The Old Folks Home

[gryeyes]

I just love this shot. I have been removing bits of flotsam and jetsam from the waterfall rocks to improve the stream drops into this or that pool and became entranced with the growth in the mosses. Oooooh.

We were absolutely flabbergasted to see a street sweeper swoosh the roads out here. C'mon! STREET sweeper? I had passed it on Mt. Aukum/E16 earlier in the day and was wondering what the heck it was doing out here... We don't have streets out here - they're all ROADS and Perry Creek Rd is one of those .... Forget what it's called when pea gravel is imbedded in the slurry. The sweeper flung the gravel everywhere. It made three passes at that corner, flinging gravel into the Pub parking lot. A real "Huh?" 45 minutes for us local folk.

My "watering hole." Still waiting for some BYCers to show up for a good draft brew, glass of wine from local wineries, or made-from-scratch meals. Or a dart game. That's a real, wood-fired pizza oven at the front of the place.

And here's the sign for the hardware/etc. store where I sell some of my eggs. The sign is much fancier than the establishment.

 

[Cynthia12]

Our new grandson Evan James and his proud Paw Paw

We are also expecting another grand child..and a great grand child this year..number 33 grand child on it's way..and we know it's a boy..their third.

Your little guy here is soo darling! Nice weight too. Do all of your grand children call him paw paw? That's cute? Are you maw maw?

 

[chickadoodles]

ChickenCanoe:
Quote:
This is the kind of coconut oil we use. They frequently have buy 1 get 1 free sales.
http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/virgin_coconut_oil.htm?utm_source=SalesEmailMon&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Coconut%2BOil

They also carry organic grass fed bison.


Thank you I will have to get some and try it.

Quote: Congratulations on the grandson. 7/10, that's a keeper.

Thank you we are so excited!

• chickisoup
  

Quote: Thank you Dragonfly, I have not tried it. I will see if I can find some and try it.

Walmart. Don't be thrown by the price. It is in solid form and a very little goes a very long way. Oh, and it's so clean and very yummy!!!!

Thank you I will get some and try it.

 

[chickadoodles]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

Thank you chickisoup!

 

[chickadoodles]

We are also expecting another grand child..and a great grand child this year..number 33 grand child on it's way..and we know it's a boy..their third.

Your little guy here is soo darling! Nice weight too. Do all of your grand children call him paw paw? That's cute? Are you maw maw?

Thanks Cynthia.
Congrats to you on your up coming 33rd grand child! WOW!

Thank you. Some of the kids call him Pops, Grandpa, Paw Paw all the kids call me Grandma.

I don't think I will see that many grands and great grands but who knows?

 

[CanuckBock]

They're frequent setters. I only had 3 raise a clutch last year but once I had 9 pullets sharing a community nest and 8 of them went broody within days of each other. The lone girl out was lonely and didn't know what was wrong with her friends.

Here's one of my cockerels. Long and lean but looks just like the processed birds in Spain that are renown for flavor and have an annual festival to celebrate them. They also keep the head and legs on at the market so one knows that they are getting the real deal they are paying $50 for.



Jason has done a great job of getting the club/website rebooted. Organized group? IMO there are probably only 6 or so people that have had them that long and not all varieties.

IMO the carnation comb is fairly dominant. The white lobes, less so.







You probably know more about genetics than I but I'm trying to learn. I think it will be easier for me since I'm only working on black feathers.

The side sprigs start showing up within days on some of the cockerels.
Some of my hens have very floppy combs, some are more upright. Some flop too much, some not enough. Most of the roosters are appropriate. I'll worry about the hens combs later.
I have some issues with white mottling (mostly in hens) the occasional copper hackle in a rooster. Those flaws have been in the breed in Spain for a long time though so I'm not freaking out about it.
I'm trying to gather the funds for Sigrid Van Dort's books on feather genetics and genetic extremes.
I actually e-mailed her and she said carnation combs weren't in her book and she wasn't real familiar. When did you get her info about them?

Setters eh? I jest LUV natural hatches...can't shrug off that it is what is the most natural and SO RIGHT for poultry to be doing. An incubator just never seems quite right compared to a henny penny lookin' after the brood, teaching them how to be proper decent CHICKENS.

