If you don't mind me bothering you with my questions I have a few about culling. With your birds only being 11 weeks old what did you look at to know they need to be culled? Also what did you do with the culled birds? That's the thing that gets me about culling that early. Not much of a carcass there to bother with eating. Do I just cull and then flop them in the field to feed the wild life?
I seen this picture when you posted it but really looked at It close tonight. The chickens really look good . Looks like they have some weight to them. Would be nice to find some like that. ScottI've got some old photos (wish I knew who to credit them) and I enjoy reading the old poultry journals, on line, from that era and earlier. I adore those "light" birds as they were bred then. I just don't see them anymore. Too bad. We don't see crisp barring where the white bars are large or wide, so to speak. In my mind's eye, that's what gives the "light" birds we once had in the US their spectacular appearance.
Alright, thanks. I probably will only try to cull a little heavier with my cockerels next year. Pullets can easily be sold as laying hens around here so no sense in wasting them. I want to really keep good weight records next year so I can compare everyone's weights to scrap the smaller ones sooner.
Featherless boys? Hmm.. Mine have always had lots of feathering, but they take forever to get that neat colouring Silver_Rock's boy has.. But mine are half his age too.
Weather here is odd as well. We go from -10 to +10. That's Celsius, so between 14 - 50F for daily highs. We had the worst kind of snow yesterday.. the kind that is so heavy and wet and slushy that it is hard to shovel or blow.. I figured it would melt, because the daily high was 40 or so.. .yeah, it got so cold last night it is this huge sheet of ice. :| Very hard to walk on, because you break through a little and it takes three times as long to reach the barn.I wasn't sure on the "featherless" comment, either, Aoxa.
Holy heck, we've had the oddest weather around here. Couple weeks ago - of course, we were working on pens in the cold and very windy weather - it was in the teens and LOW single digits with wind chill; today, it's supposed to be almost 60.
I haven't gone through my PEI pullets yet, they're far too young at 22 weeks to do so, but I am rather enjoying my Adamson cockerel's confuion at having 14 pullets in with him. HA! He clearly doens't know where to start. I'll be splitting them all up in a few more months, running a pure Canadian line of SPR as well as my own. I'm VERY excited about next year and the following ones. I have such big plans for these birds, I just hope they all come to fruition!
That's DANGEROUS snow. I have quite a walk back to my barns, and I always worry when it begins to freeze. I sure don't heal up as quickly as I once did....also....I am not as nimble as I once was.Weather here is odd as well. We go from -10 to +10. That's Celsius, so between 14 - 50F for daily highs. We had the worst kind of snow yesterday.. the kind that is so heavy and wet and slushy that it is hard to shovel or blow.. I figured it would melt, because the daily high was 40 or so.. .yeah, it got so cold last night it is this huge sheet of ice. :| Very hard to walk on, because you break through a little and it takes three times as long to reach the barn.
Thankfully tomorrow it is going to reach 50 and is going to rain, so it won't last. I want the fluffy light snow before Christmas, and after that it can be gone.
We had every chicken yesterday vaccinated for ILT. Has to be done to show here. Just a drop in their eye. I spent 2 hours chasing and catching chickens. I have over 30 Barred Plymouth Rocks. Some are looking really good.
I have a rumpless barred rock. He'd work well in a Barred Araucana project LOL. Seriously not even close to a tail. He is a ball with a neck and head. Not going to use him at all. He'll become dinner.
The vet told me he hasn't vaccinated any barred rocks close to my quality. Felt really good to hear that
