Consolidated Kansas

[sharol]

Sharol I haven't a clue. Often the girls get longer tails first, but both breeds develop quite impressive combs early regardless of sex so I can't tell by that. So in the three sussex for instance if two have longer tails I would guess those to be girls. The BR don't develop tails as quickly and I can only tell those as they feather in because they boys feather in a lot finer. My newest hatches however all have fine feathering so I just don't know either. I was trying to raise a few for future breeders. I need a back up rooster and more girls. I guess time will tell.

LOL. I know it is too early to tell. I'm just hoping a get at least one girl of each breed to add to my yard art chicken flock. they are sure cute though. One of the BR's is absolutely out of control already. He/she doesn't listen to mom until she gets firm with him/her and runs off to do his/her own thing all the time. I feel for Graycie. That chick is a challenge.

 

[adventerousone]

Adventuresome they are probably molting. I have some pretty naked girls right now. Ducks will imprint but normally if you have several they'll only imprint on each other. A lot depends on how old they were when you started as well. Normally if you have over 2 or 3 of them they won't tame as easily.

Thank you.. good info for next time I had to clip my hens' wings today I was chasing them off my neighbors fence .. their dogs will kill my poor hens mom and I are running to her house today to pick tomatoes and water her garden.. hopefully my dr calls with another pain med perscription I am feeling very sore the last few days since I ran out of Lortabs .. they gave me enough for only 5 days I stretched them to this morning only taking them one or twice a day when I get home time to work on my sprouting baskets.

 

[chicken danz]

LOL I have one BR chick one of the hens hatched out. He is in with the other breeders. He is always running outside the pen and it drives her crazy. But then he acts like a big whiny baby other times. I have a chick waterer in there for him which is always empty. The last couple days when I go to feed and water he has been running out to meet me for his water. Makes me happy. He isn't all wild broody chick I guess. I call it a him because it is such an independent thing. I'm waiting for it to get big enough it can't get through the wire though. It would break my heart to see something happen to it.
I have a busy day ahead. I have to go get a load of feed and it will have to be shoveled off cause there's a chance of rain. I need to clean out the brooder house which is more shoveling, plus all my normal stuff.
I forgot to corner the ducks so I need to figure out a way to do that and get a male for Trish to pickup today. Going to be a very busy day yet I am sitting here not moving yet.

 

[cherwill]

Hello everyone! I'm way behind, with no time to catch up. Sorry.

My neck has been messed up and I haven't been to the garden for a week. I'm afraid of what I'll find when I do get there. I'm glad the temperatures are back to something more fall-like. It's my favorite season; no way do I want to skip right to winter. My birds are molting, so I've had no eggs in three days.

I hope everyone's doing well and getting ready for winter.

 

[HEChicken]

Cherwill, sorry to hear you haven't been feeling yourself.

Cute chicks Sharol but I've no clue about gender yet. I would guess that in another week or two the gender on the BR's will start to show via the feathering. The males will have wider white stripes while the females will have wider black stripes. I usually find they are really obvious when you actually see them, especially when you have more than one as you can make a comparison (unless they are all the same gender, of course).

Danz, I had a broody chick just like you describe. It was the little cockerel I hatched from your eggs when my hen went broody last December. Because it was so cold in his first few weeks of life, I had a hard time keeping water unfrozen in the little broody pen he and his mom were in, so four times a day I carried a chick waterer out from the house and he would get so excited to see me coming. After their time in the pen, when I started letting them out with the flock, he seemed to remember that and remained very friendly towards me. His mother parented him until he was about 12 weeks old but once she finally turned him loose, he attached himself to me instead and would follow me around everywhere I went. He was so friendly that even if I was carrying something in one hand, I could bend down and pick him up with the other and he seemed to really enjoy being picked up and carried around, chattering away to me the whole time. Eventually of course he grew too old and debonair to be picked up and carried around like a baby but he remains friendly to this day.

