Maine

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.....And to our delight, Jasmine laid an egg today as well! SO happy about this!

Here's a questions for you all. We have a rooster growing...I think he's part Faverolle cause on one foot there is an extra toe. He is beautiful. Will he be as aggressive to the girls as my Light Brahma Roo was? The LB Roo tore off all their back feathers.

And does anyone know of a place to rent a chicken plucker near Bangor?

Every rooster is different so he may be aggressive with his girls or he might be a gentleman. Hopefully he will be the latter.

 

[Jazor]

Yankee Hill: The protein content on my Purina One cat food is 34%. And I suspect that it's a complete protein: containing all of the necessary amino acids. I'm not sure how a cat and bird compare, but if an amino acid is deficient, the rest of the amino acids that are present can't be completely utilized. That's why, if one is a vegetarian, it's important to know how to put together a vegetarian diet with all of the essential ammino acids so he doesn't run into deficiency issues. Wheat would be much less expensive for sure, but I suspect that the protein content is also quite a bit less.

Quinoa is a complete protein, that you can buy in bulk. It's 14% (by mass) protein. Some people call it a "super food" but to be quite honest, I was sick of that term 8 years ago. I've seen people who make their own organic feed including quinoa for the complete protein side of it. If your birds are lucky enough to eat so well, you may also consider eating it as it's pretty good as a substitute for rice and pasta if ya ask me.

Cheers,
Jazor

 

[superchemicalgirl]

I made a nice "chilly morning molt" breakfast for the girls this morning. It consists of scrambled egg cooked in olive oil with dry cat food. Once that comes off the stove it's mixed with thick prepared oatmeal that has flax seed mixed in. It sounds nasty, but they love it and seems to be helping them regrow their feathers. Added bonus, no one has slowed down in production. Coincidence?

Flax and black oil sunflower seed should give enough protein and fat.

And does anyone know of a place to rent a chicken plucker near Bangor?

It's actually easier to pluck by hand than to use a plucker - if you get how to scald right.

Temp should be 145-155. Deep enough to get all the bird in at once. Add a few drops of liquid dish detergent to the water. This will help get rid of the oils to penetrate the feathers better. Dip the bird in by its feet and kinda stir it around and up and down for the count of 8 or so. Pull bird out. Test butt and flight feathers (the really thick ones) by pulling. If they don't come out easy dip the bird back in and repeat until they come out easy. This usually takes 3 to 5 dips for most birds. As soon as they come out easy, dip the bird into a bucket of cold water to stop the scalding process. Then pluck by hand. Super easy.
We built a homemade plucker with probably less than 20$ worth of material. It involved a drill bit an end cap for pvc pipe, a long screw and some black rubber pieces that came with S hooks on the end, cut up. We hold it steady by using some plumbers tape (the metal stuff, I think that's what it's called) drilled into a 2x4 that's clamped onto the truck bed. Put a large trash can under it. It's good for fast plucking large areas but not so good for wings and smaller areas.

 

[buckabucka]

I've been swallowed up by school, so haven't been on here much.

What's the Cemani gene?

Ashandvine, did you get any red flint corn? I planted mine so late. The stalks did get enormously tall, the ears developed silks, and even though it is not ready, the skunks have been pulling it down. They didn't take very much, but I think they were just testing it for ripeness and plan to return for a large family picnic.

Counting down the days for freezer camp. I've got 7 roosters in 4 locations because they can't get along enough to live together.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Counting down the days for freezer camp. I've got 7 roosters in 4 locations because they can't get along enough to live together.

I hear ya. I've got a bunch of roos in my regular coop because the bachelor pad was full. Then I cleared out the pad (mostly - there's 4 banties left that just aren't worth it - why doesn't the fox or hawk ever take them?) and the one roo I want to keep for mating to my girls is the biggest wuss on the planet and gets his butt handed to him every time I try to integrate him into the regular coop. So far this week he's been pacing the fence line trying to woo the girls and he's getting his butt kicked through the fence, too.
Got to get rid of those boys then get him in there.
Saw one of the roos try to mate my turkey earlier this week. When she realized what/who he was she chased him for about 5 minutes to teach him a lesson.

 

[Chambertin]

From that all black chicken everyone is talking about.
I have no idea what else to call it, and so I just threw that one out there. It means "all black" in Javanese
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayam_Cemani

There are a few all black breeds, but the Ayam Cemani making news these days. The gene from some birds nearly takes over even if the chicken has white or dark yellow skin. The beak and other places will turn all, if not mostly black. The chickens we have here are decendants of that Ayam, so they have strong black genes, much more so than Silkies who still show some pinkish comb & wattle in true bred descendants.

As an example another experiment I did:
Buff Orpington & My 雪峰黑羽骨鸡 (really black mountain chicken) on the Left with the *Silkie and Buff Orp on the right.

They were both boys and not around when I got back here. No one took photos of them growing as I had asked, but that is the least of my worries with recent events. Not good to be back, but I get to see my chickens.
Stupid **** import ban means I cant take any home to work on..... fakkkkk

 

[thatsjustducky]

Ayam Cemani are available here in the US from Greenfirefarms.

http://greenfirefarms.com/store/category/chickens/ayam-cemani/

 

[Widget]

Ayam Cemani are available here in the US from Greenfirefarms.

http://greenfirefarms.com/store/category/chickens/ayam-cemani/

Interesting looking birds but not for $5000 a pair. I got upset when I lost a TSC bargain Tetra Tint chick that I bought for $0.50.

 

[Chambertin]

http://greenfirefarms.com/store/category/chickens/ayam-cemani/
Their pictures show a roo with pink showing in the wattles, its defiantly a mixed Cemani breed of some kind
The feet are about as dark as the orpington chick so even the skin has some deficiencies.
(Quite frankly not as good genetically as the Cemani descended ones I have at home for $2 an egg $10 a pair)

With a price tag of 5 grand that's just not going to happen.

They are beautiful, but no different from the mixed breed farm chickens here in China.
Really not worth the price no matter what.
Maybe they don't know or got swindled, but that's not a true breed with those faults in the black color.
I hate to call them out like that, but...

 

[Mainechick168]

Well, today was day 22 of my broody ( which turned into 2...) setting on eggs...I checked tonight and it looks like one has pipped...I've decided to mostly let the moms handle things...so we will see what happens in the morning!