Illinois...

[Faraday40]

Due to a family emergency, I am chick sitting for @homeschoolin momma.
DD is completely in love with Phoenix (who happens to be the daughter of her 2 fav chickens) and insisted the 2 visiting birds sleep in her room. (After all, they're "House chickens" like Teddy. LOL)

It was funny hearing the two boys crow back & forth this morning. We could easily tell which crow came from which boy. Teddy grew up around Orpingtons, so his crow is much louder and drawn out. Jasper had a Spitzhauben as his role model, so his crow is smaller, shorter, and a lot more frequent.

Meanwhile, the chicken eggs are all set in the 4 locations. I'll move the turkeys over later. I couldn't help but peek at the turkeys eggs last night....only day 6. I saw some minor veining in 2 eggs, but because it's so early, it doesn't mean much at this point.

 

[Justso]

I live in an area with no written rules for or against chickens. I went ahead with it. It helps if you have space, quieter chickens, and you're willing to give a few fresh eggs away to the neighbors so they're quiet about it too.

 

[Gdnurse]

Keep us posted on what you find out!

Will do!

 

[BReeder!]

I live in town. I could not find anything except the article you found. Thank you for looking!

No law means no restriction in my opinion.

 

[chickendreams24]

An older man sitting next to ne on my flight back top Chicago tonight told me how he once had 2000 roosters in 10 groups of 200 on a double lot (I estimate that was 2/3 off an acre) near Pontiac, IL. I was in awe. This was back in the 40s though. His wife would dress them and sell for $1.25 each. There's household only made $30 per month at the time from their jobs. The chickens were actually paying more than what they were making otherwise. He got the chicks free from his work, a feed mill who had a hatchery on their property. It all started because he wad touched by how they would just cull all the Male chicks. So they gave him 20 makes a week for free.

I am of course not in that position. If I was hatching chickens, and had the property to keep large numbers, I would certainly raise the roosters to a certain age and then eat them. I believe Chickendreams does that. This way there is no waste, and chickens serve the purpose raised for.
I know many peeps that raise meat birds will argue about the economics of raising non meat bird breeds. They will also point out the quality/tenderness of Meat-birds VS Other.
Back in the 40's chicken meat was not as abundant as it is today.

Very cool!
Yes we do raise our spare heritage cockerals for meat and by doing this free range over the spring, summer and fall our feed costs remain relatively low.(not to say the costs are the same as a Cornish cross) The meat we get is extremely tender(with proper cooking) and flavorful. We have processed roosters as old as 1.5-2 years old and they were extremely tender and flavorful!
Generally heritage birds raised for meat are processed at different ages depending on what you want to use them for. We aim for processing out cockerals at 4-8 months. They can be done as early as 12 weeks though or earlier but you get a much smaller animal in those cases.

We also last year raised and processed a handful of freedom rangers and plan to do more next year. Also in our plans this year we will be pasturing Cornish cross in chicken tractors. Our rangers were raised in late fall last year but we were not extremely impressed with them I believe the cooler weather stunted them a bit. They were also tractored with blue slate turkey poults. Our plans are to keep them separate and do it more scientifically.

Another bonus of the way we raise our flock and our spare cockerals is that they are extremely tolerant of new and incoming birds. Pecking order disputes are minor; seldom being more than posturing. I believe this is both because of the breeds of birds we raise, as well as breeding for temperament and how we raise our birds. We often don't separate the heritage cockerals until they become naughty. This last year only a handful of cockerals had to be separated at all. The ones we overwintered(due to winter sneaking up on us) are now being separated and processed as weather allows. The final couple of bonuses I can think of to raising heritage cockerals with the flock or tractored on the property are the extra eyes out for predators, the mature roosters help to raise up any potential future breeding cockerals with respect and teach them how to act, third and finally(it sounds morbid and maybe cruel but as we have had a lot of predators and losses to predators) having spare cockerals running around they tend to venture on the outskirts of the flock foraging areas and predators will hopefully encounter and take them rather than a breeder hen or layer. It doesn't always work but has helped.

