Texas

[TammyTX]

Do any of you guys have Jersey Giants? I want some SO bad!

I had JG's. I had a beautiful roo named Patrick who was huge. He was so slow to mature I thought he was a hen for the longest time. I had hens that were hard to tell from the Australorps...about the same size. They are BIG birds and eat a lot. My birds were from Murray McMurray.

This was Patrick...that is a FIVE GALLON bucket next to him:

 

[Heidisgran]

Quote:

 

[goddardd]

It will be a while, but I have a nice line of Jersey giants. I have Bob Vaughn's line of blacks.
I also have a nice blue hen from Wade Burkhalter.
I am presently hatching and will probably have some
started birds in the Spring. I am not too far from you
as I live in Boerne.
Diane

 

[Mi Ranchito]

I had JG's. I had a beautiful roo named Patrick who was huge. He was so slow to mature I thought he was a hen for the longest time. I had hens that were hard to tell from the Australorps...about the same size. They are BIG birds and eat a lot. My birds were from Murray McMurray.

This was Patrick...that is a FIVE GALLON bucket next to him:

He looks awesome! I had the hardest time looking for JGs in the San Antonio area...finally got some chicks from a farmer in Atascosa co. I am looking forward to them getting nice and large!

 

[Mi Ranchito]

It will be a while, but I have a nice line of Jersey giants. I have Bob Vaughn's line of blacks.
I also have a nice blue hen from Wade Burkhalter.
I am presently hatching and will probably have some
started birds in the Spring. I am not too far from you
as I live in Boerne.
Diane

Greetings from down the road from you! You certainly have a nice quality stock of JGs. I may buy some of your started birds in the Spring.

 

[TammyTX]

He looks awesome! I had the hardest time looking for JGs in the San Antonio area...finally got some chicks from a farmer in Atascosa co. I am looking forward to them getting nice and large!

Thanks! He was still young there.

Silly roo decided to sleep outside the coop one night. One night is all it took.

 

[LBejaran]

welcome to BYC!! What breeds and how many do you have? Also, we lllooovvveee pics. Just sayin.

I totally put off responding with any pics! I finally decided to take some pictures and post them. I certainly put it off long enough, haha!


Before we got our chickens, Sandy here was our friendly pet. Now, she protects the flock. She's a German Shepherd/Boxer mix.

This here is Che. He's Sandy's best friend and loves to play with her by waddling beneath her belly whenever she walks around. We bought him from a feed store as an adult so that the store wouldn't feed him to their burmese python. His old owner neglected him and he has a foot with bent toes and no webbing. He has scarring on his bill because he attacks our rat dogs and one of them bit him back. He refuses to quit, though, so I try and keep him from getting himself killed, haha!

This is Swedie. We bought her to accompany Che and Ducky (our Cayuga duck who refused to get close enough for a pic). She's huge! I don't know too much about her personality, but she certainly seems to like Che, if all that love-bobbing means anything, haha!

This is Helena, one of our best hens. She's a big Black Australorp that we raised from a chick. She's definitely gotten much more friendly in the past month or so. She was actually on my shoulder in this shot, eating from a bowl of extra rabbit pellets that we had laying around.

This is the second chick from the first clutch of eggs we ever hatched! She's a lovely looking pullet, a mix of Rhode Island Red and Black Australorp. A mean game hen named Gracie raised her and ended up abandoning her. She ended up getting scalped two months ago by another game hen mama, but luckily, she has been doing really well. I'm hoping she has the laying capabilities of Helena, heehee.

Here are a couple roosters (the Black Australorp and a Game/RIR mix) with our little partridge cochin hen in the front. She's a total cutie, but she is hell to photograph. She absolutely refused to sit still for a photo, haha!

This is another of our little mixed Game roosters. Not really sure who he took after, considering his mother is all white and his dad was either a RIR or a Turken, haha! Either way, he's gorgeous and pretty sweet.


This here is, by far, the cutest member of our flock. She was the last hatched of our third broody hen's clutch and she is so darn cute! She loves to jump up on my shoulder and sit there until I feed her. She's particularly docile, which is nice because her mother is a hellion, haha!

Here is one of our 4.5 week old Coturnix quail. I love having them. They are such cuties and they give me a break from the frantic antics of my chickens. It's so cute when they hop around their pen, burrowing in the hay I lay out for them.

I think that's about it. We have loads more in the flock, but these were the easiest to photograph because they actually came up to me, haha! We also have turkeys and some fancy-looking frizzles and Sultans. Hopefully, I'll have a chance to photograph some more soon.

Living in down here in Deep South Texas definitely makes raising a flock difficult, considering the extreme heat and humidity (plus the occasional heavy rain that tends to shock our hens out of egg-laying mode), but it is so much fun! I've had to find ways to make it work, but it helps that I have so many knowledgeable Texas folk who understand how hard it is to raise a flock in our extreme temperatures! I'm glad I can look to other Texans for tips and tricks.

 

[jajeanpierre]

Sorry but really? What would you recommend? Most people can not sit out in their coop an wait for the snake, then catch it and "re-home" it. If you see a snake that kills your babies and eats your eggs, yes the snake is doing what it does, but as an owner of a flock you have to do what you do and protect the flock. All is the circle of life and part of raising animals.

I guess I would be more careful in the design of my housing.

edited by staff

 

[Jessica Lynn]

Sorry but really? What would you recommend? Most people can not sit out in their coop an wait for the snake, then catch it and "re-home" it. If you see a snake that kills your babies and eats your eggs, yes the snake is doing what it does, but as an owner of a flock you have to do what you do and protect the flock. All is the circle of life and part of raising animals.

How about reinforcing the coop so the snakes can't get in? If you have predators getting in eating the eggs and the babies, then your coop isn't very secure at all!

 

[Jessica Lynn]

This here is, by far, the cutest member of our flock. She was the last hatched of our third broody hen's clutch and she is so darn cute! She loves to jump up on my shoulder and sit there until I feed her. She's particularly docile, which is nice because her mother is a hellion, haha!

Is that a turken? She's such a cutie!