Heritage Large Fowl - Phase II

[Freeholder]

Merry Christmas everyone! Ice fog here (and yesterday)! I hope the sun will come out today sometime -- should be able to get some neat pictures if it does! Not to mention, the chickens would enjoy some sunshine, LOL!

And yes, Cackle does have both Buckeyes and Brahmas -- I don't favor the Brahmas (no matter where they come from) because of the feathered feet, which tend to pick up ice balls in winter and mud balls in mud season. They have other rose-combed (and pea, etc.) breeds as well. While I share the concern about the quality of hatchery stock, it isn't all uniformly bad. In browsing through threads here, a number of times I've seen (surprised, LOL!) comments from good breeders on individuals from one hatchery or another that were actually pretty good. Certain lines from certain hatcheries have also been mentioned as being pretty good for starter stock if you are willing to work with them. So I don't share the total contempt for hatchery stock, just want to try to get the best I can!

Kathleen

 

[Apdeb]

I have my bantam buffs in coop and range with my lf but they are top of the line birds from jackie koetadich my barnies are from fossil rock and chad stoner my buckeyes are from pathfinders and jason paige

 

[NYREDS]

Well, I'll try to do this one without making so many posts, LOL!

I'm hoping/planning to get some hatching eggs from good breeders this year, but I've never done shipped eggs before (will be my first time using an incubator, in fact, though I plan to put some cross-bred eggs through it before I get the expensive ones), so I'm not holding out any high hopes for getting birds by that route.

I have had a couple of bad experiences with mail-order chicks here -- one box of 25 all dead, and one box with only three survivors. So obviously I can't trust the P.O. to get that right, and am exceedingly reluctant to spend a huge amount of money on shipped chicks. I might be willing to try shipping older birds, if I could find someone not too far away to get them from. Can't see trying to send them clear across the country.

The Buckeye eggs I hope to be getting will be coming from Washington, so not too far -- I may talk to him and see if I could get a pair of young birds later in the year, too.

I figure, with the chicks from Cackle (the White Chanteclers) I ought to get enough decent birds for a good start, at least -- according to what I've been told, they did get at least some of their breeders directly from Greg Oakes. But if anyone has any ideas on any other half-way decent stock that Cackle has, preferably something that doesn't have a huge comb (not good in our area), I'd appreciate it, as I will have to add ten chicks to my order and I'd rather choose them than let Cackle select packing peanuts for me. I'll probably sell the extras anyway.

Thanks,

Kathleen

Cackle actually has some good
Old English Game large fowl. I made a Brown Red pullet from there Champion Large Fowl at a large fair last summer-then I bought her & brought her home.

 

[MagicChicken]

I have three breeding pens set up for individual matings. Over the season I will be using different cockerels with my four best pullets. This is my first year with Black Javas and I started with straight run chicks last January. I'm putting together the different combinations so I have a better idea of what really is complementary pairing and what doesn't work. I'm using three males in the rotation and plan on keeping two of them to breed back to the best of the pullets from this breeding season. The first batch of eggs goes into the hatcher tonight. Looking forward to seeing how they do.

Here are a couple of photos of my breeding pens. They are 4' x 6'. I can quickly remove the interior dividers to make larger spaces if necessary. Which I may need for grow-out pens by the end of the season.

The large open front faces south. The plywood on the doors is positioned to throw a little shade onto the floor of the pens this time of year, when the sun is so low it shines all the way to the back.

One of the cockerels has gotten much more aggressive in the breeding pen, to the point where I'm not sure I want to keep any of his chicks. I will be watching them closely for bad behavior. This is one bird I am looking forward to eating in a few weeks. I had wanted to keep him for his size and his great back and tail width, but I'm not going to put up with him for much longer. He almost became Christmas dinner this morning when he hit me feet-first in the elbow. Elbow is still sore. Time to make a batch of medicinal eggnog and look up some new chicken recipes.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Sarah

 

[gjensen]

M. Chicken, those are nice pens.

Is the cockerel being aggressive towards you?

 

[MagicChicken]

M. Chicken, those are nice pens.

Is the cockerel being aggressive towards you?

Thanks.

Yes, the cockerel has started to cross the line between "attitude" and aggression. He used to back off when I gave him the stink eye. Now he only backs off if I have a stick with me. Even then, if I have to do anything in the pen so my attention is distracted, he will attempt to flog me. Every couple of days he manages to connect. Today he hit me in a place that still hurts several hours later. So he is on the dinner list and his offspring in the incubator are on the watch list. Attitude is welcome. Aggression against people is not allowed. The other four cockerels are just fine. This one is trying my patience. He will make a great stew.

 

[finnfur]

Thanks.

Yes, the cockerel has started to cross the line between "attitude" and aggression. He used to back off when I gave him the stink eye. Now he only backs off if I have a stick with me. Even then, if I have to do anything in the pen so my attention is distracted, he will attempt to flog me. Every couple of days he manages to connect. Today he hit me in a place that still hurts several hours later. So he is on the dinner list and his offspring in the incubator are on the watch list. Attitude is welcome. Aggression against people is not allowed. The other four cockerels are just fine. This one is trying my patience. He will make a great stew.

Like the breed pens - getting ideas as am getting ready to build.

Take a copy of the chicken recipe and post it in his pen. If that doesn't work the swift kick does. The ones that challenge me always get a talking to behind the coop. After that they usually won't get within 10 feet of me. LOL

And Merry Christmas

 

[gjensen]

Thanks.

Yes, the cockerel has started to cross the line between "attitude" and aggression. He used to back off when I gave him the stink eye. Now he only backs off if I have a stick with me. Even then, if I have to do anything in the pen so my attention is distracted, he will attempt to flog me. Every couple of days he manages to connect. Today he hit me in a place that still hurts several hours later. So he is on the dinner list and his offspring in the incubator are on the watch list. Attitude is welcome. Aggression against people is not allowed. The other four cockerels are just fine. This one is trying my patience. He will make a great stew.

Yes. I hope that he tastes good. Don't want more of him to hassle with.

Good for you to deal with it.

 

[thedragonlady]

I have kept a naked rubber chicken in my coop for many years who has a second place ribbon around his neck, and a "Bad attitude" coop tag.Seems to work.

 

[MagicChicken]

I have kept a naked rubber chicken in my coop for many years who has a second place ribbon around his neck, and a "Bad attitude" coop tag.Seems to work.