Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

I have 2 blue slate boys that are also on the smaller side but they're only about 6-6 1/2 months old. Since my turkey vests that I had planned to make failed, I think I'm going to keep them all confined for all of November to protect them from the hunters but I'm going to try to use that time to plump them up a bit. I'm going to have to go out and with them to see exactly where they are now though.

Those of you who butcher fresh for thanksgiving, how soon before the day do you butcher to make sure the meat is ready on time?
I like the advice R2elk gave here. Although maybe not everybody has enough room in there fridge for that long.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1035274/butchering-my-turkeys
 
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Has anyone else noticed how early their birds are putting themselves to bed lately? It just hit me that is only 5:30 and most of my flock is in for the night already! Oh, I'm not ready for winter :(
 
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Has anyone else noticed how early their birds are putting themselves to bed lately? It just hit me that is only 5:30 and most of my flock is in for the night already! Oh, I'm not ready for winter
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I go down around 6:30 when it starts to get dark. I still have a few hens out eating before going to bed. I have to tell them, bed time and wait for them to decide it is time to go to bed.
 
If I wait too long to close up the run, the 4 young ones will be up in the vine that hangs over the fence. If I get out there before that, right now about 6 pm, I can get them locked up for the night with the big girls. They are NOT supposed to be in that vine - it is technically the backdoor neighbor's and not on our side of the fence. Silly kids.
 
Has anyone else noticed how early their birds are putting themselves to bed lately? It just hit me that is only 5:30 and most of my flock is in for the night already! Oh, I'm not ready for winter :(


Yep, it stinks, the days are getting shorter so quickly!


I'll be in big trouble if that coop is full in the first year.:oops: I was told only 4 for the first time, and 2 more each year after. But who gonna count the chickens? Maybe a neighbor's chick will sneak into our coop:gig


I hate when that happens. ;) We are having a new chicken "sneak" into our coop tomorrow. Hope all goes well the the group!
 
Does anyone want some adorable Bantam Cochin Roos? I had 5 hatch, and I have 2 reserved for someone. They are a black mottled pattern so far, very handsome. I also have one Rhodebar Roo as well. Free as always, unless Dheltzel wants them back! :lol:
 
If I wait too long to close up the run, the 4 young ones will be up in the vine that hangs over the fence. If I get out there before that, right now about 6 pm, I can get them locked up for the night with the big girls. They are NOT supposed to be in that vine - it is technically the backdoor neighbor's and not on our side of the fence. Silly kids.


That's a tough habit to break. Do you have a cockerel in with them? I noticed when I add one, he usually gathers the girls and calls them into the coop.
 
That's interesting. Because I have seen people who tried to cross barred rock to leghorn to create their own "California Grey", actually had some chicks more like California White. So I thought CG has more barred rock in it and should behavior more like barred rock but lays white eggs. Anyway, because we will have a small flock, so hopefully I can handle it enough to make it not too flighty.
That cross is the California White. I think that is a major market for Privett, to sell the male CG's to hatcheries for producing CW's. They do it because the result are very productive, not for sex linkage, because dominant white (what makes a leghorn white) covers all the barring in both sexes (and the cross would have to use barred hens, not roos).

Both CG's and Barred Hollands have Barred Rocks in their ancestry (that was the most common breed that was barred, and had other good qualities as well). They are obviously not the same, but had similar, but not identical, goals. BH's were a "farm bird" for free ranging and calmness was highly desirable. I regard it as a "Barred Rock that lays white eggs". The CG was for commercial production, where small size is important but calmness (consider the commercial white leghorn) is not.

BH's were recognized as an "official" breed, that never happened with CG's. Both are very rare, arguably CG's are more so (I know of 2 hatcheries that sell BH's, but only 1 that sells CG's). The Livestock Conservancy doesn't recognize the CG as a breed, so their concern is all for BH's. Having both, I can see a lot of differences. I think you might be happier with Barred Hollands if you want white eggs. I intend to produce very few pure CG's next year, basically enough to replenish my flock that makes sexlinks, any to sell will be by "special order".
 

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