INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Faraday40]

Some pics from today:

The kids' 1st day at school. They ran home & went out back for some chicken hugs.

My 2 lav cockerels

Mr Wonderful..... just walking around looking wonderful

 

[Faraday40]

Does anyone know much about "split wing"?

My lav cockerel (1st one pictured above) has uneven wing feather growth. Not exactly split in the middle - but looks "off." What do you think?

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

So today was first processing day for the Cornish Cross. We got 8 done, hoping to grill 2 for a early BBQ brunch Saturday. Big birds! Want to try to get them cooked before I do the processing workshop Saturday afternoon. What I am hoping for is they are still fryers and not broilers, lol. If they aren't I will just make "pulled chicken BBQ". The rest I can grind or use for soup. If any are left by late fall we will roast them. If they are still fryers oh my, gonna be fried chicken here soon ! The issue is the age, hatch was May 29th. That's pretty late for a CX to be processed.

All 3 calves are doing great! Nearly have the milk stanchion built. When the youngest calf reaches 2 months its time to start planning for breeding my adult cows back to Moose. Our bull, Moose has become a handful and will be processed soon. Pixie is already flirting at the fence line with Moose, stinker! Sorry Pixie, not until September 29th. That will be the point I start training little miss Daisy May to be a milk cow (2 years from now). And Daisy will begin to be weaned. We hope to start construction on the cow barn this fall. It will also house the big milking machine and have room for kidding goats too. My cows and goats co-exist very well especially if the fellas are on another pasture. Goats eat what cows don't on a section of land. We do supplement with grain and treats like garden veggies we don't have room to keep for us. We do not treat our grass/lawn so all mowing trimming goes to them. We use a leaf catcher to gather the grass. This land used to be horse pasture, and the grass here is orchard grass and perennial rye. We reseeded Rye this spring. Will be doing some oat also in the rotational pastures.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Some pics from today:

The kids' 1st day at school. They ran home & went out back for some chicken hugs.

My 2 lav cockerels

Mr Wonderful..... just walking around looking wonderful

Does anyone know much about "split wing"?

My lav cockerel (1st one pictured above) has uneven wing feather growth. Not exactly split in the middle - but looks "off." What do you think?
View attachment 1513177 View attachment 1513178

Loved the kids picturesI see they missed the birds!
Your birds are flat gorgeous! I see weird feather growth often with severe hot and cold. Really think the temps and free range affect protein intake. When its hot and dry I see little molt. There's no bugs. Lotta rain, lots of bugs hatch. It seems to be a pattern from what pictures you shared. I see that here with weather changes too. It went for weeks no rain, to inches a day here! Some of my adults that's molted still haven't got good pinfeathers in. I am not familiar with split wing but will look it up.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

@Faraday40 I found this on a quick search:
https://www.google.com/search?q=split+wing+on+a+chicken&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1-ab

 

[Indyshent]

@faraday I don't think that looks like split wing. Wait and see how the feathers grow in. Split wing is the absence of a feather between the two feather sets (those closest and those farthest from the body). Your boy just seems to have an odd growth pattern for the new big boy feathers. That pattern often has more to do with how quickly a bird develops and feathers out. If he has a gap between those feather types once he's completely done growing all of his adult feathers, then he has split wing.

 

[faerydust16]

Anyone know how to sex them this early?

 

[Faraday40]

More Chicken hugs:

 

[Faraday40]

Anyone know how to sex them this early?

x2

I just ran out to the coop & grabbed a few turkey pics. about 9 weeks old. Their faces changed colors from the flash. I guess I'd be upset too if someone flashed bright lights at me when I was trying to sleep. LOL

White one (royal palm, maybe?)
"He" has the largest snood & neck flap. A tiny bit larger than the other 2. I also saw "him" strut once

Brown #1

Brown#2

 

[Faraday40]

Anyone know how to sex them this early?

You may see subtle signs but all breeds are a little diff. In general they usually look female.... until they don't.

Males:
may have slower feather growth (ie shorter wings, stubby tails around weeks 2-3)
may be more outgoing/ less shy / fearless
weeks 3.5 -6 look for comb color to get pink & some growth; wattles may begin to drop
males feel more "solid" & females feel more boney.

There are also differences between breeders & lines. My lav orps grew combs by 3.5 - 4 weeks. They all feathered out very quickly, so feather growth didn't mean anything. However last year I hatched some new black/lav splits from someone else. Those orps had hardly any combs by 5 weeks, but the males feathered in much slower. In fact some males still had bald spots on back & wings at 6 wks old. Poor awkward little birds!