Colorado

[Wendi C]

I have 4 polish, can you post a picture? I can probably tell if it is a roo with some certainty at that age.
Good luck with your bird yawningreyhound. Sorry, no experience with that vet.

edited to add....you know how polish aren't supposed to be broody? they are my MOST broody birds, maybe even more broody than my bantams!

Mine are very chatty, but it's a wicked witch like cackling or a purring noise when they're getting ready to lay eggs.

Thanks for the feedback, I'll post photos this evening, but after this morning's sun salutations there is very little doubt that I do indeed have at least one cockerel in the bunch. I shouldn't have gotten attached to the little guy and his punk rock hair...

 

[Wendi C]

OK- Now that I look from the side, It's pretty obvious that he's a cockerel (saddle feathers and tail is beginning to curve). Excuse the poor photo :|

 

[21hens-incharge]

He is still a nice looking roo. Are you allowed to have them where you live? I hope so.

 

[Double Kindness]

Sorry for not posting for so long again. Summer has had me busy eith the gardens and flocks.

I now like ducks more than chickens, because chickens keep destroying my gardens along with my 2 narragansett turkeys Jezebel and Thomas.

I entered chickens at the denver county fair and won a blue ribbon and 2nd best over all chicken for my ee x ac (easter egger x ayam cemani) Estellspa. I hatched another one just like her with the nice black saturation and tufts, but my friend wants to buy her.

 

[mountain mom]

Yes. Tho I don't know if ours was roosting. Found one of our spring chicks dead at base of the ladder that goes up to roost. NO signs of anything wrong with her. And she was 5 mnths old or so. Healthy as could be it looked like.

Very weird.

I actually have a neighbor that watched as her chickens came out of the coop one morning. Everything was normal, till one came flying out, scared another one that tried to run under the coop and it smacked it's head. When my neighbor walked over to see the commotion, the one that tried to run under the coop, was dead. She said if she hadn't been standing there, watching, she never would have known what happened. The dead girl had zero signs of trauma, just dead next to the coop. Anything can happen, it's part of the chickens being chickens thing.

Two hens from an SS breeding group died this year for no apparent reason, as did two in my layer flock. There was no visible trauma, no obvious sign of disease, and their bellies were soft and not egg bound; the other birds continued to lay and be well. In the past I had a rooster whom I suspected of killing hens, but that problem was fixed. I didn't do autopsies on any of the deceased, and, honestly, I have no idea why they died. MAYbe my dog terrified one to death when she got into their field. Just to let you know that undiagnosed deathshappen here, too, and you are not alone. Wish I could be more helpful.

Thanks everyone for sharing your stories of "what the heck happened?!" I was terribly worried that there was a silent killer waiting to take out the rest of my flock. I have had my eyes peeled, but realized everyone is fine. Except for the molt. At least 10 feathers fall off each girl every time they take a step! Sadly, this means we have been without eggs for over a week now.
Without thinking about the dwindling eggs, I made a TON of zucchini bread for the freezer with some of the millions of zucchini from the garden. Oops.

Sorry for not posting for so long again. Summer has had me busy eith the gardens and flocks.

I now like ducks more than chickens, because chickens keep destroying my gardens along with my 2 narragansett turkeys Jezebel and Thomas.

I entered chickens at the denver county fair and won a blue ribbon and 2nd best over all chicken for my ee x ac (easter egger x ayam cemani) Estellspa. I hatched another one just like her with the nice black saturation and tufts, but my friend wants to buy her.

DK we have missed you over at the bar!!! So glad to see you on this thread!
Looks like you had a great summer! How did things turn out with that neighbor, all your hatching, your meaties?

 

[Double Kindness]

My hatchings went semi well between 8 broodies.

I currently have 3 broodies on nests again. I dressed out my cx meaties at 12 weeks old at 24 lbs each. I'm picking up between 30-50 more cx meaties from the same guy I got ny last batch from tomorrow, as shipped chicks stress me out.

I sold my bean line ayam cemani trio and a pair of crested cream legbars this week reducing my number of roosters. I still have a trio of adult white bresse to sell and a pair of svart honas if anyone local is interested before I out them on rare breeds auctions.

