Minnesota!

[nordicacres]

The Meaties are here! We ordered 50 from Hoover's and received 52. One of them is very obviously deformed with its leg bone sticking out of its leg (no sign of injury so it must have been born that way). How do I cull this poor bird? . All the others are alive and doing well so far.

 

[The BlanchRanch]

Wanted to share a fun resource:

When you commute as much as I do, Scandia <~> Minneapolis, and dislike commercial radio, podcasts make a great option.

Found the Urban Chicken Podcast, which is not only about urban chickening, but chicken breed history and other cool stuff.
Today I learned that the Buckeye Chicken is the only breed developed by a woman!
The feminist chicken!

On the radio all I can stand to listen to is MPR. Urban Chicken Podcast? Just do a search?
Found em. Thx.

 

[The BlanchRanch]

The Meaties are here! We ordered 50 from Hoover's and received 52. One of them is very obviously deformed with its leg bone sticking out of its leg (no sign of injury so it must have been born that way). How do I cull this poor bird?

. All the others are alive and doing well so far.

Wow. Those are cute. Is a meaty a cx?

 

[Minniechickmama]

Do you feed anything different or special to your hens during molt? I have 10 Australop hens that are molting and I've been giving them extra black oil sunflower seeds and added some high protein broiler food to their layer mash in hopes the higher protein will keep egg counts up.

If they are molt, they will likely not molt regardless of feed. It is also asking a bit much of them to do both grow feathers and lay at the same time. I do give a little higher protein feed for about a month when the majority are molting though to help them maintain their body condition.

 

[Minniechickmama]

I currently have hatchery bred polish. The males are insane. They run all over the place taking on the biggest roos and then fall off the hens trying to mate them because the hens are 2.5 times their size. Quite the sight in my coop these days. HA HA The hen on the other hand is much more docile and not as crazy. Of course the other chickens picked her crest and tail off so she is hairless and rump-less. Another sight to see. But I have hopes that she will look nice once that grows in. I did get 2 more pullet polish that are 5 weeks old. They seem OK for now although one has been named Baldy. You can figure out why.

Ralphie-sounds like you have a fantastic weekend ahead of you. How lovely! Slightly envious if I can say so. Hope nothing too serious happens at home with your mom taking care of the birds unsupervised. Perhaps you can have you neighbor show up from time to time randomly for things to borrow or something just to keep an eye on things.

Have fun with your grandkids!!

Ah, I did fail to mention the whole head-pecking of crested breeds. It is no surprise to read this, every crested bird I have had and put out with the rest of the flock has had it's head pecked and ends up looking like a monk from the 1400's with just a ring around the sides and a bald top.

Ralphie- if you look up the origins of the White egg layers, they come from the same part of the world - Europe. Perhaps they all got the same batcrap gene that is somehow connected to the white egg gene? I don't know, just know what I have seen and what I talk about with other breeders who have or have had them.

Those Polish males I have had, if you just picked them up, they would literally scream and make your blood curdle. I hated them.

 

[Minniechickmama]

ejb brought up a good point that I thought of after posting about the molt diet...
That is also the time of year that grasshoppers and all sorts of other yummy, protein filled insects come out and chickens allowed access to them get their additional protein from munching them down.

 

[scandiafowl]

Wanted to share a selfie, I can't figure out what breed she might be.
Olive legs and pure white, a filler when I orfered my Jerseys.

 

[duluthralphie]

Wanted to share a selfie, I can't figure out what breed she might be.
Olive legs and pure white, a filler when I orfered my Jerseys.

Does she have a muff? or fluffy ears?

 

[scandiafowl]

Does she have a muff? or fluffy ears?

None, but she is six weeks old.

 

[gofeedthegirls]

Hope everyone is drinking plenty of water today. Its a scorcher