Consolidated Kansas

[maidenwolfx80]

HEChicken- Cherwill-- Thank you for the advice. My girls have just started laying last month so I am getting 2-3 eggs a day sometimes just 1.
Mommahen--I did a small garden but it was a bust except the pumpkins. I need to till compost into the ground for next year. Usually we do pretty good on the garden. I am trying to see were I can get a few odds and ends, it is whatever it takes to feed my family. Thank you all for the support and help you are giving me. I am very thankfull for you all

 

[chicken danz]

Busy afternoon here. I'll see if I can catch up.
Quote:

Danz- thank you you are really kind. I am thankful that I can get some things for them to eat. We get thru it a day at a time and are thankful for the little things that hold us together. You are such a kind and thoughtful woman, I am lucky to be able to call you a friend.
Your geese and peafowl are beautiful.

Thank you. You have a whole community of friends here who will help you in any way we can.Quote:

The red star project would be a good place to start playing with a breeding program and seeing if you like it. Plus the market up here is always looking for layer/butcher birds so they chicks would be very sale able along with started birds. Plus, if she likes it she could always pick another breed/color to work on too. Most of the purebred birds are not going to bring much money unless you can mass produce a really nice heritage breed chick. I see people in the spring selling buff orp, RIR, barred rock etc chicks straight run but a lot of people don't know the difference between a hatchery bird and a heritage bird so they don't understand the price difference. If you want to have fun and make some $$$ I would try the red stars out and see how you do selling them.
X2
Maidenwolf- Please let us know if there is anything we can do for you. Send me a PM if you need anything. Milk, bread, to vent. Whatever you need.

I have a bunch of extra cockerels to butcher and our freezer is quite full so if you are interested in those let me know. We would be happy to donate them either live or dressed. If we do them here we would have to piece them all out but if you could take them whole that would save us a lot of trouble and work. Let me know if you are interested.
How old are your new peas? I love the things on top of their heads! I wish mine would grow those, they keep picking them off each other? Isn't that strange....

Josie they were all hatched this summer. Some are a little older than the others. These are larger but really close in size to the one I hatched. Even my tiny babies have the top knots. Maybe yours started eating the top knots when the little one was in there and got into the habit. Crazy birds. The guy I got my new ones from had a beautiful cameo from last year. He didn't know what it was. Just bought it in a cage with mixed colors.

Good afternoon everyone!

I love looking at the pictures you have all been posting of your chickens! It makes me want my own even more!

I am writing to ask for some help getting my application approved for hens in Overland Park. My Planning Committee meeting is Monday November 12th at 1:30 and I have been told that comments of support may help increase the chances of my permit being approved. I don't know if it matters if you are an Overland Park resident or not but comments can be submitted on the city's website at: http://apps.opkansas.org/Doing-Business/odc/Case/View-CasePLN.cfm?case=SUP2012-00024. It would be even better to have supporters come to the meeting but they put it at 1:30 on a Monday so that's a little hard to accomplish! Anyway I would love any help I can get so thanks for your time and pass the word on if you can. Please keep the chicken pictures coming!! Any coop pics you guys have would be cool too! Thanks again!

~Natalie

Natalie, I wrote some lengthy comments to them explaining why having chickens was such a benefit and how it was so necessary in today's economy.

Yup - hearing your explanation just about made me want to do it

. I must say, it would be nice to know from hatch which are the boys and which the girls. Right now when I hatch my own eggs I never know quite what is going to pop out and have to wait awhile to know which is which.

So sorry that you are facing hard times right now. What ingredients do you have on hand right now? If you post them, we might be able to offer suggestions for meals you can make with them, that stretch a little further. Are you getting many eggs at the moment? I have saved up a ton of recipes with eggs as the main ingredient that I could share if I know you have a plentiful supply.

Well, I went to check on my mouse traps and found another mouse had been caught, so I carried the trap in and got ready to dump it in the snake cage. The little bugger ran and hid in the area under the access ramp, so I had to tap the trap on its side to dislodge it and it dislodged it into the snake cage, where it bounced back up, over the side and...is now loose in the house.

