Naked Neck/Turken Thread

[nate1the1great1]

Did u guys see my pix i would like to hear ur guys opinions
Thanks
Nathan

 

[draye]

I took a few quick snap shots today. I am sick and couldn't stay out very long. This is Riker the current number 2 guy. This is one of the "sweeties" 2 look identical This is the boy who flew under the radar for so long, still trying to decide on boys this one Riker or Shakespear. This is Qtip the mottled hen.

Love those mottled ladies. I'm assuming that they are descended from the Mottled Houdans. I'd really love to have some of their eggs if they are not the scaleless carriers. I don't think I'd want that in my flock. That Riker is really good looking. Is he a scaleless carrier?

Here's a few pics of my nn boys and girl

Nate those are some nice looking birds. Is there a certain color direction you're going for or just a colorful flock?

 

[jacksson515]

Here in the mountains of Central California east of Fresno, we are having a lot of trouble with hawks; about 20 dead chickens since last spring. In that raptors are protected, we cannot shoot them without a permit to do so which is a big hassle. The hawks typically swoop down and kill the chickens but are not large enough to fly away with them, so they eat them where they kill them. We have a mix of white, red and barred rock chickens and the hawks go for the white ones first which we believe happens because they are more observable from the air.

The hawks are becoming more of a problem along with many other predators as they move closer to human habitation because of the drought and excess populations forcing expansion of their territories. We are keeping the coyotes pretty well at bay and haven't been bothered (lately) by wildcats. But they are in the area along with mountain lions and bears.

We are getting ready to order chicks for next year and have decided to order Naked Neck chickens primarily because they tend to be larger and if the right color is picked, less observable (we hope) from the sky.

I would appreciate any inputs regarding the problem and the possible solution. The Turkens appear to be the best bet; we had a Turken rooster in the flock for years until he died of old age. He was large and was never bothered by the hawks.

 

[ochochicas]

Please clue me in on how to keep the coyotes "at bay". We just lost our best roo to a coyote just last week.

If you have trees for the birds to take shelter under it help a lot with hawks. Also, if you get a good rooster (or a few) they will alert the hens to approaching birds of prey so they can take cover. I personally can't say if Turkens are better at avoiding hawks than other chickens because mine never leaves the yard. He hides under the trees and never ventures out. LOL He does take care of the pullets who are also "too chicken" to leave the yard. (Pun intended)

 

[jacksson515]

Some years back, I fenced in the five acres around the house with no climb fencing to keep the dogs in and the coyotes out. Had several big dogs which helped, but about this point in time I lost a wonderful lab/pit bull mix female (about 75 lbs) to a mountain lion; she was off the property and that was the primary reason that I installed the fencing. Haven't seen a mountain lion on the property in years, did lose a female goose to a bobcat one night; I guess the dogs were sleeping. I always have had at least three dogs on the property and right now I have two female Rottweiler/German Shepherd mixes, nice dogs and couple of small yap yaps in the house. The neighbors have about four dogs also and they have been around for years, not that big, but noisy and they stick fairly close to their house.

 

[Pyxis]

Our power went out today, AFTER the storm. Go figure. I have an outdoor coop full of chicks, but I didn't lose any thank goodness. I think in part it's because they had the good sense to hide under the adult birds in there until the power came back. I did lose some eggs in the incubator - the ones closest to hatching, strangely, my first two eggs from the cemani NN project I'm working on. That was disappointing. It looks like the others made it, though, which is good. I managed to keep the temperature at 96 degrees in there using hand warmers, and it seems like that was enough. Guess I'll just have to set more eggs, sigh. I was only going to hatch ten first generation crosses, in the hopes that I'd get three to five hens to use under the GF roo. I had already set five of them. Guess now I'll have to set seven more, IF the ones I set yesterday made it, which I can't tell yet. Might be down to just the one that I know is alive.

 

[Phage]

In the past had power go out on my cabinet brinsea for about 12 hours and almost everything made it ok, so fingers crossed.

 

[Kev]

It seems embryos can handle chilling much better than chicks. Many times put back stone cold eggs under hens, moved hen back to right nest after she slept on wrong one over night, put chilled eggs in incubator etc... generally they hatched well although often they hatched a day late.

Good luck!

 

[flower]

Really like those pics of Q tip, so flashy. Get well.

GET WELL X 2

 

[flower]

I want to get some eggs to Draye but I'm also going to be setting up a breeder pen of these and trying to sell the extra eggs (maybe on Ebay?) this Spring. That's part of the reason I'm keeping the current NN chicks, so folks who might want to bid on eggs would see what they might get in the babies. I saw a dozen Mottled Naked Neck eggs sell last Spring on Ebay for $45 which is what gave me the idea to set up a breeder pen. (Those were from a black and white mottled flock, not Mille - have not seen Mille NN's before?)

Might be a good way to support my feed bill? Raising all these Alohas, feed costs are about $40 per week! Ugh!!! Selling a few extra dozen eggs this Spring would be a nice help if they are popular. Will probably depend on how these little babies grow out! The oldest chicks are nearing 3 weeks, and I'm already seeing some white spotting in about half the babies' new feathers. Yay!

40 USD a Week !!!!!!! Yikes !!!!!! But they are outstanding !