Naked Neck/Turken Thread

[deserteggs22]

Any idea what you might be interested in? I've got three pure NNs, one Bielefelder/Australorp mix, and one Ameraucana-mix/Australorp boy in the frat house that I don't have breeding plans for. 

I'll pm you.

 

[Kev]

Draye-

Can't give percentages as a friend hatches them for me. It's usually very good under broody hens here though.

I have another idea.. are your birds getting animal protein? Over last winter/early spring there were problems with fertility and then later with very bad feather picking in the chicks. Around this time I finally started to think about the fact sometime last summer all local feed had went totally vegan and also it happened a bunch of people were talking about home made recipes which included meat which got me to thinking...

either or both adding cat food with meat listed first(I'm using costco chicken and rice cat food) and eggs stirred into their regular feed, kinda like fermented feed except wetted, eggs stirred in then served right away. They love it and their fertility shot way up. I also started mixing in black oil sunflower seed but I'm not sure how big a difference it makes though.

edited to clarify.. if I am adding eggs to the day's feed, I like to wet the feed first, then stir in the eggs. Sometimes I throw in cat food and black oil sunflower(this mostly just because..).

For days with no eggs, they might get the dry cat food mixed in their regular feed without it being wetted at all. They have come to love the cat food and it does get a little annoying when they make a mess looking for the cat food first before deigning to nibble on the regular feed. some of the chickens won't eat the 'dry' black oil sunflower but they scarf everything down in the wet mix above.

Forgot you asked about sex ratios.... I agree with DesertChic.. it doesn't matter how many hens to a roo.. the fertility is the same. Actual and recent examples: one roo with 15 hens still had 100% fertility. Most of the time it is one roo with 3-5 hens mainly because I am trying not to have too many birds.

 

[chickengr]

Draye-

Can't give percentages as a friend hatches them for me. It's usually very good under broody hens here though.

I have another idea.. are your birds getting animal protein? Over last winter/early spring there were problems with fertility and then later with very bad feather picking in the chicks. Around this time I finally started to think about the fact sometime last summer all local feed had went totally vegan and also it happened a bunch of people were talking about home made recipes which included meat which got me to thinking...

either or both adding cat food with meat listed first(I'm using costco chicken and rice cat food) and eggs stirred into their regular feed, kinda like fermented feed except wetted, eggs stirred in then served right away. They love it and their fertility shot way up. I also started mixing in black oil sunflower seed but I'm not sure how big a difference it makes though.

edited to clarify.. if I am adding eggs to the day's feed, I like to wet the feed first, then stir in the eggs. Sometimes I throw in cat food and black oil sunflower(this mostly just because..).

For days with no eggs, they might get the dry cat food mixed in their regular feed without it being wetted at all. They have come to love the cat food and it does get a little annoying when they make a mess looking for the cat food first before deigning to nibble on the regular feed. some of the chickens won't eat the 'dry' black oil sunflower but they scarf everything down in the wet mix above.

boss is good but not enough. I boil eggs for my chickens once or twice a week and sometimes I mix with their feed tuna fish. they help themselves with bugs, mosquitoes and red worms if they find them. at the beginning I kept their run clean and they had nothing to eat. now I throw dry leaves in their run and I don't clean it when there are the remains of fruits, veggies or grass so the bugs are gathering there.

 

[Kev]

boss is good but not enough. I boil eggs for my chickens once or twice a week and sometimes I mix with their feed tuna fish. they help themselves with bugs, mosquitoes and red worms if they find them. at the beginning I kept their run clean and they had nothing to eat. now I throw dry leaves in their run and I don't clean it when there are the remains of fruits, veggies or grass so the bugs are gathering there.

It is so bone dry out here. Only things growing are tumble weeds but the giant white squill Drimia maritima are flowering right now- do you have them growing in your area? Not edible at all(was used for rat poison), which is the only reason they manage to survive here, ha.

you just reminded me to look out for pumpkins. I get as many as of them I can as they last a real long time if kept dry and in the shade..

 

[chickengr]

It is so bone dry out here. Only things growing are tumble weeds but the giant white squill Drimia maritima are flowering right now- do you have them growing in your area? Not edible at all(was used for rat poison), which is the only reason they manage to survive here, ha.

you just reminded me to look out for pumpkins. I get as many as of them I can as they last a real long time if kept dry and in the shade..

thank you for this great information. I googled Drimia maritima and found out that the pine forest where I pick up the pine needles is full of them. I am going to bring some and plant around here as I have rats around me,

my chickens get crazy for pumpkins but I need to wait for winter to find them here. I buy big, oversized zucchini instead.

 

[Phill98]

@draye, was your rooster even breeding your hens in that pen? I ask because I have 8 hens and four of them are never bred.

 

[draye]

Draye-

Can't give percentages as a friend hatches them for me.  It's usually very good under broody hens here though.

I have another idea..  are your birds getting animal protein?    Over last winter/early spring there were problems with fertility and then later with very bad feather picking in the chicks.  Around this time I finally started to think about the fact sometime last summer all local feed had went totally vegan and also it happened a bunch of people were talking about home made recipes which included meat which got me to thinking...

either or both adding cat food with meat listed first(I'm using costco chicken and rice cat food) and eggs stirred into their regular feed, kinda like fermented feed except wetted, eggs stirred in then served right away. They  love it and their fertility shot way up.   I also started mixing in black oil sunflower seed but I'm not sure how big a difference it makes though.

edited to clarify..  if I am adding eggs to the day's feed, I like to wet the feed first, then stir in the eggs.  Sometimes I throw in cat food and black oil sunflower(this mostly just because..).