And, as of today, he is now my head BR rooster. I had kept one that I had hatched from my eggs that looked halfway promising as a chick, so I decided to let him grow out and see how well he turned out. I thought it would be good to have two roosters as a backup, and liked that the two of them were not siblings. Unfortunately, "my" rooster did not grow up to be a great example of the breed. His barring was spectacular, but he got his father's legs which were not straight - they were extremely knock-kneed. I would have put up with that but his body type also wasn't that good. I was sad to do it because he was always a very respectful rooster to me and good to the hens but - he didn't have the genetics I want to pass onto offspring. I've had 5 roosters - 2 BR's and 3 NH's - and for the first time ever, started seeing signs that the hens were being over-mated. As we go into molt and winter, I won't be doing any more hatching until spring, so I decided I really don't need to feed that number of roosters for the next few months, especially one who doesn't even have the genetics I am looking for. So, last night I grabbed him off the roost and have just put him into the crockpot a few minutes ago. That leaves LB (the BR rooster from you, so named because I always called him my "Little Buddy" and when he grew too big to be called "Little" any more, I shortened it to LB) as my only BR rooster so I sure hope nothing happens to him. I am really happy with how he has turned out. He is a little knock-kneed but not as severely as the other one, his body type is good and his comb is spectacular.

My next decision is to cull one of the 3 NH's. I don't mind having two so I have a back up but three is one more than I need. I thought it would be an easy decision. I have Paul, my head rooster, whom I got from Deerfield. He is a spectacular German NH. The other two are his sons, so are half German, half American NH and it is quite a different look. One of them was a great example of a NH from quite young, while his brother had a wee necklace (not desirable in a cockerel). However he lost the necklace as he matured and is now just as good an example of the breed as his brother. It sounds simple right? Keep Paul and one of his sons. The problem is, Paul has developed enormously swollen feet. I need to take pictures and post and see if anyone has any ideas what is causing it. I would love to find a cure and be able to keep him but if I can't, I half think I need to cull him because DH says he thinks it is now painful for him to walk. I don't want him suffering so I will cull if necessary but it will be one of the harder things I ever do. He was a mature rooster when Deerfield got him, and she had him a few months, and now I've had him about 18 months. I have no idea how old he is but he is probably the oldest bird in my flock and is spectacular.

I had an early start. The alarm went of at 3:30am for a meeting DH had to attend. We had coffee and then after he went to the meeting, I went back to sleep, but I'm still dragging and feeling the effects of the early morning. Later today I'll try to get pics of Paul's feet and see if anyone has any suggestions.

 

[chicken danz]

I am so not with it today. Sneezing my head off in spite of taking meds. I went out and caught two drakes. I'd really rather keep one of them but the other one has some big pads on his feet. I can't tell if it's bumble foot or what. I probably should just butcher him.

Not in the mood to butcher at all right now. I don't know this gal Trish is getting the drake for . I did notice that all my drakes have lost their tail curls so it must be molt season for them as well. That leaves me sexing by voice.
Yeah HEChicken I am afraid I'm going to get attached to this little BR here which means regardless of type I'll probably end up keeping him (if it is a him) as a backup rooster. I have another up and coming ones that are a little older I thought I might choose from but friendly wins around here. At least I know all my chicks are from this particular rooster right now. I did have two of them and sold one of them. I only have 4 girls at laying age so figured I could use a couple more. Seems everyone falls in love with the BRs when they come here and always want to buy the chicks.
That reminds me I have one of the white English Orpingtons I decided was going to be my top breeder. He is in the pen with the boys and not with the girls. He acted pretty darned aggressive to me yesterday. I've only had two roosters that got aggressive ever and it makes me sad to think I might not be able to use this guy. He is just the most awesome example of good English lines. I guess I'll see how he acts in the next couple of weeks. I have three others and plan to sell a couple of them so if he continues his butt head attitude I'll probably sell him.
I sold my New Hamp I got from Frank for meat a while back. I kind of wish I had kept him now so I could breed a few more layers from him. I guess I'll just be hatching layers that are half buff orp because that is the rooster that runs with them. Well, that and my wirey little Araucana that free ranges. He rarely can reach the spot on the big girls though so I doubt I'll get any araucana mixed babies. I'm selling my extra Araucana boys as meat this week. I didn't have any one show interest in them as breeders so off they go to Chinese cuisine. It seems a shame since they are such rare birds.

 

[HEChicken]

I am so not with it today.

