Delawares from kathyinmo

[LeslieDJoyce]

So you never need to shear these Hair Sheep ?
Do ya'll have guard dogs to protect them ?
If we did sheep that would be the way to go. But I worry about coyotes taking out the lambs.
Guess we could Enet them though- it seems to keep the chickens safe.

We used to raise sheep and the coyotes would go through the field and kill the lambs and eat out the stomachs and leave the rest of the animal behind. I have no clue what our fencing situation was at the time, but based on my father's negative attitude toward fencing in general and electric fencing in particular, my guess is we had electric fencing around the flock. Using my impressive family detective observational skills, I tend to believe it was a problem keeping the fence line clear enough for the electric fencing to function properly.

When I was a baby, before we finished our house, we moved a flock of sheep into the basement during lambing season ... that was the last time we had sheep. Too upsetting. SO many coyotes here. Considering how devastating coyotes were to sheep in the 1960s, and how much more concentrated their habitat is now, and how many coyotes there are now, and how crummy our fencing is (especially for the free-range flock), I'm totally surprised we still have chickens left at all. I wouldn't risk sheep unless/until we could get serious about fences.

People do seem to have good-ish luck with LGDs.

 

[finnfur]

We used to raise sheep and the coyotes would go through the field and kill the lambs and eat out the stomachs and leave the rest of the animal behind. I have no clue what our fencing situation was at the time, but based on my father's negative attitude toward fencing in general and electric fencing in particular, my guess is we had electric fencing around the flock. Using my impressive family detective observational skills, I tend to believe it was a problem keeping the fence line clear enough for the electric fencing to function properly.

When I was a baby, before we finished our house, we moved a flock of sheep into the basement during lambing season ... that was the last time we had sheep. Too upsetting. SO many coyotes here. Considering how devastating coyotes were to sheep in the 1960s, and how much more concentrated their habitat is now, and how many coyotes there are now, and how crummy our fencing is (especially for the free-range flock), I'm totally surprised we still have chickens left at all. I wouldn't risk sheep unless/until we could get serious about fences.

People do seem to have good-ish luck with LGDs.

Don't think there is any place in the US that is without coyotes anymore.
In early 70s in eastern VA during deer season no one ever saw coyotes.
Now they are everywhere. The Angus farmers lose calves regularly and most keep guard donkeys in the fields for protection. Each field that has cows calving have one.
However haven't lost a chicken to a fox or coyote . The Enet and 243 has done their job.
The difference with regular electric fencing and Enet is they will dig under regular because no shock at the bottom.
With Enet you have it electrified to 2" from the bottom. If they chew it or try to dig under they touch it and get the "lesson"

None of our 4 dogs will go within 5 feet of the Enet.

 

[capayvalleychick]

So you never need to shear these Hair Sheep ?
Do ya'll have guard dogs to protect them ?
If we did sheep that would be the way to go. But I worry about coyotes taking out the lambs.
Guess we could Enet them though- it seems to keep the chickens safe.

No shearing, ever. No tail docking. No worming. Easy to fence. Give birth on their own and are good mothers, no help or supplements needed. Non seasonal breeders. Do fine on grass, hay forage alone. This is St. Croix. Some Hair breeds do not shed out completely, so research that if deciding on a breed.

The original, all white, polled St. Croix have very few breeders. They are a wonderful breed worth conserving. That's why I try to tell people about them. Plus they are super easy to manage. I've been letting mine loose on the property during the day. They hang out and eat weeds. I call them at night and they come running to me, to be put back in pasture. The ram is cooperative, also.

I have English Shepherds as farm dogs. They are different from LGDs because they patrol the property and alert or chase off predators, (kill small predators) but they aren't with the animals all the time. The mature sheep prefer to stick with the horned Dexter cattle, while out in pasture. I think they aid in flock protection. They are a docile breed with people, but will stomp and try to chase off stray dogs, so they are protective of themselves. I bring ewes, that are ready to lamb, up to a small paddock with a run in shed, that is close to the house. I've only had one lamb lost to either a coyote or bobcat, and that's because I had a pair alone in that paddock. Now, my weaned lambs not going out to pasture with the flock are put with a heifer for protection. My neighbor has a huge flock and loses all or almost all his lambs every year to predators. So, something in my management is working well.