For days with no eggs, they might get the dry cat food mixed in their regular feed without it being wetted at all.  They have come to love the cat food and it does get a little annoying when they make a mess looking for the cat food first before deigning to nibble on the regular feed.   some of the chickens won't eat the 'dry' black oil sunflower but they scarf everything down in the wet mix above.

Forgot you asked about sex ratios.... I agree with DesertChic..  it doesn't matter how many hens to a roo.. the fertility is the same.  Actual and recent examples: one roo with 15 hens still had 100% fertility.   Most of the time it is one roo with 3-5 hens mainly because I am trying not to have too many birds.

I don't think animal protein is in the feed, I don't think anyone mills with it anymore. They do get meat scraps from leftover now and again.

The sunflower seeds here are very expensive. I've done the cat food thing before.

I'm thinking now though after a conversation this morning that the fertility thing is heat related. We've had a lot of hot weather evenin Septmber we are still having a lot of heat.

@draye, was your rooster even breeding your hens in that pen? I ask because I have 8 hens and four of them are never bred.

Oh yes he's always doing the deed. That's why I think there is a fertility problem.

 

[DesertChic]

I don't think animal protein is in the feed, I don't think anyone mills with it anymore. They do get meat scraps from leftover now and again.

The sunflower seeds here are very expensive. I've done the cat food thing before.

I'm thinking now though after a conversation this morning that the fertility thing is heat related. We've had a lot of hot weather evenin Septmber we are still having a lot of heat.
Oh yes he's always doing the deed. That's why I think there is a fertility problem.

I know that heat definitely impacted a few of my other girls. Their eggs showed clear bulls-eyes, but none of their eggs developed. All of them were non-NNs bred by NN roosters, but to no avail.

 

[GabrielBane]

Holy moley my brain hurts from back reading so much!

So many lovely, lovely crosses and genetics, and if someone could entertain this NN newbie, I would appreciate it forever, here's where I'm currently at:
Myself and my partner inherited a family property with half-barns/open meadows, and well, being the savvy millenials that we are, decided we definitely needed to take advantage of this blessing and start our own farm/agricultural business (something that cost me about 60k of schooling to learn how to do... ) , well, being the fanatic lover of chickens that I've always been, I immediately start drafting business models and such.

Of course, the "typical" dual purpose production breeds all came to mind, but many seemed to have issues with temperment, growth rate, etc. He and I finally fell in love with Swedish Flower hens, but to our dismay, the more research we did, we found that perhaps for a new business, they make be too slow of growers (tho I do plan on getting some girls.... those markings/crests are too precious to pass up! ) , alas, we began our search, and we started considering NNs, they're a breed I've owned as a part of "barnyard random selection" of chicks years ago, but now that we are starting fresh, we want to make sure WHEN/IF we get our initial birds, that they come from good, meat production lines~ From a possibly business perspective, would this breed be something that could definitely fit our production needs? (Which at the moment, is minimal, we are not setting quotas for our babies~) Would you say they are self-sustainable in terms of number of eggs that are viable and take?

My biggest question I suppose would be, if I ordered these chicks with the NN gene, as I bred them with our NN, would the feathered neck gene return over generations? My partner loves the appeal of a "cleaner" processing/dressing process.


And of course, in your experiences, how are hatchery NNs typically?? I would love to buy started juvenile breeding stock, but it seems very hard to find the quality birds I'd want from my NNs in Florida. Everyone seems to raise bantams here.

 

[Kassaundra]

Holy moley my brain hurts from back reading so much!

So many lovely, lovely crosses and genetics, and if someone could entertain this NN newbie, I would appreciate it forever, here's where I'm currently at:
Myself and my partner inherited a family property with half-barns/open meadows, and well, being the savvy millenials that we are, decided we definitely needed to take advantage of this blessing and start our own farm/agricultural business (something that cost me about 60k of schooling to learn how to do... ) , well, being the fanatic lover of chickens that I've always been, I immediately start drafting business models and such.

Of course, the "typical" dual purpose production breeds all came to mind, but many seemed to have issues with temperment, growth rate, etc. He and I finally fell in love with Swedish Flower hens, but to our dismay, the more research we did, we found that perhaps for a new business, they make be too slow of growers (tho I do plan on getting some girls.... those markings/crests are too precious to pass up! ) , alas, we began our search, and we started considering NNs, they're a breed I've owned as a part of "barnyard random selection" of chicks years ago, but now that we are starting fresh, we want to make sure WHEN/IF we get our initial birds, that they come from good, meat production lines~ From a possibly business perspective, would this breed be something that could definitely fit our production needs? (Which at the moment, is minimal, we are not setting quotas for our babies~) Would you say they are self-sustainable in terms of number of eggs that are viable and take?

My biggest question I suppose would be, if I ordered these chicks with the NN gene, as I bred them with our NN, would the feathered neck gene return over generations? My partner loves the appeal of a "cleaner" processing/dressing process.


And of course, in your experiences, how are hatchery NNs typically?? I would love to buy started juvenile breeding stock, but it seems very hard to find the quality birds I'd want from my NNs in Florida. Everyone seems to raise bantams here.

Welcome to the NN thread. The NaNa gene if visible if it is present, a double hit gives less feathering especially in the neck and face (small to no bow tie) Nana is visible as a larger bow tie (neck feathers) nana is fully feathered neck. So if you are breeding NaNa or Nana in your flock successive generations will not "eventually grow more feathers" If your entire flock is NaNa all your chickens will be NaNa, if you have some Nana you will get some of each NaNa, Nana, and nana. If you are breeding chickens w/ nana (feathered necks) and do not introduce the Na gene you will not get any naked necks, no matter what their lineage is, if you can't see it they don't have it and can't pass it on.