So now I have that room blocked off and all of my traps set in there, hoping it is dumb enough to get trapped again.

Under other circumstances I would bring the cat in to catch it but he is still not doing well. If you remember, just over a month ago he started to display symptoms like he had had a stroke? Well, I had him checked out by a vet and she said while there are a ton of expensive tests she could run to determine the exact cause, none of them was going to do anything to help him. She suggested just continue doing what we are doing - keeping him in a calm, quiet place, make sure he has access to good food and water, etc. So 3-4 weeks went by and we saw gradual improvement. He was able to walk across the room without falling down and it got to the point DH asked me when I was going to let him back outside. I said I didn't feel he was quite there yet and the next morning went to check on him to find he had had another "stroke". His head was even more tilted than it had been after the first, and he was back to stumbling around, falling down all the time. I'm so glad I didn't let him out the night before. Anyway, that was a week or so ago and again, we are seeing very, very slow improvements. I discussed it with the same vet again and we are on the same page about just continue to care for and observe him. At the end of the day she doesn't think there is much that can be done for him, but as long as he seems happy (which he does - he purrs constantly and still tries to rub up against us even though he mostly falls down when he does), I'll just keep taking care of him. Actually, he doesn't really require that much care - he is ambulatory enough to get in and out of the litter box, and is eating and drinking by himself well. So all we have to do is brush him a lot (he's one of those constant shedders but is no longer able to groom himself well) and love on him a lot.

Long story short though, he currently does NOT have the coordination it would take, to catch this little mouse.

I'm so sorry about your cat. I was hoping it had gotten well. I am still missing and mourning the loss of my Tyggy cat.
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I posted a pic of my rooster a while back and everyone said he was an austrolorp. Then my dh asked the guy who gave him to us and he said he is a jersey giant, he bought them from McMurray Hatchery. I had a hen that matched him, but I think I may have accidentally sold her, well, I didn't do it. They may or may not be all of one breed(or pure bred?, is that what you call it?), assuming that black is a dominant color they could be half (or split?, is that right?) between any other breed out there. How would I know the difference between jersey giant and australorp. I do love them.

Here is the rooster pic again...



I hope the one with more red on her face isn't the offspring of this hen. She's nice and all but all that red on her head gives me the willies. I sent my ds out to take pics of the black pullets yesterday and he took this one too just to creep me out. Anyone know what kind she is? I don't know where we got her from.

I did some research and I don't think you could tell the difference in the two breeds unless you had one of each!...or were a poultry judge.
Thanks HEChicken, I think the shelves look better than I imagined, I think it looked better after I started painting because then it just looked clean. I wish all of the doors would match, but we will keep looking for more the same. I do think the light is too hot, my dh didn't wire it to the dimmer yet but we got it. I will pull the angle more steep if they're still under there when I go back to check. They were all up and playing earlier. That's very interesting about the Red Sexlink. So if you breed a both Red Sexlink then what do you get? A mutt again? I do think I'm going to go for practical, pretty, and polite chickens.
There are several combinations that are sexlinks. They go by various names and some that are different will go by the same name. I decided the breeding I want to use for the red stars by what K-State uses in their poultry program to make the most feed efficient layers; which is the white rock. Hamp cross. I figure if they've found it to be the most feed efficient /egg laying ratio, then it can't be far wrong.
I have some of K-states birds and they are awesome, gentle,easy going, and non-stop layers.
It is just like other genetics if you cross again. You could get either a white rock, a new hamp, a sexlink, or a conglomeration of all the above. You just wouldn't be able to tell at birth what was female and what was male.


