Consolidated Kansas

[Deerfield Acres]

Ralph, That's just cuteness overload! I love the pics of all those babies.

 

[Grain Gypsy]

@Ralph Moyer cute chickies, and so glad the drying out helped them recover!

Well, the sandbags are in front of the coop door, ready for this round of rain! I will be monitoring to make sure the silo coop stays dry this time.

We are enjoying our first week of NO SCHOOL (YES!!!). Though I don't have classrooms full of kids like my parents, who are retired middle school teachers, I think I have a little taste and appreciation of what they must have felt when school was done for the year. I always kind of giggle at parents who look forward to their kids going back to school. My parents never looked forward to my sister and me going back to school, because it meant they had to go back too. I feel the same way. When my kids go back to school in the fall, that means I have to go back to school with them!

My husband and I, along with our friend, Mark, all coach 4-H archery here in Sedgwick County. We had our first on-range practice last night, and it was tons of fun. We have "veteran" archers, and archers who have never shot a bow before. I get such a kick out of getting to know the kids and watching them grow in skills and maturity over the season. We had one archer qualify for 4-H Shooting Sports Nationals last year, but he didn't get to go because he didn't have his own equipment to take, and his parents weren't ready for the time commitment. He's back this season with his own bow and intentions to qualify for nationals again. This time his parents are ready, too. It will be fun to see what this season holds for ALL of our archers, new and veteran.

Well, I've got to go shopping for food for this family. I missed signing up for the produce co-op we usually do bi-weekly, so this time I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and pay for less-fresh produce. I'm thankful that we have home grown strawberries and fresh eggs running out our ears. I could eat strawberries and eggs every day! YUM! SAMS club, here I come!

 

[ashncarson]

Well, I've got to go shopping for food for this family. I missed signing up for the produce co-op we usually do bi-weekly, so this time I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and pay for less-fresh produce. I'm thankful that we have home grown strawberries and fresh eggs running out our ears. I could eat strawberries and eggs every day!

I would love to see photos of your strawberry bed. Did you plant from roots or plants? i would love to have lot's of them!

anyone else having lots of video ads on this website?

 

[Trish44]

They are all the same lines but the younger rooster is one more step down the line to breeding for perfection. He has better perfect sussex markings. I forgot you had two ages there. The chicks I've produced from the young rooster are much heartier and do much better than the previous ones.
I really haven't checked my silvers recently. I thought I had two boys and two girls but I am totally unsure. I just haven't taken the time to examine them closely. They all had prominent combs now none of them do. I feed and water them every day but haven't taken the time to pick them up and check feathers. I guess if they all end up being roosters they will be expensive meat. If they end up being hens I'll be looking for a rooster some where. I'm not even sure I plan to keep them.
Trish I do have some sussex that are definitely girls that have super pronounced combs at an early age. The same thing happened with the silvers. I did look at the babies I took out of the incubator this morning and have about a half and half mix of sexes using your eye makeup method. I really should mark those now some way so I can see how they pan out.

I have not found that to be true with any of the SS I have had, I can tell by the combs by a certain age. You don't get the saddle feathers & all of that till much later. Besides the eye makeup Danz also look at the body markings because the boys always have blurred markings on their head & body where the girls are really sharp & crisp with bold edges. This also works on the Welsummer breed.

danz, the darker ones are Buff crossed with Speckled, so they are Speckled like but hopefully a lighter version. I'll cross them with the Alohas to get the yellow legs. It'll be fun to see how they ultimately feather out. You already know how much things can change from this point on but I really love those light colored chicks and am hoping I get something similar in a mature bird.

I really love the darker speckled one, I would love to see how it looks when grown, they're really pretty. I don't know if HEChicken has hatched any chicks for the Aloha project yet this year, she's been awfully busy with other animals & milking cows & goats lately.

Are you guys in agreement that these 3 are roosters? They will be 4 weeks tomorrow. their legs are huge as well and they like to peck the others down on their heads!

I am starting to line up homes for them but I am just about 100% sure!

The top two are definitely roosters, the bottom one I would look at what Danz said as well with legs & body type. The roosters are just more gangly than the pullets, longer legs & neck & they usually feather out slower as well, especially the tail.

As far as skinning a chicken I do pretty much the same as Danz does but you have to gut them after you get the skin off. I agree totally about getting the skin off as soon as possible after they bleed out. Otherwise you have a battle on your hands. We found that out when HEchicken came here & did a class & we got ahead of ourselves a little with getting birds ready.

It's raining here again today & is supposed to rain all weekend. There is no end in sight till Monday, ugh.

 

[sharol]

@Ralph Moyer cute chickies, and so glad the drying out helped them recover!

***snip****.

Well, I've got to go shopping for food for this family. I missed signing up for the produce co-op we usually do bi-weekly, so this time I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and pay for less-fresh produce. I'm thankful that we have home grown strawberries and fresh eggs running out our ears. I could eat strawberries and eggs every day! YUM! SAMS club, here I come!

 

[Prairie Fleur]

Lucky you on the pesticide/herbicide free sellers at farmers market! I need to check our farmers market out again this year. If I didn't battle fatigue and my health so badly I think it'd be fun to do farmers market myself with crafts and fresh produce and goats milk soap.

 

[sharol]

Lucky you on the pesticide/herbicide free sellers at farmers market! I need to check our farmers market out again this year. If I didn't battle fatigue and my health so badly I think it'd be fun to do farmers market myself with crafts and fresh produce and goats milk soap.

Yes, I am lucky in that regard. We have great people who bring stuff to the market, and I know several of them personally.

We also have some people that bring grass fed beef. I haven't figured out their schedule though. They aren't there every week until Wednesday summer markets start.

 

[ashncarson]

The top two are definitely roosters, the bottom one I would look at what Danz said as well with legs & body type. The roosters are just more gangly than the pullets, longer legs & neck & they usually feather out slower as well, especially the tail.

Here are more photos of the chick on the bottom. I was watching him? and when another chick jumped off the stick, he actually went up to it and ripped out some down from its head/neck!



The one on the left is the one in question, tail feathers are much shorter.

 

[MrsProf]

Hard week.
We lost 14 of the 15 chicks that we kept from the classroom hatch. Long story, suffice it to say that dogs and chickens don't always mix.

They were supposed to be the kids show birds for this year.

So the question becomes, who has some half feathered or fully feathered young pullets that they need to sell? I'm not super worried about what breed anymore, so long as they are pure bred.
I'm going to wait until the 1st to pick up any birds because we're going out of state for a few days for a graduation, but any leads would be awesome.

Such an awful waste...

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Hard week.
We lost 14 of the 15 chicks that we kept from the classroom hatch. Long story, suffice it to say that dogs and chickens don't always mix.

They were supposed to be the kids show birds for this year.

So the question becomes, who has some half feathered or fully feathered young pullets that they need to sell? I'm not super worried about what breed anymore, so long as they are pure bred.
I'm going to wait until the 1st to pick up any birds because we're going out of state for a few days for a graduation, but any leads would be awesome.

Such an awful waste...

So sorry.. these things happen but it's so sad when it does.