Show Off Your American Gamefowl and Chat Thread!!!

[roosterhavoc]

I use a Nikon D7100

Figured it was something like that. Or I want to get the cell phone that takes pics like that.

 

[roosterhavoc]

Crow winged

Non crow winged

 

[jeremey]

Crow winged

Non crow winged

nice like the red spots on the breast of the first one

 

[centrarchid]

plain to see. Guess it was the pumpkin that had him questioning you hatching 3 week old chicks.

Two chicks near top center look about a week old. The pumpkin chick looks a good 2 weeks old. I am keying in on both wing feathers and the body feathers coming in on shoulders. With practice your can estimate chick age very accurately up to about five weeks old using lengths and coverage of those feathers. As the juvenile feather set comes in you can then estimate age based on replacement pattern of wing primary and secondary flight feathers sort of like you can estimate age of wild ducks.

Jeremy, you have a lot going on making so record keeping gets to be a challenge. For me that is the most difficult and engaging part of a typical breeding program. Early every morning is when I spend about 5 miinutes updating as that is when my brain works best. After work I can get a bit inaccurate.

 

[centrarchid]

This sucks big wind. Major storm came through and sent four pens over hill like tumpble weeds. Stakes must be longer and / or weighted but where stakes held the pen go blown nearly flat. Pens just over a hundred yards to west appear not even touched, even by rain. Three near complete clutches of eggs lost and breeding hens got covered or at least might have been covered by a stag that was not to be used in a breeding pen this year if ever. Efforts with those hens now set back a good month. Three chicks about three weeks old got blown over the hill like stryrofoam cups but they came back drier than those that sought cover under car with hen. At least motorcyle and beehives did not not get blown over.

 

[jeremey]

This sucks big wind. Major storm came through and sent four pens over hill like tumpble weeds. Stakes must be longer and / or weighted but where stakes held the pen go blown nearly flat. Pens just over a hundred yards to west appear not even touched, even by rain. Three near complete clutches of eggs lost and breeding hens got covered or at least might have been covered by a stag that was not to be used in a breeding pen this year if ever. Efforts with those hens now set back a good month. Three chicks about three weeks old got blown over the hill like stryrofoam cups but they came back drier than those that sought cover under car with hen. At least motorcyle and beehives did not not get blown over.

Yea we had a bad storm here today not as bad as the one you had

 

[kingcocker]

Mother Nature is a beast, I think I will be build a barn soon. Still working on the design

 

[kingcocker]

hand raised muff cock

 

[centrarchid]

I would call that a micro-burst but to local for even that. We live on south facing bluff over the Missouri River making so south by southwest winds get funneled up making for real local strong winds. If regular wind is 35 mph, then wind in some of those spots if 55 mph. I slight change in direction and you have a big change in where the real fast air is. Good news is I salvaged 5 eggs from a barrel and placed them in an incubator. Based on hen's behavior she just went broody today as she did have 12 eggs before storm hit. I bet I can get her back in lay within 10 days. Already feeding back the busted eggs to speed process. Damage still light as a lot more cocks could have gotten out.


Neighbors little poultry shed a couple hundred yards down wind appears to have been blown off foundation releasing about 50 laying hens. Their deer netting held up except where birds got out.

 

[roosterhavoc]

Some conduit to stabilize the domes might help prevent the staked ones from blowing flat. I use it to prevent collapse under heavy snowfall but it may help. Adds about 1.25 per pen, plus screws. Worth it to me.