First Run of Cornish Cross Meat Birds and Super Excited!

Thanks Jessica, Yea, I think Bert is a good looking young man too. But I am prejudice so I cannot tell for sure. I wish he and Sunny could get together too, it may be our only way have getting frog eggs.

As big as Bert is, he is not dominant nor does he even seem to have a mean bone in him. He is just sweet and loveable. He complains a little when I pick him up but not much. He tolerates my petting him but prefers to not be petted. However, when I am with him he follows me and begs for treats. I saw yesterday he had a small peck on his comb, I assume that was from one of the other roosters. It was not bad or excessive so I think everything is fine. He put himself back in the coop last night, which is good. It shows he is smart and knows where he belongs.
 
The babies are SO cute!!!
Funny, I never thought about how loud 300 adorable little chicks would be... I've only ever had 20 babies at a time.

Ralph, Ed and Ole are really good looking roos! So is Bert... and I love that he has the CX gentle spirit. Pearl is so easy going, doesn't care that she is at the bottom of the pecking order, just goes with the flow.
And of course, JJ is a heartbreaker!

I was showing the fam pictures of JJ and Ethel last week. Everyone is so excited to have their babies!! Even my hubby. Haha, I am winning the poultry war.....
War might be too strong of a term. Small battle.

After the "snowmagedon" storm we are having (cough, there is only an inch on the ground), I am going to get my CX house all squared away. And till up the soil for the garden this summer. Yes, it has been warm enough that the ground is no longer frozen.
I also plan to bring a few more gals into the coop this summer.
Anyhow, just spring dreaming on a mildly snowy day.
 
I wish I could think about tilling garden. I am betting I have 4 feet or better of frost right now.

Today Ed and Ole move to a new area/coop. I am going to put them in with the guineas. Poor Ed and Ole. I will leave them there for a week or so letting the other roosters meet them through the fence.
 
Sunny is also perfectly happy at the bottom of the pecking order under her two silkie friends. I'm glad that I had those two to house her with.

Mountain Mom: I didn't have any concept of the volume of 300 chicks either! They are so tiny. How can they produce much noise? But oh my, think fire sirens. It's high pitched. I'm extra sensitive to high pitch noises too, so Yowza! It is only bad when they are unhappy or scared though. The rest of the time, they just have sweet little peeps and it is fine.

So last night, we had quite a few potential pasty butts in the chick brooder. I must have cleaned at least 50 of them. Dirty job but someone has to do it. So, I added some probiotics to the water, raised the heat lamps an inch to reduce the heat just a bit and today, I think they get scrambled eggs with some yogurt. Anyone else have other pasty butt tricks?

Night #2 with chicks a definite success! The lights stayed on and NO loss! Chick count 311. Yay!
 
Hooray!! Doing great Jessica!

I too have a sensitivity to high pitched noises... they make me want to scream! Keep the little fuzz balls happy and I guess your ears will stay happy too!

The best thing for pasty butt, as far as I have found, is yogurt and scrambled eggs. Of course, lowering the heat a bit, but the yogurt really seems to help.
A little apple cider vinegar in their water couldn't hurt either. The kind with the "mother", like Braggs or I think even Heinz makes one with it now too.
I kept ACV in their water for the first few months, and they get it a couple of times a month now. I also put oregano in their yogurt... oregano is AMAZING at fighting bugs. Putting it in the nest boxes and around as a general snack is great for the older hens that don't get yogurt.

I don't have the link, but there is a hatchery that only uses oregano as a means to keep their birds bug free and healthy. Kind of neat.

Ralph- 4 feet of frost?! Yowza.

And I have a confession to make. I should not have made fun of the "snowmagedon" predicted for my area. We got about 8 inches in less than 2 hours. Still snowing. I doubt it will be as severe as they are thinking, but still, more than an inch.
 
Ralph I ordered 2 of every breed of turkey that person in Milaca has!!! I am super excited!!!
 
I had ACV in the water the first night but we still got pasty. I only had two packets of probiotics, so I used those last night. Tonight is back to the ACV. I despise not having a grocery store locally anymore! It makes running down for yogurt impossible and I totally meant to pick some up today! UGH!

I guess the yogurt and scrambled eggs plan that I already had in mind moves to tomorrow. Unfortunately, cleaning a bunch of pasty hineys is a lot of work. I hope the cleaning and application of olive oil makes the area slipperier and the ACV works some on the insides.

Oregano huh? Interesting!
 
Holm, What breeds did you get? I do not recall all he has. Did you talk to the guy with the guineas in Foreston? The places are only about 7 miles apart from what I can tell.

I always just cleaned pasty butt, I did not know the other stuff, I will have to try it. I need to buy some oregano. I have 10 pounds of cayenne pepper here I got off Amazon last week when I thought I had Blackhead, which turned out to just be scabby black and blue head because my Jakes are juvenile delinquents and beating each other up for position. I really need to butcher a couple, or sell them.



4 feet of frost is normal here. We need to bury our water line 8 ft down so they do not freeze. Our footings are required by code to be 4 1/2 ft down. Heck, the lakes get 4 feet of ice on them. BTW it is a balmy 12 below as I write this. BUT it is a nice sunny day!
 
What happened to your grocery store?
We have a little town about 10 minutes away, it has a little grocery. We only go there if we really need something though. Sadly, most of the fresh foods are almost on their way out as far as freshness. "Real" town is about 20 minutes away...

I hope the ACV helps the little chicks! I wonder if they are getting a little overheated, causing the paste, because of their numbers? 311 chicks could cause a mini inferno of their own.
I would not volunteer for the job of pasty butt cleaner of so many fuzzy butts.

It makes me smile to know that there is a company (yours) who takes such phenomenal care of their chickens, not just writing chick loss off as a part of the business. And who wants so badly to get their laying hens onto grass!
It is truly what this thread is about!

Okay, enough sap.

Holm- what types of turkeys did you order?!
 

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