Possible Necrotic Foot ? (GRAPHIC PHOTO!) RIP, Vada

[speckledhen]

Honestly, I dont care for the personality of most of the BBS Orp hens. I adore Suede so much, but his sheer size makes it hard to keep the girls from being torn up on their sides and it makes him prone to hurting his legs and feet, even jumping down from his special roost shelf, less than 24" off the ground. Suede is much sweeter than his three women, one of whom is on 7 eggs at Day Six. She is VERY broody, that girl. My Ameraucanas (from a good breeder) are fabulous, some of the friendliest girls I own. And so are my Delawares. I'm very proud of my Dels and will be expanding the flock soon. They are not hatchery stock at all and are supposedly from broody lines, too.

Anyway, no more Wyandottes for me. If we lose Vada, then my older girl, Violet, will be the last one I have. She's a good girl, my Vi.

 

[Judy]

Hmmm, well, maybe sooner or later, I will find a real breeder within driving distance; keeping my eye out. There is a local who sells BR chicks but I'm almost afraid to step on the property! He might be fine, or not....

My BO roo is not all that huge. Maybe I won't breed him with the hatchery BO chicks my broody is raising, after all. Might do better to bet on hybrid vigor with this hatchery stock.

Or drive up there one day and buy some of your Dels. We'll see, maybe next year.

 

[EweSheep]

SpeckledHen, I dont blame you for going the direction you are going if you were to end the BBS Orp breeding project. Sometimes it is too hard to keep it going and too much time and investment outweigh the pros and cons.

Same for my Spitz, if I keep getting too much culls and one or two of the best ones out of every 25 to 50 chicks, and then go on to the next generation, it would be too much to keep hatching to get good ones. Don't get me wrong, I love the Spitz birds but if I had more room and hubby has better job or better paying job, it would help out a bit. It really takes a dedicated breeder to do that such as Carla in TX and Carla in OK and Julie Gabbard for their Spitzhaubens, they have all the room and resources to keep it going. If I keep losing girls for any reasons, then it would be time for me to get only one or two for egg laying and not breeding anymore.

As for the Welsummers, finding the right breeder, they have done most of the work for me in size and egg colors and I dont ahve to cull as bad as Spitzhaubens. I dont see myself getting out of Welsummers for a good while unless I got a weak link that I keep losing the girls from internal laying.

From the problems we are still having with egg reproduction systems getting all wonked up, I am wondering if it would be the feed itself since we all have processed feeds for our birds. Maybe it would be best for them to go back to natural feeds, milo, oats, corn, wheat, calcium shells, alfalfa would be better. Who knows??? Also like you thought before, it would be genetic.

Vada, may you rest now.

 

[Lunachick]

I'm so sorry Cynthia. She is a beautiful bird though, and looks sweet.

 

[Judy]

I'll tell you, after finding that testicle and egg in the same bird, I am really more suspicious of breeding than feed, though it could certainly be a component, of course. I feel we are flooded with birds that hatcheries have not done any selective breeding on at all, other than an occasional outcross to increase laying, maybe.

What BYC could use is a list of REAL breeders, which I realize would be essentially impossible, of course.

 

[speckledhen]

Well, whatever the cause, I'm left with the "clean-up". Vada will be euthanized today. She will sometimes look alert, but this morning, she was sleeping and breathing, but we couldn't rouse her. So, no need for her to suffer any longer. Just have to decide what is easy on my DH, who is crushed every time we have to do this.

dawn, would be happy if you'd come pick up some Delawares. Since I have five ladies for Isaac, when one goes broody, she gets Delaware eggs and I'm sure there will be extra youngsters. I'd like to get four more girls for Isaac and later, remove Kira to the laying flock and add a new one (she has size and color, but her comb is messy).

 

[hinkjc]

Cyn, I'm so sorry you're going through this.

 

[speckledhen]

I just hate that she is seemed so perfectly healthy but, apparently, there were things going on in her beautiful body we couldn't even guess were happening. It's that way with these egg issues, I suppose.

 

[PurpleChicken]

It never ceases to amaze me how attached we get to these animals.
The only time recently I've been able to shed a tear was when culling my
hens. I feel your pain and if I was closer I'd "do the deed" for you.

Sorry.

 

[speckledhen]

Oh, Don, I so appreciate you saying that! I know you would, too.

Vada is gone. She was obviously not going to make it past today, so we helped her along. Such a shame.