First Run of Cornish Cross Meat Birds and Super Excited!

[holm25]

When I candled eggs this morning 5 are developing great and 3 are clear but they were set a day late so we'll see what happens. Hopefully my Olive Egger projects hatch!

 

[mountain mom]

Ralph- I hope all your non hatching candling results are just a product of you being blind. Yay for the creamettes!! I wonder if that other "slightly irregular" one will hatch. Fingers crossed for you!

Jessica- I agree, it should be called a combine! It is monsterous! And all your girlies are so pretty! Cinnamon Queens are indeed beauties!

Holm- Good luck with the rest of your eggs! What type of hen was eating your eggs? Hopefully the rest of your Easter eggs will hatch!

So, I spent quite a bit of time (remember, I am not a master builder like my husband) adding a roosting bar nice and low for Pearl. She still refuses to roost. She roosted all winter, and I just assumed she was not doing it because she "grew" a little more.
She sleeps with her head out the coop door (the coop and run are attached and predator proof so there is an always open door) on the floor. I am thinking now, she is too hot and prefers the cool air. I have a feeling this summer she will be sleeping outside. Those CX are little heaters. And we all know Pearl is really a 15lb heater. I should weigh her.

 

[duluthralphie]

I also hope I am blind and just not seeing the eggs develop.


Jessica, Is that tractor made of PVC pipe? What is the skin on it? Is the bottom open? I am thinking of trying to make one of PVC pipe so am just curious.


Bert still gets on the bale of chips to "roost" I have tried to give him a real roost and he wants nothing to do with it. Bert jumps up on the bae by himself, but waits for me to help him down. I think jumping that 14 inches hurts his legs. He does jump the 6 inches out of the coop on his own. He is pretty well trained. He goes in without having to chase him most nights, and jumps right up on the bale.

I have been a little slow getting him out of the coop in the morning. I know I am pushing my luck but I have been letting the layers come and go at will. They roost about 8 ft off the ground so I doubt any and animal would be able to get them.

They would have a hard time getting up there. If I start losing birds or eggs I will lock them up again. I have netting to cover the pen and let them into the second pen, but I need to be able to put fence posts in to hold the netting up. So far Eagles and hawks have not been problem because I am over run with ravens and crows. I will gladly feed the crows to keep the others away.

I have not been writing much because of the pneumonia, but I think it is finally going away. DW is back at work today, could be the day to make a trip to FleetFarm for a new incubator...


I sold 7 dozen eggs today a woman and her toddlers came to get them. She wanted to show the kids the birds. of course as soon as she pulled in the white rock came running to see who was here. She is the friendliest chicken I have ever seen. She can be 1/4 mile out in the pasture and if I come out the door, she comes running to say hi.

The kids wanted to pet the turkeys, so I picked up JJ and held him for the kids to pet, but they were too afraid of him, he is bigger than they were. When I was holding JJ, Ethel came over and started talking to the woman and myself. She talks, talks and talks. I asked if the kids wanted to pet Ethel, they said they did, So I picked up Ethel and held her for the kids to touch. They liked her.


My talking to and holding Ethel made JJ jealous. as soon as I set Ethel back on the ground JJ mounted her.... I hope the Mother can explain it, she seemed good natured about it and simply said " I guess we are going to get a show"

That could have been bad.... BUT on the good side Ethel squatted for JJ and let him on her. Which means I need pens fast. I hope I don't have any eggs out there yet.

 

[Double Kindness]

Linda- I'm glad to hear you are on the mend!

MM- i need cx meaties NOW.. the bf is out of town. 5-6 white bresse chicks may join my flocks, along with 4 white bresse chicks from gff new unrelated line.

Now I'm working on a fibro sbel project. My ccl pol pullets from my chicken vet that does the crow reduction surgery & is the vp of the ccl breeders assn of the usa are coming next weekend, these are NOT good examples of ccl and are going to be termed easter "leggers".

I'm also getting a dozen or so hatching eggs from her best pen in mid April... since there has been much diamond encrusted gold egg laying talk on this thread..

I'm going to also have my svart honas from greenfire farms over the best line ccl when they are old enough, and may even cross a ccl with the white bresse to get a sbel meat bird

The white bresse did dress out like a dream. Easy to pluck. Lots of meat and fat. Better meat than an ayam cemani cock that was almost 2 months older and more of the alpha roo now at 6 months old they are over 8 lbs easy.

I keep going betwixt Narragansett, royal palm and white turkeys. My bf likes breast meat, I like thigh, wings and the "oyster" in the back.

I don't want a mean breed that eats me out of house and home. I plan on herding them into the barn at night, but herd them into a,different chicken pen every day, or get 3 turkeys, 2 for each pen?

I also broke down and ordered top show quality cayuga ducklings and adult black east indies ducks from Harolrreed waterfowl, they are supposed to lay BLACK EGGS.

