The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[littlemissstang]

I've got a question for everyone. I have a Cornish X (or that's what we were told she is) that every now and then lays a HUGE egg. It's always when she skips a day laying and the next...BAM!...this whopper of an egg! And it is always a double yolker and the yolks are JUMBO sized. Why is this? And does it "hurt" her? Is there something that I am doing wrong to cause her to have these big ones? Thanks in advance for any answers! The picture is of her white Jumbo egg beside one of my Reds large egg. Whew! That had to hurt her.

 

[Lacy Blues]

kind of off topic, but in the summer my fishing friends drop off left over minnows You haven't laughed enough if you haven't seen hens diving into a pail with minnows in it, and the resulting chase with the minnows wiggling in their beaks. sigh. summer is a long ways off.

Really? they dunk their heads under water to catch them? I was wondering if they would! I'm really looking forward to being able to feed them live food!

 

[delisha]

I had a lot more..I sell a lot of birds. i like to be at minimum levels come winter. I reciently sold 30 met birds and 20 pullets. I packed my freezor with 12 cockerels and 7 ducks.

I also culled out all of my layers that were over 5..that was hard to do.specially for one of the hens. she was 7...I should have culled her last year, but simply could not..she was still laying eggs every day..she had little to no feathers left she was using every thing she had to continue to lay..it was for her I did it...it was so hard to watch that naked body..she never missed a day laying during lay season...but necessary in this business if you are afraid they will not make another harsh winter. I would rather they gave one more time than found them on the floor of the coop frozen. Horrible death.

She was my friend as far as a chicken could be a friend..Hardly any tail feathers left. Her wings never filled in for years. She never got sick, never lost weight, never stopped laying. Best chicken I ever had.

 

[Lacy Blues]

I also culled out all of my layers that were over 5..that was hard to do.specially for one of the hens. she was 7...I should have culled her last year, but simply could not..she was still laying eggs every day..she had little to no feathers left she was using every thing she had to continue to lay..it was for her I did it...it was so hard to watch that naked body..she never missed a day laying during lay season...but necessary in this business if you are afraid they will not make another harsh winter. I would rather they gave one more time than found them on the floor of the coop frozen. Horrible death.

She was my friend as far as a chicken could be a friend..Hardly any tail feathers left. Her wings never filled in for years. She never got sick, never lost weight, never stopped laying. Best chicken I ever had.

That's sad, I couldn't do that. I have a hen that is 8 now. She is the last of the original flock of Andalusians I started with. Last year she laid one egg. The year before, she laid two. She has been retired from the breeding world for at least 3 years now. This year, she didn't lay any. That's ok. I can't cull her. She's so sweet and still beautiful and very friendly. Unless she gets sick, she will be here til she dies. Any other bird though... if they don't earn their way... they're gone. I guess my "softiness" is selective.

 

[delisha]

I've got a question for everyone. I have a Cornish X (or that's what we were told she is) that every now and then lays a HUGE egg. It's always when she skips a day laying and the next...BAM!...this whopper of an egg! And it is always a double yolker and the yolks are JUMBO sized. Why is this? And does it "hurt" her? Is there something that I am doing wrong to cause her to have these big ones? Thanks in advance for any answers! The picture is of her white Jumbo egg beside one of my Reds large egg. Whew! That had to hurt her.

My Cornish X's layed some serious large eggs. but not that large..owie. You are not doing anything wrong. Cornish X are not breed to be egg layers, they are bred to be meat in a very short time of there life. Give yourself a lot of credit. It is extremely hard to keep Cornish X's alive long enough to lay. If you keep them in good weight you can have eggs for a long time. I found that as long as you tried to keep them under 9 lbs they can live quite some time. Good job!

 

[delisha]

Quote: She would not have made it through this winter..if i did not cull her it would have been for me and not for her..that would have been selfish.

 

[Lacy Blues]

She would not have made it through this winter..if i did not cull her it would have been for me and not for her..that would have been selfish.

I can definitely agree with that. Even my Liza, if she looked to me like she wouldn't make it this winter, I would have to buck up and do the deed. I've done it before on others so I guess, if it came right down to it, I could do it.

 

[littlemissstang]

Thank you, delisha! I am trying everything for her. She is my best layer and we actually rescued her from being slaughtered. My husband's friend got her and some others from his Uncle's laying house that he was shutting down. So, we took her! And I have never regretted it! Her name is Digger (my youngest Son named her)lol! And she was my first chicken. We have had her about 8 months now and she is sooo funny! She will run around her area and it's is so funny! She "wobbles" from side to side when she does!

She is the white hen in the picture. She gets to be outside of the pen because my Roo likes to pick on her. But, I do let them out to socialize with each other when I'm outside doing things.

 

[maidenwolfx80]

I have
bantam EE's
LF EE's
golden sebrite
mille fleur d'uccle
buff columbian d'uccle
welsummer
buff rock
buff brahma bantam
LF buff brahma
autralorp
langshan
dark brahma
silver laced wyandottes
RIR
cochin
phoenix
new hampshire red
polish
lots of mixes
narragansett turkey
black spanish turkey

 

[seamsewnice]

Just wanted to add how much disappointment it has been to have the OT’s (Al, Walt, Fred’s hens and Beekissed) disappear. They brought so much flair to BYC. The teaching methods they employed were so valuable, each in there own style. Sometimes had me laughing a good belly laugh, sometimes there were sad times and such a wealth of knowledge among them all! I gathered so much from all the things they shared and do hope they haven’t been permanently culled. Beekissed, I’ve since come to the conclusion, that her “kiss method”—keep it simple stupid really helped me to keep on the road to having chickens as I had all but decided to drop it after 2 ½ years, with the birds getting so ratty, loses to illness and then following her GB really opened my eyes and helped me to turn round my birds and help me to get back on the wagon. She taught me to look at my birds more critically and most of all she taught me what to look for to improve their health. My birds will be very grateful to her. She’d be downright impressed with the progress of my flocks, tho, I didn’t share a lot I was among those lurkers that just simply gleaned and learned all I could from her. She added more knowledge than chicken knowledge sometimes one had to read and read to find a useful nugget but then there it was. Her “porch” was a refreshing, hospitable and much needed approach to chickens. The knowledge she so willing shared was next to none, really knowledge that so many need on this forum. As I was noticing on her threads that got “frayed” she had changed her signature line: “Bee's preference in blog sites about chickens? Only those written and hosted by the true Bee, not those who would exploit the information”. This leads me to believe that she was having sort of problem leading up to her disappearance with how things were going. Hopefully after she has had time to evaluate how much she really contributed she will be back, along with her buddies(Al, Fred, Walt among others). I know old timers don’t like change, but this new thread has brought many of the GB along and so far seems to have picked up many new ones all interested in a natural way of keeping birds.