Minnesota!

[Cebarmlds]

I hate normal time. I wish it was DST year around.

Yes Me Too !

 

[Cebarmlds]

Ralphie are those your guineas on your roof? how do they get up that high and do they poop all over it? that would drive me crazy

 

[Cebarmlds]

Coffee1st, the new puppy is awesome

 

[bantiesrule]

I guess I don't care which time we keep, I just hate changing times twice a year. I don't know why but it just messes me up alot. And it seems to effect me worse the older I get.

 

[Minniechickmama]

Large fowl. Do you know of anyone in MN. I am trying to pick between them silkies or some big dark cornish. I wanted silkies for broodies but they cant cover as many eggs as my cochins. And wanted the cornish to add a little size to my birds.

Okay, let me ask you this...
What are you looking to get from what you are adding? Pretty birds? Meaty birds? Something different? You are talking about three very different breeds.
The Silkies are a completely ornamental bird. Cute, cuddly even, but little and not much to them. Foo foo birds.
Dark Cornish are about as different as you can get from the Silkies. They are like the Bulldogs or Mastiffs of the chicken world, and Large Fowl Cornish are not easy to come by, nor easy to keep. Just so you know that before getting too far into them. Now, the hatchery stock are easier to keep, but they are not nearly as big or beefy as breeder stock. I have had both, and there is a big difference. The hatchery females are better layers than the breeder stock though. That all being said, if you are looking for birds to cross to improve a cross for meat purposes, a good sized FEMALE Cornish is the way to go. The reason I say the female is because they will bring more type and size to the pairing. You will get more color influence from your males. If I were going to get hatchery Cornish for that purpose, I would get White Laced Reds too, not Darks. The reason for this is you will get a clear looking carcass. When you butcher the Darks, you get inky spots in the skin that is less appetizing. That is part of why the CRX were from White birds.
BLRWs are pretty, but you would need to research to see if you get them from a good laying line or not on top of the rest.
I don't know anyone in MN who breeds them. They are not a recognized variety for show yet, so you don't see them much at shows because all they can win is best of variety (color). The thing that makes them less desirable as a meat cross is that the Wyandottes take longer than say a Buckeye or Cornish or Chantecler to get some good meat on them. The Cornish take a long time to really finish putting on their size, but for most, a 6-month Cornish is still meatier than just about any other breed (except maybe some Buckeyes )
The other thing with Cornish is that they are very tight feathered, which makes them not ideal for winter in Minnesota. I have lost males every winter, which really torques me, but I refuse to make a climate controlled building just for them. I don't know what happened with the two 2-years ago, but I ended up losing both cocks I was using in the breeding pens before the breeding season really got going. Last year I lost one, but I did keep 2 cockerels going and still have them. The females seem to do better than the males, perhaps because they aren't quite as big and heavy and don't have their hearts pumping as hard. They will have heart attacks when they get stressed too much. So, you see where I am going with all this with the Cornish? Not a beginner bird for sure, and still takes some patience and real dedication to keep them. Oh, and they don't lay worth beans. And the males need it to get above freezing to have good fertility. And females can be aggressive toward others, even their sisters who have been raised in the same group their whole lives.
The good things... some hens get very broody and most make very good mothers, if you can believe it? I have at least one broody Cornish all summer long, but usually a couple and this Summer I had 5 all at once.

So, I guess it comes back to what you want to add another breed for?
Are you planning to do purebred breeding at all?

 

[holm25]

Minnie I like the cornish the most and wanted them for their size. I wanted to add some different colors in the flock too.

 

[Minniechickmama]

Oh my bleeding ears! Looks like a whitewash committee to me there, Tom Sawyer. LOL. Guineas.........Heheheheheh
Cute name!

Minnesota Nice had the broody she was trying to graft I think.

Have you ever walked into the 4-H guinea section at the fair? Talk about taking your hearing away!!! We had one get loose at the fair about 3 or 4 years ago and it was a real PITA to catch. We did get the doors closed and got that danged thing back in, but it was no easy task. Once you get one guinea riled up, you get every bird within earshot going nuts.

 

[holm25]

I will never raise guineas... Well right now I won't... When I see them at the feed store I'll end up coming home with some...

 

[NathanZee]

Bag balm might help, can't hurt anyways. you can put it on the comb and wattles as well. He still might get frostbite, I had 2 with frostbite last year, they made it through ok. I did put bag balm on them after they got frost bit. I didn't put it on early enough (before they got frostbite). they got frost bit when the temp dropped in November pretty quick. Basically the frostbit portions of their combs turned black, then one day fell off and the comb underneath was a light pink. I made sure to put bagbal on the combs after the black stuff fell off to protect the tender pink part of the comb. They didn't get frostbite after that first time.

Here are my two that got frost bit last year, the buff orp and the gold commet

It mostly depends on the humidity level in your coop, I usually put it on about once a week unless there is high moisture, than a little more often. And yes, the wattles too.

Thank you three! Can it actually hurt the chickens health to freeze the comb? How cold with humidity does it have to be for them to get frostbit? @duluthralphie I won't have to worry about my two hens either. One has absolutely no comb or wattles, and the other is young and is still growing them.

 

[holm25]

Thank you three! Can it actually hurt the chickens health to freeze the comb? How cold with humidity does it have to be for them to get frostbit? @duluthralphie
 I won't have to worry about my two hens either. One has absolutely no comb or wattles, and the other is young and is still growing them. 

It doesnt really hurt them. They just dont look as pretty.