Oregon

[TurtlePowerTrav]

We're sending a big batch of mutt cockerels to processing tomorrow. One of the cockerels has a super cool comb and is also a very nice shape. Here are some photos ... keep in mind two things: 1) I take TERRIBLE chicken photos; 2) he is dirty because he's been in the "finishing pen" for way too long due to unforeseen circumstances here on the farm.











I'm pretty sure he has some Silver Laced Wyandotte in him. But what else? White ears makes me think one of our white egg-laying breeds, and we only have Brown Leghorns and California Whites.

I wish I could keep him, but we just don't need excessive numbers of roosters around here.

I am seeing RED ear lobes and white feathers covering the ear hole.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I am seeing RED ear lobes and white feathers covering the ear hole.

I'll take your word for it. I'm too dazzled by that comb to see much else.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

We spent Saturday and Sunday removing the cockerels from the general population laying flock. The cockerels went to the processor on Monday morning. Christmas Eve the laying hens gave us DOUBLE the usual number of eggs, and Christmas Day they gave us almost double again. I think there were other contributing factors, but I'm sure removing the annoying and hormonal males was a BIG part if it.

We had previously set up a grow-out pen, but it was too close to the general population and the naughty boys just hopped the fence to get back to their female friends. I have to think of another convenient place to put the grow out coop/pen.

One of the contributing factors to decent laying for winter months is most of our birds are trough their molt. Our Silver Laced Wyandottes, who have been bare-backed since summer before last (another period when we had too many roosters in with the laying flock) FINALLY have feathers again! This us a HUGE relief to me ... I'd been feeling guilty for a year and a half.

And of course the females we hatched at the same time we hatched those cockerels are now starting to lay.

It's a few things in the win column, and I'll take them all.

 

[Freeholder]

Hmmm. Maybe I'd get more eggs if I took the three cockerels and the rooster out of the main coop. Though I haven't seen any breeding activity at all this winter, and the couple of hens that were bare-backed from the rooster have grown their feathers in again.

I do like having them all in one place in the winter -- less water dishes to break ice out of!

Kathleen

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Hmmm. Maybe I'd get more eggs if I took the three cockerels and the rooster out of the main coop. Though I haven't seen any breeding activity at all this winter, and the couple of hens that were bare-backed from the rooster have grown their feathers in again.

I do like having them all in one place in the winter -- less water dishes to break ice out of!

Kathleen

We already had 5 roosters in there, plus Ruffles, the bantam cochin roo. And there is a free-ranging rooster, too. I'm keeping all of those guys for now. Oh, and the one in with the breeding trio. That's probably "enough."

We just got rid of the mutt cockerels we hatched here this past spring/summer. Those younger males just coming into maturity really kept the flock stirred up.

I agree ... only having one coop to take care of is nice. Before I installed an automatic watering system in my main coop and consolidated all the little cages with birds in them into one General Population, I could spend half the day scrubbing & refilling and replacing waterers. It is kinda fun to do that during the summer. But once it gets cooler ... Ugh, ugh, ugh. As it is, we still need to carry water in the winter. I literally threw myself on the icy ground and wept one day last winter ... I'd had enough.

 

[CrittersNPets]

Hey, what are all do you guys use to "brood" now that we will not be able to get incandescent (sp?) light bulbs for our lights?

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Hey, what are all do you guys use to "brood" now that we will not be able to get incandescent (sp?) light bulbs for our lights?

Broody hens.

But really? They aren't selling "brooder" lights any more?

 

[Freeholder]

Broody hens.

But really? They aren't selling "brooder" lights any more?

Ouch! I hadn't thought of that! The big heat lamp bulbs ARE incandescents!!!

I've been considering those Ecoglow brooders -- more expensive than a heat lamp, but if we can't get heat lamps anymore....

Alternatively, do all my chick brooding while we are running the wood stove for heat, and keep them close to the stove. That would be dusty, having them in the house for so long. Going to have to think about this.

Kathleen

ETA: Yes, broody hens -- if you are raising your own chicks. But if you are raising bought chicks, might not have a hen broody when you need one. Broody hens may become much more valuable in the future!

 

[Freeholder]

I just did a search, and the first site that came up reminded me of some things (it was also a page I'd posted on thirteen years ago, LOL!). First, in 2012 I built, and raised two batches of chicks in, an oil-lamp heated brooder. At the time I had no place to put it indoors, so it sat outside. The first batch of chicks arrived in March, and I had to use two lamps to keep them warm enough; the second batch came after the weather had warmed up somewhat and I needed only one lamp for them. It worked just fine (don't have pictures, as we moved last year and I disassembled it, and have re-used the parts for other things), but used a lot of kerosene, which isn't cheap. It also took quite a bit of maintenance, as the lamp wicks had to be kept trimmed, and the lamps filled. But it did work. My older rooster and hens were raised in it.

Second, someone on that thread that I found said she had raised chicks in a box next to the wood stove, which I think is probably the best idea for those of us who have wood stoves in regular use. (But how can we minimize the dust problem?!?)

Someone else said he'd raised chicks without any supplemental heat at all, though I think he may have had them in the house for a while. I know I've put very young, BUT fully feathered chicks, into outdoor chicken tractors without any issues, and it's always cold here at night, even in mid-summer (semi-arid climate and high elevation).

Other people have used hot bricks or hot water bottles to keep chicks warm. Again, more work and keeping track of things, but it would work.

A story my grandmother told, and I don't remember all of it, but her mother had found an egg that she wanted to hatch -- may have been under a broody hen for a while, I can't recall the whole story. Anyway, Great-grandma put that egg into her bra, in her cleavage, and kept it there -- and it hatched! Lots of ways to skin a cat -- or hatch eggs, or brood chicks, LOL!

Kathleen

 

[CrittersNPets]

Great replies (miss the like button on facebook, lol). Not going the bra route - had a vision of multiple eggs, hmmm I'd forgot that my Mom used to use hot water bottles. Like the brick idea. Maybe I'll just have to stop getting "special" eggs and also pray my ducks go broody, sigh.