 

[capayvalleychick]

Broody update. When I transferred eggs from the incubator to the hatcher, I took 4 eggs from that were from one Del hen and put them under my first time broody Del hen. When the first egg pipped, she pecked it to death. Later, I saw her nurturing 2 chicks. I slipped another (zip tied) Del chick under her, yesterday afternoon, and watched her. She pecked it once, then adopted it. The rest of the chicks are Dorkings. I wasn't sure if their color might cause her to reject them. I slipped them under her, last night, and watched. Again, she gave one a light little peck, then pushed it under her. I'm hoping that we have success!

It was 102 here, yesterday. At 10 pm, the coop was still 90 degrees. Too hot for a heat lamp, so I'm hoping this broody keeps the chicks. There are now two more broody Dels in the layer coop. I don't know why my broody hens wait for hundred degree weather to set?!

Tom @finnfur how's your broody doing?

 

[finnfur]

Sheep are not climbers like some goats are they ? St Croix.
When I was 13 years young I worked for a lady that had a huge hobby farm.
I believe she raised Monadale sheep [ spelling ] - they were black faced with white wool if I recall correct .
They were probably english or welsh breed because about every thing she raised was derived from there including Welsh Ponies. per hour LOL
Except for her milk cows which were Jersey the cattle were Hereford - mostly polled.
It was a great job growing up - even at $0.33 hour. LOL
Its where I learned to dislike Guineafowl. With about 400 in a chicken house when you walked in it became deafening .

Yes B13 broody seems to be doing OK - have seen her about twice briefly - FF is gone the next day so she must be coming out.

 

[Zanna]

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I'm going to, in good humor, counter this with ... Yes! With Delawares and St. Croix! I love the St. Croix too. Hubby decided on the Dorpers of all the Hair Sheep, he just liked what he had heard about them. Sheep are a new project for us. One of the ewes we bought was pregnant and we had an uneventful lambing a week ago. Doing chores at 8:30 PM noticed she was possibly going to lamb soon. Zipped home to get on the internet to find out what to do if she had problems. Came back at 10PM and baby on the ground, dried off already. We did pen up the ewe and the baby right away and just let them back on pasture last night. Our 6 acre property is fenced all around and we rotate the sheep in large electric fenced areas. There are coyote's around but have not seen any sign since we finished the fence early this Spring. Plan on penning up all ewes before lambing, we were just a little late on this one being newbies and all If current methods stop working, we will look into getting a LGD or a Llama. A few of the commercial sheep farmers around use Llama, nice because you don't have to feed them. For those of you that use the e-net, does it short out easily? Spend part of the weekend at a Mother Earth News Fair and looked at some. Seemed like it might be a challenge to use, does it roll and unroll easily when moving?? Our sheep are easy to keep in but keeping predators out may become a concern in the future........ They seem to have no inclination to climb like goats and are non-selective grazers. Will save a lot on mowing time!

 

[Zanna]

Quote:
I have about 40 chicks between 4 broodies right now. Learned a valuable lesson a while back.....If you wait at least two weeks after the hen has gone broody she will generally accept chicks. I tried it sooner and had some very adverse results. Gave the hens a little more time and it worked well. It has been 95 deg. here the past few days, all I can say is YUCK!

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

It's SO hot for this part of Oregon. And I chose NOW to cook one of our monster turkeys as I've been craving sandwiches and chef salads. But it's WAY more meat than Dad and I could get through before it spoils. This morning I've been testing a turkey pot pie filling procedure, I can freeze batches of that, and now the kitchen is a furnace ... no A.C. I'm melting.

I have to part out the monster birds for roasting, so I stash both the raw and cooked bones in the freezer in a big ziplock so I can make stock during a friendlier season.

Our coop stays pretty cool. Gust and I need to go out there and sit in the shade and watch the chicks run around acting like big birds. The 10-week-olds are really starting to look like the birds they'll eventually be. Well, at least the pullets are.

Got more chicks due to hatch soon. I have to wonder how this heat will be for the eggs during this critical phase.

