Texas

[Cowpoke]

Howdy all! We are in South Texas / McAllen to be exact. We are a family looking to raise chickens for egg consumption. It's been fun reading up on the in's and out's. Hope to see some of you.

Howdy and Welcome from Surfside, TX area!

 

[Starfire669]

Mine are abou
mine are about the same actually. Here are some pictures I took this morning. I will try to take some more of the Cayuga next to the Pekins.

You can see the Pekins playing in the water in the background. When they stand together the Cayuga is more graceful and less clumsy but Similar in size. Now.... My Pekins may continue to grow past the Cayuga ?

I really hope that the Cayugas are smaller than Pekin. It's 1 of many reasons I picked them as companions and breeders for Ebony and us. If the drake is just as big I will have the same problems as I had with Howard and Ebony.

 

[srosales1996]

The ducklings are growing super fast. More than doubled in size so far. I think their growth is almost as extreme as the goslings. Lol I am very excite to see what these babies look like as adults. I have 3 females and 1 male if the hatchery sexed them right. Since I also have 3 crested females I think the drake will have enough targets for his affections. And he will be smaller than a Pekin so, hopefully he don't injure the ladies like Howard did. I think Ebony was injured so badly because she is a Mallard crested and Howard was a Pekin drake. Howard was just about double her size! Can you give me an idea of the size difference bewteen a Pekin and a Cayuga? All I know is the Cayuga are noticeably smaller, but not how much.

Well!!! I had always compared the Cayuga to the Pekins while they were little but now that you mention it and I have good pictures to show you of everyone side by side I think it is a female for sure looking at her face and tail feathers and it is more the size of our large mallard which I also think is a girl. Pretty sure I have a drake Pekin. I hope I do t have the same problem you had. I'm having issues posing them in this post for some reason so look for a new reply in Texas with pictures ok?

 

[Starfire669]

Well!!! I had always compared the Cayuga to the Pekins while they were little but now that you mention it and I have good pictures to show you of everyone side by side I think it is a female for sure looking at her face and tail feathers and it is more the size of our large mallard which I also think is a girl. Pretty sure I have a drake Pekin. I hope I do t have the same problem you had. I'm having issues posing them in this post for some reason so look for a new reply in Texas with pictures ok?

I hope you don't have the same problem as I did. When Howard forced Ebony down and got on top of her she was still struggling and her legs were pumping against gravel. That is how I believe she got tore the muscles in her hip. And Howard just kept on doing his thing while poor Ebony was fighting to get him off. What makes it worse is that 2 females were always inviting him up, so why force Ebony? Anyway, after that fiasco Howard was re-homed or he would have been dinner. No way, no how was I going to let him continue that behavior. I truely hope that the Cayugas are both smaller and less aggressive than Howard was. Or that little baby drake will end up being dinner after all, and I won't have home hatched ducklings next spring.

 

[srosales1996]

My phone is misbehaving I guess I'll try to send them via message

I hope you don't have the same problem as I did. When Howard forced Ebony down and got on top of her she was still struggling and her legs were pumping against gravel. That is how I believe she got tore the muscles in her hip. And Howard just kept on doing his thing while poor Ebony was fighting to get him off. What makes it worse is that 2 females were always inviting him up, so why force Ebony? Anyway, after that fiasco Howard was re-homed or he would have been dinner. No way, no how was I going to let him continue that behavior. I truely hope that the Cayugas are both smaller and less aggressive than Howard was. Or that little baby drake will end up being dinner after all, and I won't have home hatched ducklings next spring.

 

[CrosbysMom]

Hi, I'm new! I live in south Austin and am about to start raising Japanese quail on my balcony! I'm excited, but trying to find where I can buy these birds here in Texas.

 

[Starfire669]

So my mom found a baby rat snake and screamed for my dad to kill it. He brought it over to my place, I live right next door, and gave the body to my chickens. The snake was maybe a foot and a half long. The chickens are tearing it apart, it's in several pieces now. This is how my dad says to teach chickens about snakes and to encourage them to kill any babies that sneak into the coop. He has always thrown small snakes to his chickens for them to tear apart, I remember him doing this when I was a small child and his chickens did kill any small snakes they found in the yard. Any of your guys do something like this? Is this an old timer trick? I haven't read anything about this on any threads.

My worry now is where is the adult snakes? When we find babies, the momma can't be too far away. Guess I am going to have to crawl under my pier and beam house to check and under my chicken coop. I haven't sunk the barrier in around it yet.

 

[Belott]

Good Lord Starfire!!! I take a couple weeks hiatus to get some work done; regain my sanity and get my testosterone level built back up and find the flock of Gabby Women has quadrupled since I left. Lol

Hope all has been well with everyone!! Way too many pages to try and catch up on. Probably just a bunch of Gabbiness anyway!!

Welcome to all you new Gabby women from Belott!!

David

 

[RachaelS]

Hi, I'm new! I live in south Austin and am about to start raising Japanese quail on my balcony! I'm excited, but trying to find where I can buy these birds here in Texas.

and Welcome from Dripping Springs!

 

[Starfire669]

Good Lord Starfire!!! I take a couple weeks hiatus to get some work done; regain my sanity and get my testosterone level built back up and find the flock of Gabby Women has quadrupled since I left. Lol

Hope all has been well with everyone!! Way too many pages to try and catch up on. Probably just a bunch of Gabbiness anyway!!

Welcome to all you new Gabby women from Belott!!

David

A lot has changed Belott. Umm quick recap for my place. Got 5 ducks, the drake forced the smallest to mate and tore her hip muscles. Re-homed the drake with his favorite female. Purchased 4 Cayuga ducklings, 1 male, 3 female. They keep my injured duck Ebony company while she recovers. She is making progress, 10 days ago she couldnt put any weight on her foot, today she has her foot flat on the ground. Still limping but showing improvement. Got a new head rooster, named Screwball. Heis a black Austrolorps X white Leghorn mix. Butchered 4 cockerels 3 SLW and 1 RIR for damaging my favorite BR hen's eye. Brother in law picked up his 3 pullets I brooded for him as his b-day present. So I went from 32 chickens to 25 chickens. I'm going the wrong way on chicken math.
My oldest geese are a pair and practicing mating behavior at 16 weeks old! Got my 2nd coop partially up and running and the chickens moved in. Just finished repairing all the damage from the major storm we had where lightning struck my house.

major update for all about my neighbor whose house burned down Easter Sunday!

Did a interview with Fox news. A lady that knew him as a child got in touch and she works at a company that helps in cases like this. She got them involved and now we have several companies all pitching in to help. The house has already been leveled and removed. They are laying down pads for his donated 3 bedroom trailer that comes in late next week. They are hooking all his utilities back up for him AND they are going to till his garden, bring in some topsoil and some trees to replace what was knocked down to remove the remains of the house. Oh and they are building him a 6 foot wooden privacy fence too. All of this for free.