Naked necks anyone?

[cactusrota]

I put Mosquito Zappers in the coop, they weren't bothering the chickens (pre naked neck owning days) and every time I went in to check their feed I would wack the bug zapper to make the bugs fall out and the chickens would come running over to have fried bugs. To be honest it seemed to attract every flying insect except Mosquitos. I had it for a food source for chickens more than anything.

We do the same thing with the bugs, except since we're running off-grid with just a few solar panels we have to watch our wattage (you'd be surprised how much power some things suck). So this is what I've done. Just an LED over a tub with a couple inches of water and a bit of cooking oil. The oil makes sure the bugs that are light enough to land on water and fly off get stuck instead. Leave it out all night and the girls can have breakfast in the morning.
The downfall is it does catch some beneficial bugs. Like damselflies and preying mantis'. I always feel sad when I see a Mantis' in it....

 

[chickengr]

View attachment 1618531 View attachment 1618532 View attachment 1618533

Here's my crew, the girls are molting and don't like their pictures taken. The roo is Fugly, the hens are Nyx and Nova.

I still call him Fadorable!

 

[chickengr]

Not exactly a naked neck, but we adore our showgirl, Marilyn Monroe! I do feel terrible for her when it’s cold and she scrunches in her neck...

she is naked neck, just a lady in fur!

 

[chickengr]

If I may, I'm concerned with mosquitos biting these. I raised CX and the rains started before their rumps were fully feathered. The mosquitos savaged the rumps and made some not nice looking chickens. The rains lasted for 2 weeks. The mosquitos until butcher. The fully feathered fared better.

Do NN have mosquito issues? Or do they scrunch the necks down? What is your experience here?

from the swamps of Houston

my experience: mosquitoes don't care if the chickens are naked neck or not. they bite them all.

 

[chickengr]

too bad you are about 2000 miles away. I only plan to breed him him for about a year, eventually one of his offspring with a meat bird will be my breeding naked neck rooster. It would be nice to get this guy to a more serious breeder.

keep him as he will produce a lot of naked necks with a bib. his kids will produced both naked neck and fully feathered chicks.

 

[Noellereagan]

Ordered fertile eggs tonight!

 

[cactusrota]

So apparently this club has been around for awhile, but slowed down in activity. They're picking back up and just got a new website up.
https://nnbreeders.webs.com/

 

[Mimi13]

I just watched this video

and possibly, if I learn to do this (could take a long time before I learn this and get it right) I might be able to overnight a semen sample from him. I have no idea how long it will stay alive, Hopefully it is cold when it is sent. I have not been very successful with doing complex things with chickens though.

Well who knew? I am truly amazed.

 

[Mimi13]

I have to be honest when I say the main reason (other than they were completely irresistible as day olds) I wanted a NN was to be able to see the jugular and trachea. I know, slap me now, but let me explain. I had not yet butchered a bird and was holding back because I wanted to be able to effectively slice the jugular without cutting the trachea. Under all those feathers, I had no idea where the jugular actually was. Guess what, I found out.

I digress. I wound up with two gorgeous cockerels and a pullet.
Both cockerels have since been butchered and produced nice carcasses.

Pretty Boy Floyd (PBF) was not only beautiful, he had a beautiful crow but was human aggressive and, at 13 weeks, didn’t last as long with my flock as he could have.

PBF (the white NN in front just hanging out)

Boris, bless his gorgeous heart, was just one of three accidental roos. He and the third accidental roo were butchered at 23 and 24 weeks, respectively. I did not need 5 cockerels to service my 23 girls.

Boris

My pullet, Mrs. Biggles, is a very nice bird. She is friendly and lets me hold her after I catch her that is. Mostly she prefers to just be on her own and does well with confinement but she loves to free range. She is not involved in the pecking order during the day, but at night there are only certain birds she will let roost by her and she definitely inflicts the pecks to enforce it.

Here is a picture of Mrs. Biggles watching my grandson play.

Not only are they disease resistant, they are also featherless on their breast, under their wings and around the vent. I purchased my NN’s at TSC, but have also noticed Murray McMurray Hatchery sells them.

Regarding the mosquitoes, my flock has been vaccinated for fowl pox, but the vaccination would not stop the mosquitoes biting them. I haven’t noticed a problem with them being bitten even though the mosquitoes think I’m a buffet. And to combat the mosquito problems my family faces I purchased some eco-friendly Wondercide after reading about it.

A clip from Wondercide’s website:

• Suitable for use around kids and pets. Unlike traditional permethrin and pyrethroid yard products, Wondercide is suitable for children, pets, plants, and beneficial insects, even when wet!
• Not harmful to bees and beneficial insects
• Addresses the life cycle to kill adults, eggs, larvae, pupae of insects including chiggers, ants, roaches, chinch bugs, fleas, ticks, scorpions and Japanese beetles. It also repels venomous snakes, all without harming beneficial bugs like bees and butterflies.

You spray it from the top of your house, down the wall and out through the yard to your fence line. Its active ingredient is cedar oil and although chickens are not supposed to use cedar shavings for their bedding, the cedar smell in this spray is not that strong and I have seen no adverse reactions from my birds. But I have seen less mosquitoes and ants and that’s a good thing. Look it up, you won’t be sorry.

 

[BlueBaby]

@Mimi’s 13 I know that they don't have feather's there in those places. I think that is a good thing not only for those who want to butcher them for food, but it's also easier to see if there may be problems in those featherless area's on the bird. The Naked Necks can be bred to other breed's to get whatever size offspring that you want to work toward's, or even if you want to improve size of eggs or the ability to lay more eggs.