Rosecombed breeds tend to be a little later to hatch, and much more sensitive to temp and humidity swings than single combed birds. Higher humidity at hatch for single combs is very common but will often drown the rosecombs. We raised Dottes for quite some time and always hatched at 40-45% with them.
Have you found feed yet?
So last night was a first for us. About 1 am this morning my DW tells me to come quick and bring the snake tongs....I'm guessing we're going to one of the coops....nope, we're headed to the front porch. Ok, country as it gets, we have metal water trough with a lid made from a wooden frame and poultry cloth on the front porch as a brooder....had over 60, 2 week old quail chicks....inside under the heat lamp coiled was a 4 1/2- 5 foot king snake! It had several lumps in it and one chick was dead by the feeder.
Needless to say...snake tongs to lift thisout of the brooder, carried him out to a safe location from the house and violently dispatched it with full wrath....Ok afterwards thought I should have taken a photo...but can promise there's not enough left to photo now!
We get snakes around the houses and runs, normally copperheads...and even near our house. That's why we have the tongs, so can get a bugger out away from birds and buildings to dispatch it (shot holes in walls or birds doesn't set well) We have had one get tangled in deer netting and die...but this is the first we have ever had one actually get to birds...much less eat them! The kind of real disheartening thing was how large that bugger was. Our front porch is a very tall, very large, multilevel, elevated deck....didn't expect any critters up there...much less inside the covered brooder..today, it gets screened!
Quote: Never thought about wind being an issue...learned something new! Last year..all my hens went in to molt at the same time...NO eggs fr 4 weeks!
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Hubby's family used to use a dairy cow for fresh milk. If she ate garlic or onions, they could always taste it in the milk.
Quote: We have had a snake lurking around the run...haven't caught it yet, but have noticed a reduction in eggs that I attributed to a molt in progress.....
OOOOOOO.....I'm definitely setting up a breeding pen for you! Since he has cochin foot feathers...setting him up with the blue feather-footed F1 girls would be the best plan? Of course, none are old enough to lay, but no harm in getting them established as a flock...right.....since they don't count until they lay eggs.OK NanaKat as promised here is Silver Blue... You can imagine this color in either Dotte or Cochin This is what that beautifull boy is going to look like..
Elie Mea...were these the eggs from POOPS? Have you candled them and did you set them on the 5th or the 6th? If they are from my Wyandottes...we were getting about 1/2 rate on them.
The girls haven't been laying for the past two weeks...in molt. I'll need to pluck bumm feathers when they start laying to keep fertility levels higher.
All of my root sections are putting up shoots. Realy pretty!
Earth quake at 5:13 pm....dogs came running to get under the desk.
We picked several gallons of sand plums today on the 160 acres in Prague and I have the ripest ones stewing on the stove for jely juice. Sures smells good.
Hung the renovated 10 hole nest box this morning. Sure looks good...will post a pic later. Right now it has bunch of 8 week and younger chicks using it for a jungle gym.
Birds will always go through a spring molt and a fall molt, the spring molt is not as serious as not all feathers will be dropped.
Sooooo...can the sisters that are Cochin /CW crosses that look splash be used or just the solid blueCochin/CW girls and the Blue CW girls?. There are a bunch in the floor pen in the hen house that are 8 - 10 week olds. It will take them a while to get bigger.
