Heritage Large Fowl - Phase II

[Lacy Blues]

Hum,
Then I should go and note that on his leg band number in my ledger. I am hoping to get
the other 3 grow out pens done tis week. Still have 3 brooders with chicks in them. How
much room do yu think I need per chick to raise them to 4 months?
Best,
Karen

Each breed is different Karen. I have no idea how much room to give them. I put mine all in a space and when it starts to look crowded, I have to thin them out before they start eating each other. My breed is a very active breed and as far as I understand, that's pretty different than your Sussex. I would just give them as much room as you can spare, the bigger the better, especially while growing.

Yup, Linda, sounds like fun with the blue egg layers~ What is a SBEL? My hens March
and May have decide to sit eggs at this late date. I am just going to let them sit. 1st time
May has shown any interest in sitting since she has been here, so that's a good thing.
I am not happy the chicks will be hatched this late in the year. It's a quandary what I will
do with them.

Sigh,
Karen

I'll bet they feather really fast for you Karen. Cooler weather as they're maturing seems to do that. Why not leave them with her? Just know who the parents are of those eggs and then cull as necessary.

It's a hybrid of Crested Cream Legbar cock over White or exchequer leghorns. Called Super Blue Egg Layers. I bought them on a whim and I just love them. My favorite is the Basque. I had the incubator in my bedroom and I heard a knocking. She was pecking on the glass to get my attention. Stared me right in the eye. Demanded attention. The coronation Sussex was just about as attentive too. Love them.

I'm really hoping that SBELs can be made with EEs and my Andalusians. I got a couple of EEs from the feed store this year. Actually 3. I was really hoping that one of them was a male and I did all the examinations I could of a week old chick and turns out, one IS a male! That gives me two directions to go for making SBELs. These are, of course, for my layer flock. Last time I got some of these, I was pretty disappointed in the egg size, plus they are such timid birds its insane. So, this year, I gave them their own pen where there are no aggressors to pick on them. I plan to cross one of my Andalusian roosters which came from a LARGE egg over the EE pullets... and the EE cockerel over one or two of my girls that lay LARGE eggs. I'm really hoping for some larger blue eggs as the dinky ones are just really disappointing.

 

[3riverschick]

It's a hybrid of Crested Cream Legbar cock over White or exchequer leghorns. Called Super Blue Egg Layers. I bought them on a whim and I just love them. My favorite is the Basque. I had the incubator in my bedroom and I heard a knocking. She was pecking on the glass to get my attention. Stared me right in the eye. Demanded attention. The coronation Sussex was just about as attentive too. Love them.

Wow, a polka dot crested bird that lays blue eggs. Kooky! But real cute!!
I know Basque are supposed to be the friendliest chicken in the world.
New hatched chicks run right to one's hand to be picked up. How cute is that?
Best,
Karen

 

[bnjrob]

Each breed is different Karen. I have no idea how much room to give them. I put mine all in a space and when it starts to look crowded, I have to thin them out before they start eating each other. My breed is a very active breed and as far as I understand, that's pretty different than your Sussex. I would just give them as much room as you can spare, the bigger the better, especially while growing.

That's about what we do too. The grow out pens are 8 ft x 10 ft x 6ft tall AFrames and there is a loft inside that is 4 ft deep and 8 ft wide inside the Aframe. We also separate by gender early on - we're doing it around 2 months old now. We can keep more females in these large AFrames than males without problems. It depends on how "vigorous" the males are and that varies by hatch and by bird for sure.

On average we can keep about 7-8 males in these pens through to 1 yr old. We start out with more than that as "older" chicks and then as they grow we end up culling some. Usually when we decide to butcher, it's because we're seeing more fighting amongst the males and so we'll start looking at who needs to go - like cockerels with side sprigs or legs too close together or too small compared to their counterparts of the same age. So usually by the time they are about 4 months old, we have whittled it down to about 8 in the pen. Now I have some females that are in a smaller space than our AFrame grow out pens right now, at 3 & 4 months old, and they are doing fine. But they are females, and still have that chick mentality where they like to cram all on top of each other to sleep and anytime they get freaked out over something.

There really are a lot of variables that go into how many birds can live peaceably together in a space. And it is never the same throughout the year. There are always shifts in the "power" of a pen and who is in charge as these guys grow, and sometimes everyone can stay together just fine, other times I've got to pull cockerels out and put them by themselves because they just can't get along with the other males.

