Naked Neck/Turken Thread

[DesertChic]

Good thing you don't raise turkeys.

TOO TRUE!!!!

 

[hellbender]

I have literally photographed my chicks in the morning and then again later that same day for this exact reason. I can't say conclusively that they get bigger that quickly, but their feathers do grow in more that quickly. It's really quite astonishing.

I have dreams of my chickens getting tangled up in my hair, which has grown to be over halfway down my back. I think it's because 1) I had a parakeet stuck in my hair as a child, and 2) I have three "teenage" chickens that persist in trying to roost on my head whenever I enter their pen. It was cute when they weighed under a pound, but now that they weigh closer to 4 pounds...not so cute.

You ought to wear them around for a couple hours a day...help strengthen your neck muscles...

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

You ought to wear them around for a couple hours a day...help strengthen your neck muscles...

Or have them roosting on your arms... How many Naked Necks can you dead lift?

My Cream Legbar pullets (nearing POL) are in their new coop and haven't had outside roaming time (they're in the "this is your home now" transition period). Because the new coop is tall like an aviary and I can walk in and they can be near eye level with me on a roost/perch, Lissa (who previously avoided me) suddenly really likes me - and is constantly angling to fly onto my shoulder when I'm in there. I'm constantly on the lookout for a three pound ambush - ooof! I can avoid it by preemptively picking her up and giving her "please hold me like a football and scratch my neck, Mommy" cuddles...

- Ant Farm

 

[hellbender]

Or have them roosting on your arms... How many Naked Necks can you dead lift?

My Cream Legbar pullets (nearing POL) are in their new coop and haven't had outside roaming time (they're in the "this is your home now" transition period). Because the new coop is tall like an aviary and I can walk in and they can be near eye level with me on a roost/perch, Lissa (who previously avoided me) suddenly really likes me - and is constantly angling to fly onto my shoulder when I'm in there. I'm constantly on the lookout for a three pound ambush - ooof! I can avoid it by preemptively picking her up and giving her "please hold me like a football and scratch my neck, Mommy" cuddles...

- Ant Farm

I'm old enough to know better but I have a difficult time understanding people who don't like chickens. Not saying everyone needs to raise/breed them but to find the live birds vile and disgusting but love their meat and eggs...People are goofed up.

 

[Kev]

I'm old enough to know better but I have a difficult time understanding people who don't like chickens. Not saying everyone needs to raise/breed them but to find the live birds vile and disgusting but love their meat and eggs...People are goofed up.

Yeah! another thing I find strange is how they !!JUSSST KNOWW!! nonsense about poulry as True Stuff.

years ago I got in a mini argument with someone who absolutely insisted that turkeys are so stupid when it rains they look up with their beaks open and drown......... I said I HAVE turkeys, do you have any? him: No(lived whole life in city) but IT;S TRUE AND YOU ARE ARGUING WITH ME!!!!!! (banging on table for I suppose, added effect)

sigh..........

 

[DesertChic]

LOL! You guys are awesome! I needed this laugh this morning.

 

[DesertChic]

I'm old enough to know better but I have a difficult time understanding people who don't like chickens. Not saying everyone needs to raise/breed them but to find the live birds vile and disgusting but love their meat and eggs...People are goofed up.

The mother of my son's best friend actually wrinkled up her nose and scrunched up her face while asking, "Why chickens?" when we told her about them. Then her son spent a weekend with us and went home insisting that he wants a pet chicken. His first night here he walked around our yard for nearly an hour holding and petting my extremely tame Bielefelder cockerel, Bosch, who fell asleep in the kid's arms. This teenage kid who spends most of his life pursuing academics, sports and electronic "endeavors" suddenly fell in love with the simplicity of a small farm life. I would come up from my woodshop to find him sitting in the backyard with a chicken on his lap, grinning from ear to ear as he watched them all do their "chicken thing". He told me it was the most peaceful weekend he's had in years, and he LOVED the eggs.

I think most people still see poultry as food and simply don't realize how wonderful they can be as living creatures. And very few people comprehend that there are so many breeds. I've literally had multiple people ask, "You mean there's more than one kind of chicken?" Even my nearest neighbor, who has kept chicken for years, came to a screeching halt when driving by my yard and seeing a rooster happily sitting on my lap being pet while the hens rested about my feet. He's mystified by the fact that I can handle my birds so easily and that they don't even try to fly out of my yard. I just laughed and told him that there's more to poultry than White Leghorns.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

OK, today was brooder cleaning day, and also the three week weigh-in and leg band swap out. As expected, it was quite the ordeal - flapping, squealing, running, crying. And that was just me!!!

I did all my record keeping like a good girl:




I need to go take some pain killers STAT, but I did get EVERYONE (after much effort) - which I HAD to do, because I needed to swap out/upsize their zip tie leg bands (I use the numbered ones from Strombergs). I took photos of most of them while weighing. So, without further ado, I present some of my growing Naked Neck babies (BTW, Tank is now 10.3 oz). Third one down is the "buff" one that I call Puppy.






(Below is Tank - he's big, so I had to back up more to take his photo)

Check out the legs on this one!



This one (above and below) started off all black, but has copper highlights white accents on the wings (hard to get in the photo, he squirmed a lot), as well as white markings on the face by the eye and beak.

This one's more black, but also has some pale accents on wing

And finally...

(same one)


- Ant Farm

 

[ochochicas]

Quote: A friend of mine grew up very poor in Europe. They did not have running water or a "bathroom". Their yard outside was devoted to the fowl they had, which supplied both eggs and meat. When the humans had to relieve themselves, they went to the yard and squatted while trying to avoid being pecked on the bottom by the geese and roosters. Needless to say, to this day she finds chicks, chickens, and any kind of backyard poultry completely disgusting. While I understand where she's coming from, how can anyone not see baby chicks are the cutest thing on earth?!?!?

 

[Kev]

A friend of mine grew up very poor in Europe. They did not have running water or a "bathroom". Their yard outside was devoted to the fowl they had, which supplied both eggs and meat. When the humans had to relieve themselves, they went to the yard and squatted while trying to avoid being pecked on the bottom by the geese and roosters. Needless to say, to this day she finds chicks, chickens, and any kind of backyard poultry completely disgusting. While I understand where she's coming from, how can anyone not see baby chicks are the cutest thing on earth?!?!?

LOL what a visual! In other parts of the world it's common to have pigs below their raised houses... humans relieve themselves right through the upper floor to, well, the pig floor..