The neighbor is slightly better. I think he & his last gf finally broke up and he went back to being a reasonable person. Plus we got a lawyer and code enforcement and the rest of the entire neighborhood on our side. He rents. We own. We've been here longer, and my roosters had expensive crow reduction surgeries and my bf built them special housing in the basement.

I've been over to the bar mm and posted many pictures

 

[mountain mom]

My hatchings went semi well between 8 broodies.

I currently have 3 broodies on nests again.

I dressed out my cx meaties at 12 weeks old at 24 lbs each. I'm picking up between 30-50 more cx meaties from the same guy I got ny last batch from tomorrow, as shipped chicks stress me out.

I sold my bean line ayam cemani trio and a pair of crested cream legbars this week reducing my number of roosters. I still have a trio of adult white bresse to sell and a pair of svart honas

if anyone local is interested before I out them on rare breeds auctions.

The neighbor is slightly better. I think he & his last gf finally broke up and he went back to being a reasonable person. Plus we got a lawyer and code enforcement and the rest of the entire neighborhood on our side. He rents. We own. We've been here longer, and my roosters had expensive crow reduction surgeries and my bf built them special housing in the basement.

I've been over to the bar mm

and posted many pictures

Busy lady!
I'm so glad you are doing well and your obnoxious neighbor is slightly more tolerable! I may be interested in some of your ccl babies after they hatch.... everyone wants diamond encrusted chickens!

Except really, I just need hens. Not babies.
We had a fox eat half of our flock this summer. In one day. While my neighbor was watching things. It was so traumatic.

 

[Double Kindness]

Oh no! I'm down to only 5 ccl hens otherwise I'd offer mine are still sex linked at hatch, so the silvery ones are boys and chipmunk colored ones are girls.. but my last pair f4 didn't have crests, even at 6 months of age?

 

[maggiemo]

Good to hear from you DK, and good to hear your summer was good, and the neighbor is better to you too.
Sorry about your birds mountain mom. I can't imagine how it would feel to lose 1/2 my flock.

...well..that said...I am thinking of really, really reducing my flock this winter. I have 24 birds (I have 7 bantams I don't count in the flock

) I am thinking of going down to 12 or so.
I have 6 birds that are three years old, 13 birds that are two years old, and 5 that I hatched this early spring. They are all different breeds, mostly mutts.
The two and three year olds are molting and a few are trying to be broody, but are pretty easily broken. I am still getting 20 or 22 eggs a day. I know that will slow down, but for the most party, these are pretty good laying hens.

My question is this, or my statement I would like to get some feedback on is this; I feel awful killing hens that are still laying pretty well. I don't need all these eggs. I sell the extra eggs, but I am barely breaking even because I feed organic feed. It will be much easier this winter to keep a smaller flock and cheaper to feed too.
In the past I have sold my extra layers. I cook and can (meaning canning food) a lot so I like to have lots of broth. I found myself buying someone else's stewing hens and selling my layers...the stewing hens I sold were organic and big and fat. The stewing hens I bought weren't organic and were scrawny and I paid about as much for the stewing hen as I got for my layers.
Should I feel bad killing a perfectly good layer just because I have too many?

What do you guys do this time of year?

 

[Latestarter]

...I found myself buying someone else's stewing hens and selling my layers...the stewing hens I sold were organic and big and fat. The stewing hens I bought weren't organic and were scrawny and I paid about as much for the stewing hen as I got for my layers. Should I feel bad killing a perfectly good layer just because I have too many?

Maggie.... Really? You have to ask that Q? Why would you sell big, fat, organic hens for "X" amount of $$ to someone else to stew (or keep and sell the eggs, etc), then turn around and spend those same "X" $$ to buy scrawny, NON organic hens for you and your family to eat?? You put a lot of time and effort into raising those birds and giving them a good life! Shouldn't you and YOUR family benefit from that?

I mean, if you were just selling them to downsize, and weren't needing replacement birds for stock/canning/freezer, then it would make sense and someone else would pay you for the benefit of your time and effort with the hens. But if you need to replace them to support your family then why not use them? That's why we got them in the first place, right? Good luck with your choice, either way.