"Louisiana "La-yers" Peeps"

[rlcrow]

Definitely time to start raising our own meat birds!



http://complete-health-and-happines...processing-re-entry-states-human-consumption/

Yep! And what's worse is they are allowing China to raise chickens and sell the in the US. Their standards are appalling! I wouldn't feed my dog meat that came out of China!

 

[Cody A]

Where you been? Did you get your chicks. Pam

I've been keeping up with the thread seeing you guys hatching and building new coops. I don't really have any news to post about.

I have yet to hear from Jeremy about chicks. He still has my deposit. I haven't wanted to pester him so just been waiting.

The lady that wanted your legbar cockerel I hatched came yesterday to get him. She offered me a breeding trio of rocks. They're supposed to be purebred, I don't know what line they're from.
I may trade her the legbar and incubate some eggs for her for the trio. I can't decide what to do since I haven't heard about the XW's yet. I still have these 15 Cornish cross. They'll be ready to go this month. All the Bieles are doing great. I've really been enjoying them.
Lately I've been cutting some big pines from around the coop. I take them to be milled then bring them home to stack and air dry. I plan to use them in my house one day.

 

[lakones]

A couple more days like this and I might get out of chickens all together! Still dealing with the hen that I'm pretty sure has vent gleet, the 5 week olds and 2 week olds are mostly doing well on the corid, but one of my 5 week olds died yesterday and today I found my broody and her hen helper eating the baby chicks as they hatched. Arggggggg.....

 

[Cody A]

Oh Lakones that's terrible. Why are the hens eating the hatchlings. I haven't heard of chickens doing this before.

 

[Ron Skekel]

Oh Lakones that's terrible. Why are the hens eating the hatchlings. I haven't heard of chickens doing this before.

X2 so sorry for your losses. Pam

 

[lakones]

Oh Lakones that's terrible. Why are the hens eating the hatchlings. I haven't heard of chickens doing this before.

This was my first time hatching so I've been doing lots of reading. I had read that it does happen sometimes, but really didn't expect it. Between the two hens I have not been able to get a look at the eggs since Monday. There were 4 eggs under them. Then yesterday I saw both were off the nest so I went to look and there were only 2 eggs and no sign of the other two. I thought maybe a snake??? But one of the two remaining was piping (sp?) so I'd been checking on it, the hens would not get up at all yesterday afternoon and evening. I went to put fresh water and feed in the coop for them last night and they were eating the newly hatched chick. It was too late to save it and I took the last egg away too. They will not be allowed to go broody again!
My little girl was so looking forward to hatching our own chicks. I just told her the eggs were no good. :-(

 

[1zooman12]

Hello Lakones,
Sounds like you have a pair of candidates for the Crockpot; all you need are a bunch of vegetables to add into the prospective chicken stew. Then you need another hen which you can use as an intermittent broody/incubator. May I nominate a standard sized Cochin? Color of your choice, of course. Those two hens are examples of entropy run amok! My sympathy and empathy go to you; but you will see better days, I'm almost certain. Hang in there, as the kids say…
Sincerely,
Neal, the Zooman

 

[campingshaws]

My broody jumped nests again.
She was off the nest yesterday morning, and I thought maybe she had quit on me. I was gone all day and didn't collect eggs. This morning she was on the wrong nest. The only time my roo has ever attacked me, I was messing with a broody. I hate to do it because it's hard to watch over my shoulder.

 

[Ron Skekel]

 I've been keeping up with the thread seeing you guys hatching and building new coops. I don't really have any news to post about.

I have yet to hear from Jeremy about chicks. He still has my deposit. I haven't wanted to pester him so just been waiting.

The lady that wanted your legbar cockerel I hatched came yesterday to get him. She offered me a breeding trio of rocks. They're supposed to be purebred, I don't know what line they're from.
I may trade her the legbar and incubate some eggs for her for the trio. I can't decide what to do since I haven't heard about the XW's yet. I still have these 15 Cornish cross. They'll be ready to go this month. All the Bieles are doing great. I've really been enjoying them.
Lately I've been cutting some big pines from around the coop. I take them to be milled then bring them home to stack and air dry. I plan to use them in my house one day.

That sounds like a good deal 3 rocks for one roo but he is a rare breed and you get more for them. I will be interested in the difference in meat from Barred rocks and cornish cross. Are you doing fermented feed?
Is there anything noticable between the two different lines of Biefelders?
Most of my coop is made from trees we cut and had milled too. Right now on the look out for a wood burl or cross cut for a coffee table. Something unique with the beauty of nature.

Are the cornish x as messy as everyone says? I'm raising Bresse as a self replaceing meat flock thats if the meats as good as i've read about. they lay a good amount of eggs. So hoping to keep a flock hatch chicks grow them out to process.

Your not the only one with bad straight run luck. I planed to do the same with sumalters got a quad all roo's. My Bev Davis FBCM out of five 3 roos little buggers are mean too. I'll try to tame them enough to keep the one with the best temperment and hope I can sell the other two for a decent price. Her line is in the top two in the US and the eggs they hatched from were super dark. Pam

 

[Cody A]

Pam, the CX are very messy. They're stinking up the coop. I've put down several bags of pine shavings. I'm glad I only have 15 of these guys. If I ever raise them again I'd want a designated coop for them to be in. They don't go far from the feeder. They have a 80' run to themselves and none have been to the end of it yet. They're about 7 weeks. I'm not doing fermented feed, been feeding gamebird starter 24% mixed with Scratch n Peck chick starter.

I can't tell any differences in the Biele strains at least no yet. There is one 2011 that has the biggest, widest head. I'm keeping my eye on him for breeding. But from what I've read you never know until they mature. There can be late bloomers. You would know better than me. There is another 2011 that carries itself funny. Like it has a wing or hip that is higher than the other. He's definitely going to the freezer. Eventually I'll be asking about how to pick and what to look for, I have 10 cockerels so some will have to go.

I've never mentioned it but I'm in to wood myself and am a woodworker. I like to do traditional hand cut mortise and tenon joinery, dovetail joints, that type stuff.