The Evolution of Atlas: A Breeding (and Chat) Thread

[speckledhen]

My husband, even after having broodies in cold weather, says they'll freeze to death. I say no way on earth. Maretta is in good health as far as I can tell, though she's getting up in age a bit, and she'll not only keep those eggs warm, they will radiate back and keep her warm as well, plus the chicks can get under mama like always. No way they'll freeze.

 

[Leahs Mom]

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

 

[1muttsfan]

If you get a dwarf then you know for sure that they are both carriers. If you don't get a dwarf, you will still not know if either or both of them are carriers. That means all of their offspring would still have the potential to carry the dwarf gene, and would be poor candidates for a breeding pool. If you want to breed better birds, then I would not recommend breeding birds that are at risk of passing on such a disturbing trait.

 

[1muttsfan]

My almost frozen hen is looking much better today, and is also extremely ungrateful for having been saved. The temp is supposed to warm up into the 20s on Sunday, so she will probably go back out into the coop then, although I will watch her much more closely.

Lisa, if those are the flexible black rubber tubs that you were using for water, then instead of banging them together flip them upside down and stomp on them. That usually gets rid of the ice and it's a lot easier.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

My almost frozen hen is looking much better today, and is also extremely ungrateful for having been saved. The temp is supposed to warm up into the 20s on Sunday, so she will probably go back out into the coop then, although I will watch her much more closely.

Lisa, if those are the flexible black rubber tubs that you were using for water, then instead of banging them together flip them upside down and stomp on them. That usually gets rid of the ice and it's a lot easier.

I used to do that, but with one knee replaced and the other one having the bones hitting together I can't do the stomping either. Some will say just turn them over in the sunlight and they will pop out after a few hours but as you know that doesn't work unless the temperatures are near 30 and the sun is out.

Thanks for the suggestion, I will just have to leave everything for my husband for a while.

It's gonna feel so warm getting up into the 20-30's this coming week.

 

[speckledhen]

If you get a dwarf then you know for sure that they are both carriers. If you don't get a dwarf, you will still not know if either or both of them are carriers. That means all of their offspring would still have the potential to carry the dwarf gene, and would be poor candidates for a breeding pool. If you want to breed better birds, then I would not recommend breeding birds that are at risk of passing on such a disturbing trait.

Well, I know for sure that Atlas carries or Apollo and his sister who produced the dwarfs could not have done so-their mothers were pure Stukel hens so the gene that they both carried had to come from Atlas, which was the first time I had any clue he carried. I have no other eggs for Maretta. So, I'll probably just let Maretta raise them, if she sticks, and decide if I'll sell them if they don't produce a dwarf. If they do, of course, I'll have to sell all of them except the actual dwarf, of course, with disclosure of that potential carrier status. If I get a couple of pullets, at least I can keep one as a layer and sell/rehome all the others whether male or female. I am slap out of BRs to breed unless I use MaryJo. Jill has not laid an egg in months, not since she went broody, then she molted and she still is not back in lay. I was hoping the Brahmas would be laying again when I got the next broody, but even Cora is having her 9 month molt and quit on me.

I'm glad your hen is better.

 

[speckledhen]

It would be very nice if two or more Brahmas started laying again today, or Jill. I'd remove all of MJ's eggs and replace them with those? Odds are against it, though. Sigh.

Was about 10* again this a.m., but we are getting a couple of 60's this coming week! SIXTIES! What the heck? My husband believes the earth's axis has shifted, and he's said that for years, and it wouldn't take much at all, to shift the seasons so that we are probably really where February used to be. Somewhere not long ago, I saw an article that proposed the very same theory. That would mean that our last frost being moved back to early April as it has been the last five years or so, not late April; over the past ten years, it seems to be earlier and earlier for the last frost, though that is probably too short of a time to see a difference, but it would depend on the actual shift, I guess. Anyway, this crazy bout of unusually cold weather does feel like later winter, not early winter, and it's worse than even that.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Interesting thought on the axis shift.

I wish we had weather/temperature records for longer back in history than we do. I have a hunch that we'd see the same kinds of patterns of warmer/colder cycles for many many years repeated over and over on some kind of a general time frame. What we do have does seem to indicate that kind of thing if you look back in the historical records that are available.

Perhaps it's just a cycle that repeats that was created to achieve balance over the long-term.

 

[speckledhen]

Interesting thought on the axis shift.

I wish we had weather/temperature records for longer back in history than we do. I have a hunch that we'd see the same kinds of patterns of warmer/colder cycles for many many years repeated over and over on some kind of a general time frame. What we do have does seem to indicate that kind of thing if you look back in the historical records that are available.

Perhaps it's just a cycle that repeats that was created to achieve balance over the long-term.

That's exactly what it is, cycling. We've had super extended cold periods, what folks thought was a mini-ice age, or were panicking about that coming. People who are up in their 90's remember stuff like that. It's always something to panic about, and thus, control the actions of the public, but there is little science behind this global warming thing. We have had cool cycles and warmer cycles over history. I remember some sort of panic when I was very young about the weather change and it was not about warming, as I recall. I'm 100% positive we are just seeing a normal cyclical thing. Whatever it is, we can do nothing about it.

I think it's pure arrogance that we think we can control stuff like that, something so much bigger than we are. We are less than a flea, relatively speaking. So, control what you can on your own little corner of the world and if everyone does that, that's all we can do as a whole to change anything at all. People are so het-up and angry and crazed and in fistfights over stuff that is beyond them. We all need to chill out and just mind our own mountains the best we know how, IMO. Worrying changes nada. And in the immortal words of Forrest Gump, that's all I have to say 'bout that. Oh, look! A chicken!