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

[Gypsi]

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Well you asked for it.... and this bird is healthy vibrant, and has an amazing vocabulary...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/108101_big_bird.jpg

 

[Gypsi]

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Put down the hatchery catalog, and slowly back away...

I have never received a hatchery catalog. hmmm. Where do you get these? (LOL - no, I can't afford more fencing til I have my truck paid for.)

 

[bobbi-j]

[b :

They don't know any better, so you give very safe information.[/b]

I agree with that. I wasn't trying to say that everyone should just figure it out for themselves. I am one of those who needs precise numbers, measurments, etc. when I'm first starting out with something (raising animals, trying a new recipe, whatever). But as time goes on and I gain more experience, I am more comfortable with not being quite so rigid or precise. I would like to reassure people that if your thermometer reads 99 instead of 100, it's not a problem as long as your chicks are still alive. There are other ways of knowing if they're cold, hot, hungry or thirsty and they will be able to tell these things as time goes by. I'm certainly not saying that "by the book" is all bad.​

 

[Beekissed]

They don't know any better, so you give very safe information.

RR, I can certainly understand that viewpoint. I know we live in an age where the instructions for cooking or use of an object generally comes on the back of the box, on the label of the can or in the manual. People seem lost without specific information about an object that really has no specifics and the instructions do not fit every situation. As with any animal, YMMV and that is a hard concept to teach, isn't it?​

 

[wyododge]

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Well to get technical all that really matters is that he is a big frog now...

Kinda dating myself here... ahhhh the good old days...

 

[jvls1942]

I thought freezer camp was sorta cute and clever.. used it a few times myself.. but cull instead of kill just rubs me wrong. I don't do the politcally correct thingie very well and i was in heavy construction too many years to "pretty" up my words so as to not hurt someones feelings.. MOVE!!!! is to the point and gets your attention better than saying , Ahh, could you please step aside so that you don't get hit by that , THUD!! never mind..

when I am explaining something to somebody, and they tell me, "well, the book says".. then do as the book says, because I am finished with you.. why did you ask, anyhow?

I got two more goose eggs today.. that makes 48 in the incubator.. I just transferred the first 4 into the hatcher last night,, I usually do not expect the first ones to hatch.. I will be transferring a couple about every 2 or 3 days from now until Jan 19.. It is unusual for my Toulouse geese to be laying eggs at this time of the year.. usually they start in March.. The one who is laying now, laid from March through June this year (2011).. The Sebastopols are expected to start laying around Thanksgiving.. but they are finished already..

.........jiiminwisc,,, chickens since 1966

 

[bobbi-j]

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Why don't you expect the first ones to hatch? Just curious.

 

[jvls1942]

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Why don't you expect the first ones to hatch? Just curious.

often the very first eggs from most birds are not fertilized.. Now I don't want to hear from somebody who has had it happen.. I know it does, but I have not seen it happen on my farm..

 

[bobbi-j]

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Why don't you expect the first ones to hatch? Just curious.

often the very first eggs from most birds are not fertilized.. Now I don't want to hear from somebody who has had it happen.. I know it does, but I have not seen it happen on my farm..

So these are eggs from geese that are just starting to lay? Part of my curiosity comes from the complete failure I had last year after setting some eggs under a broody . The hens had been laying all winter, they were 1 1/2 year olds. I set 8 eggs under the broody and she faithfully sat on them for 25 days. I finally gave up and got some chicks from our local farm supply store for her. When I checked the eggs I took from her, only 1 had even developed, and that one never even pipped. I think I read somewhere that roosters aren't fertile early in the spring, but I don't remember where I read that or what the reasoning was. Oh, and I gave these hens and rooster back to the owner (long story - I was just wintering them here) and she got several chicks out of them later in the spring. It was April when I tried.

 

[jvls1942]

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often the very first eggs from most birds are not fertilized.. Now I don't want to hear from somebody who has had it happen.. I know it does, but I have not seen it happen on my farm..

So these are eggs from geese that are just starting to lay? Part of my curiosity comes from the complete failure I had last year after setting some eggs under a broody . The hens had been laying all winter, they were 1 1/2 year olds. I set 8 eggs under the broody and she faithfully sat on them for 25 days. I finally gave up and got some chicks from our local farm supply store for her. When I checked the eggs I took from her, only 1 had even developed, and that one never even pipped. I think I read somewhere that roosters aren't fertile early in the spring, but I don't remember where I read that or what the reasoning was. Oh, and I gave these hens and rooster back to the owner (long story - I was just wintering them here) and she got several chicks out of them later in the spring. It was April when I tried.

I have never had a complete failure with my own chickens and my own eggs.. I sure hope your information is wrong, because I plan on starting to segregate my chickens in January and by the end of February, I hope to be hatching lots of eggs.. I have 3 flocks of purebred chickens.. Delawares, Barred Rocks and Thai jungle fowl.. I also have a purebred Blue laced Red Wyandotte rooster, but no matching hens for him.. I use him for my mutts. He is good for pullets.. last time I set 84 eggs and hatched out 79 pullets..

I do notice that my roosters do not attempt to breed much when it is winter..

........jiminwisc.....siet 1966