Stella's Social Club

[The Yakima Kid]

Oh okay. One thing I don't get is how you can get all the barring right, it always amazes me.

One secret is to select for slower feathering; faster feathering tends to lead to more uneven barring.
The other is to breed one strain for cockerels, and another for pullets.
And it is still downright difficult. I don't breed show stock because to do it right means focusing on a very few
breeds and staying with it for more than a decade, in order to really establish and improve a strain. If you quit after
three to five years, you tend to miss throwback traits that are complicated recessives that need to be eliminated.

 

[Happy Chooks]

I can testify to the viciousness of a fisher! A couple of months ago I lost 17 of my best laying hens to a fisher attack. We know what it was because DH & I set up a video camera and recorded it when it returned the next day. It got in through a tiny 2 inch space that opened up when fencing came loose where it was attached to a post, probably from frost heaving the ground. It sprung the havaheart trap by jumping on top of it. It just raced around in a fury searching for more chickens to kill, then left the way it came in. I have read that they were released in Connecticut a couple of years ago - I'm right over the state line in NY. They have a huge territory, up to 30 square miles. We have not seen it again but are still checking the video. They kill everything they can get a hold of just for the sport of it. LH was incredibly lucky to have stopped it when she did.

It took me awhile to recover from this tragedy. First, I was "no more poultry, I can't take it" but I can't live without my chickens!, so this is why I decided to check out some threads on BYC. I've been reading threads on different breeds I'm interested in and by that roundabout fashion came upon Stella's Social Club. You guys are the best! Love all your different topics of conversation. I'm quiet, but I hope you won't mind me keeping up with you all.

How awful. I'm so sorry.

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

Quote: That makes sense, but most of it just confuses me. lol

 

[The Sheriff]

Hey, we got company! Welcome!

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

Hey, we got company! Welcome!

Who ya waving at?

 

[speckledhen]

Oh okay. One thing I don't get is how you can get all the barring right, it always amazes me.

The first thing you do is start with birds who have proper barring in the first place and breed from them, which means you probably cannot use hatchery stock at all, most of which are fast feathering birds, so they never get that even, crisp barring. They rarely fit the bill. Even using fabulous stock, you still will have to cull for type and color and all other traits in order of importance.

I can testify to the viciousness of a fisher! A couple of months ago I lost 17 of my best laying hens to a fisher attack. We know what it was because DH & I set up a video camera and recorded it when it returned the next day. It got in through a tiny 2 inch space that opened up when fencing came loose where it was attached to a post, probably from frost heaving the ground. It sprung the havaheart trap by jumping on top of it. It just raced around in a fury searching for more chickens to kill, then left the way it came in. I have read that they were released in Connecticut a couple of years ago - I'm right over the state line in NY. They have a huge territory, up to 30 square miles. We have not seen it again but are still checking the video. They kill everything they can get a hold of just for the sport of it. LH was incredibly lucky to have stopped it when she did.

It took me awhile to recover from this tragedy. First, I was "no more poultry, I can't take it" but I can't live without my chickens!, so this is why I decided to check out some threads on BYC. I've been reading threads on different breeds I'm interested in and by that roundabout fashion came upon Stella's Social Club. You guys are the best! Love all your different topics of conversation. I'm quiet, but I hope you won't mind me keeping up with you all.

I'm so sorry! That's awful. I hear they are vicious. There are some youtubes of them screaming that chill me to the bone. And they are quite large, males can be 15 lb up to even 20 lbs for the record weights, I've read. That's some weasel! Here is one recording:

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

@speckledhen

 

[robhuncor]

How awful. Have you picked a new breed yet?

I love so many different breeds! My flock is small but very diverse. After the massacre , I got myself a little Brinsea to do some hatching-thought it was small so keep me in control!

. All the hens I have left are my old retired from laying ladies. My oldest hen is an 11 year old Barnevelder named "Barnie Green". I have some rescued EE's that are 10 years old. The last ones that I hatched myself in my old incubators are 7 yo.


This is a not very good photo of Barnie Green

 

[Hangtown Farms]

i hatched some.
I am drowning in chicks.
Here is some


but I have
4 partridge penedesenca
6 brown red ameraucana
2 splash looking ones that where split to brown red
2 crele penedesenca in here.

4 in the brooder via Deb
4 crele olive eggers

10 black penedesenca
14 white empordanesa

plus some crele olive egger and white empordanesa youngsters in the grow out run.
Ill be hatching both incubators full off crele and getting rid of most the adults and

do run 1 crele
run 2 crele olive egger project , brown red ameraucana hens and crele penedesenca rooster crele hens
run 3 and 4 crele penedesenca
run 5 and free range , black penedesenca

 

[Eva2012]

Please, enjoy my piano student Emika Saito performing the Schubert Impromptu Op 90 No2. She performed last Saturday in a local piano competition, winning first place in the 4-6 grade category. She is 12. When she comes to her lessons, she videotapes all of them and listens back during the week. Shed can her my boyw crow on tape. It's all music here.