Danz, what does LF mean? I think I figured it out, Large Fowl. That's right.
Is red sexlink and red star the same thing?
Sometimes. Explained above.
I do think I need to keep this simple and that for us, the cost is significant. It would be irresponsible for us at this point to spend a lot of money on something that we can't recoup at least some of the expenses fairly quickly. I've been counting each chicken we eat at $5 off my costs of keep our chickens. It's really worth more than that to me but that is about what a whole chicken costs at the store. The white rocks and new hamps looked like a sweet price too. I don't want to cull birds either, I want them to all be useful. I know a lot of people do that with breeding and have to, I just don't want to. This way if they don't meet the criteria I want(whatever that is) they are still valuable as meat.
Do blue barred rocks and blue copper marans really look blue? At what point is inbreeding a problem?
Yes they do and they are gorgeous. It's more of a gray/blue color. I just sold a blue copper Maran rooster. There are too many schools of thought on this. It can open a can of worms. I like to just have several options so I have lots of combinations. I try to replace most of my roosters after one year or at the most two years.
maidenwolf, I'm sooooo sorry you are struggling to get groceries right now. I know how that is. Sometimes we eat eggs for breakfast and dinner. Are you getting lots of eggs? I make all of our bread nowadays, so even if other areas are skimpy it doesn't seem so bad with bread. Did you do a garden this summer? I really wish I had read that before I went to the city this morning because I sure would have put together some extras for you. I have a friend in town and when we get low on things we start trading, it's kinda fun that way too.

sarajoy, I can't imagine seeing something that would seem so out of place around here.

Oh Danz! Their feathers look curly. I've never seen anything like it, they're beautiful.
Thank you. I think so too. Plus they are funny clowns!!
COOP Group, I'm going to check out your link. Good luck getting that permit. I went ahead and commented even though I don't live there. I don't have anything really strong to say because I'm just not good at that stuff. Here's what I wrote, I will remove your name on here...



Josie, is there a difference between your breed of lavender orpingtons and Danz's? There was something said about imported and them being bred to get that color? If I breed a lavender orp and a buff will some still be lavender? I was thinking maybe the color was recessive, maybe would appear as it does with say red hair on people?

There shouldn't be a difference in our roosters. Mine are from import lines as well. (English) These get much larger and fluffier than the American product. I'm not sure the Americans have perfected the self-blue or lavender Orpingtons yet. But I may be wrong. I know several are working on it. I would have to look at the tables to see how many generations you would have to breed to get what color crossing a lavender and a buff.

I lost my one and only Breda fowl chick today. I can't find anything wrong with him.^&&* it! I sure hope I get some more hatches. They are such awesome looking creatures.

 

[maidenwolfx80]

Well, turkeys did better today no fighting, my older hen is submitting alot, boys are getting OVERLY excited about that lol. Although I have been having to ( the last few months) heard them back to roost every night. I thought , hey I shouldnt have to chase turkeys around to get them to go to bed every night. So no more, and tonight I have 2 toms on the roof, they are not happy lol. I put my hens in against my own rules but otherwise they would be sleeping on my front porch. So tomorrow night I will not do so, I just need to make my front porch unappealing as a roost....... UGH the trouble with turkey......

 

[HEChicken]

DH keeps bringing me cars to test drive. My Montero is on its last legs. If it wasn't so old and have so much rust on it, we might be willing to spend what it would take to fix it. He wants a car and I want my Montero! This whole project is feeling like it's about what he wants me to drive, not what I want to drive.

Aaargghh. I feel your pain - I really hate car shopping. I love the car I have now and am not looking forward to the day I have to replace it.

That's very interesting about the Red Sexlink. So if you breed a both Red Sexlink then what do you get? A mutt again? I do think I'm going to go for practical, pretty, and polite chickens.

Danz, what does LF mean? I think I figured it out, Large Fowl. Is red sexlink and red star the same thing? I do think I need to keep this simple and that for us, the cost is significant. It would be irresponsible for us at this point to spend a lot of money on something that we can't recoup at least some of the expenses fairly quickly. I've been counting each chicken we eat at $5 off my costs of keep our chickens. It's really worth more than that to me but that is about what a whole chicken costs at the store. The white rocks and new hamps looked like a sweet price too. I don't want to cull birds either, I want them to all be useful. I know a lot of people do that with breeding and have to, I just don't want to. This way if they don't meet the criteria I want(whatever that is) they are still valuable as meat.
Do blue barred rocks and blue copper marans really look blue? At what point is inbreeding a problem?

