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chiques chicks said:
Correct answers. Then triple the amount of cages over time.

General rule : 30x36 cages for does and 30 x30 for bucks.

And ALWAYS put the female in the male cage for breeding. Do not put the male in with the female. The females are the most territorial and will hurt the male! ( and since i am outnumbered on here I will not editorialize)
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Azrabbits.com has info and nest box plans.
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Someone with rabbits should snap these up: http://reading.craigslist.org/grd/4723005349.html

Just being neighborly and all . . .
 
chiques chicks said:
SFH are a breed that they say can be feather sexed, but I've never been successful.
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There is no known "autosexing" breed that uses the fast/slow feathering needed for feather sexing. It is used by commercial hatcheries for sex-linked white chickens (White leghorns). To do that, they keep 2 entirely separate lines of white leghorns, one with the fast feathering genes and one with the slow feathering genes. Then they cross hens of the dominant strain (slow feathering, I think, but I'm too lazy to look it up now). with cocks from the other strain. Only male chicks with carry the dominant trait since hens never pass sex-linked alleles to their daughters, only their sons. If slow-feathering is dominant, then the cockerels will be slow feathering and the hens fast.

That is why you were not successful. The people who claim to be are guessing really well, but statistically are only going to bat .500 with that in the long run. Statistics are funny, I bought 6 Ameracaunas last fall and every one was a male. I know the farm I got them from couldn't sex them, it was just that I got the unlucky draw. Less than 2% probability of that happening, but someone somewhere has to hit within that 2% or the probability would have to be 0.

Coloring is easiest for sexing chicks, and some breeds have an inherent color difference that is not from the barred gene (the usual source of autosexing traits). An example are Welsummers, the strain I raise I can sex about 90% accurately at hatch. There are some that are ambiguous and I have to wait until the comb starts growing in at about a month of age. Way better than the Ameracaunas and EE's with pea combs. I have some that are neat point of lay and I'm still not 100% sure about a few of them.

I really like the autosexing breeds (Cream Legbars, Rhodebars, Welbars, etc). I think they are the future for small backyard flocks that aim to be self-sustaining. As long as one can find a way to get rid of the male chicks.
 
In theory there is a difference in the wing feather arrangement in SFH. long short long short vs all equal length primary wing feathers on one or two day old chicks. There are those that are good at it.

Of course over two years and a ee hundred chicks, my make female ratio is closer to 70/30 than the expected 50/50 if I figure in the reports from those who have hatched my eggs.
 
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emorems0 said:
Oh, and we're totally doing bees and goats too... at some point. The feelers have been out for a while on those, I'm sure hubs will surprise me with a yes on those at some random time too!
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you go girl!
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...hahahhaa...now, we do realize that we are the ones that have to do the "majority", if not all the animal care, but who cares?! hahahahha...
You certainly have your hands full though..new baby and all....I don't have to worry about children anymore....wait a minute, what that heck am i saying...have the G-daughter over 5 out of 7 days a week ..omgosh..I do still have kids
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..hahhahaha....life is sooo good!
SilkieSensation said:
Precisely why I have no husband. That means, as long as I have the money & can find it, I can have what I want, when I want. No need to ask anyone's permission or opinion of anything. I spent way too many years being told I wasn't "allowed" to do pretty much anything except go to work & take care of kids & house while my lazy ex sat on his butt playing video games & getting fat off of pizza & Mt. Dew. Yeah...we shall not go there again!
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there is that end of the rainbow too.....not so much fun. I have been fortunate enough to have a wonderful person to share experiences with, not permission, just nice to have everyone on board when taking on this much "work"...
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...
I am glad to hear you are doing better without the extra "baggage", it can mean more work, but then again..it can mean less too.
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dheltzel said:
Proof that the YouTube video was right, chickens really are "gateway livestock" . . .

Most rabbit keepers separate all the adults into individual cages, rabbits aren't nearly as social as birds and do better on their own, That allows you to control breeding and no worry about fighting over "Territory" (they can hurt each other). Of course the mothers stay with the young for a while, then you can finish the young together, as long as you butcher or sell before they reach breeding age, otherwise they start multiplying like, well, rabbits.

