Consolidated Kansas

[sharol]

I'm listing my male Breda Fowl on Craigs list and a couple of swaps today. The older rooster attacked me last week -- jumped at me with both feet while I was walking by, and then bit me in the run, so he is GONE one way or another. It is too bad because he is a good protector, but he is also really hard on the hens when they breed (to the point that they run away from him to my main flock rooster (who is sterile).

The two cockerels are blue and splash, and if anyone wants one of them, I'll keep the other as a breeder. I'm asking $5 each for them (but I want to keep one of them). Again, if someone needs good breeding stock, these guys are gorgeous and very gentle. The splash was a brooder chick, and my granddaughter named him Daffodil before we knew gender. Sigh.





This is my bad boy with the attitude:

If anyone is willing to work with his bad attitude, you can have him if you come pick him up. I REALLY don't want to butcher this boy.

 

[chicken danz]

I'm listing my male Breda Fowl on Craigs list and a couple of swaps today. The older rooster attacked me last week -- jumped at me with both feet while I was walking by, and then bit me in the run, so he is GONE one way or another. It is too bad because he is a good protector, but he is also really hard on the hens when they breed (to the point that they run away from him to my main flock rooster (who is sterile).

The two cockerels are blue and splash, and if anyone wants one of them, I'll keep the other as a breeder. I'm asking $5 each for them (but I want to keep one of them). Again, if someone needs good breeding stock, these guys are gorgeous and very gentle. The splash was a brooder chick, and my granddaughter named him Daffodil before we knew gender. Sigh.





This is my bad boy with the attitude:

If anyone is willing to work with his bad attitude, you can have him if you come pick him up. I REALLY don't want to butcher this boy.

That's so hard for me to even imagine a Breda with an attitude. They are such docile creatures I can't imagine one being that aggressive. He is a beautiful boy.
lizzyGSR
Congrats Lizzy! I'm so happy your girls are starting to lay. That's awesome!

 

[HEChicken]

Congrats Lizzy - I must say, I'm surprised they are starting to lay so young but that is a huge bonus.

Sorry about your rooster Sharol. He would be stew around here as I won't put up with one like that and won't pass the problem along to someone else either. I've been really fortunate to have almost all roosters be respectful. The one exception was an EE rooster I had my first year out here. He sired some wonderful hens that I still have today but one day a switch flipped and he decided *I* was the threat to his hens. From then on, it was his mission to kill me. I put up with it for far longer than I should have and tried every trick in the book to teach him respect. But nothing worked and when he followed me into the chicken coop to collect eggs one day in November, then flogged me while I was doing so, that was it. He started to exit the coop and I called him. "Cyrus". He looked back at me. I told him "You just did that for the last time". His sons all met the same fate and then I got my Barred Rock and New Hampshire Reds and have never looked back - all of them have been awesome.

Well, I guess there is another heat wave on its way. Oh joy. My week of doing all the milking while my neighbor was away is over, so maybe this week I'll actually get a chance to get up to my veggie garden and see how its going. I dug all of my garlic this weekend and have a huge pile of it drying on the dining room table now. Boy, it is pungent.

 

[sharol]

Sorry about your rooster Sharol. He would be stew around here as I won't put up with one like that and won't pass the problem along to someone else either. I've been really fortunate to have almost all roosters be respectful. The one exception was an EE rooster I had my first year out here. He sired some wonderful hens that I still have today but one day a switch flipped and he decided *I* was the threat to his hens. From then on, it was his mission to kill me. I put up with it for far longer than I should have and tried every trick in the book to teach him respect. But nothing worked and when he followed me into the chicken coop to collect eggs one day in November, then flogged me while I was doing so, that was it. He started to exit the coop and I called him. "Cyrus". He looked back at me. I told him "You just did that for the last time". His sons all met the same fate and then I got my Barred Rock and New Hampshire Reds and have never looked back - all of them have been awesome.

