Jacin's Poultry 2022

[JacinLarkwell]

BTW, some people put vaseline on combs, feet, etc. to condition feet and manage scaly leg mites. I'm too lazy, I just spray on food cooking oil as needed. It gives a nice sparkly shine and moisturizes the feet.

We did the vaseline for 4H Fair. 1 month before, 1 week before, and the night before the show. But we had to dust for bugs too because if a bird arrived with bugs, it was sent home.

I aged out, so I no longer do the vaseline for the most part. That May change when my rooster room is set up [Note to self, get cage wire today if we're in town], but now we just dust a few times a year to keep the bugs in check, since it's impozsiboe to eradicate them here.

However I'm not willing to risk doing the Vaseline for winter because I see no proof it works. All it would do is trap moisture against the skin, which is what causes problems in the first place

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Some blast from the Past pictures of my cornish bantams back when I was guessing sexes in 2020. clearly I'm a tad less patient than I am nowadays

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Since I no longer have my backup mosaic male for the sexlink project, i will be using a black Sumatra for a few months. Not a fan of his attitude, but hes just so pretty amd he will still work. Might also mix him with my black NN if i still have her. Should mean all black chicks, and since she's Nn, half theoretically will be naked necked and half won't

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Does anyone know if Sumatras are dominant black? Im using him for my sex link project, but I'm nervous he's going to make all his daughters just full black birds (or blue if their mama is blue)

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Laying out a bit of my crossings for future reference:

Sexlinks:
SumatraX:
Silver leghorn
Wheaten pheonix
Red barred pheonix
Bear (?)

MosaicX:
Blue Laced Gold Wyandotte

SilkieX:
Japanese
d'Anvers

If anyone geneticwise kniws why one of the pairings or birds wouldn't work, please let me know. Goal is to start collecting eggs early march? So i can tell hopefully by late april or so if it is reliable or not to sell eggs

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Alexis was put down two nights ago. She started not moving one leg and refused eating. She finally started eating some beer oat filler stuff i have for winter, and came inside (Xerox went down to the barn, where he has a 2nd toe already nearly gone [plus the ones already listed previously] despite it not going below freezing since then ). She started spasming when i picked her up her last night, eyes closed and head flailing frantically. This was far worse than she had ever been (but similar to how mom descibed Rose's last hour). So i hurried to put her out of the pain she was obviously in.

Now, of course again, I'm terrified its mareks. She was a breeder's bird, so she was never vaccinated, and all 3 of them have now died within months. She has alao beem around Xerox, who is now around a dozen or so birds that themselves wander around probably 40-60 birds all day every day.

So we go and open her up the next morning. I didn't get pictures because i didnt expect anything odd. It was either something that made her stop eating and she got so weak that killed her, or it looked like mareks.

But it was neither. It looks like her gallbladder began leaking into her liver (don't ask what causes that, i have just one thought which I'll get to in a moment) and right where her intestine connected to the gizzard looked dead or incredibly bruised. The inside of her gizzard looked bruised too, but she had eated some decently sized rocks about a week or so earlier while gulping down grit. But the gizzard seemed to be working because the grains shed been eating were all mashed down properly (they're fed as whole grains, since the fermented water is what the people are after).

I think Xerox may have accidentally hurt her, and while i dont think he fully caused the problems, i don't think he helped the situation either. He's so clumsy and was constantly tripping over her and landing on her while trying to run around.

I'm fairly certain this is also what killed Rose, though we never looked at her since we assumed it was a failure to thrive issue like in rabbits. But Alexis was also incredibly heavy for her breed. She weighed as much as a standard, and the few things i could find about her issue seemed to come from broilers growing too fast.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Following (late to the Party)

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Following (late to the Party)

Welcome. Not quite as interesting as your group, but we havent even started breeding season yet here

 

[JacinLarkwell]

And no, i dont think i explained what really happened to Rose besides that she didmt make it, and that might have even been a different thread. My memory has been a near constant fog for months now. Apologies for that. If any additional information is wanted about anything, let me know and I'll try to explain it best i can.

Now onto Xerox. Unfortunately i think he has his father's genetics, which resulted in him having a stump on one foot and a few knuckles on the other before December even started. Coupled with that stump had been a whole foot before it all suddenly died and twisted.

So i have 3 choices, of which 2 make me incrediblysad because I F-ing love this little cockerel.
1) Cull him. End the genetics here. No one else is related to Atlas, and no one else in this group is having these issues.
2) Rehome him to someone just looking for a NN male. For some reason most of the people around me and in the local fb group dont have the same frostbite problems. I'm thinking maybe its different soil causinf the coldness and all that? We're for the most part on bare, clay like ground, where other people seem to have nicer dirt, maybe its not holding in water like ours is.
3) Keep him, breed him to my hen with the least damage and know that ill likely have to replace him in a year like his father.

None of these are options i like, but i dont want this sweet little boy to be hurting like he must be right now. Atlas was awful and I felt so bad until his foot had healed over and he could (somehow) roost again with everyone. I don't want to make that same mistake with Xerox. But at the same time if i did rehome him, he likely would still have some issues if its genetic

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Welcome. Not quite as interesting as your group, but we havent even started breeding season yet here

I'm still culling from last Season. I don't think I'm going to do mass incubations every three weeks, this time around. Unless my main egg buyer turns out to be far more reliable - the costs have exceeded my entertainment budget.

So I plan to do some of my "living" thru you and yours.