuter. I'm a tough gal but punching holes in baby's feet is past my threshold.

I didn't even tag my sheep when I found out that it wasn't necessary to take for sale at the local auction house.

Could be why I never got my ears pierced....always thought that God would have made me with holes there if it was needed, ya know?

They don't even flinch if you do it at a day old. It is in the web between the toes. I thought you were the kind of woman that could bite the head of a chicken....if need be.

Walt

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

Quote:

Its actually very simple. A combination of a paper hole puncher and a finger nail clipper.

Learn more at:

http://www.strombergschickens.com/prod_detail_list/toe-punch

http://www.dominiquechicken.com/Toe_Punch_Chart.html

And at http://www.polishbreedersclub.com/toepunching.htm

A toe punch, available from many poultry supply catalogs, is about the size of fingernail clippers. It functions like a paper-hole punch and is used to remove the web between the toes of a newly hatched chick. As the chick grows, you can identify it parentage by the pattern of its punched-out webs.

When chicks are dry and ready to come out of the incubator, hold each gently but securely in one hand with one of its feet extended. Carefully position the punch over the web. With one firm stroke, punch away the web. Don't just punch a hole through the web, or the web may eventually grow back.

The pattern of removed webs lets you identify chicks from up to sixteen different matings. Here's how it works: on each foot, a chick has three main toes and therefore two webs--the outer web (between the middle and outside toe) and the inner web (between the middle and inside toe).

Starting at the chick's left side, the first web (left outer) stands for 1: the next web (left inner) stands for 2: the next web (right inner) stands for 4; the far right-hand web (right outer) stands for 8. Assign each mating a number from 1 to 15 and identify chicks from each mating by adding up the numbers corresponding to the punched webs. (For a sixteenth mating, leave the chicks unpunched.)

Chicks in batch number 1 have the left outer web punched. Chicks in batch number 2 have the left inner web punched. Chichs in batch number 3 have bothe the left outer and left inner web punched. Chicks in batch number 3 have both the left outer and left inner webs punched (1+2=3) Chicks in batch number 5 have the left outer and right inner webs punched (1+4=5). And so forth.

Toe-punching works only if you know when you open the incubator which chicks came from which mating. You can identify chicks by:
* dyeing embryos
* hatching different matings at different times
* keeping eggs from different matings on different hatching trays
* enclosing small groups of eggs in upside-down baskets (pedigree baskets) such as plastic pint-size fruit baskets.

LEFT FOOT
\o! /
\ !o/
\o!o/
\ ! /
\o! /
\ !o/
\o!o/
\ ! /
\o! /
\ !o/
\o!o/
\ ! /
\o! /
\ !o/
\o!o/
\ ! /



1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
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16


RIGHT FOOT
\ ! /
\ ! /
\ ! /
\o! /
\o! /
\o! /
\o! /
\ !o/
\ !o/
\ !o/
\ !o/
\o!o/
\o!o/
\o!o/
\o!o/
\ ! /​

 

[fowlman01]

I just measured my toe punch to the illustration Jim and the picture is actual size. I think zip ties are dangerous, so are those plastic coil bands that look like a spring.

Walt

 

[al6517]

I used zip ties once and won't use them again, they are ok if you know what your doing but better choices are available. I also am a big toe punch fan, they don't harm the chick and they feel no pain at all. It's a must for real breeders who need to have a better tracking system to ID and improve future matings. I toe punch all of my chicks reagardless, Once they are 8-10 mo old I move to a wide colored & numbered spiral leg band, and that stays on for their entire lives.

As mentioned this ID stuff only works if you know which parent birds they came from, I have all 3 of my color varieties hatch at the same time from multiple pairings. When they get moved to the hatcher the eggs are put into seperate breeder hatching bags, after the hatch while putting them into the brooder they get toe punched and documented and any pertenant notes made. I even make notes when the day olds are killed for not making the grade right off, for many reasons. This method is super essential if your truley striving for excelence in your program.

 

[SeanBlack]

how could I make hinge windows

 

[Marty1876]

I've never whole punched. I keep 3 different incubators, to keep my strains seperate, and hatch and brood in marked brooders. Once my babies are old enough (duck or chicken or goose) they are marked either with wing tags (in the case of waterfowl) or leg bands (the qty or color combo of which denotes years in a 3 year pattern for chickens) . That said, I will admit that the toe punching looks less complicated. I take it nobody has had much trouble with infection? I have reservations about injuring a foot (even if its briefly and heals quick) and then popping into a place where they are absolutely going to get poo on it.

 

[al6517]

No it's fine really, no infection risk and they do tolerate it very well, no bleeding, no problems at all. You have to get the whole injuring the foot idea out of your head because that isn't what it is, it is much less intrusive and far safer and so much more dependable than a zip tie or a twisty tie or a wing band. I imagine there are only probably less than 00001% of BYCer's who do this or would think to use it because of a negitive uninformed perception of what the little cute chick feels. You know the 40 bazillion pet folks are freaking out already but then again none of them are serious breeders and this method won't work for them because of their own mental challenges when it comes to common sense. They will name them before they can ID them LOL, it is just another method of ID for the most serious of chicken/fowl breeders and in those circles it is common knowledge that it is the prefered & encoraged method.