Also of note is that they have done studies and proven that the happier a meat animal is the healthier their meat and the more meat they will put on. The same goes for milking animals. The meat we get from our own chickens is far superior to commercial meat also because we raise and butcher them here their ends are less stressful and so more humane and the meat is a better finished product.

There's a huge difference in taste between my backyard orp cockerels (more flavor) and store chicken (bland). Back in the 1940s, chicken was a special Sunday meal because it took 5-6 months to raise. Monday was probably soup made from bone broth & any leftover meat. People wouldn't waste such an expensive meat.

Today people can grow out a broiler in less than 2 months. That's a lot less feed!

It is a lot less feed but as you said less flavor. Less texture. More cholesterol and bad fats due to how they're raised and their feed.

bTE="BReeder!, post: 21201451, member: 506061"]@Molpet Chicken eggs went into the incubator to join the turkey eggs for hatch day. Expected hatch day is 4/29. I'm sort of hoping they hatch on 4/28 though. We couldn't get the eggs into the incubator until Monday rather than Sunday. I haven't tried candling the turkey eggs yet. I'm waiting until this Thursday as that will be 10 days.
@Faraday40 how are your turkey eggs coming along? Have you attempted to candle any yet?[/QUOTE]

Oh yay!!! I'm so excited for turkeys again this year! We have seven turkey eggs so far and I'm planning to set them soon. We got two eggs today!

Because of theink attack a couple weeks ago everyone abandoned the buckeye coop. DH2B and I have had the traps set but so far no luck.

I don't remember if I mentioned we caught a second fox or not. Another male: younger.

We never got the turkeys separated. That's a project for tomorrow or the next night along with setting up a second and third chicken breeding group. No more chicken losses though so that's good; to turkeys or predators. *Knock on wood*

We've been working on getting our nice home made roll out nest boxes put back in the coop after removing them last fall when we discovered the skunk living under them. They still need a bit of work as some screws stripped out of the reclaimed wood.

We have also just finished building and moving several new roosts into the coop. The flock is liking them well so far.

Unfortunately on Saturday night at bed check and lock up of the flock DH2B tripped over an old metal wire milk crate that we place feeders and waterers on. After a rather cartoonish fumble and near fall in the dark with only myself wearing a headlamp said milk crate went flying through the air. It flew about 4 feet as I ran in my flip flops to try and help/catch DH2B who had first tripped over and then stuck his foot inside the milk crate. It landed directly on my left big toe on the edge of the milk crate of course, but that wasn't the end of it. Also cartoonishly it then bounced off my big toe flew three feet back into the air and came down again onto my big toe, again with the edge. Amidst me howling/yelling in pain, disturbed turkeys gobbling and DH2B yelling at me to talk to him and tell him if I was alright I'm sure we all made quite the sight. My toe is quite bruised and the bruise goes up my foot a couple inches. I can't move the toe much without intense pain.

No I haven't been to the doctor for it. They don't do anything for broken toes except buddy tape them unless they're severe anyways. I've had broken toes before although they've always been smaller toes. For now it's buddy taped and we'll see how it goes. I may call my doctor tomorrow just to see what she thinks or if she wants to see me. As long as the toe is buddy taped it isn't too horribly painful unless I bump it.

Also now that I am getting over my rotten head cold DH2B has a milder case of it. Although it's been two weeks since I had mine. I told him if he gives me something else I'm going to smack him.

Last Sunday we went over to my Mom and Grandma's and discovered to my horror that the 50+ heritage year old apple tree that I have been trying to root cuttings of and save for several years was mistakenly cut down by some neighbors that were supposed to be cutting down a dead tree. They heat with wood and are wonderful people. We now have a ton of apple cuttings in the fridge and apple root stocks on the way to graft them to. We will also be trying several different ways to root more cuttings. Hopefully they survive and we will be able to save some. The mother of the family that accidentally cut it is also trying to save our beloved tree. Hopefully we have the problem that we end up with too many that survive. That would be a good problem to have.

