- Sep 27, 2012
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Yup, I guess you just learn to cope with what you've got. 
TeaChick's Chicks
- Thread starter TeaChick
- Start date
- Thread starter
- #522
Yup, I guess.
- Thread starter
- #523
Update:
- I've been putting my big girls and Eddie into the coop every night, except that the two white Leghorn hens went in on their own.
- I had a pullet under the porch panting this afternoon. She should start laying next month, but she's the offspring of a mixed rooster (Eddie: WL/GLW) over a red/gold sex-link hen, so there's no telling when she might start laying. She hatched at the end of January, so she's about four and a half months old. This is Little Red, BTW (my one hatchling). Since she didn't lay, I'm a little worried that the heat might be getting to her. IDK; I'll have to check her out this evening.
- I built a pen around the front of the juvenile coop. I've been trying to keep my pullets in there. Unfortunately, mine are all part WL (thanks to Eddie), so they can all fly out of it easily. It's about five feet high. I do need to make the side above the front of the coop higher. Cockerels are getting on top of the coop and flying in, and I think they're getting out where the sheet of metal is too low on one end. Oh, well. More work; no surprise here. lol
In other news:
- I'm ahead in my school work (I'm done with everything that's due next Monday). I'll keep working on staying ahead.
- Moving is going too slow to suit me, but I'm trusting God that it's going according to His Plan.
So, please let me know what's going on with all of you!!! =D
Take care of yourselves and each other!!!
- I've been putting my big girls and Eddie into the coop every night, except that the two white Leghorn hens went in on their own.
- I had a pullet under the porch panting this afternoon. She should start laying next month, but she's the offspring of a mixed rooster (Eddie: WL/GLW) over a red/gold sex-link hen, so there's no telling when she might start laying. She hatched at the end of January, so she's about four and a half months old. This is Little Red, BTW (my one hatchling). Since she didn't lay, I'm a little worried that the heat might be getting to her. IDK; I'll have to check her out this evening.
- I built a pen around the front of the juvenile coop. I've been trying to keep my pullets in there. Unfortunately, mine are all part WL (thanks to Eddie), so they can all fly out of it easily. It's about five feet high. I do need to make the side above the front of the coop higher. Cockerels are getting on top of the coop and flying in, and I think they're getting out where the sheet of metal is too low on one end. Oh, well. More work; no surprise here. lol
In other news:
- I'm ahead in my school work (I'm done with everything that's due next Monday). I'll keep working on staying ahead.
- Moving is going too slow to suit me, but I'm trusting God that it's going according to His Plan.
So, please let me know what's going on with all of you!!! =D
Take care of yourselves and each other!!!
- Sep 27, 2012
- 33,764
- 1,043
- 476
I might be getting goats next spring, to take care of our weed problem.
- Thread starter
- #525
I might be getting goats next spring, to take care of our weed problem.
Sounds great!!!
Make sure to post pics!!! =D
- Thread starter
- #526
Just got Sandy back today.
Hopefully she'll behave herself this time. =)
I also got three chicks. A pair of BOs and a Marans cockerel. I'm super excited to be able to breed BOs pure, and I'm glad to have the Maran cock.
I'll have to list everyone I still have and I'm going to have to figure out pens and breeding.
I'll be sending my extra cockerels (the ones from the late Jan hatch that my friend did for me) to freezer camp next week. Yay, no more crowing at 4 am!!!
It looks like the Cochin Bantam that has been affectionately nicknamed "Fatso" might be a LF Cochin. I hope so, and it looks like a pullet; I hope so that too.
Gotta go. =)
Take care of yourselves and each other! =D
Hopefully she'll behave herself this time. =)
I also got three chicks. A pair of BOs and a Marans cockerel. I'm super excited to be able to breed BOs pure, and I'm glad to have the Maran cock.
I'll have to list everyone I still have and I'm going to have to figure out pens and breeding.
I'll be sending my extra cockerels (the ones from the late Jan hatch that my friend did for me) to freezer camp next week. Yay, no more crowing at 4 am!!!
It looks like the Cochin Bantam that has been affectionately nicknamed "Fatso" might be a LF Cochin. I hope so, and it looks like a pullet; I hope so that too.
Gotta go. =)
Take care of yourselves and each other! =D
- Sep 27, 2012
- 33,764
- 1,043
- 476
I might be getting goats next spring, to take care of our weed problem.
