Naked Neck/Turken Thread

[Kassaundra]

Rudy, and I agree w/ Kev on culling wheezy.

 

[leliadax]

I was wondering...my little NN that I had in the cup for days is still going strong...but, it is also naked on its rump and 1/2 its belly. I first thought maybe because its umbilical area was such a horrible mess but the huge scab finally fell off and its belly looks perfect except no downy fluff. It looks so funny with fluff on its head and a stripe of fluff around its middle with a naked neck & rear end. Reckon this is just normal and its gonna stay like this?

 

[flower]

If I remember right, you said that pullet was crowing. Is she still doing that?
I think that you are lucky that only three of them survived. If there were more, you would have to decrease even more. And the ones that survived are beautiful.
How big your flock is?
COPIED FROM ABOVE, FILIP'S POST

Yes she was crowing but no longer. Now she is running away from Simon ha ha. After she is old enough to lay and he develops some finesse with courting manners, well then She is younger by six to eight weeks. And you are correct about the loss of chicks due to the cats, nature culled them for me ??? I have only 16 birds but I am older with limits in activity level so cleaning up after the flock is hard for me. Certainly do not need more than three of four birds for personal use but ..................

DesertChic sure do have a large amount of males to choose from but I think you already have preferences as per size and NN vs Nn My fav is Raymond !
Most of the females appear quite feminine and you need to keep them all for eggs. Oh I know that You have other birds.

 

[LeafBlade12345]

I wouldn't worry to much Leila. Some start off like that and grow feathers and fluff later on. It is probably because the scab just fell off, just watch for any down loss and keep tabs on his growth. He is a very cute little chick, good luck!

 

[chickengr]

Amazingly I managed to get all of the incubator chicks weighed and photographed yesterday for their 8-week weigh-in, and got all of the photos cropped, so.....time to share! I'll start with the boys, as most of my chicks are boys.


This is Blaze. He's sweet, but small compared to most of the other boys, and his muff is bigger than what I'm going for, so he'll be a cull.



Next is Chance, who looks A LOT like his daddy but seems nicer. Still a larger muff than I'd like, but I'm keeping an eye on him for other reason.



And now Dutch, who was supposed to be Duchesse. LOVE the feathering, and now that his growth rate is suddenly kicking into high gear he's got my attention. He's also on the watch list.



And here's my massively dense Ozzy. He's now even surpassed in size and weight my biggest Fast Five hatch cockerel that's a week older. I don't like the comb flopping over, but his body is solid muscle. And luckily his personality is friendly, though not affectionate, with no signs of aggression towards me so far.



I already posted a photo of this guy, Pepper, in another post, but I'll put him here too. He weighs more than Ozzy, but his body is leaner. He's VERY friendly and would gladly accompany me anywhere if I allowed him to.



Ramses - beautiful, but again smaller and less "dense" than I would like.




Raymond - I really love his feathering right now, and he's developing the body shape and density I'm looking for, but now as quickly as Ozzy.



And finally, Taz, who was supposed to be Tess. He's probably the most nervous bird in the chick pen and shares the strongest personality traits with daddy, but he's also got the highest growth rate since hatch. I'm watching him, but not favoring him.



And I almost forgot...This is Lance, who was supposed to be Lacey. He's had a very sudden growth spurt that has me now appreciating more than just his feathering.

some of your boys look like some of my girls. please don't cull any before you are 100% sure they are boys!

 

[DesertChic]

DesertChic sure do have a large amount of males to choose from but I think you already have preferences as per size and NN vs Nn My fav is Raymond !
Most of the females appear quite feminine and you need to keep them all for eggs. Oh I know that You have other birds.

Raymond is pretty darn stunning. His feathering just blows me away, and I'm really pleased that he's developing the denser, meaty body shape I prefer.