Yeah, I know. That's why I was painfully honest about him on Craigslist. I don't want anyone getting my problem. I'll be butchering later in the week. I really hate butchering a bird with a name.

 

[HEChicken]

I really hate butchering a bird with a name.

Its amazing what a difference that makes. I only have a few hens with names but I have to admit.....they'll never be culled. I will euthanize if I ever have to, to end their suffering - but they won't be culled while healthy.

On our other animals, I only name them names that remind me of their purpose. We named our steer "Trouble" because he was an adolescent and even without the family jewels, he was.....a boy. I named a goat kid who is destined for the freezer "Stuart". "Goat Stew", became Stew, became Stu, became Stuart. Because it originated that way, I can't look at him or refer to him as Stuart, without thinking about his purpose.

But mostly, my meat animals don't get names at all.

 

[Trish44]

I don't name animals destined for butcher either, it's just something I have always done that way. I don't have names for all of my chickens, I have way too many for that but some of the special or favorite ones do have names & they will not be butchered.

Ugh the heat this week, have mercy on us all out there, be careful.

 

[chicken danz]

Just found another hen as a victim to the heat. She wasn't very old either. This weather is awful. At least she laid a few eggs while she was alive.
I don't name most of my birds because I know that makes them special. It's usually the cases of ones I've treated for injury or something that get named.
Speaking of which I took the two little ducks out that I'd hatched including the one who's beak had been eaten off and he was regenerating another beak but it was all wonky looking. The youngest little duck joined the group and was immediately accepted. My duck with the weird beak got picked on. So she is back in the brooder with the chicks. How in the world do ducklings know the difference between a normal looking beak and one that isn't?
I've been out feeding and am soaked. I think it's time to work inside for awhile.

 

[sharol]

The flies in one of my coops are overwhelming. I've tried the vanilla car deodorizers and a fly bag (stinky sack out in a tree near the coop) and a dust for flies on livestock (on the shavings and roosts.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[HEChicken]

I'm afraid not, Sharol. However I don't see the flies bothering my chickens as much as they bother me.

I thought for sure I had a raccoon visiting. First I found a chicken dead around the 4th of July. I had stopped locking my dogs in the chicken yard at night as one is afraid of the booming sounds of fireworks. The day I found the dead chicken, I resumed putting them in there at night - no more dead chickens.

But - a few days ago I went to my veggie garden to find a whole row of corn pulled out by the roots and left half eaten on the ground. I assumed the raccoon, unable to get into the chicken yard, had moved up to the veggie garden. I considered putting one of the dogs there at night but rejected that idea. Then I made plans to borrow a live trap. Last night I discovered another row of corn pulled. I thought it strange that the two rows pulled were on one edge - and none of the rest of each group of corn was touched. Then, while I was there picking peppers I found my culprit. Not a raccoon but my neighbor's horses, who are leaning over the fence and grabbing it. Even though there is a 4' path between the fence and the corn - they can reach a long way. But - it explains why it is the row closest to the fence on each occasion, and also why they are pulled all the way out of the ground. I would have expected a raccoon to just pick and eat the ears of corn!

So, I asked my neighbor to make her fence hot for a few days to teach them to stay off it. In the meantime, I went over there and put her horses in the next lot so they don't even have access. Sigh. In the meantime, I lost about 25% of my crop. However I have to say there is some relief in knowing it is unlikely I have a sudden raccoon problem. I still don't know what killed the chicken so it is still a possibility, but with the dogs out there, I am not too worried.

 

[Trish44]

Oh wow HEChicken if it's not one thing it's another, I'm sorry for your problems.

I've been trying to integrate 4 heritage RIR hens into my main coop since I'm not going to raise them any more. Last night the smartest one found where the food was & went in but the other 3 were no dice. I caught one with my net I use & the other two I had to chase around & around the pens until they finally got tired & went up by the coop. Then I was able to coax them into the coop, whew I was tired after doing all of that in the heat! I sure hope they do better tonight.