Sounds great!!!
Make sure to post pics!!! =D
If it happens.
- Thread starter
- #528
- Thread starter
- #529
Update:
I'll go by age order (kind of) and hopefully I won't forget anything.
The big chickens (which is my original, their rooster(s), and DS's "big chicks" are getting big enough to be included here):
~Sandy's back (she's reformed and behaving well; mostly she hides from the roosters b/c we have too many right now)
~Marty is going to become dinner (except that a friend of mine knows a woman who just lost her rooster and she might want him, if she does then she'll get him)
~One of DS's pullets turned out to be a cockerel, so Marianne is now named Andy "Murray". He's a good rooster, so we'll keep him.
~DS's chicken who is actually a pullet is getting big and her pelvis is just beginning to open up. Last week, it was maybe a finger width and a half, last night it was more than that but not two yet. I'll check her again tonight and see how quickly things are going. Hopefully, she'll start laying in the buckets on the back porch with the other hens.
~Two of my hens (Goldie and Cottontail) are laying in the box in what used to be the juvenile pen, but is now the Cochin Bantam coop.
~Snoodle was laying under the wading pool by the lawn mower, so I put a bucket under there for her, so she stopped laying there (and I haven't found her eggs from that week and a half). Not today or yesterday, but the three days before that, she laid in the bottom nesting box in the big coop; I replaced the eggs with golf balls, and she has been visiting and quietly clucking to, and sitting on them several times a day. I plan on putting a piece of pasture fence across the front so she's safe from being pecked by the other hens (they can't fit through 6" pasture fence); that way, she'll be able to get in and out as she pleases to eat and drink. I'll declare her broody when she starts sleeping on the golf balls (and then I'll replace them with her eggs I've been collecting) and we'll hope for the best. It was 100+ about four days in a row last week, so you could almost incubate eggs in the middle of the yard. lol
~I lost Flopsy. She had a bumblefoot and it got really hot out, so I don't really know exactly which one did her in, but she's gone and we're sad.
~Eddie and the other girls are all doing well and laying (except Eddie) in the buckets on the back porch. =D
The "big chicks" (which is all the chickens that my friend hatched for me at the end of January):
~The cockerels are almost all crowing, and they're getting big, so we're going to butcher them, but we haven't been able to yet. I guess we'll have to stew them, but life just doesn't always go the way we expect.
~All three of the pullets that I have left are getting big and I expect them to start laying some time this month (but I don't know when).
The Cochin and Cochin Bantam chicks/flock (which is all the Cochin and Cochin Bantam chicks I've bought this year, and doesn't include Snoodle):
~First of all, DD has been a tremendous help with this "flock". She did a lot to help with the white LF Cochin chicks I bought in March, and she's doing all the basic daily care for the black and barred Cochin Bantams I bought in April.
~I have one left of the four LF Cochin chicks that I bought in March. It's Lavender, whom we thought was a pullet when we named her, but we have figured out he's a cockerel. A friend of mine is getting 2 blue hens soon. We'll mate Lavender with them and split the chicks.
~The black and barred Cochin Bantams I bought in April are sleeping in the brooder (with my "little chicks") and spending their days in a "pen" I "built" (of safety netting and chain link gates) off of what used to be the juvenile pen/coop. Now it's all the Cochin pen/coop. =D
~We've lost the light barred pullet. =( It was early morning predation. The thing is that we thought she was LF b/c she was a lot bigger than the other Cochin chicks.
The "little chicks" (sometimes "the new chicks", but they won't be new for long; they won't be little for long either, so...):
~My friend down the street wanted some particular breed, so she set several eggs that were purebred. Four hatched and one was the breed she wanted. The other three were a wheaten French Marans and two Buff Orpington (cockerel and pullet). They live in the brooder, as they are only five weeks old right now. I don't have pics, but I'll get some soon and post them. (sorry)
In the 'bator:
~I have 12 eggs in the cooler-bator (very small one). 4 of Snoodle's, 6 of Chocolate's (she's the nicest of the hens), and one of each other the other two dark hens (I had just gotten Sandy back when I set the eggs and didn't have one from her yet). I'll candle for the first time on Sunday (and let you all know what's going on) and I expect them to hatch on the 20th.
