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

[getaclue]

speckledhen, I'm so sorry to hear about the chickens. Hopefully, the hotwire will solve his problems, but a shotgun would be even better.

 

[speckledhen]

speckledhen, I'm so sorry to hear about the chickens. Hopefully, the hotwire will solve his problems, but a shotgun would be even better.

He's shot at them before but they were too far away and their coats to thick to hurt enough. As you know, unless you are close enough, it doesn't do much good on a motivated dog. Tom used birdshot on one of the dogs that had been hanging around the pasture and eventually breached the perimeter and they never came back. Either it hurt enough or the owner had to pick it out of his dog's pelt and decided it best to keep them at home. But it was a smooth-coated dog, not like an Akita.

 

[getaclue]

I don't do birdshot. Either I'm going to shoot something to kill it, or not shoot at all. I have a rifle, or two for distance. Again, a large enough caliber to take out whatever I'm shooting at. But then again, that's me, not everyone else.

 

[speckledhen]

I don't do birdshot. Either I'm going to shoot something to kill it, or not shoot at all. I have a rifle, or two for distance. Again, a large enough caliber to take out whatever I'm shooting at. But then again, that's me, not everyone else.

Cheryl, you can't do that if you are shooting toward houses. When Tom shot at the dog, he was aimed sort of toward the Wilson's cabin down the hill from us. I'm too close to other homes to use a .22 for dogs, unless I'm right up on them. I think our cousin just grabbed his gun and he didn't realize it had only birdshot at the time and the dog was just too far away for it to really affect it. He is further from homes than I am, other than the bad guy's place. That is 40-something acres and a log cabin and a barn so there is more room between houses where he is than where I am. We came close to being hit by a moron down the hill shooting at squirrels with a .22 rifle. The bullet traveled up the hill through the trees and hit one of our steel fence posts 20 ft from where we were standing. So, unless you live further away from neighbors and/or are shooting toward open country, you have to use a shotgun with smaller pellets than say, a slug.

 

[getaclue]

True too. I was thinking you had a lot more distance between you, and the adjoining properties. Yeah, you don't want to end up shooting anyone's house, or barn up.

 

[speckledhen]

True too. I was thinking you had a lot more distance between you, and the adjoining properties. Yeah, you don't want to end up shooting anyone's house, or barn up.

I wish I did have more space. The Wilson's property is downhill from my garden area, across an overgrown road that runs between us. .22 and other bullets can travel quite a ways, as you know. A shotgun with larger ammo is about the best we can do for dogs unless we have one in a good, safe location to be able to take it out without endangering any neighbors. Across the pasture and up on a hill is a neighbor I don't know. I can see flashes of his mobile home through the trees in winter, though he's not super close. I have only two very close ones I can see, the Wilsons and the elderly woman across from my driveway, but there are folks dotted on the hillsides around us.

 

[speckledhen]

Atlas and his hens and daughters. Zara is still with Hector, but Athena is with Georgie's group, not being at all happy around Hector. Such a shame I can't use Zara or Athena for breeding. Zara's crow-headedness is not as bad as the dwarf gene she and her sister carry. I'm not sure if it's one or both, but tired of taking a chance. Atlas still has MaryJo, but she is looking over-mated right now, just like poor Druscilla. Guess turnabout is fair play since they pluck Atlas's hackles and saddles plumb off. Tom said that he saw what appeared to be egg yolk in poop yesterday, plus some of the darkest green poop from one of Atlas's hens he'd ever seen, but he doesn't know which one it was. Dru has been on a nest multiple times but no egg. Gloria Jean has bloated up several times so it could be either of them. Both are 7 years old.

 

[getaclue]

I think I would breed Hector with Zara, then select the best two of the chicks, then put Hector over those two. It may not be too difficult to fix the problem that way, and there would be no dwarf gene. That might save, and upgrade your line.

 

[speckledhen]

I think I would breed Hector with Zara, then select the best two of the chicks, then put Hector over those two. It may not be too difficult to fix the problem that way, and there would be no dwarf gene. That might save, and upgrade your line.

There's one problem with that, Cheryl. Zara is a carrier. She can make more carriers. And they, when bred with Hector, could pass it on to their progeny as well. So, I could never breed them with each other, not ever, or I'd risk dwarfs popping up, just like happened with Apollo over Zara and Athena.

 

[1muttsfan]

darn it