A 40lb turkey won't fit in my oven fwiw. I added 2 runner ducks with my 3 muscovy ducks I already have.

My bf is out of town this weekend and I have 750 lbs left of my organic non gmo gluten-free 23 % protein UNMEDICATED chick starter.

How many bags of feed did you go through on your turkey? Is 23% protein high enough for turkey and quail?

My fibro or/sbel 1 project chicks 2 days ago

my incubating room and beginning brooder area

 

[maggypie]

Shood i seprate my roosters i have six of them im gest wondring if they will kill eachother

 

[1zooman12]

Hello Mountain Mom,
May I ask that you tell how the egg rehab job fares? I assume you intend to hatch ye olde rehab.
Sincerely,
Neal, the Zooman

 

[JessicaThistle]

Yes, this tractor is big. It will be our biggest. Unless we find another trailer this size for a cheap enough price, the rest will be smaller. The floor is open but covered with hardware cloth. The frame is chain link fence tubing. We are going with conduit on the next ones, I think, because the awning place will not be earning our business again and we can get conduit at Home Depot.

The sex-links are a beautiful bird. Being a redhead myself, I am extremely partial to animals with red coloring. Kinda weird. I love the red and gold coloring in their feathers. My chicks are the Cinnamon Queen variety. I believe that the ones in the pic are Golden Sexlinks. Most likely the same things with a different name.

LG: Good eye seeing that in the pic. I noticed it when posted and wondered if anyone would ask. We had a hawk attack on one of our hens several months ago and we were desperate to find a hawk deterrent. We were on the coast and went into a kite store planning to get a whirly-gig of some type to put there in the pasture. It is where the compost pile is and it's the chicken's favorite place to hang out.

What you see there is a huge bald eagle kite that we found. It hangs atop a long pole and it flies absolutely awesome in the wind! That dang hawk still eyeballs the neighbors and our pasture but hasn't ventured close since that thing has been up. One day my hubby had set it down on the ground. I was pulling out of the driveway and saw two giant hawks circling my pasture. I went out and put the eagle back up. The hawks promptly left and haven't returned. I can see one perched in the neighbors tree sometimes but the booger doesn't come over here.

So I guess the next question is are the chickens afraid of it? My personal chickens were scared to death of it at first and not too much anymore. They are cautious around it. My pullets from the farm don't seem to be afraid. I'm not sure they even know to be afraid of it. They hadn't been outside until now. I'm not sure if all of their natural instincts are intact or not.

 

[Brookshire11]

Brookshire- Congrats on your first CX!! So you have 5 now? How many more will you get in April? The little meatballs will grow on you... they did me! And most of the people here.
How do you plan to grow them out? Controlled feed? Let them grow longer and slower? Fermented feed?

Up to 7, 3 are for a friend And then 10 more in April.
I am definitely trying to keep my distance but there is one female who is so..uncharacteristically dainty that she cracks me up.
They are still in the brooder until this weekend. then I will move the bigger ones (5) outside, since they're pretty much fully feathered. They'll have their own coop with a 10x10 run for now.
I'm limiting their feed intake so they don't get too...you know. Lol. Lazy?
They're on a 22% protein, non gmo, non soy. Just the broiler version of the same brand I feed my layer ladies.

I'll be honest, they are a little bit of a pain to keep clean in their brooder. They get food and water everywhere lol
I'll be relieved when they go outside. And being white...I almost want to bathe them when they get messy.
They're endearing in their own way, but definitely an adjustment for me

 

[duluthralphie]

I am not doing well with the diamond encrusted eggs...

I was doing some work on there covered pen today, I looked in the nest and saw I had one nice egg..... After about 3 hours of moving things hammering and stapling I went to get the egg and they had broken it. I suppose I had them all worked up. They are not as use to me as my other birds are.

The other birds are like trying to work with 40 puppies under foot. Twice I had to carry the white rock vixen out of the Diamond encrusted chicken pen. Every time I move she is underfoot.



Back to the fancy broken egg. It appeared to be very thin shelled, I am going to have to get them some oyster shells, I thought my layer mash had enough calcium, I guess not. the other birds stil have oyster shell, but the pile it going down fast. ( I just put it on the ground for them to scratch in).

JJ has decided he does not like roosters. I brought the birds out some grapes and lettuce with other scraps and JJ chased all the roosters away, he let the hens stay and eat. Nameless is going away tomorrow along with the extra 3 jakes. I may need to get some hard apple cider, I just happen to have a bottle of cinnamon schnapps already.


DK I use 28 percent protein on my Guinea and turkeys, especially when they are young. I even have a 28% protein game bird layer mash for them this time of year. I will be separating the turkeys out after the great camp send off tomorrow then I will start feeding the high test stuff. I think it is a waste of money for the chickens, BUT I m feeding it to the diamond encrusted ones.

 

[maggypie]

shood i ?