[insert whiny voice] ITS SNOWING HERE and its just not right. I thought it was supposed to gradually warm up this week - not add MORE snow.
Hawkeye, guess who is broody? Yup, Miss Silkie with all the personality. Its a little ironic because that is of course the reason I wanted her in the first place but I've so enjoyed my little buddy who follows me everywhere talking to me that I'm going to miss her for the next few weeks. Right now she is sharing a nest with Miss Broody Duck (yes, I know, I should take pics because how often do you see a duck and a silkie brooding together?) but tonight I'm going to move her to one of my little broody coops and put some of the OE eggs under her that are in my incubator. They're already on day 5 so she gets a head start.
Also, the hen we did the bumblefoot surgery on, on Friday, was in the nest box today! I fully expected after that "trauma" that she would stop laying for awhile but it seems nothing is going to slow her down. I would say she is limping a little less than she was, but she still has the bandage on with cotton ball and there is still a little limp to her gait due to the big lump of cotton on the underside of her foot. Thank you again so much for your help with her!
The only thing I would add to the discussion about heritage birds vs. hatchery layers is that a bird bred to the SOP is less likely to have some of the egg laying issues that plague the hatchery birds. I used to think the SOP didn't matter unless you were showing, but through a lot of research in the past few weeks I've come to realize that there are reasons the traits outlined in the SOP were chosen in the first place. For example, a bird with wide-set legs has more room for its reproductive organs, than one that is knock-kneed, which leads to easier passage of eggs. Likewise, a bird with a pinched tail is more likely to have egg laying issues than one whose tail conforms to what is optimum for its breed (varies from breed to breed).
When it comes to dual purpose breeds, a bird with a nice, full breast, will have more meat than one that has a concave shaped breast. And so on.
This is what made me decide not to breed any more of my barnyard mutts (other than the OE and project birds) and instead focus on getting better quality stock. I won't cull my current birds because I have an emotional attachment to each and every one, but as they age out and die off, I won't be replacing them with more mixes - instead I will replace them with a better quality bird. Sometimes it is a bit of an investment up front to get the initial good quality birds but once they are laying, it won't cost any extra to hatch and raise the offspring of the good quality birds than it would to hatch and raise a barnyard mix. However I don't even feel that my initial investment has been that much more. I paid $12/apiece for Frank Reece pullets and cockerel that were 16 weeks old at the time. If I had paid $2-3 at a feed store for a chick and then run a heat lamp and put feed into them to grow them to 16 weeks of age, I'd have close to $12/apiece in them anyway.
Hawkeye, guess who is broody? Yup, Miss Silkie with all the personality. Its a little ironic because that is of course the reason I wanted her in the first place but I've so enjoyed my little buddy who follows me everywhere talking to me that I'm going to miss her for the next few weeks. Right now she is sharing a nest with Miss Broody Duck (yes, I know, I should take pics because how often do you see a duck and a silkie brooding together?) but tonight I'm going to move her to one of my little broody coops and put some of the OE eggs under her that are in my incubator. They're already on day 5 so she gets a head start.
Also, the hen we did the bumblefoot surgery on, on Friday, was in the nest box today! I fully expected after that "trauma" that she would stop laying for awhile but it seems nothing is going to slow her down. I would say she is limping a little less than she was, but she still has the bandage on with cotton ball and there is still a little limp to her gait due to the big lump of cotton on the underside of her foot. Thank you again so much for your help with her!
The only thing I would add to the discussion about heritage birds vs. hatchery layers is that a bird bred to the SOP is less likely to have some of the egg laying issues that plague the hatchery birds. I used to think the SOP didn't matter unless you were showing, but through a lot of research in the past few weeks I've come to realize that there are reasons the traits outlined in the SOP were chosen in the first place. For example, a bird with wide-set legs has more room for its reproductive organs, than one that is knock-kneed, which leads to easier passage of eggs. Likewise, a bird with a pinched tail is more likely to have egg laying issues than one whose tail conforms to what is optimum for its breed (varies from breed to breed).
When it comes to dual purpose breeds, a bird with a nice, full breast, will have more meat than one that has a concave shaped breast. And so on.
This is what made me decide not to breed any more of my barnyard mutts (other than the OE and project birds) and instead focus on getting better quality stock. I won't cull my current birds because I have an emotional attachment to each and every one, but as they age out and die off, I won't be replacing them with more mixes - instead I will replace them with a better quality bird. Sometimes it is a bit of an investment up front to get the initial good quality birds but once they are laying, it won't cost any extra to hatch and raise the offspring of the good quality birds than it would to hatch and raise a barnyard mix. However I don't even feel that my initial investment has been that much more. I paid $12/apiece for Frank Reece pullets and cockerel that were 16 weeks old at the time. If I had paid $2-3 at a feed store for a chick and then run a heat lamp and put feed into them to grow them to 16 weeks of age, I'd have close to $12/apiece in them anyway.