~I plan on setting up another cardboard box incubator (that one kept the temperature much more consistent than the cooler-bator) and I'll use the cooler-bator as a hatcher/brooder. When the chicks are old enough, I'll transfer them to the brooder outside.
Future plans:
I wasn't looking forward to butchering these six roosters and two of them are really pretty, they have a nice white Leghorn look to them. So I was thinking about selling them. I found out that selling them is less than what I save eating them, so we'll butcher them after all. In looking into what I could expect to get (around here) for them, I discovered that mixed breed chickens just don't fetch that much. So, DH and I have decided that we're going to do some research (well, I'm going to do some research) and figure out which breeds we really like and settle into a very few breeds that will suit our purposes and help us attain our goals.
Our goals are....
~The top priority for us with the chickens is that we have hens that free range for egg production, and any roosters that we're not using for breeding or for protecting the free rangers are extra and we'll eat or sell them. Another consideration is that I live in the Deep South, so I need heat tolerant birds (and it gets below freezing here long enough to possibly lose some of the dumber birds).
~I want a brood flock. I'm leaning toward Cochins for that. I already have a Cochin rooster and I don't like the look of Silkies as much as Cochins. So, we're working in that direction. I also want Orpingtons, but they'd be for egg production and I would let any broodies raise their chicks to free range. I would use my penned brood flock to hatch out eggs of non-broody, free ranging, egg producers.
~For egg production, we want a breed that free ranges well (and isn't white; I've lost more white birds to predation b/c of free ranging than I've lost of all other colors and causes combined). We like the dark yolks in our eggs, so we want to keep that going. The breeds I'm considering for this are Wyandotte, Marans, and Orpington.
~For meat birds, I haven't really given a lot of thought to meat breeds. I know that Orpingtons get pretty large, are slow to mature, etc. They're a good all-round, backyard breed. I don't know how well they free range though.
~Now I'd like to hear from you! Please tell me what experience you have with these breeds, and please tell me what experience you have fulfilling these purposes in your own flock. Thanks! =D
I'll go by age order (kind of) and hopefully I won't forget anything.
The big chickens (which is my original, their rooster(s), and DS's "big chicks" are getting big enough to be included here):
~Sandy's back (she's reformed and behaving well; mostly she hides from the roosters b/c we have too many right now)
~Marty is going to become dinner (except that a friend of mine knows a woman who just lost her rooster and she might want him, if she does then she'll get him)
~One of DS's pullets turned out to be a cockerel, so Marianne is now named Andy "Murray". He's a good rooster, so we'll keep him.
~DS's chicken who is actually a pullet is getting big and her pelvis is just beginning to open up. Last week, it was maybe a finger width and a half, last night it was more than that but not two yet. I'll check her again tonight and see how quickly things are going. Hopefully, she'll start laying in the buckets on the back porch with the other hens.
~Two of my hens (Goldie and Cottontail) are laying in the box in what used to be the juvenile pen, but is now the Cochin Bantam coop.
~Snoodle was laying under the wading pool by the lawn mower, so I put a bucket under there for her, so she stopped laying there (and I haven't found her eggs from that week and a half). Not today or yesterday, but the three days before that, she laid in the bottom nesting box in the big coop; I replaced the eggs with golf balls, and she has been visiting and quietly clucking to, and sitting on them several times a day. I plan on putting a piece of pasture fence across the front so she's safe from being pecked by the other hens (they can't fit through 6" pasture fence); that way, she'll be able to get in and out as she pleases to eat and drink. I'll declare her broody when she starts sleeping on the golf balls (and then I'll replace them with her eggs I've been collecting) and we'll hope for the best. It was 100+ about four days in a row last week, so you could almost incubate eggs in the middle of the yard. lol
~I lost Flopsy. She had a bumblefoot and it got really hot out, so I don't really know exactly which one did her in, but she's gone and we're sad.
~Eddie and the other girls are all doing well and laying (except Eddie) in the buckets on the back porch. =D
The "big chicks" (which is all the chickens that my friend hatched for me at the end of January):
~The cockerels are almost all crowing, and they're getting big, so we're going to butcher them, but we haven't been able to yet. I guess we'll have to stew them, but life just doesn't always go the way we expect.
~All three of the pullets that I have left are getting big and I expect them to start laying some time this month (but I don't know when).
