"Louisiana "La-yers" Peeps"

[catdaddyfro]

Jeff,

Are you feeding dry or are you fermenting? DH and I are looking into fermenting and then supplementing with fodder or sprouts. I'm hoping that may cut the food bill.

I just hatched 16 chicks in the incubator--hoping there's a few more when I get home. I hatched lemon cuckoo orps, BBS marans, olive eggers and one SBEL(hoping that SBEL is a pullet!

). I had several small cuckoo marans eggs that died somewhere between lockdown and last night. It was depressing.

I have more eggs coming next week from Dick Horstman to put in the bator. After my cocci issues, I've lost half the flock and need to get it going again. I ordered some blue swedish ducks, too. Never had ducks--gonna give it a go, as I'd like to see if it is really true that duck eggs are better for baking. At this rate, DH can barely keep up with the coop building! At least it keeps him busy and out of trouble.

Sandy

I feed laying pellets and grain, none of the exotic tricks or nothing just chicken feed+ kitchen scraps and greenstuffs from the gardens when available. I got too many to have anything extra to do for a feeding routine.LOL

Terrie I'm up to 3 outa 5 of the GNH hens laying now sporaticaly, as soon as they lay a little more frequently I will collect you some and holler atcha.

Didn't get to go to Alex last week as you know LOL maybe by the time they lay good, hopefully soon I can get over that way.

Jeff

 

[mzstre]

NPIP testing all done.... he was a nice guy

Awesome! Who did your testing?

 

[TerriLaChicks]

I fed laying pellets and grain, none of the exotic tricks or nothing just chicken feed+ kitcchen scraps and greenstuffs from the gardens when available. I got too many to have anything extra to do for a feeding routine.LOL

Terrie I'm up to 3 outa 5 of the GNH hens laying now sporaticaly, as soon as they lay a little more frequently I will collect you some and holler atcha.

Didn't get to go to Alex last week as you know LOL maybe by the time they lay good, hopefully soon I can get over that way.

Jeff

No problem Jeff -- whenever!
Hey please throw me a couple of RIRs in there too if you have any to spare! let me know when you start collecting so I can start collecting from my 2 girls -- maybe the roo has decided to get his act together this time. If they're infertile this time, he is going into a gumbo.

 

[mbmess2003]

Awesome! Who did your testing?

Dr Warren Joseph is the one who came by and tested.

 

[kuntrygirl]

The weather will be beautiful this weekend. If you are out and about in your chicken yards this weekend and have time, please take pics of those animals this weekend and post.

 

[Celie]

I'm glad that you said that. I was suppose to pair them up this weekend and I forgot!!!

Yes, I will be breeding. I will pair them up this weekend. I will probably breed 5 of my girls and hope they kit at least 10 each. I may do that twice this year, so that I can yield 100 babies for the year. I will be breeding the Californians and New Zealands. But what I want to try this year is cross breeding my Flemish Giant and New Zealand to see how big a rabbit I can get. I think that will be my experiment with my rabbits.

I need to weigh them this weekend as well, so I can track the weights for the year.

What ya got going over there with your rabbits Celie?

I raise only New Zealand Whites for meat. I bought a pair of Mini Rex to start selling for pet rabbits, because meat rabbits are too large for pets, for most kids. I have all metal cages, too, but find it takes less room with built in nest boxes:
and I just cover them when not in use

I use 30x30 cages for my meat rabbits, but will be making some a little smaller for the Mini REX. I usually get from 11 to 13 to a litter, with my meat rabbits and process them at 12 weeks, if not sold by then. I think the Giant rabbit breeds are a lot bigger, but does the meat taste as good and is the meat to bone ratio as good? I find one rabbit is enough for a meal at 12 weeks, but it's just the two of us here. I did have some go to around 16 weeks, last year during Isaac's visit and after I brined them for 3 days were super tender. I usually get all the females sold and the wind up processing the extra males. I have 5 litters that are being weened and their does are 2 weeks pregnant again. the other 5 litters are only 2 and 4 weeks old, but so far production has been great. I bought my first 10 rabbits from different gene pools in mid MS, so the genetics are diverse and different than are being sold in LA, if you need any more bunnies. I am putting ACV into all drinking water, hoping to get more females, but it's fine if I don't. If it works, I will start trying harder with the ACV in the Turkey hen's water, but most of them drink from the stream, where the water stays cooler.

Me & Jim were just now standing outside & suddenly about 200 chicadees
came flying out of our hedge - slamming into us, the carport, the
windows -- we were yelling & ducking & a young hawk burst out of the
hedge & flew the opposite direction. Jim said he guessed he didn't
realize he was hunting "fast food".

What do ya'll do with all those rabbits? do you eat them?

mbness glad your NPIP went well! i need to call & get mine renewed.

Congrats on your hatch Sandy! what's a SBEL?

I still need to hatch some Ameracaunas & RIR's & German New Hamps & BCMs......& peachicks!!! when they start laying.

I will have both peacock eggs and peachicks available for sell this year.

Jim said he guessed he didn't
realize he was hunting "fast food".

