Show Off Your Games!

[centrarchid]

 

[centrarchid]

Anyone starting to prepare for winter. I moving two pens per evening. Over winter there will be some thinning of trees to make moving pens easier.

 

[centrarchid]

No one doing anything to prepare for winter? No dubbing?

 

[Delaneygraces]

I’m starting to draw out my breeding plans, and have pens set up early, since I was late last year, and didn’t hatch until early May .
That being said, none of my cockerels are ready to be dubbed, but I did buy an old English bantam cock, who was already dubbed, except, for some odd reason, one single earlobe. I dubbed him this past Friday, the 11th, the last day to dub (for the specific dubbing dates in October).

I’ve been running around like crazy lately trying to figure out what I’m breeding this year. I just sold over half of my birds, most birds from this years hatch, others ones I need to replace with better quality. I’ve got all my Old English bantams ready, I have some really nice birds I just bought from Georgia, but my Moderns, on the other hand, are a mess right now. I only have one breeding cock, and the Lemon Blue cockerels from this year are to young for me to decided which, if any, hens they’ll be paired with. I’m desperately trying to find a Brown red cock, but all the quality modern people I know are already sold out for the winter, have a lack of brown reds, or just don’t know what they have for sale .

My birds live in the garage, in a 9 hole pen, and since they aren’t very cold hardy, and Illinois has some bad winter weather, I’m working on putting new siding in the garage, and making it a little warmer. I also have two windows that need replaced to reduce breezes that come in. In other words, I need to win the lottery

 

[centrarchid]

I have a whopping 10 stags to dub. Moving 30 pens over a 100 yards is going to be a bigger deal. Overwinter I am going to make so warm season location for field pens is easier to move pens through. That means a lot of selective tree removal so a solid canopy will be realized again in just a couple of years. I saw a fellow near me that really had a nice tree canopy where he had at least 50 hens roosting year round. How he keeps owls off I do not know. A neighbor real close but a pricey net that covers nearly a quarter acre. Outside my realm.

 

[Ghosty]

My stag and 8 hens roost in the trees. Waiting to see how they do through the winter. There are several big cedars to provide cover after the leaves fall. Hopefully they figure it out and I don't have to pen them. There are owls, so we will see, but a couple of the hens did ok last winter, but they moved back to the coop when it started icing.

 

[Ghosty]

 

[centrarchid]

View attachment 1944835

Close to being bull.

 

[Ghosty]

Close to being bull.

That pic is a few weeks old.
This is from today.

 

[centrarchid]

Taking his time. All mine must be penned by that point as risk too high.