This tree has always been special to myself and to my DH2B as well. Actually it's special to just about the whole family but especially my mom and I. After losing my Grandpa the tree became even more special losing it has been devestating and I admit I'm finding it difficult to have hope. For years we've also been trying to identify what type of apple tree could get so large and live so long. This tree has still been producing large edible apples year after year without pruning or spraying. Sadly no one has been able to identify the variety of apple and I fear it may be an old heritage variety that could be lost in time.

We will be getting a couple slabs from the trunk they took(which I will attempt to use to get a full age) as well as what is left of the trunk/stump will be left there in hopes that the still living tree will send out suckers.

Any advice or prayers would be greatly appreciated. Have any of you successfully rooted or grafted anything? Particularly an apple tree? I also saved a few of last fall's apples that I found on the ground under the tree. I of course realize that it's unlikely the seeds will be pure but neither us nor our neighbors own any apple trees other than this one. However I have also never tried to start an apple tree from seeds(it's very possible I can collect more apples and thus more seeds). I did try peach pits that split open revealing the seeds but had no luck as the seeds rotted before they germinated. I admit they were probably too wet as it turns out we were both watering them. Has anyone germinated and gotten apple seeds to grow?

As you can see there has been a ton going on and we've been feeling stretched thin.
As we work towards planning the wedding, the garden, the new raised beds, now the trees and my stupid feeling from my head cold is lingering along with a bit of a runny nose.

 

[homeschoolin momma]

Has anyone germinated and gotten apple seeds to grow

You know, I did have success once at getting an apple seed to grow. My DS came home from preschool one day (like 14 years ago) claiming he had apple seeds in his pocket and he wanted to plant them. After a quick inspection I determined he actually had rocks in his pocket. (That's a whole 'nother story there) I informed him the rocks weren't going to grow. Next day he comes home again saying he's got apple seeds from his lunch and wants to plant them. Well, by golly, yes he did! I explained to him that a good bit of things from the supermarket rarely grow, either from chemical, refrigeration, or intentionally sterile. He still wanted. to plant his seeds. Fine. There was an empty pot of dirt sitting on the front porch from a plant that died. I threw the seeds into the pot and told him don't hope for much, and I had no idea what to do with the tree if it did grow. (We were renting a house at the time) I "occasionally " threw some water on it. Fast forward a few months, we were moving into a new house. I was collecting the plants from the porch and lo and behold. There was a seedling sticking up. I rolled my eyes and grabbed it. That seedling kept getting bigger and bigger. It moved across 2 states STILL in a pot 10 months later to Virginia where it finally got planted in our back yard. I dont know if it ever produced fruit, but when we left, it was well over 10ft. tall.

 

[chickendreams24]

You know, I did have success once at getting an apple seed to grow. My DS came home from preschool one day (like 14 years ago) claiming he had apple seeds in his pocket and he wanted to plant them. After a quick inspection I determined he actually had rocks in his pocket. (That's a whole 'nother story there) I informed him the rocks weren't going to grow. Next day he comes home again saying he's got apple seeds from his lunch and wants to plant them. Well, by golly, yes he did! I explained to him that a good bit of things from the supermarket rarely grow, either from chemical, refrigeration, or intentionally sterile. He still wanted. to plant his seeds. Fine. There was an empty pot of dirt sitting on the front porch from a plant that died. I threw the seeds into the pot and told him don't hope for much, and I had no idea what to do with the tree if it did grow. (We were renting a house at the time) I "occasionally " threw some water on it. Fast forward a few months, we were moving into a new house. I was collecting the plants from the porch and lo and behold. There was a seedling sticking up. I rolled my eyes and grabbed it. That seedling kept getting bigger and bigger. It moved across 2 states STILL in a pot 10 months later to Virginia where it finally got planted in our back yard. I dont know if it ever produced fruit, but when we left, it was well over 10ft. tall.

Thanks for that story and for the hope. LOL so maybe I'll throw some in a pot and ignore them. LOL

Actually keeping it in a pot probably saved it's life from what I've read you should let them get more size and strength before you plant them outside.