Red Star is just a name for a Red Sexlink. There are a variety of sex linked birds - black, red, amber etc., and while they are all mixes of different starter birds, the end result is a chick that can be sexed at hatch based on its coloration. However "Sexlink" doesn't sound that great so hatcheries have come up with their own names for them. Red Star and Black Star are names that one hatchery came up with, that's all.

Technically the sexlinks are themselves "mutts" since they are crosses of two other breeds. However they tend to look very alike - a Red Star is easily distinguished, for example. But, since they are mutts and don't breed true, their offspring will also be mutts, the difference being that you won't be able to sex the offspring at hatch like you could the parents. Nevertheless they will be good layers and may still be very pretty. If you were going to do something like this, you'd probably want to keep your breeding parents as the breeders so that you can continue to know what you are hatching, and then use the offspring for eggs and meat.

Blue looks a great deal like black. Hawkeye and Josie can probably explain better but it has to do with the color of the whole feather, I believe - you almost have to get down to the root of the feather to tell the difference. For example, here is a pic of my blue silkie boy:

And you would need to compare him to the pics of Hawkeye's black roo that she just acquired.

I witnessed my boys' redneck chicken plucker, and it does work. I just felt sorry for the one turning the pedals by hand, his arms got pretty tired.

I would love to see a picture of that!

HEChicken- Cherwill-- Thank you for the advice. My girls have just started laying last month so I am getting 2-3 eggs a day sometimes just 1.

I'll look out some recipes and either post them here or PM them to you.

Oh, that is a good idea to post the public comment we had sent. Here is what I sent:

Quote:

 

[HEChicken]

I lost my one and only Breda fowl chick today. I can't find anything wrong with him.^&&* it! I sure hope I get some more hatches. They are such awesome looking creatures.

Oh dear - I'm so sorry.

Well, turkeys did better today no fighting, my older hen is submitting alot, boys are getting OVERLY excited about that lol. Although I have been having to ( the last few months) heard them back to roost every night. I thought , hey I shouldnt have to chase turkeys around to get them to go to bed every night. So no more, and tonight I have 2 toms on the roof, they are not happy lol. I put my hens in against my own rules but otherwise they would be sleeping on my front porch. So tomorrow night I will not do so, I just need to make my front porch unappealing as a roost....... UGH the trouble with turkey......

From what I've heard, turkeys generally prefer to sleep outside versus in a coop. When I first built my coop, everyone slept inside by choice - guineas, chickens, and ducks. I was thrilled when I added the turkeys and integrated them and they started sleeping in the coop too, but all along it has been my hen who wants to sleep in, and my jake prefers to sleep outside. Mostly he will go in at her urging but sometimes he sets up somewhere outside and settles in for the night. Usually it is somewhere low enough I just pick him up after he's asleep and move him inside. The hen is always in and on the roosts though - for whatever reason it seems to be what she prefers and I'm not complaining a bit.

A couple of weeks ago the ducks started preferring to sleep outside too. They aren't handleable even after they're asleep (they're muscovies so they're big and strong and even if they're asleep and I try to pick them up, there's no way I can hang onto them). The 4 girls usually choose somewhere high to sleep - tonight they are on top of my horse shelter which is 12' high. However the two drakes are so much bigger and heavier that they just find somewhere on the ground to sleep. Even though they are in the chicken yard and my dogs sleep in the chicken yard, I just don't like that so I herd them into the coop. They go in pretty easily most times.

Here is one of my favorite eggy dishes. It is just called "Eggs for Dinner" and while it does call for bacon, you can either substitute sausage or hamburger or leave it out altogether:


Here is one called "Hamburger and Eggs"

And here is "Noodle Crusted Denver Quiche" - you can leave the ham out and its still good:


Hope some of these help. I have others but they are mostly variations on the above.

 

[mommahen10]

HEChicken, your letter was amazing!!!! I hope Natalie gets that permit so she can have some fun with chickens too. Your silkie is stunning.

Anyone have any chicks or eggs to sell me before I check the hatcheries? White Rock and New Hamphire Red please.

