Illinois...

[Faraday40]

Just an update on the "non-broody" momma and the chicks. She is still taking care of them and now they are very attached to her. The older one is 10 weeks now and the younger just over 8. Momma has now started sleeping with them on the run floor instead of the roost because the chicks are afraid of others and they don't follow her there.

Meanwhile the real broody started laying and abandoned her chicks about a week ago so I moved them all to the main coop. I was hoping the non-broody mama will adopt them as well but she did not and in fact does not let them mingle with her 2. It remains to be seen as to how long she will take care of the ones she is in-charge of.

That's so interesting that the hen adopted & stayed with the older chicks. Sorry she didn't adopt the extra siblings too.

Princess never really abandoned her 11 WEEK OLD chicks, but she does go places w/o them. The chicks sleep on the top roost next to the roo. Sometimes next to mama, sometimes one hen over. The other top hen, Precious, kind of got used to them, b/c when they're not with their hatch-mom Princess, they are hanging out with Precious. Precious never went broody & is about 3.5 yrs old.

@chickendreams24
I didn't sell any chicks yet, so perhaps you'll soon find 10 little extra chicks in your coop. (3 are lav orps!) They'll be 2 weeks soon. One maybe both Spitz-ingtons could be getting a crest. Very, very hard to tell.

 

[chickendreams24]

That's so interesting that the hen adopted & stayed with the older chicks.  Sorry she didn't adopt the extra siblings too.

Princess never really abandoned her 11 WEEK OLD chicks, but she does go places w/o them.  The chicks sleep on the top roost next to the roo.  Sometimes next to mama, sometimes one hen over.  The other top hen, Precious, kind of got used to them, b/c when they're not with their hatch-mom Princess, they are hanging out with Precious.  Precious never went broody & is about 3.5 yrs old.

@chickendreams24

I didn't sell any chicks yet, so perhaps you'll soon find 10 little extra chicks  in your coop.  (3 are lav orps!)  They'll be 2 weeks soon.  One maybe both Spitz-ingtons could be getting a crest.  Very, very hard to tell.

Lol aww yay I love them already! Wow so you hatched 5 blacks?? How cool. Well let me know we've got a lot going on what with all the older cockerals to be done and now picking green beans off one of the canning crop fields that was abandoned. A couple hundred acres of green beans! It's glorious! So we're planning to save as many as possible by blanching and freezing them, give away some and eat a ton fresh, plus we want to try our hands at dilly beans. Also getting a lot of tomatoes in the freezer. We didn't get a lot of crops this year but I still feel we've made out well.

We have made blueberry, strawberry, red raspberry, and peach freezer jams from both our own and boughten produce. Canned a load of peaches(3-3/4 bushel boxes), froze several gallon bags of red raspberries, and a few strawberries, and now tomatoes. Also put up about 30+ quart bags of sweet corn off the cob. Plus all the cockerals we'll be doing and we still have a little over half a pig from last year in the freezer.

We're getting there and I'm loving the chance to learn and do all of these things with DH2B.

I wanted to ask if you brined the birds you processed this year?

 

[Faraday40]

I wanted to ask if you brined the birds you processed this year?

bird 1 - didn't know about the brine but I did make a marinade & let it set for 24 hrs. (Should have been a MUCH longer rest period) Then I used a slow cooker. It took 14 hrs in the crock pot to soften. Taste was wonderful, but it took 6 extra hours of cooking. We had to eat something else for dinner that day & saved the Coq au vin for the next day.

bird 2 - I tried a brine & let it rest for a week in the back of the fridge. Needed to add more brine so I just estimated. I think I made a recipe mistake & the meat tasted a little salty to me. (Used a slow cooker, so meat was very tender) It was better in sandwiches the next day. The best part was the delicious, flavorful chicken stock I made with the bones. I froze it in ice cube trays & now have my own frozen bouillon cubes.

bird 3 - Followed the recipe for the brine & then roasted the bird in oven. It was a young cockerel, so not as much meat. I think he would have been better if I waited until 6 mo instead of 5mo. It was OK, but the slow cooker birds worked better than the oven for that fall-off-the-bone tender & juicy meat.

With all the fruit/veggie prepping you've been doing all summer, I'm sure you'll be fine freezing your chickens. Once the head is gone, it's just meat & easier to work with. I felt guilty, but if I gave them away, they'd simply be someone else's dinner. I know that they lived good lives. Their last day & final moments were all spent at home where they were loved.

 

[kristip]

Faraday...do you breed Spitzhaubens? I gained three this year from a breeder, but unless they wait a long time to show their pointy little combs, I might have three girls ( in comparison we also got 3 cochins...all 3 are boys) and I wanted a boy to continue that group...might need to talk further... I am near the IL border near Orangeville, IL/ Monroe, WI

 

[Faraday40]

Faraday...do you breed Spitzhaubens? I gained three this year from a breeder, but unless they wait a long time to show their pointy little combs, I might have three girls ( in comparison we also got 3 cochins...all 3 are boys) and I wanted a boy to continue that group...might need to talk further... I am near the IL border near Orangeville, IL/ Monroe, WI

Sorry. I no longer have males. Both males & females get the mohawks (starting after 2.5 weeks) & both have thin legs. They are very hard to sex! Only way to tell is by the red wattles, which rarely show up before 5 wks. Because of heat &/or excitement, females can temporally get pinkish wattles too. No combs, but if tiny wattles start to drop, then you'll know it's a male. I attached pics below.

I do not breed Spitz's. I tried hatching from shipped eggs 2x last year & got ZERO. A friend was passing through Missouri & came across some Spitz eggs. Knowing that I wanted some, he traded me some of those eggs for some of my lav orp eggs. I hatched 6 out of 6!!! I only wanted ONE spitzhauben female, so I' sold the extra females & ended up giving the males away.

