Michigan

[Mish]

Someone at my work told me Animal Planet had chicken cheerleaders at the Puppy Bowl this year.

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

 

[michickenwrangler]

Those look strangely like Cornish Rock roosters to me.

 

[Olive Hill]

They do indeed appear to be CX cockerels. That said, though they're probably not going to win any beauty pageants, CX are chickens. And I suspect that was the only requirement for the job of "chicken cheerleader".

 

[keyt1969]

Just wanted to say thank you for the well wishes. I'm hanging in. Walking is very difficult with 60+ staples and stitches in my gut, but I've done this before for other surgeries so I'm trying to be strong. I'm fortunate to have a very helpful boyfriend and daughter who help me with everything! My dogs (two Toy Poodles and a German Shepard mix) stay by my side at all times and follow me wherever I go! The drain I have to walk around with is doing well and hopefully I get that taken out and the staples and stitches removed on Thurs.

I hope everyone is doing well!

 

[RIRJen]

Wanted to share some updated pictures of my chicks...
The two future flock sires...the one on the right is Sheldon, the cracked egg

Group photo...well, some of the group lol

Couple of the pullets showing off for the camera

Last one...I swear lol It's so fun to snap pictures of these lil' buggers!

Second batch of eggs in the bator right now, due to hatch in 2 weeks!

 

[Olive Hill]

50 Days Until April 1

On the news this morning the weatherman said "Tomorrow may be the coldest day of the year." Oh, joy!

I'm trying to keep as busy as possible until this cold snap passes so I don't even have to think about it. And then: 30s! Maybe low 40s.

On a lighter note, I didn't realize it when I set them but the current batch of eggs in the bator have a Valentine's Day hatch date. We tend to see most hatching early so they'll actually probably be out this weekend, but the official day is Monday.

Jen - How do you know who your flock sires are going to be at this age? Or are you not concerned with breed improvement, just hatching for fun?

 

[michickenwrangler]

Yea!

Except for the coldest day of the year thing.

We've already had it down to -24 here, how much colder can it get?

 

[RIRJen]

Quote:
I'm hanging onto 2 of the roo's from this hatch and will pick the best one between the two...or if I don't like the way they turn out in the long run then I'll get rid of them and find a new one. I guess you can throw "possible" before flock sires. I don't plan on keeping anything that isn't up to par with what I already have. I have another hatch due in a couple weeks and I plan on keeping a couple Roo's out of that hatch to make sure I have a handful of Roo's to choose from later this year..but like I said, it's only if they're what I want. My caption for that picture was just my way of saying these are the two hopefuls that I'm hanging onto....well, the larger (huge chick) on the left is a hopeful....Sheldon just gets to stay because he's Sheldon, but that doesn't mean I'm going to use him in my breeding program.

 

[RIRJen]

I raise and show English lop and Belgian hare rabbits (for going on 20yrs now) and quality and standards are everything. Without it you just have a bunch of pets. I keep most of my litters (after culling anything not up to par with the breed standard) until at least 4months old and the Hares I usually keep until almost 6 months...this way I know what I have in the way of quality rabbits and what ones would be best to keep for my own breeding purposes. I don't plan on keeping 8 little Roo's until they are 4-6 months old, I'm going to pick out a couple from each hatch based on what I see in them as chicks and if that method doesn't work out in the long run then I'll figure something else out.
My rabbits are very good quality, healthy and kept within my barn to continue the quality animals I produce...I'll take nothing less then that from my chickens. I wouldn't hatch a bunch of chicks for fun (although the chicks are fun to watch!)...everything needs a purpose and the purpose of my flock is to meet the breed standard.