The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[TurtlePowerTrav]

pictures of two of my meat birds. these are obviously girls. the boys were larger. 13 weeks? I'd have to check my notebook to be exact but they're about that.



the first one has been on free range since she was about five weeks and I could start to tell which were boys and which girls. the second has been in a tractor. she's only very very slightly larger. They're about the size of my EE hen, although stockier and much broader through the breast. I don't know if I did something wrong raising them?? I'll be weighing the carcasses today. I have to borrow my mom's scale. mine suffered an accident when a toddler attempted to take it off a counter.

My one pullet CX was about 2lbs lighter at 13 weeks than the boy I did at 10 weeks. They just are smaller. Although her table weight was still a nice 7-8lbs. I did notice though the CX start getting fat deposits after 10 weeks. She had some, small, but she had some. The boys had none at all.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Hey y'all. So I had three Silkie eggs under a broody Silkie. She decided after 13 days she was done sitting. So I of course wanted to see if she would go back into a broody state. She had abandoned the nest for about 6 hrs when I discovered she was done. Sought the advice of a trusted friend and set up a small container tub with my red brooder lamp and put the eggs under it. At the end of the day I candled and discovered two looked like they quit but one was still red in the veining. So I left all three overnight. Went out and adjusted the lamp height the next morning so not so hot, was 105 under the lamp. Left the eggs all day and candles that evening. Two eggs were obvious quiters, all black veins. But one was still alive, and I saw movement. Tossed the quiters and left the live egg in the tub. The next day was real hot and temp got to 112 under the lamp, but the little bugger was still moving inside. At this point I asked the same friend if I could borrow one of her many bators. Picked it up yesterday and she brings out a Genesis 1588 for me to borrow. That one egg is in it and still going strong. Tomorrow evening is lockdown. After this chick hatches, hopefully, I will be setting a bunch of Blue and Buff Silkie eggs I have been collecting this week to hatch some stock and see what I get. Oh and BTW, Marsala laid her first egg yesterday. I know it was hers because the former broody laid the day before and is a consistent every other day layer. And this egg was a little smaller and had some blood streaks. Checked Marsala's vent and it could have an egg pass through it now. Yay, finally at 8.25mo. The only pullet I have yet to start is the light Blue from the Catdance eggs, we named her Smokey, since she looks like smoke. She is only 4.5mo though and still in the juvie pen.

Wow! I can't wait to see if this one hatches!

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

Quote:
It will get candled one more time tomorrow right before lockdown. Crazy chick has an amazing will to live.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Can someone refresh my memory - when you get hatching eggs shipped you put them in the egg carton with point down to rest... how long do we leave them like that before putting under a broody?

 

[Quailsong]

I think people say a day to rest for chicken eggs.

I just read a diff method for quail. You put them straight in the 'bator, but don't touch/turn them for 2-3 days. That way if one egg is developing, it stays warm & only loses a day of turning (which shouldn't stick the yolk that early).

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

One day resting point down. Also candle it to make sure the air cells moved back to the fat end and become one cell again.

 

[aoxa]

pictures of two of my meat birds. these are obviously girls. the boys were larger. 13 weeks? I'd have to check my notebook to be exact but they're about that.



the first one has been on free range since she was about five weeks and I could start to tell which were boys and which girls. the second has been in a tractor. she's only very very slightly larger. They're about the size of my EE hen, although stockier and much broader through the breast. I don't know if I did something wrong raising them?? I'll be weighing the carcasses today. I have to borrow my mom's scale. mine suffered an accident when a toddler attempted to take it off a counter.

This girl is quite small for 13 weeks, but that's not a bad thing.

You can keep growing her out until she is of sufficient weight, or even keep her as a breeder. I know Del does.

I have some 5 week old pics of my CX at home. I'll have to post them. They are really big.. I would totally take them off a morning feeding if I didn't free range younger birds I didn't feel comfortable withholding food from.. But they still don't get fed freely. Twice a day for 15 minutes what they can clean up. At this time I feed the babies and the meaties don't notice.

They then nap for an hour and get to free ranging again. I hate looking at them after they've just eaten. They are such gluttons.. they stuff their crop to the point where it is so heavy they walk funny. Once the crop processes that feed, they are much easier to look at.

Watching them eat.. Ugh..

All but one is fully feathered now. The largest one hardly has any feathers. I bet he is going to be my first processed.

 

[mlowen]

Just because I'm kinda tickled with myself: For those of us whose chickens cannot forage nearly as much as we'd like and who have an abundance of grasshoppers, I created a jar top that allows for "stuffing" the critters in, but they cannot jump out. I cut a circle out of an old plastic file folder to fit the top of a canning jar and cut a cross-wise slit in it and screwed on the ring. It works really well. You can even put it down long enough to make a two-handed catch.

 

[joannefiddler]

I LOVE that! What a clever idea. I will be getting my pullets the first week in September...I have a bag of frozen tomato horn worms waiting for them! I have no idea what they'll think of them, but I couldn't bear to let them go to waste!

 

[mlowen]

I LOVE that! What a clever idea. I will be getting my pullets the first week in September...I have a bag of frozen tomato horn worms waiting for them! I have no idea what they'll think of them, but I couldn't bear to let them go to waste!

Mine have been really leary of new things. They recognized grasshoppers as food right away, but I'm not sure if they are eating the Japanese beetles I've thrown in the run. Probably, by now. I haven't tried any worms or catepillars, yet.