Josie, how old did you say your lavender rooster is? I was just pretty close to your area today, wish I had read before I got home. I won't be that way again until next month when my dd has another appt. Maybe we can work something out.

Danz, sorry about your chick.

Thanks for all of the info everyone.

 

[chicken danz]

Not to be disagreeble, but I suppose it varies with breed; what color you are considering blue. Here is a picture of the blue copper Maran I just sold. He is in no way close to black in color. He is much prettier in person. And his foot isn't crooked. That is the way he was standing at the moment.
And here is a pair of barred rocks chicks. One normal black barred rock and a blue barred rock chick.
The picture is blurry and taken with a flash but you can get an idea of the difference.
I am aiming for breeding for the more like the self blue coloring or what is considered lavender more than a blue/black color.

 

[JosieChick]

Yup - hearing your explanation just about made me want to do it

. I must say, it would be nice to know from hatch which are the boys and which the girls. Right now when I hatch my own eggs I never know quite what is going to pop out and have to wait awhile to know which is which.

So sorry that you are facing hard times right now. What ingredients do you have on hand right now? If you post them, we might be able to offer suggestions for meals you can make with them, that stretch a little furtherme. Are you getting many eggs at the moment? I have saved up a ton of recipes with eggs as the main ingredient that I could share if I know you have a plentiful supply.

Well, I went to check on my mouse traps and found another mouse had been caught, so I carried the trap in and got ready to dump it in the snake cage. The little bugger ran and hid in the area under the access ramp, so I had to tap the trap on its side to dislodge it and it dislodged it into the snake cage, where it bounced back up, over the side and...is now loose in the house.

So now I have that room blocked off and all of my traps set in there, hoping it is dumb enough to get trapped again. Sorry the mouse got away! This would so happen to me!!!

Under other circumstances I would bring the cat in to catch it but he is still not doing well. If you remember, just over a month ago he started to display symptoms like he had had a stroke? Well, I had him checked out by a vet and she said while there are a ton of expensive tests she could run to determine the exact cause, none of them was going to do anything to help him. She suggested just continue doing what we are doing - keeping him in a calm, quiet place, make sure he has access to good food and water, etc. So 3-4 weeks went by and we saw gradual improvement. He was able to walk across the room without falling down and it got to the point DH asked me when I was going to let him back outside. I said I didn't feel he was quite there yet and the next morning went to check on him to find he had had another "stroke". His head was even more tilted than it had been after the first, and he was back to stumbling around, falling down all the time. I'm so glad I didn't let him out the night before. Anyway, that was a week or so ago and again, we are seeing very, very slow improvements. I discussed it with the same vet again and we are on the same page about just continue to care for and observe him. At the end of the day she doesn't think there is much that can be done for him, but as long as he seems happy (which he does - he purrs constantly and still tries to rub up against us even though he mostly falls down when he does), I'll just keep taking care of him. Actually, he doesn't really require that much care - he is ambulatory enough to get in and out of the litter box, and is eating and drinking by himself well. So all we have to do is brush him a lot (he's one of those constant shedders but is no longer able to groom himself well) and love on him a lot.

Long story short though, he currently does NOT have the coordination it would take, to catch this little mouse.
Poor guy. I hope he feels better. Have you talked to your vet about trying steroids? It might be worth a try, you never know if they might help an inflammation problem and are not super expensive to get.

DH keeps bringing me cars to test drive. My Montero is on its last legs. If it wasn't so old and have so much rust on it, we might be willing to spend what it would take to fix it. He wants a car and I want my Montero! This whole project is feeling like it's about what he wants me to drive, not what I want to drive.

I know how you feel! DH picked out our newest car, the chevy equinox and I had a chevy blazer years ago that was a piece of junk and I really didn't want a chevy but he talked me into it and I love it. But it is hard to get rid of an old car. I had a Saturn for many years and it was just the best little car, never broke down, great in the snow. When it finally did break down it was totaled and I really didn't want to see it go. Its funny how attached we get to cars but we spend so much time in them!

