Naked Neck/Turken Thread

[Fire Ant Farm]

Quote:
This is very helpful. Plan would be to remove all four at once to a new home, and immediately replace with the two Aloha NN girls (Great and Grace) and two or three of the Cream Legbar pullets that are in the same group (so, all pullets know each other/live together now). They are all roughly 16 weeks old right now - should I wait until they are older? I was thinking I could set up the "courting at a distance" set up where he can see them and be near them as they approach POL, but is not with them yet. That's the arrangement that led to his relationship with the current SS. It would call for building some more housing, though... Hmmm...

- Ant Farm

 

[Kev]

This is very helpful. Plan would be to remove all four at once to a new home, and immediately replace with the two Aloha NN girls (Great and Grace) and two or three of the Cream Legbar pullets that are in the same group (so, all pullets know each other/live together now). They are all roughly 16 weeks old right now - should I wait until they are older? I was thinking I could set up the "courting at a distance" set up where he can see them and be near them as they approach POL, but is not with them yet. That's the arrangement that led to his relationship with the current SS. It would call for building some more housing, though... Hmmm...

- Ant Farm

Hmm, if not at POL/voluntarily squatting when petted/grabbed it's kindest to the pullets to have them adjoining, if the rooster is prone to chasing down and grabbing before they are ready.. if he mainly courts with little or no attempt to take them down, it is allright to put them all together. You'll have to just try and see how it goes.. hold your breath if he does chase the first pullet down.. the main thing is to see how he is after the initial excitement.

alternative- move/confine the roo and let the non-POL pullets acclimatize to the new pen without him around at first.

Great idea to have as many friendly pullets make the move together. Once they are settled, the extras can be removed.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Quote:
Yeah, that was what I was thinking. The NN girls may reach POL earlier than the CLs. Withe SSs, two of them actually escaped their paddock to "visit" him once, pre-POL, and he wasn't really bad about pressing the point if there was resistance (and they were a lot smaller). I could be hopeful about the same behavior, but I may go for confining Tank adjacent to them and have them get used to the new coop as they mature. We'll see if I can put off the switchover depending on when my friend wants the SSs (if she wants them)...

He really is such a good boy.




- Ant Farm

 

[Pensmaster]

@Fire Ant Farm

Well I did it. These are the most featherless birds I could find in the group. 4 Roos and 4 hens.

How are they? Last picture is of them chowing down right after being put into pen. They haven't stopped eating since I got home.

 

[Kassaundra]

They are awesome!!!!!

 

[Pensmaster]

They are awesome!!!!! 

Thanks. I didn't know if the little bit of feathers on their neck would make a difference but the others had much more feathers on their necks..

 

[Kassaundra]

Thanks. I didn't know if the little bit of feathers on their neck would make a difference but the others had much more feathers on their necks..

No it is actually very rare to have a completely featherless neck, even in NN it only happens in some family lines.

 

[Kassaundra]

And they all are NN, just so you know so have both Na genes. They will always have Nn or NN offspring.

 

[Pensmaster]

And they all are NN, just so you know so have both Na genes.  They will always have Nn or NN offspring.

Oh good. I know Kev said to pick the ones that had least amount of feathers.

Just went and checked on them. They are all settling in on the rope light.

 

[Pensmaster]

My favorite is still the first one I ever read, "The Small-Scale Poultry Flock" by Harvey Ussery. This was really the book that got me started along the path of keeping chickens because it helped me believe that I could actually do it. "The Call of the Hen" was really good because it helped me shift my perspective both on what to expect from my birds, and how to possibly select for more, but once I started down the path of breeding for production I think the book "Judging Poultry for Production" by James E. Rice was the most helpful. 

The book I was referencing earlier in regards to feeding exclusively corn was "Poultry Husbandry" by Morley A. Jull. It provided me not only with some invaluable information about dietary requirements, but also provided me with a refresher on genetics, which I further dove into with "Genetics of the Fowl" by F. B. Hutt.

Thanks I'll be looking them up.