 

[3riverschick]

Hi!,
Is there a problem with not separating the sexes?
Right now I have them cooped by hatches.
and heritage. Male and female together. They are
doing fine. I have 2 grow out pens of 8 week olds
and one grow out pen of 6 week olds. I need to move
them to new grow out pens as I need watermelon
corral space for the chicks on the front porch. (a set
of 3 and a set of 7). I hesitate to combine them because ,
tho they are leg banded, if the bands came off, I would
not know the heritage of the birds and that is vitally important.
Best,
Karen

 

[Lacy Blues]

Karen, if your boys don't pick on your girls too much then I'd just leave them together. My birds, as the males start to mature they bother the girls excessively. This, in turn, sets the girls back from maturing as early as they would - they are always slower to mature than the males.

 

[3riverschick]

Karen, if your boys don't pick on your girls too much then I'd just leave them together. My birds, as the males start to mature they bother the girls excessively. This, in turn, sets the girls back from maturing as early as they would - they are always slower to mature than the males.

Hi Lacy,
No, I don't have a problem with that. Everyone gets along as long as I don't put strangers in their pens.
That's why I have so many grow out pens with small numbers of chicks in them. One pen for each
Brinsea Mini hatch of 3 to 7 chicks. Plus, it makes it much easier to see how the different matings
are developing.
Best,
Karen

 

[LindaB220]

Wow, a polka dot crested bird that lays blue eggs. Kooky! But real cute!!
I know Basque are supposed to be the friendliest chicken in the world.
New hatched chicks run right to one's hand to be picked up. How cute is that?
Best,
Karen

The little ones 6 wk old, are white with black splashes or polka dots, ha, and also I have black ones that are feathering out differently. Some are barred, some are grey. And so friendly. My gson came to visit from Austin the other day and took a picture of me trying to put the food in the small coop and I had 2 of them flying up to my arm and one sitting in the bowl.

 

[desertmarcy]

Karen, as soon as you see the cockerels start to pick on or hassle the pullets, I would
separate them. I started using numbered wing bands this year and really like them. Only a
couple of birds lost their band. It makes identification so much more secure. I keep a large spreadsheet with the wing bands with multiple pages that are sorted differently. I sort by
wing band #, breed, and location. I added location so I could print the list when I go out
and sort through birds and all the birds in one pen are listed together. I also don't delete
a bird off the spreadsheet if I don't have it any more. I will put a space after the number
and D for died, C for culled, S for sold...then I have a comments column and I'll put there
why I didn't keep the bird. When I resort the spreadsheet, those will all appear at the end.
When all is said and done, I will be able to go back and see the different breedings and how
many were culled for this reason or that reason. I think taking photos of the birds before
culling would be useful too, but I haven't done that. I really like my Excel spreadsheets!

 

[Lacy Blues]

Desertmarcy, I have been trying to figure a way to keep records easily. I use excel spreadsheets too as well as physical notebooks and try to keep the two equal in information.

Would you mind sharing an image of one of your spreadsheets with us/me? I think it would help me to be able to see how you have it laid out etc.

 

[3riverschick]

Hi

,
Thank ya'll for the advice and help! I know there are fans of open air coops
on this thread. Was browsing thru Hathi Trust Digital Library and came across
this interesting scientific study. It is very vintage, 1907 / 08. Still I don't run
across this topic often. When was the beginning of the open air coop movement?
About this time? Anyone know?
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3311358;view=1up;seq=100
POULTRY HOUSE CONSTRUCTION AND ITS INFLUENCE ON
THE PROGENY OF THE DOMESTIC FOWL
BY L. C. OPPEBMAN Pages 83 and 84
( excerpt: " during 1907 and 1908. Six styles of pens were used:
1. Tight house; 2. Glass front; 3. Cloth front hooded roost;
4. Open front hooded roost; 5. Cloth front without hooded roost
and; 6. Open front without hooded roost. " )
SUMMARY
The following conclusions are a summary of the data obtained from the
work with the first generation. The experiment is in progress at the
present time, and will be continued for several generations. Future results
will be published from time to time as the work is completed.
(1) The cost of tight double-walled construction is greater than
that of any other type. In the experiment here discussed it was found
that the fertility and hatching quality of eggs were very much better in
fresh-air houses of less expensive construction.
(2) The fertility and hatching quality of eggs is much better in the
open and cloth-front houses, where the fowls are allowed free access to
yards or range.
(3) The progeny of fowls in fresh-air houses, having free access to
yards or range, are more vigorous than those of the fowls which are main-
tained in houses of other construction, and which do not have the liberty
of the yards during the breeding season.