I posted a pic of my rooster a while back and everyone said he was an austrolorp. Then my dh asked the guy who gave him to us and he said he is a jersey giant, he bought them from McMurray Hatchery. I had a hen that matched him, but I think I may have accidentally sold her, well, I didn't do it. They may or may not be all of one breed(or pure bred?, is that what you call it?), assuming that black is a dominant color they could be half (or split?, is that right?) between any other breed out there. How would I know the difference between jersey giant and australorp. I do love them.
Yellow underfoot-Jersey Giant
White/pinkish underfoot-Australorp


Here is the rooster pic again...



I hope the one with more red on her face isn't the offspring of this hen. She's nice and all but all that red on her head gives me the willies. I sent my ds out to take pics of the black pullets yesterday and he took this one too just to creep me out. Anyone know what kind she is? I don't know where we got her from.
She looks like an over loved hen. I think she is either scratching her head or that roo is loving on her more than the others and he is making her bald. I bet if you separated her and made sure she didn't have mites the feathers would grow back. No idea on what she is without seeing the rest of her body.


Thanks HEChicken, I think the shelves look better than I imagined, I think it looked better after I started painting because then it just looked clean. I wish all of the doors would match, but we will keep looking for more the same. I do think the light is too hot, my dh didn't wire it to the dimmer yet but we got it. I will pull the angle more steep if they're still under there when I go back to check. They were all up and playing earlier. That's very interesting about the Red Sexlink. So if you breed a both Red Sexlink then what do you get? A mutt again? I do think I'm going to go for practical, pretty, and polite chickens.

I think that when we do get a turkey that I will get attached too. I know I don't need another bird out there to stare at, like I have time for that. I was thinking that I could limit how many I have and use some for meals. Unlike you maidenwolf, I didn't intentionally get in this deep with the chickens. It just sort of happened. It was just to replenish our flock that I hatched a few but then it was fun and I realized that this was something that the kids and I could do for the most part. Now I feel like my dh is enjoying it because he grew up on a farm and he misses it so badly and we can't afford cattle and equipment, we need a tractor so bad. We have a few acres of pasture that are essentially being wasted. This is along the lines of farming but on a smaller scale. It's something to grow into and it's attainable. I never thought of myself as a bird or chicken person, I think they're messy and kinda dirty, but I just love them and it doesn't matter. Sometimes me dh goes out there to take care of them because he knows I will just stand there and watch them forever. I like the idea of the kids knowing where their food comes from, I think they appreciate it more and everyone certainly wastes less.

Sharol, I don't know what size the bulb is, I don't really want to turn it off to check it. It is red though. I bought another thermometer yesterday while I was out but I haven't located it since we got back home, that's typical around here. It's probably still in the van. If I point the light straight down it feels hot directly beneath it. If they were too hot I keep thinking they would go to the other side of the light, there is practically no heat over there. I will go check it all out more thoroughly as soon as I'm done with this post.

maidenwolf, that's great that your chickens are learning to take cover. I guess they learned from the experience. I'm so sorry about your baby chicks, what happened?

Danz, what does LF mean? I think I figured it out, Large Fowl. Is red sexlink and red star the same thing? I do think I need to keep this simple and that for us, the cost is significant. It would be irresponsible for us at this point to spend a lot of money on something that we can't recoup at least some of the expenses fairly quickly. I've been counting each chicken we eat at $5 off my costs of keep our chickens. It's really worth more than that to me but that is about what a whole chicken costs at the store. The white rocks and new hamps looked like a sweet price too. I don't want to cull birds either, I want them to all be useful. I know a lot of people do that with breeding and have to, I just don't want to. Most people who breed eat their culls or sell them as pets. If you are breeding for APA standard it is hard to know which birds have proper type until they reach a certain age. Unless a bird has a serious fault or a really rotten attitude I give them a chance at a pet home. Otherwise they go into the freezer. Very few people cull birds at a young age and get rid of them. Maybe if you were doing sex linked chicks but even then to cull as day olds seems like a waste... This way if they don't meet the criteria I want(whatever that is) they are still valuable as meat.
Do blue barred rocks and blue copper marans really look blue? At what point is inbreeding a problem?


