Lost my post!
Any way, once again, congrats on "The Creepiest" PG. I love the pensive expression Gordon so often has.
I will be harvesting my NN/Del crosses tomorrow. They are the biggest, bigger than the pure Del. I will try plucking them, since there is really a lost less feathers. I skinned my first harvest, I just wanted to get it done, besides the Marans/SS cross is heavily feathered. I will do more hatches if I find the NN boys to be easier to harvest. I love my NN girls, but until I could find a humane solution for the extra boys, I put the incubator away. I wish I could have the ideal, that all my extra boys would find homes, but it just doesn't happen. Folks around here roll their eyes in their heads at the NNs. Rather foolish since the NN's handle the heat so well. Didn't lose one this last summer and we had 100+ days of 100+ degrees. Anyway, I will try to remember to let you all know how the plucking goes tomorrow. If the wet chicken smell gets to me or not.
Oakley, my buddy, has had problems walking for a year now, no diet or vitamins helped. He walks as if he has a bad back, hobbles much the same way I do when the low pressure comes through, and I know my entire lumbar area of my back is shot. I have tried once to put him down, but I simply have not been able to cut his throat, and he isn't ready "to go gently into that good night". I guess I could let him hobble about until he was immobile, but I have to keep him away from the other roosters, as at least Punkit, the senior one will try to kill him. Right now he is in my extra coop with a couple of his Annies, but I have 16 pullets working on getting big enough to move outside in the garage. (Bought yellow sex link pullets for more eggs in the spring) So I am running the mental image of my sending him over that Rainbow Bridge, in the effort to make it happen. I still just bawl. DH says we could use the broom stick like I do for all the other birds, but I can't yank his legs like that, so I am still failing to be a responsible owner. Maybe I should try again to find some one else who could do him.
Enough! Now for a totally unrelated question, but I post it here because I know a few of you live in nature's oven (TX). I gathered a goodly pile of mesquite beans when gathering fire wood out in wild portion of our land. Seems the good rain 6 weeks ago triggered a fruiting cycle for the trees. Anyway, does anyone feed their chickens mesquite beans - and if so how? They are good protein I have read. I have booked marked a few articles, but with organic feed running me .50 a pound plus shipping, I like to take advantage of nature's gifts. If it proves viable to feed them, I can gather enough to be treats or supplement their feed.
Thanks guys
Speaking of, why am I starting at a computer screen when I could be staring at my chicks!
