Show Off Your Games!

[sdm111]

She's nice what is it

 

[Kung Fu Rooster]

Thanks, she's a HB Leiper Hatch.

 

[centrarchid]

I am more into the behavior than most so exercise a range of management systems. This is same group posted a while back where cock is broody. He still is andI am experimenting on him now.

No sissy talk about how cute things are, these are games.

 

[centrarchid]

Oh 4' I was thinking 6-8". Sounds like the only options are either harvest the chicks or pen up the hens. 4' grass could also harbor predators as well

Not all is 4 feet and some is 6-8". What I do is allow a field to grow up near cockyard. I cut strips in it with a rider mower. Owing to thickness it is cut on high setting to save time. This stuff gives hawks a real hard time. I also let a game x dominique cock run about that puts finishing touches on any hawk problems.

It does have predators in it (my dogs) that kill the chicken killers pretty quick. Foxes going after birds in high stuff are blindsided by my dogs.

Here are more recent photographs right after it was mowed.

I am thinking it is going to be best to spend more time and closer so grass is short enough chicks keep down clear at least when out in open.

 

[sdm111]

now that's an adorable pic. I still would have a big problem letting biddies in the tall stuff. To much unseen in there for me but to each their own.

 

[sdm111]

On a normal mower setting. Third from lowest should be good huh? My usual cut is a 2 but with a self propelled honda which can't leave a nice cut for nothin thanks to the ingenious dual bade setup. Anyway I digress

 

[centrarchid]

So far with this setup (year 3) losses to predators are pretty close to zero in the high grass due to predators. Brood size at weaning is pretty close to six on average so overall survival is not too bad. About 3/4's of my losses are coming from chicks being chronically wet especially when fighting cocci. The cocci problem is now down to where I do not need to treat so long as I keep chicks away from adults in pens but losses still seem tied to how wet grass is, particularly in the morning. Wet chicks get hammered by cocci when infection is intense. Wet ground makes infections more intense but wet chicks are also weaker at fighting it. Once chicks past cocci risk and weaned at about 5 weeks that high grass helps keep them in areas I can protect and provides quite a bit of food especially when there is about 5 acres of it. Some is a bit more open with really dense actual trees growing over it but I do not want them in that too much because the juveniles then start wanting to roost in those trees which makes keeping owls off them tough even for dogs.

I want to average 8 chicks per brood and raise at least 20 broods per season. I can get the 20 broods off easily but the average eludes me. I used to be able to get it and never used meds.

 

[hildar]

I do assisted hatched when that happens it takes the hands of a surgeon but if you do a partial zip for them 9 times out of ten if I catch it in time they finish hatching ok I did tattoos for years so my hands are steady enough if you hit a vein though its curtains

No,I meant the ones that peep and peep after being hatched out. Seen it happen time and time again. They would peep a lot for a day or so then all of a sudden start getting sleepy, and boom they would be dead the next time I looked. Been incubating chicks now for over 20 years so yeah, I have learned the tricks of how to figure out which ones will not make it.

 

[farmraised86]

No,I meant the ones that peep and peep after being hatched out. Seen it happen time and time again. They would peep a lot for a day or so then all of a sudden start getting sleepy, and boom they would be dead the next time I looked. Been incubating chicks now for over 20 years so yeah, I have learned the tricks of how to figure out which ones will not make it.

dead in the bator or brooder? What's the temp? Are you dipping they're beaks in the water source when they go to the brooder to show them where they drink at? I find that if that happens they are cold and if you open the bator too much after the first starts hatching they rest will die in the shell from being too cold with no humidity which could explain your losses also I'm only 28 but have been doing this since I was 8 hatching and crop feeding exotic parrots at age 9... I average 98-99 % success on hatch and survival it seems the only time i lose anything is from predators or when I buy chicks from some outside sources my last hatch was 30 for 30 all lived all sold I have staggard hatches between two bators going and pipping as we speak on my moderns, sebright, silver and bb red phoenix and grey hatch x thai my point is years you've been doing it doesn't mean much if you still make amateur mistakes and don't retain from past ones after 20 years 1 % success is not good sorry if i sound rude but you sent me pics of wet chicks in a brooder ( plastic tub with paper I didn't see a heat sorce ) and said they had yolk sacks nobody with 20 years under they're belt hatching chicks does that either ps town and country in sanford has a few sumatra chicks in so if you take that roo up there for store credit you could some

 

[farmraised86]

I might be getting a madison grey roo today