Consolidated Kansas

[Hawkeye95]

Pike yer lucky. we got seven huge rain drops, and three minutes of pea size hail. that brinvs my pla e up to 1.26" of rain now.since May

Sounds like us-- where did you get the hail from?? I'd have taken anything at this point!

I just keep praying it RAINS!!!!!!

 

[chicken danz]

We got no rain either....again. I would so love to be complaining about lots of mud! Pikeman I do see three roos in there. Not sure what the deal is with the black comb. I did look around and found one black cochin hen out there with a black comb, but it looks like that birds has black legs as well. Heaven knows who it's parents are.
When the weather cools down I'll try to hatch some more Marans for you. Maybe this time we can actually produce a female. I would really love to get them separated anyway. I have lots of marans cause that was one of my original choice breeds. I think I started out with 50 of them. I butchered and sold all the excess cockerels. I Just hope everyone doesn't molt about the time it cools down.
Checoukan, my little curled up orp straightened up just fine. I'm pleased. So I ended up with 9 out of 10 eggs hatching. I plan to get some more, I totally love this lavender color. I just hope they aren't all roos again. Now to get them raised without loosing any!
Sunflower I would build a bank of nestboxes at various heights. My girls tend to prefer the lower boxes. Mine start about a foot off the floor and go up to about 5 feet. Still some of them prefer to lay under the nest boxes. I use deep liter so they just dig a hollow in the shavings to lay. Very inconvenient to get down there at my age!

 

[pikeman94]

Hawkeye - I just happen to be on a conference call and saw the post. I was on mute so I could jump on the contest. Normally, I am like you and miss them. The next time one comes up and it is a t-shirt, I will get you one and have them ship it to you. I really don't need any more t-shirts. Coffee mugs, YES. Speaking of coffee......

Danz - I can take some better pics of the black combed bird. I say he is a roo because of the tail feathers, but if it is a breed thing then he might be a she. The tail feathers definitely have pointed feathers. Time will tell.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Hawkeye - I just happen to be on a conference call and saw the post. I was on mute so I could jump on the contest. Normally, I am like you and miss them. The next time one comes up and it is a t-shirt, I will get you one and have them ship it to you. I really don't need any more t-shirts. Coffee mugs, YES. Speaking of coffee......

Danz - I can take some better pics of the black combed bird. I say he is a roo because of the tail feathers, but if it is a breed thing then he might be a she. The tail feathers definitely have pointed feathers. Time will tell.

oh heck yeah, I'll take you up on that! LOL! If you win a t-shirt, send it my way!

 

[chicken danz]

Actualy HEchicken it is my understanding that it isn't either the male or the female that determines the sex. I'ts a combination of factors and presence of DMRT1. It is hypothesized that it is caused by conceived functional interaction between the W and Z sex chromosomes.
Chickens and other fowl are still being studied, and they are totally different than what we normally know about genetics. There are many influencing factors that cause one sex or another the way I understand it. If you are into biology, here is a link to an excellent paper about it. http://faculty.weber.edu/rmeyers/chicken sex determ.pdf
I've read tons of this stuff cause there is so many disagreements to it. I believe it falls into that category of out of our normal school of thought so we have trouble understanding how it actually works.
Whatever the clue is I do know I have certain roosters that produce more of one sex than another. Not sure what the correlation in the puzzle is but it certainly in my best interest to change roosters and hope for a better outcome. To me it seems like any other genetics. If you end up with undesirable results you cull and replace with better ones.
Rob when those creatures start crowing you will know for sure! wish I could see them in person. I'd be able to tell you for sure at this stage I think.

 

[OzawkieBantams]

Verna,
Have you noticed your Mandies & Woodies searching for nest boxes again?
I have my fingers crossed for another batch of eggs. I have talked with about ten people in the Middlestates and all them are noticing this very same behavior.

 

[chicken danz]

No Daren I haven't. Mine are all molted and only the wood duck has started putting his pretty feathers back on. With all these darned babies I can't tell the parents from the babies right now.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Actualy HEchicken it is my understanding that it isn't either the male or the female that determines the sex. I'ts a combination of factors and presence of DMRT1. It is hypothesized that it is caused by conceived functional interaction between the W and Z sex chromosomes.
Chickens and other fowl are still being studied, and they are totally different than what we normally know about genetics. There are many influencing factors that cause one sex or another the way I understand it. If you are into biology, here is a link to an excellent paper about it. http://faculty.weber.edu/rmeyers/chicken sex determ.pdf
I've read tons of this stuff cause there is so many disagreements to it. I believe it falls into that category of out of our normal school of thought so we have trouble understanding how it actually works.
Whatever the clue is I do know I have certain roosters that produce more of one sex than another. Not sure what the correlation in the puzzle is but it certainly in my best interest to change roosters and hope for a better outcome. To me it seems like any other genetics. If you end up with undesirable results you cull and replace with better ones.
Rob when those creatures start crowing you will know for sure! wish I could see them in person. I'd be able to tell you for sure at this stage I think.

I would do the same thing if all I were getting were males. I would be switching out roosters too. Just that alone could throw you back into a good balance. I ended up with way more pullets than boys this year! How did I get so lucky!?!? LOL!! I do have a few little boys, but I'm keeping all my boys until I can grow them out to about a year and see who I want to use. Even then, going to narrow it down to a couple so I can test run some eggs and see which will be better. I should still wind up with a couple pretty nice boys to get rid of. I just scanned thru the article you posted (going to go print it off and add it to my chicken files) but it reads like chicken color copy genetics, only more vague since the article isn't sure of the outcome. Sheesh, I think I could read that thru a few more times and still be confused! LOL

Verna,
Have you noticed your Mandies & Woodies searching for nest boxes again?
I have my fingers crossed for another batch of eggs. I have talked with about ten people in the Middlestates and all them are noticing this very same behavior.

aren't these birds generally supposed to lay once a year? Or is that typical to have them lay again in late summer?

 

[OzawkieBantams]

Loralee,
if you take their eggs a few days after the hen starts to sit they will lay another clutch. But generally once they have molted they are said to be sterile, however we have had a screwy year. my wooies were breeding in January laid her first egg in February, two months earlier then usual

 

[sunflowerparrot]

Thank you all for your information about nest boxes and roosts... one other question: Deep Litter - I keep hearing about it and am now ready to decide how to do the floor. I've put 2 coats of paint on the floor just to protect the wood. I was going to get about 6 blocks of the pine shavings (8'x16' area) and dump all that on the bottom - then pile up my mowed cattail stalks. Trish has seen and felt the cattails and she believes that will be ok - but with concern about them holding moisture, I felt it best to put a deeper pine shavings underneath against the flooring. Comments, suggestions, warnings, etc???

Fern update - I was putting a 2nd coat of paint on the coop floor and heard a hawk overhead screaming - I watched as my little pup got up and went over and lied down in front of the chickens! I couldn't believe my eyes She was still there about 20 minutes later. I am a very proud mamma