My boys decided to butcher 2 more roosters today. They've been looking at chicken pluckers online and they are trying to build a little one with a drill but it's not done yet. They decided to improvise and turned a bicycle upside down, one turned the wheel and the other held the chicken against the wheel. I wish I had watched, but they said it was much more effective than doing it by hand.

Oh HEChicken, it seems like someone else had something similar happen with the mouse trap. I'm so sorry, I hope you catch that little thing soon. I'm so sorry to hear about your cat too.

Josie, is there a difference between your breed of lavender orpingtons and Danz's? There was something said about imported and them being bred to get that color? If I breed a lavender orp and a buff will some still be lavender? I was thinking maybe the color was recessive, maybe would appear as it does with say red hair on people?
Shouldn't be that big a difference. They might just be different lines because they are from different breeders. SO I think I have figured out what will happen with a lavender/buff orp cross but don't quote me on this!

First generation Lavender orp roo over buff orp hens= 100% black chicks with heavy buff leakage in the breast and possible hackles
Now here is where it gets tricky. I think your second generation if you took the black pullets with buff leakage and put them back under the lavender orp roo you would get some lavender chicks, some buff chicks and some dilution chicks that would be considered some form of porcelain or isabel. I did some reading on porcelain and isabel and there is a can of worms!! I think I have a headache!

If you want lavender chicks the first generation you have to breed lavender to lavender. It would be a fun project though, the buff/lavender. Just to see what happens!

Natalie, I hope they get flooded with comments of support. So much so that they just have to approve your permit and even just open it up to others. Keep us updated.

I witnessed my boys' redneck chicken plucker, and it does work. I just felt sorry for the one turning the pedals by hand, his arms got pretty tired. Ohhh! I need a redneck chicken plucker!

I checked on the chicks and they did move underneath the light all the way on the right. I removed the shirt from the door. I'm going to go check again in just a bit and probably change the bulb. They seem very quiet and content though. One was letting me pet her beak through the door.

Busy afternoon here. I'll see if I can catch up.
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Thank you. You have a whole community of friends here who will help you in any way we can.Quote:
Josie they were all hatched this summer. Some are a little older than the others. These are larger but really close in size to the one I hatched. Even my tiny babies have the top knots. Maybe yours started eating the top knots when the little one was in there and got into the habit. Crazy birds. The guy I got my new ones from had a beautiful cameo from last year. He didn't know what it was. Just bought it in a cage with mixed colors. I still have my other three, I guess I will have pea fowl for a while. We are going to put a pen in the barn for them if this house works out and make a run outside the barn.
Natalie, I wrote some lengthy comments to them explaining why having chickens was such a benefit and how it was so necessary in today's economy.

I'm so sorry about your cat. I was hoping it had gotten well. I am still missing and mourning the loss of my Tyggy cat.
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I lost my one and only Breda fowl chick today. I can't find anything wrong with him.^&&* it! I sure hope I get some more hatches. They are such awesome looking creatures. Bummer! I know how much you liked that little chick.

 

[JosieChick]

Josie, how old did you say your lavender rooster is? I was just pretty close to your area today, wish I had read before I got home. I won't be that way again until next month when my dd has another appt. Maybe we can work something out.

They are about 4 months old now. How far away do you live from me? I can't remember. If you aren't too far I can always meet you somewhere but if I know you want one I can just hold an extra back. I have a few that I have been toying with keeping so it won't hurt me to hold an extra back that is looking good. A few have long, narrow backs so they will be the ones to get butchered for sure but I can hang on to a nicer looking extra.

 

[maidenwolfx80]

HEChicken-- wow thanks for the recipes these look amazing.
The turkey issue has become a huge problem. Trying to heard them in every night and it is a long ordeal. I will just leave them out if that is what they prefer. I just dont think chasing them around to coop them up and then settling them down because they are fighting with the chickens is ok at all. All 6 of mine have to be forced in and that is a pain. So it is going to be either they go in or they stay out. maybe they will learn that it is warmer in teh coop and decide to start going there...