Female at or near point of lay



Female @ 5 months

Female @ 20+ weeks

Female & 4 mo

Female @ 8wks

Female @ 6 wks

Female @ 4wks

3wks - None were sexable.



MALES
Male @ 7 wks

Male @ 5 wks

Male @ 5 wks

Same male @ 4 wks

 

[kristip]

Great pics!! I was told they get a red horn like comb. Interesting!
My oldest is 4 months old and no red showing whatsoever. the 2 younger ones are 8 weeks and no red as well. Super cute little buggers with their thin blue legs.
Thanks for those pics!!

 

[Faraday40]

Great pics!! I was told they get a red horn like comb. Interesting!
My oldest is 4 months old and no red showing whatsoever. the 2 younger ones are 8 weeks and no red as well. Super cute little buggers with their thin blue legs.
Thanks for those pics!!

Thanks. I had such a hard time sexing my Spitzes. Sounds like your difficulty may be that you have all females.

The comb is called a V-comb. My females didn't get any comb until about 5 months. It's very tiny & hides in the front area of the mohawk feathers. If you enlarge the pic below, you'll be able to see it.

 

[chickendreams24]

bird 1 - didn't know about the brine but I did make a marinade & let it set for 24 hrs. (Should have been a MUCH longer rest period) Then I used a slow cooker.  It took 14 hrs in the crock pot to soften.  Taste was wonderful, but it took 6 extra hours of cooking.  We had to eat something else for dinner that day & saved the Coq au vin for the next day.  

bird 2 - I tried a brine & let it rest for a week in the back of the fridge.  Needed to add more brine so I just estimated.  I think I made a recipe mistake & the meat tasted a little salty to me.  (Used a slow cooker, so meat was very tender) It was better in sandwiches the next day. The best part was the delicious, flavorful chicken stock I made with the bones.  I froze it in ice cube trays & now have my own frozen bouillon cubes.

bird 3 - Followed the recipe for the brine & then roasted the bird in oven.  It was a young cockerel, so not as much meat.  I think he would have been better if I waited until 6 mo instead of 5mo.  It was OK, but the slow cooker birds worked better than the oven for that fall-off-the-bone tender & juicy meat.

With all the fruit/veggie prepping you've been doing all summer, I'm sure you'll be fine freezing your chickens.  Once the head is gone, it's just meat & easier to work with.  I felt guilty, but if I gave them away, they'd simply be someone else's dinner.  I know that they lived good lives.  Their last day & final moments were all spent at home where they were loved.

Would you send me the brine recipe you used please? I don't want to overdo it on the salt. Thanks!

What do the spitzingtons look like now? We have 3 lavender orps from a friend of mine's eggs and three little silkies!

Btw if you're interested I think I have a six month old pullet silkie that has virtually no crest no idea why she has so little but I know DD has always wanted one and you've been turned off of them by the crests so I thought I would offer. I'm pretty sure it can't be a cockeral at this age which I thought it was previously so it hasn't been handled much would need your DD's special powers lol but it's a pure silkie.

 

[Faraday40]

What do the spitzingtons look like now? We have 3 lavender orps from a friend of mine's eggs and three little silkies!

Kind of funny you should ask. I just happened to take some pics of the Spitz-ingtons today. I'll get back to you about the recipes.

Here's the darker chick. I can see the very start of a crest. He/she turned 2 wks old this afternoon.
(Her Mom didn't show a crest until 2.5 wks old, but perhaps, I'm just looking more closely.)





Here's the chick with the brownish face. He/she turns 2 wks old tomorrow.
Hard to say if this is a crest or just my wishful thinking. Either way, these 2 chicks are our favs.






I also took some pics of a unique orp. Came from a lav orp hen's egg, but has a tiny bit of brown on the feather tips. I only have orp males, but which one is "daddy" is a toss up. I did have a young choc orp from @Junibutt , but his genes left the flock in early or mid Aug. (small chance, but still a possible daddy. Never saw him mating.) Of course there's Brick (also from Junibutt) & Mr Dummy, but I didn't see Brick mating in August either.

Here's the mystery orp

Sorry about the flash, but you can see the interesting color pattern along the top row of feathers.

 

[Junibutt]

Kind of funny you should ask. I just happened to take some pics of the Spitz-ingtons today. I'll get back to you about the recipes.

Here's the darker chick. I can see the very start of a crest. He/she turned 2 wks old this afternoon.
(Her Mom didn't show a crest until 2.5 wks old, but perhaps, I'm just looking more closely.)





Here's the chick with the brownish face. He/she turns 2 wks old tomorrow.
Hard to say if this is a crest or just my wishful thinking. Either way, these 2 chicks are our favs.






I also took some pics of a unique orp. Came from a lav orp hen's egg, but has a tiny bit of brown on the feather tips. I only have orp males, but which one is "daddy" is a toss up. I did have a young choc orp from @Junibutt , but his genes left the flock in early or mid Aug. (small chance, but still a possible daddy. Never saw him mating.) Of course there's Brick (also from Junibutt) & Mr Dummy, but I didn't see Brick mating in August either.

Here's the mystery orp

Sorry about the flash, but you can see the interesting color pattern along the top row of feathers.

Well, if its from the lavender hen, it could only come from the choc roo. All of Brick's kids would have barring. Also if it did come from the choc roo, it would be a sex-linked pullet. If its not a pullet, then its not from the choc roo. The strange colored feathering on head and feather-tips could be some sort of color leakage from other factors.