Naked Neck/Turken Thread

[ochochicas]

Y'all are making me sad with talk of the heat!

It is 27 degrees here and the ground has pretty much been frozen solid for a week. Today I need to go out and try to clean frozen bedding from the coops.

On a funny note...one of my NNs decided it was a good time to go broody. She's in the same nest box her momma uses when she's broody. Silly girls.

 

[Kassaundra]

Y'all are making me sad with talk of the heat!

It is 27 degrees here and the ground has pretty much been frozen solid for a week. Today I need to go out and try to clean frozen bedding from the coops.

On a funny note...one of my NNs decided it was a good time to go broody. She's in the same nest box her momma uses when she's broody. Silly girls.

I have 2 broody girls.

 

[Kev]

Are you sure they aren't just saying "too %&^$% cold to go outside"?

it went down to 33 last night, very cold for us here. I'm in "broody mode"!

 

[SlowBill]

x

 

[DesertChic]

I have 2 broody girls.

I was broody-free for one whole day earlier in the week. Right now I think I'm down to one. Seriously....what is it about those darn golf balls?

 

[Kassaundra]

I traded a couple of non nn cockrels for some hatching eggs. They won't be nn but they are fertile. I am still having serious fertility issues w/ my birds eggs. I think Shakespear is firing blanks and the new crew are just starting to cover the girls. I have one broody that has been broody for 6-8 months STRAIGHT!!!!! She has hatched a couple of eggs but wants NOTHING to do w/ the chicks. I wasn't even counting her. We are going to move her over to Rudy's pen and hope the new surroundings finally breaks her. But the other girl will get the fertile eggs.

 

[DesertChic]

I finally downloaded all of the photos from my 6-week data collection day and I'm beginning to think that I may have as many as 18 cockerels out of 26 chicks.

Several chicks that I had originally thought were pullets are suddenly developing some serious wattles and combs at just 6 weeks. Here are the suspects in the NN category:


Duchesse....or Dutch?




Lacey? Or Lance?




Ruby or Rudy?



And finally....Tess is looking more like Taz these days.


Out of my five Australorp mixes, four are turning out to be cockerels, including this guy....one of my favorite NNs for both growth rate/size and personality:


This shot really doesn't do him justice. In the week since I took this, he's developed more interesting burst of white throughout his feathering, but at least you can see what's showing up in his muff and a bit in his wing feathers.

 

[DesertChic]

I traded a couple of non nn cockrels for some hatching eggs. They won't be nn but they are fertile. I am still having serious fertility issues w/ my birds eggs. I think Shakespear is firing blanks and the new crew are just starting to cover the girls. I have one broody that has been broody for 6-8 months STRAIGHT!!!!! She has hatched a couple of eggs but wants NOTHING to do w/ the chicks. I wasn't even counting her. We are going to move her over to Rudy's pen and hope the new surroundings finally breaks her. But the other girl will get the fertile eggs.

Wow! Six to eight months??? That's some serious persistence. I'm suddenly feeling much less frustrated with my own girls.

 

[Kev]

I was broody-free for one whole day earlier in the week. Right now I think I'm down to one. Seriously....what is it about those darn golf balls?

how many per nest? More than two can trigger a broody inclined hen. That can include cases like there's a golf ball plus a couple other hens laid eggs in the same nest on the same day.. whammo, broody.

IMO golf balls are completely unnecessary or nearly so, as popular as they are. I don't even have them and most of the nests here are collected of all eggs daily, leaving the nests empty. Feel free to try removing them totally and see how it goes. Especially if the girls are cooped up or have limited access to free ranging.

 

[Kev]

I finally downloaded all of the photos from my 6-week data collection day and I'm beginning to think that I may have as many as 18 cockerels out of 26 chicks.

Several chicks that I had originally thought were pullets are suddenly developing some serious wattles and combs at just 6 weeks. Here are the suspects in the NN category:


Duchesse....or Dutch?




Lacey? Or Lance?

are these biel crosses? Which way was the cross? Because NN over biel= barred boys, non barred girls. Biel over NN all barred though. Both Dutch and Lance are barred, If you like barring I would recommend breeding one of those to the NN for color variety. (I think both are gorgeous- not very common to see buff barred...)

I think Ruby is staying Ruby. Tess might be Taz due to the darker red coming on the wings. in buff colored hatchery stock, it is very typical for girls to feather up light soft buff, with the boys feathering in a harder, darker shade of buff. Ruby looks to be a redder variant which has nothing to do with this dark buff/vs light buff.....