Dixie Chicks

I was just going to ask when do ppl choice to let their roosters go or freezer camp them and what makes them choose a perticular roo over another... when does your roos get full plumage?
if you want to breed, it is best to keep them as long as possible... it is wild how much they change as they mature.

I kept mine as long as possible (they were starting to beat up on each other, so busy doing that that the hens were still in good shape. The roosters might not have fought so much if they had been in a bachelor only pen)

Then I picked which to keep and which to stay determined on:
1. which breeds I wanted to breed, and
2. SOP, and
3. personality

what kind of trouble? I have read alot of stuff ppl hve said and then their is the whole chicken apron thing and everything and how some ppl feel the roosters are cruel or haressive to the hens, I get a bit confused when I see that because well isnt it just normal chicken behavior being a chicken? or is this ppl over empathizing with the chickens over a normal chicken behavior?
What is interesting, is some breeders have said that the hens having messed up feathers, isn't always the roosters' fault. Supposedly, it is often the HENs' fault, for having soft/less hardy feathers.

Some breeders told me that same rooster, different hens, and perfect backs verses terrible backs.

Interesting.

Any one ever remove spurs?... I was thinking even without real problems with my Roos it might be nice for the hens.

Think of it as the layers of an onion. It is NOT like popping off a human's finger nails. LAYERS of an ONION! Seriously.

The rooster is sore afterwards, but not horribly. The fresh/baby spur layer has to harden up with the exposure to the air, and then he is fine again.

With that said, I haven't done it myself, just read about it.
idunno.gif
But, I have peeled chicken feet, and popped off the outer nail layer... with them dead first.

Lost my whole flock of chickens last year.... no parts found.

I probably don't deserve to raise them any more.

deb

NEVER think that deb, truly! I have yet to raise a chicken to age 4. And I have had them for years. I don't think my grandmother ever had a 4 year old chicken either.

I have lost entire flocks to dogs, but raptors have gotten a bunch too. Predators are super impressively inventive. Also, dogs are very clever and strong.

With that said, my baby sister free-ranges her chickens, and she always has a few die every year from predators, and a few every year from various unknown diseases, and SHE has a four year old chicken!

She has two Hamburgs, one silver Penciled, and one Silver Spangled. The Silver Spangled one actually survived a non-poisonous snake attack.

Anyway, amazing how luck she has been. However, she DOES have an always outside dog, that helps to guard the chickens. A boxer, pound rescue.
For this chick it was six weeks previously last that the hen had been exposed to the Light Brahma roo. She was then relegated to the BLRW breeder flock and the Seller sent me an egg that I had to ask her what the backstory was on why my pure BLRW egg hatched out feathered feet. SIX WEEKS!
What a nightmare!!!!

I have had my Marans separated for three weeks..... ARG! don't tell me I will be incubating mutts!!!!
 
Amberjem --

Your Australorp Seller has very decent ratings. My concern would be in shipping... As in PRAY they don't get routed through Atlanta which, I understand, is brutal on egg. But folks have had hatches (reading his feedback). Check the weather... you don't want frozen eggs!



My egg seller offered either a refund or eggs. She was very professional about it and even contacted and replaced eggs for the other person that bought eggs from her from that hen at about the same time.





edited for clarity.
 
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I have a chicken who's nearly 6... But I haven't always had her... I need to butcher her, but she's so big and B wordy... I like her. Her the four reds who are almost five, 5 Roos ( 6 weeks now ) and I think 2 of my nydhal chick are Roos... Or as punky says dinner not breakfast.
Whoops rambling...
 
What fascinates me is parthenogenesis.... Fish are the biggest ones that do it but so do some reptiles and amphibians.... When kept in an all female environment... And has been known to happen in Chickens and Turkeys.

http://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/4hpoultry/t02_pageview/The_Tremendous_Turkey_10.htm

Parthenogenisis.... asexual reproduction....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenogenesis

there are species of reptiles that have all the same DNA... and they are all female.

But the Wikipedia article is fascinating.

I did some research on this a while back for a book I am writing....

deb
 
I knew about turkeys, especially with the AI that needs to be done on the broad-breasted breeds. I think they do the AI about once every 10 days.. Otherwise some poor sod would be flipping turkeys all day long forever.
 

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