The Cochin and Cochin Bantam chicks/flock (which is all the Cochin and Cochin Bantam chicks I've bought this year, and doesn't include Snoodle):
~First of all, DD has been a tremendous help with this "flock". She did a lot to help with the white LF Cochin chicks I bought in March, and she's doing all the basic daily care for the black and barred Cochin Bantams I bought in April.
~I have one left of the four LF Cochin chicks that I bought in March. It's Lavender, whom we thought was a pullet when we named her, but we have figured out he's a cockerel. A friend of mine is getting 2 blue hens soon. We'll mate Lavender with them and split the chicks.
~The black and barred Cochin Bantams I bought in April are sleeping in the brooder (with my "little chicks") and spending their days in a "pen" I "built" (of safety netting and chain link gates) off of what used to be the juvenile pen/coop. Now it's all the Cochin pen/coop. =D
~We've lost the light barred pullet. =( It was early morning predation. The thing is that we thought she was LF b/c she was a lot bigger than the other Cochin chicks.
The "little chicks" (sometimes "the new chicks", but they won't be new for long; they won't be little for long either, so...):
~My friend down the street wanted some particular breed, so she set several eggs that were purebred. Four hatched and one was the breed she wanted. The other three were a wheaten French Marans and two Buff Orpington (cockerel and pullet). They live in the brooder, as they are only five weeks old right now. I don't have pics, but I'll get some soon and post them. (sorry)
In the 'bator:
~I have 12 eggs in the cooler-bator (very small one). 4 of Snoodle's, 6 of Chocolate's (she's the nicest of the hens), and one of each other the other two dark hens (I had just gotten Sandy back when I set the eggs and didn't have one from her yet). I'll candle for the first time on Sunday (and let you all know what's going on) and I expect them to hatch on the 20th.
~I plan on setting up another cardboard box incubator (that one kept the temperature much more consistent than the cooler-bator) and I'll use the cooler-bator as a hatcher/brooder. When the chicks are old enough, I'll transfer them to the brooder outside.
Future plans:
I wasn't looking forward to butchering these six roosters and two of them are really pretty, they have a nice white Leghorn look to them. So I was thinking about selling them. I found out that selling them is less than what I save eating them, so we'll butcher them after all. In looking into what I could expect to get (around here) for them, I discovered that mixed breed chickens just don't fetch that much. So, DH and I have decided that we're going to do some research (well, I'm going to do some research) and figure out which breeds we really like and settle into a very few breeds that will suit our purposes and help us attain our goals.
Our goals are....
~The top priority for us with the chickens is that we have hens that free range for egg production, and any roosters that we're not using for breeding or for protecting the free rangers are extra and we'll eat or sell them. Another consideration is that I live in the Deep South, so I need heat tolerant birds (and it gets below freezing here long enough to possibly lose some of the dumber birds).
~I want a brood flock. I'm leaning toward Cochins for that. I already have a Cochin rooster and I don't like the look of Silkies as much as Cochins. So, we're working in that direction. I also want Orpingtons, but they'd be for egg production and I would let any broodies raise their chicks to free range. I would use my penned brood flock to hatch out eggs of non-broody, free ranging, egg producers.
~For egg production, we want a breed that free ranges well (and isn't white; I've lost more white birds to predation b/c of free ranging than I've lost of all other colors and causes combined). We like the dark yolks in our eggs, so we want to keep that going. The breeds I'm considering for this are Wyandotte, Marans, and Orpington.
~For meat birds, I haven't really given a lot of thought to meat breeds. I know that Orpingtons get pretty large, are slow to mature, etc. They're a good all-round, backyard breed. I don't know how well they free range though.
~Now I'd like to hear from you! Please tell me what experience you have with these breeds, and please tell me what experience you have fulfilling these purposes in your own flock. Thanks! =D
- Thread starter
- #530
Also:
~ I'm working on getting turkey eggs. I've got some chicken eggs in my little cooler-bator. My friend is going to give me some turkey eggs. =)
~ Also, my friend has a poult whose color doesn't meet standard, so....if it's a tom she'll keep him and eat him, but if it's a hen she'll give her to me. =D
~ I'm working on getting turkey eggs. I've got some chicken eggs in my little cooler-bator. My friend is going to give me some turkey eggs. =)
~ Also, my friend has a poult whose color doesn't meet standard, so....if it's a tom she'll keep him and eat him, but if it's a hen she'll give her to me. =D
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