Heritage Large Fowl - Phase II

[fowlman01]

Housing is the only thing that could help in -40 weather. No kind of feed is going to help in those kinds of conditions. This is a lot different than feeding grain in zero degree weather to keep them warmer.

w.

 

[call ducks]

Hi everyone- Mom works for a crown agency that deals with specialists for agriculture - The only grain that there poultry specialist recommend is whole wheat - year round. Whole wheat has roughly the same nutritional content as poultry ration so you can mix it directly into the feed.

I don't give my chickens anything special and we see temps of -25 C to -30 C for a good portion of winter. So I really don't think any additional grain is necessary

 

[hellbender]

Well...based upon what I've seen on the board in the last few post and others, I'm going to change what's been going on around here for generations

...Thanks folks, very enlightening.


I feel totally confident that my birds will come out of this cold snap' unscathed, will produce at or near their usual level. If I'm wrong, I'll report any deaths, frostbite or noteworthy reduction in production.


One other point...I think I DO feed my birds a diet that is far superior to the laying crumbles/pellets one can get from the better known manufacturers.

While I use some of these products everyday, they are used in conjunction with my 'secret weapons'.

 

[Canieldonrad]

Hi everyone- Mom works for a crown agency that deals with specialists for agriculture - The only grain that there poultry specialist recommend is whole wheat - year round. Whole wheat has roughly the same nutritional content as poultry ration so you can mix it directly into the feed.

I don't give my chickens anything special and we see temps of -25 C to -30 C for a good portion of winter. So I really don't think any additional grain is necessary

I just plan to go about it as usual. I'm more concerned with keeping water available as I don't use heaters for the fountains. Chickens handle cold weather better than people like to think.

I'll take -xx°f over 105°f any day.

I will edit this in I suppose.

Had a great hatch of La Flèche yesterday. 9 total, would have been 11. 1 drown in blood inside the shell(looked like it bled out the naval), 1 had not absorbed all of the organs before coming out. 9/12 eggs sat and having all 11 of the fertile eggs make it to hatch day is promising. Will need to adjust accordingly to ensure better success in the future.











Yes, one of them has red along the back. To my knowledge there is no way a Buckeye/La Flèche hybrid could occur naturally. The eggs were definitely out of the correct females. I know very little about color genetics outside of basics. If anyone has an idea as to why this came up, let me know.

 

[NanaKat]

The cold here was not as bitterly cold as in hell bender's but the chickens refused to come out of their coops until mid morning. The eggs were so cold in the brooder room that they won't be going in the incubator egg cache.
Cattle had a layer of ice and snow,on their backs and were running to the feed truck for their cubes. We put out abundant hay yesterday in prep for the change in temps.

 

[Yellow House Farm]

I just plan to go about it as usual. I'm more concerned with keeping water available as I don't use heaters for the fountains. Chickens handle cold weather better than people like to think.

I'll take -xx°f over 105°f any day.

I will edit this in I suppose.

Had a great hatch of La Flèche yesterday. 9 total, would have been 11. 1 drown in blood inside the shell(looked like it bled out the naval), 1 had not absorbed all of the organs before coming out. 9/12 eggs sat and having all 11 of the fertile eggs make it to hatch day is promising. Will need to adjust accordingly to ensure better success in the future.











Yes, one of them has red along the back. To my knowledge there is no way a Buckeye/La Flèche hybrid could occur naturally. The eggs were definitely out of the correct females. I know very little about color genetics outside of basics. If anyone has an idea as to why this came up, let me know.

Keep tight watch on the one with red in the back. I remember some doing this. It wasn't a Buckeye. What will be interesting to see is if the males grow up to be males that have a bit of red in them. If so, they might make exceptional pullet breeders.

 

[Canieldonrad]

What do you mean by that? Is red an enhancer?

 

[Texasmja]

I posted a bunch of pictures from the Bluebonnet Classic Show if anyone wants to view them.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152094902573076.1073741830.136316438075&type=1

 

[har]

I posted a bunch of pictures from the Bluebonnet Classic Show if anyone wants to view them.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152094902573076.1073741830.136316438075&type=1

Thanks for posting the pictures

Scott

 

[Beekissed]

I posted a bunch of pictures from the Bluebonnet Classic Show if anyone wants to view them.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152094902573076.1073741830.136316438075&type=1

Thank you for posting these pics!!! I fell in love over and over, especially with those NHs!!!