As far as the girls go, the only one I've ever culled had a broken leg that I just couldn't mend. She was suffering and had become steadily more isolated from the flock. I had to cull her as a very young chick and it was psychologically easy for me to do. I plan to keep all of my healthy girls for egg laying, and a few specifically for breeding. Unfortunately, when it comes to little Weesie I have to also consider the well-being not only of her, but of my other flocks as well. If she's a carrier of something that can infect my other birds once I include this flock into the free-range mix, then I must cull her. Plus, looking at her poor growth, I seriously worry about future health problems with her. The problem is that knowing I need to cull her and doing it are two very different things for me.

 

[chickengr]

All was well when I got back (except that my nerves were shot from worry). But just in case, I added an additional 800 feet of surveyor tape. It'll have to do until I can arrange something more permanent (and less bright). It tell myself that it's, well, Christmas-y. Maybe...





- Ant Farm

glad to hear everithing is ok. next time put pepper on nails!

you have just given me idea how to keep doves away. thank god I don't have predators but there are doves and sparrows eating their feed and spreading diseases.

 

[DesertChic]

some of your boys look like some of my girls. please don't cull any before you are 100% sure they are boys!

Agreed! Once they start crowing.....

 

[chickengr]

Yes agreed, loving all of the pics!

I suspect we may have a similar pattern with the bird eating hawks(coopers, sharp shins and a bigger hawk I just never can remember the name of... very heavily barred).... out here they are migratory.. present from fall towards mid spring. Back when the birds were free range, very very few chicks below a certain size survived this time period. Through late spring and summer, there usually was not a single loss to hawks, even for the day olds.

I kept all chicks completely confined-even the chicks with mother hens- from fall-spring and they could be free range right off their hidden nests over the summer without a single loss to hawks.

I don't have predators like you do but I need to keep small chicks with mother closed because there are cats walking around. although they are not starving they would kill chicks for fun.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

I don't have predators like you do but I need to keep small chicks with mother closed because there are cats walking around. although they are not starving they would kill chicks for fun.

Yeah, I do as well, and haven't found any way to exclude them form the yard. Fortunately, all the chickens are now bigger than the cats, and I pity the cat that would try anything. My neighbor had a small bantam house rooster (Francois, the Cochin) that lived indoors with about 7 cats , a terrier and a chihuahua. Francois totally kept them all in line, didn't put up with any funny business. Blood was drawn if they got overly curious - that didn't happen often.

@Kev , I don't allow small chicks out unsupervised (and limited otherwise) - the only little ones I have right now are those Speckled Sussex I got at the feed store - 7 weeks old, and to a hawk's eye, awfully portable. The 12 week old Naked necks and New Hampshires could certainly sustain some damage from an attack, as could the Cream Legbars (heck, as could I), but they are all actually larger than the hawks now (the NHs and NNs are 12 weeks but larger than the ~32 week old CLs now, though the CLs act like grown ups). Not that that would stop a hawk, per se, but I observed a few approaches/aborted dives when they were uncovered this weekend (I was outside but too far away, nothing I could do but watch), and clearly the hawk was having to think more carefully about his approach, and didn't find one he trusted - because he would have to land and commit to the struggle/kill, potentially being vulnerable to attack. Sometimes the hawk would sit and watch for a while, as if trying to figure out a way, before giving up and flying away. If they were little, he could just swoop in and out with a clawful. I also think he's not sure the Cream Legbar rooster wouldn't kick his back side into next Tuesday - and I PROMISE Dozer would do his best to beat the hawk up - he's been strutting around like a little Marine on patrol, or better yet, like a little Cossack, with this funny little high step! I may keep him purely for protection duty, maybe he'll tolerate being paired with Tank, his comrade in arms... (Found a cut on Tank today - he's dropping in pecking order. His tail is really short/non-existant, and I think he's maturing later than the others.)

I went on Amazon and ordered some GREEN surveyors tape (that pink hurts my eyes!!!). Ultimately, whenever I decide on something a little more permanent for their paddocks, I'll put up some actual aviary netting - hawks and owls are far too abundant. I was wondering when they would figure out that there were chickens back there - I guess the open-ranging honeymoon is over...

- Ant Farm