 

[Tortoise]

No law means no restriction in my opinion.

That's what I was told when I called the city about my tortoises. They have no real law specific too them so all is good

 

[cavemanrich]

You know, I did have success once at getting an apple seed to grow. My DS came home from preschool one day (like 14 years ago) claiming he had apple seeds in his pocket and he wanted to plant them. After a quick inspection I determined he actually had rocks in his pocket. (That's a whole 'nother story there) I informed him the rocks weren't going to grow. Next day he comes home again saying he's got apple seeds from his lunch and wants to plant them. Well, by golly, yes he did! I explained to him that a good bit of things from the supermarket rarely grow, either from chemical, refrigeration, or intentionally sterile. He still wanted. to plant his seeds. Fine. There was an empty pot of dirt sitting on the front porch from a plant that died. I threw the seeds into the pot and told him don't hope for much, and I had no idea what to do with the tree if it did grow. (We were renting a house at the time) I "occasionally " threw some water on it. Fast forward a few months, we were moving into a new house. I was collecting the plants from the porch and lo and behold. There was a seedling sticking up. I rolled my eyes and grabbed it. That seedling kept getting bigger and bigger. It moved across 2 states STILL in a pot 10 months later to Virginia where it finally got planted in our back yard. I dont know if it ever produced fruit, but when we left, it was well over 10ft. tall.

Thanks for that story and for the hope. LOL so maybe I'll throw some in a pot and ignore them. LOL

Actually keeping it in a pot probably saved it's life from what I've read you should let them get more size and strength before you plant them outside.

The seeds will definitely grow, and being from grocery store, or other source has little affect if any on germination.
My grandparents who were born in the 1800's were farmers and did have an orchard.
Here is what My mom told me many years ago, since she had a huge apple tree in her yard. (probably equivalent to the one you had Chickendreams)
Planting an apple seed will not produce a tree bearing the same apple as seed came from. It will produce something with whatever genetics are in it. (MIXED). She said, (and this was old school estimates) that one in one hundred will be a genuinely useful apple tree. The rest will be wild trees that will produce usually small apples, with varying flavors. With this being said,,,, my grandparent would plant apple seeds , and then graft them with twigs from their choice apple trees.

The same thing is done with rose bushes. (not all, but choice ones)
The root stock is grown from hardy wild varieties. They are then grafted with the choice variety. When you purchase rose plants , it is easy to see the bud union. When your rose grows, you only allow new growth from above the bud union. If you allow twigs to sprout and grow from below, or from roots of that rose,,,,,, The rose will go wild, and most likely not produce desired flowers.
I had some roses go wild in my flower beds. They grew like 7734, but did not produce any flowers.
I can most certainly understand the sentimental value of your apple tree Chickendreams. You can still maintain that by planting a seed or grafting a twig from it. Those are the feelings that will stay in you Heart . forever. and renewed.
About 30 years ago, mom and dad planted a few plum tree in my yard. They were from plums that they kept in their yard. Only one original plum tree is still left from that planting, but so many new trees sprouted. I have them all over. I also shared the new sprouts with with my children, to grow in their yards. The memory just goes on with it.. I shared it with neighbors as well, and the story.
Here is a pix of the plum tree in spring bloom.

 

[Molpet]

No I haven't been to the doctor for it. They don't do anything for broken toes except buddy tape them unless they're severe anyways. I've had broken toes before although they've always been smaller toes. For now it's buddy taped and we'll see how it goes. I may call my doctor tomorrow just to see what she thinks or if she wants to see me. As long as the toe is buddy taped it isn't too horribly painful unless I bump it.

very true

I don't remember if I mentioned we caught a second fox or not. Another male: younger.

good, bet there are more

Last Sunday we went over to my Mom and Grandma's and discovered to my horror that the 50+ heritage year old apple tree that I have been trying to root cuttings of and save for several years was mistakenly cut down by some neighbors that were supposed to be cutting down a dead tree.