Yes, Terri, we eat what I don't sell, which usually works out to be mostly males, too. I have 10 breeding does and 2 very large bucks. I am increasing the does to 16 this year, because I had a guy contact me that he was not a breeder, but a raiser and would buy all I was willing to sell and raise them to processing age, then take a truckload, around 1000 at a time to the processors and I didn't have any left to sell him at the time! They do not have many breeders around here with pure New Zealand Whites, after 2 summers with triple digit temps!

The SBEL is a white leghorn x ameracauna cross. Super Blue Egg Layer Supposed to lay plenty of large blue eggs. Of course, I only got one to hatch and with my luck it will probably be a cockerel! Ha!

I will be filling the incubator again next week with better luck, I hope. Remember--I should be on your list for pea eggs! We need to discuss colors.

Does the ameracauna have to be a rooster?

I feed laying pellets and grain, none of the exotic tricks or nothing just chicken feed+ kitchen scraps and greenstuffs from the gardens when available. I got too many to have anything extra to do for a feeding routine.LOL

Terrie I'm up to 3 outa 5 of the GNH hens laying now sporaticaly, as soon as they lay a little more frequently I will collect you some and holler atcha.

Didn't get to go to Alex last week as you know LOL maybe by the time they lay good, hopefully soon I can get over that way.

Jeff

Jeff, I tried FF with my last group of meat birds, starting in October, but it was too messy, feeding wet feed during the winter months and I didn't see a significant difference! I do use ACV for all my animals. I read somewhere that a sheep raiser, that used it continuously in his livestock's water, produced 90 % female folds, the past few years and swears by it !!!

 

[kuntrygirl]

Oooooooooooh, Those babies are beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE the built in nest boxes. That is NICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mama looks so pretty watching down on her babies. Awwwwwwwwww. I may have to shop around for some of those cages. There is this VERY old man in my area that builds all of my cages. I wonder if he can build that for me. Poor thing, he is so old, he can barely walk when his arthritis is acting up. I better not ask him to build me anything because if something happens to him while he is building my cages, I couldn't forgive myself knowing it was my fault and your fault because you showed me those cages. (Just joking).

The Flemish are delicious - even to the bone. Rabbit meat is some good meat.

Let me know how the ACV experiment turns out. I may want to try that too.

Thanks for posting the pics of the cage with the built in nesting box. I would have NEVER thought of that.

 

[chickenbelle]

Celie- I think that the Amer has to be the cockerel to throw the egg color and the size of the egg is coming from the leghorn hen. If I understood all of that correctly.

I'm curious about what chicken breeds everyone in Louisiana seem to be raising. I find a lot of the usual silkie, RIR, Australorp, and Leghorn. I am going to add several breeds that I don't have to see how I like their temperaments. After losing half the flock to cocci, I may as well start again fresh. Along with my newly hatched babies, I just got some other new chicks in the mail. Hopefully by summer I will have the following breeds to offer those interested:

Lavender (should be laying by now) and Lemon Cuckoo Orps
Gold Laced Wyandottes (should be laying any time now)
Olive Eggers
BBS Marans
Partridge Cochins
Mottled Cochins
White and Black Cochins
Silver Pencil Rocks (exhibition quality)
Blue Laced Red Wyandottes
I am also about to incubate Salmon and Buff Faverolles, Arkansas Blues (Really hoping for a good hatch with these!), and Sicilian Buttercups.

I also just got my first ducklings. Man, those things are noisy! I got four--hoping for two pair. Our little farm is growing. I feel so much better coming home and visiting with the birds after a long day in the classroom with kiddos! It takes the edge off.

Considering piglets...anyone else keep them?

 

[Celie]

Kuntrygirl,you can add them onto the cages you already have, just get some 1/2"x1" wire and add it to the bottom, after you cut the bottom hole in the cages and fold back the rough edges under. If I can do it, you can too! And you know you can ! I use some 16"x16" ceramic floor tiles inside in the summer to help keep the rabbits cool. In the winter, you can either turn the tiles over to the unglazed side or use wood which is warmer. The tiles are easy to keep clean and when it gets really hot, I rinse them in ice water to cool them off and replace them into the cages. I also save gallon jugs and 2 liter bottles and in the summer fill them with water and freeze them. When it's getting into the 95 degree range, I put these frozen ice jugs into the cages to keep the rabbits cool, and change them out as needed, wash the outside and refreeze. I also use frozen jugs to keep the brine on the turkeys cold, while they go through rigger. They last longer than cubes and don't cost anything! I also put some ice into their water jugs in the summer, but will be putting in water tubing and drinking nipples as soon as I get all of my cages finished and the barn rearranges. I only have 28 rabbit holes now and will be adding 26 more, for the add'l does and mini Rex's. The water system will go to a box that has a float valve in it, to reduce the pressure going to the nipples to gravity feed and I will add anything I want in their water like ACV, meds or ice. What size cages are your Flemish Giants in? What size for smaller breeds? What size nest boxes do you use for smaller size breeds?
My rabbits also enjoy a cold cucumber or melon on a hot day, so I plant a couple extra vines of cukes in the garden. Does anyone else out there also raise rabbits, in Louisiana and what breeds?

 

[mbmess2003]

They are awful cute.... I must resist the urge to add anything else till I get all the breeding coops built for the birds I'm getting at the Newnan show. :/