 

[capayvalleychick]

Sheep are not climbers like some goats are they ? St Croix.
...
Yes B13 broody seems to be doing OK - have seen her about twice briefly - FF is gone the next day so she must be coming out.

Not mine. They are super cooperative about fencing. They will stay inside fencing that they could easily escape from.

That is good news that your broody. Fingers crossed.

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I love the St. Croix too. Hubby decided on the Dorpers of all the Hair Sheep, he just liked what he had heard about them.

Sheep are a new project for us. One of the ewes we bought was pregnant and we had an uneventful lambing a week ago. ...

If current methods stop working, we will look into getting a LGD or a Llama. A few of the commercial sheep farmers around use Llama, nice because you don't have to feed them.

For those of you that use the e-net, does it short out easily? Spend part of the weekend at a Mother Earth News Fair and looked at some. Seemed like it might be a challenge to use, does it roll and unroll easily when moving??

Dorpers do have the most meat of all the Hair breeds. Sounds like you have a nice flock. I'm not fond of llamas, but they are excellent flock guardians. A friend had one that used to sneak up behind me and grab my ponytail.
I'm not sure what enet is, but we had Premier's netting fences around the chickens, until the horned steer rolled up in it. It was too heavy for me to pick up and move on my own. Our permanent pasture fence is hot rope from Premier. We prefer that to the netting. We do use hot netting Pig Quickfence for rotational grazing of the pigs and love it. NEVER ROLL UP NETTING. It will tangle up into a mess. When taking down netting, you fold the sections, back and forth. Then, you can just pull it out and it unfolds without tangling (usually).

Quote:
This broody was sitting on unfertile eggs for over 2 weeks. She's a first time broody, so isn't experienced. I spoke too soon on her adopting the Dorking chicks. She's a racist (breedist?)

She adopted the Delaware chicks but starting pecking at the Dorkings and rejected them. So, they are back in the brooder.
104 yesterday. No heat needed in the brooders because the coop is staying 90-80 degrees.

It's SO hot for this part of Oregon. And I chose NOW to cook one of our monster turkeys as I've been craving sandwiches and chef salads. But it's WAY more meat than Dad and I could get through before it spoils. This morning I've been testing a turkey pot pie filling procedure, I can freeze batches of that, and now the kitchen is a furnace ... no A.C. I'm melting.

I have to part out the monster birds for roasting, so I stash both the raw and cooked bones in the freezer in a big ziplock so I can make stock during a friendlier season.

I just freeze the cooked turkey in small portions and use it later.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I just freeze the cooked turkey in small portions and use it later.

I've done that, too. But I didn't much like the flavor after freezing. I might borrow a friends vacuum sealer and see if I like that better.

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I lost another chick from the last hatch (it was the first hatch of PapaDel eggs). Have lost like 4 so far from that hatch. It's the first hatch of the year I did in the Delaware coop, which seems so much NICER than the rowdy & super populated layer coop.

Compare that to: I've lost a total of ZERO chicks from the free-ranging layer coop (out of 48, which includes the 13 incubabies Zanna hatched and were adopted by a broody at 10 days old, plus the 4 Black Copper Marans I sneaked into different clutches). And I can't attribute that success to broody awesomeness, because TWO broodies have quit before the chicks were fully feathered.

Also, the hatch in the Breeder coop was exactly 50% fully hatched chicks, whereass the two hatches I did in the layer coop were 100%. What a crazy difference.

Last year I lost a few chicks in the nest before the clutches were fully hatched, and a couple at about a week old because someone clumsy oaf stepped on them. Hatch rates weren't great last year, but we had great luck with the chicks, I think.

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I feel super bad for the broodies still sitting right now, all on PapaDel eggs. It really isn't supposed to be this warm in this part of Oregon this time of year.

All I can say is I'm happy Zanna borrowed PapaDel and hatched some chicks from him, and that I DO have a few of his chicks on the ground. We might not make the 40-50 that was my goal, but I suppose I could always try again in the fall, presuming I have a willing broody or two.

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One of the cockerels from this seasons first clutch, coming up on 11 weeks old, is STILL missing feathers on his back and shoulder caps. I'm absolutely going to band him as a Freezer Camp Champ. What color works for that? I don't know which way to cry,

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