Me either. In my last post I mentioned I had just put that BR rooster in the crockpot. Problem is, I didn't turn the crockpot ON. I am so glad I realized only a half hour or so later instead of letting him set there the whole day long!!!

 

[HEChicken]

Okay, I got the camera and went outside and got a series of pictures. First is my handsome Paul. Of course he's in molt right now so you'll have to imagine what he looks like with a full tail, but even with a lot of feathers missing and scraggly you can see what a handsome boy he is.






And I tried to get some good pics of his feet from every angle. PLEASE let me know what you think. It is hard to research because when you type in "swollen chicken feet" everyone insists it is bumble foot because that's the only cause anyone seems to know of swollen feet. And this is clearly NOT bumble foot. The only other cause I've been able to come up with is scaly leg mites but it just does not look like that to me. For one thing, his legs have never had that typical scaly look to them. One day - about a year ago - I noticed they were swollen and they've become slowly more so over time. He does walk carefully now and DH swears he's in pain though I'm not so sure. I think if he was really in pain he'd sit in a corner of the coop all day but he doesn't - he's out and about finding treats for his hens, mating them and free-ranging quite a large area. He does walk strangely though, almost like his feet are numb and he can't feel them so he has to tread carefully. The other reason I don't think its scaly leg mites is that from what I understand, they are contagious and in the year or so that his feet have been swollen, no other bird in the coop has become similarly affected.






Here is a picture of one of his sons. A handsome boy too but you can see the half German/ half American is quite a different looking bird than the full German.


Last, I have another problem I'd like some insight on. A few days ago while filling a waterer, I noticed that this juvenile (3 months?) turkey has what looks like a wart on the side of the lower beak. There are 3 turkeys in this little group of broody raised turkeys (whose mothers are still with them 24/7). Well, blow me down, as soon as I noticed the "wart" on this turkey, I looked at its sibling and saw one on her as well! The trio consists of 2 mixed breed and 1 full Bourbon Red poult. The top pic is of the wart on the mixed breed and the next pic is the warts on the face of the BR poult. You can see that she has one on her beak and another smaller one above her eye. It is so strange that I've never seen anything like this before and then it manifests in two of the three turkeys in this one batch.

 

[HEChicken]

Oh, and I meant to say, I'm thinking about treating Paul for scaly leg mites anyway just because it can't hurt. The treatment seems to be soaking in oil to suffocate the mites and then spreading petroleum jelly on. He isn't handleable per se so I think I'll grab him off the roost tonight and do a treatment just because I can't see the harm in it and just in case that's what it is, it might help. It will also give me a chance to evaluate for edema which might give me a better clue as to what is going on with him. I'd really love to be able to help him and not have to cull.

 

[zigzag45]

I've enjoyed the talk on butchering.

@sharol - I think someone said (maybe you?) that you had written notes on butchering from a BYC gathering or something. I'd love a copy.

I dug a pit and made a charcoal fire. $10 bag of charcoal, used over half of it, to get the water heated. Of course, I was really, really slow so my three birds took forever. Between buying the cone, water bath canner to heat the water in, and I can' t remember what else, I bet I have $100-$150 invested in the butcher process. At that price, I should offer my birds to the Capital Grille on the Plaza, they're probably a delicacy at that price.

@chicken danz - the exact water temp thing was good. 158 degrees... we started around 140 and ended closer to the 170 mark. Kept having to dump cold water in to cool it off. Explains why one bird plucked well and the others were harder. Two of the white orps I got from you turned out to be boys. However, they started crowing right when we were doing the hospital, NICU, baby thing so I had to give them to a friend. I was really sad as I'd wanted to butcher and eat them. To spend five months raising and growing them (and they were both nice so far) and then have to give them away wasn't fun. If they'd have hung on just another month it would have been good.

I even struggled with where to cut and how deep to go. It's ironic to be butchering a bird, all the while talking to it (prob did more to help me stay calm as opposed to the bird) and concerned about hurting it. We had one bird flip in the cone, that a bit exciting.

Has anyone been to the Mother Earth fair in Topeka?
http://www.motherearthnews.com/fair/kansas.aspx#axzz3DPca9pX8

The speakers look pretty good.