So, if you are serious about breeding, you want both some larger hutches (for the females and young) and individual cages (for the bucks and not yet breeding females). So, the answer to which to get is "both".
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see..so many wonderful people to help us in our animal "recovery"...boy-oh-boy, that intervention was just what the doctor ordered!!
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We were planning one large hutch, with the ability to separate into two different areas,(male-female), when we don not want breeding. One rabbit per section...with the female section being just a little bit bigger so she may raise her young. The hutches will be off the ground with 3-sides enclosed, front with welded wire..and the back panel will be able to be removed, (enclosed with welded wire), in the warmer weather for better air flow-cooler. Each rabbit area will have an enclosed housing area also, so they can get out of all elements/sleep, whatever they do.....wish I could just post a pick...there will be pics when we finally get this project going. I hope some of this made sense.
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MotorcycleChick said:
I know nothing!
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ohhhh, yes you do..but that is okay....Schultzy!...i see nothing, i hear nothing...i know nothing..
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....gosh girl....i a going to miss this, who else is going to get on my case?!
Hey, went looking for those "partridge rocks"...i can't seem to find pics..heehee
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...would you, could you...do you have a pic..handy, real close..you could maybe post up for me...pretty please?????
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......
chiques chicks said:
Correct answers. Then triple the amount of cages over time.

General rule : 30x36 cages for does and 30 x30 for bucks.

And ALWAYS put the female in the male cage for breeding. Do not put the male in with the female. The females are the most territorial and will hurt the male! ( and since i am outnumbered on here I will not editorialize)
smile.png


Azrabbits.com has info and nest box plans.
Click to expand...
more rabbit info...
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Broody hatched babies at this time of year, we shall see how this goes..?
Anyone want some Halloween duckies ( mixed breed)
 
wingstone said:
Broody hatched babies at this time of year, we shall see how this goes..?
Anyone want some Halloween duckies ( mixed breed)
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Is your broody a duck or a hen? I have never brooded with ducks but I can tell you we have had numerous cold weather broody hens with chicks and they seem to be amazingly resilient. As long as they have a draft free nesting area to they seem quite content even in cold weather. Biggest risk seems to be the ramp into the coop... broody wants to take them out for the day and all is well but when she heads back in the chicks have trouble navigating the ramp and sometimes human intervention is needed. Having an alternative nesting box available outside near the ramp area can help avoid this if there is room for it, otherwise daily checks for stragglers is needed the first couple of weeks until the little ones master ramps. We have another of our Silver Pencil Hens setting now (her 3rd brood since April) and she is due the first Friday of November. I am hoping she is the last for this year
 
dheltzel said:
Proof that the YouTube video was right, chickens really are "gateway livestock" . . .

Most rabbit keepers separate all the adults into individual cages, rabbits aren't nearly as social as birds and do better on their own, That allows you to control breeding and no worry about fighting over "Territory" (they can hurt each other). Of course the mothers stay with the young for a while, then you can finish the young together, as long as you butcher or sell before they reach breeding age, otherwise they start multiplying like, well, rabbits.

So, if you are serious about breeding, you want both some larger hutches (for the females and young) and individual cages (for the bucks and not yet breeding females). So, the answer to which to get is "both".
Click to expand...

Oh yes... I first saw that video a few years ago an thought "that's going to be me some day!" lol, and here I am
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I don't know that we're really serious about breeding... yet. This is more of a trial run, see if we like it and go from there. I was thinking of starting with just one breeding pair, but DH reminded me that we have small children which increase the risk of accidental death... we lost one chick this summer when the 3yo fell into the brooding pen and another when she broke the heat lamp. So his thought was that we should have an extra of each gender 'just in case'. So, the 6'x3.5' (divided) hutch wouldn't be big enough for 4 rabbits, just for one breeding pair? If we did just one breeding pair, could we keep the babies in the side with mama (3'x3.5'). What about a run area?

And thanks to everyone else for the rabbit help... I don't know how to do multiple quotes
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Background
SHe goes broody about 4 times a year, large mixed breed hen, Orpington size....I gave up trying to break her last time and when I cleaned out the egg refrigerator, I had an 18 pack of duck eggs that were to old to sell so I gave them o her and just ignored her, I pick her up daily to make sure that no one else laid there, easy to tell difference with duck eggs. Other than that, I really had no plans, she also has 2 chicken eggs under there so she wasn't within for nothing..
Picked her up today and had 2 little gray ducks looking back at me.....
She is in the main layer house, hope they stay put for the day, I plan to move her and all babies and eggs into a cage tonight after work, at least for a week or so

Keeping fingers crossed that they d not get trampled while I am at work.

Problem is I had no idea on hatch date. I have Muscovy also, they are 35 days instead of 28, what is hatching now was set on sept 23
Guessing most will be mixed
Muscovy
Rouen
Khaki Campbell
Black east indie
Could be interesting
 

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