​

Made up a mixture of mashed up hard boiled egg yolk with yoghurt (good bugs for the guts) that I add chick starter crumbles and No. 1 granite grit to for the babes to eat.

I know, I KNOW! What EVER has my life come to...a COOKING FOR the CHICKENS!

Pewter holding mushy egg yolk/yoghurt/starter for the two hatchlings to eat. Wish I could post the sounds of all the happy peeps and hen purrs!​

Very interesting for a Leggyhorn type looker to wanna raise up the babies. What a neat breed!

Intriguing with the dark egg and white in earlobes...please, explain where white is allowed and not allowed on the Pennies...I am curious if the males can have not only the white in earlobe but is it allowed to creep into the face and eye lid? Where exactly is white allowed? Fully white lobe or just partial white in the red????

Black feathers...with a beetle green sheen or violet or bronze or blue or dull or???

Love that the legs look to be allowed to be dark or black...that messing with black plumage in combo with a yeller leg...agh...some people have issues with clean yellow legs in a black feathered bird...that at least makes your colour lot in the breed easier to achieve.



How wonderful that Spain supports this breed of bird with a festival and that identifying a chicken for consumption as the glorious Penedescena means a premium price is received. We all should be so lucky to tweak our geographical markets to maintain our heritage poultry like this.

Hmm, a breed that lays a darker egg than even Marans and Welsummers, meat is delicious and a coveted prize...all I can see against its popularity is what I personally have problems with; comb type/large facial gear! Because of our severe climate, a single comb breed is a challenge here. Contrary to popular belief that male chickens won't tuck, Albertan single combed roos tuck their heads under their wing here in winter or lose their pointy serrations to freezing!


Red Junglefowls have red lobes with a bit of white on them--they are considered wild type. Unfortunately, the inheritance of white in the earlobe is unknown at this time. Best bet is to breed from what you like and make selections from the offspring as adults, not really young stocks...give them time to develop this colour expression. Keep in mind, males by their gender ALWAYS will express more white than females. If identical in all but gender, males will have more white. One of the reasons why we NEVER use a male with white in any amount in his lobes IF that breed is to have red earlobes, not white ones. A female that lays will draw pigments from herself to make her eggs (why yellow legs are the most vivid when a hen is not laying up a storm of cackleberries--her pigment vat is FULL). Lack of access to sunshine will make red lobes seem paler too as does health status...a sick chicken is not a vibrantly coloured chook--dull and pale, lack of blood circulating.

I say again, glad you chose a simpler variety such as self-black because we often see a divergence in attributes like depth of egg colour when we throw on other pressures like the difficult Partridge pattern...you can focus on other necessary wannas over an easier to achieve colour like self-black. There IS a reason why Best in Show is most often self white or black...way easier to get it going on; less colour faults to correct or maintain.

Do not be too tough on this breed for depth of colour in the egg in combination with huge production of said eggs. A female has only so much pigment to put towards her eggs and the shell pigments, we often see the first egg after a rest or the beginning of the laying cycle as the darkest of what she produces...then the tint begins to deplete and the eggs get lighter with each consecutive egg laid. To have the most darkest of eggs all the time...that hen would have to be conservative about how many eggs she lays each round of production. You got a balancing act to follow; darkest of eggs or MORE eggs but not as dark all the time!


IF, and I say IF the unwanted mottling you are seeing is due to the recessive mottling allele...then it can remain hidden in a line and POP up when each of the parents (not mottled themselves) contribute one allele each for mo to make progeny that are pure for mottling (mo/mo). I breed Mille de Fleur Booted Bantams...we WANT purity for mottling. MDF is a challenge because some chicks are born with no white, others too much...and like Goldilock's demands, some just right.

Chick on left will grow into a better specimen for MDF than chick no right which is already expressing TOO much white!​

Similar to the Ancona which is to have a very precise pattern...there is a relatively short window of opportunity to show a perfect mottled specimen, whatever variety it is labelled as, before the bird goes over the top and moults out into too white of plumage. If you show Anconas, you have to have the willingness to have a continuous flow of show specimens coming up the ranks...not an issue when stringmen had flocks in the tens of thousands (egg layers, meat production--showing the cream of the crop that rise to the top...production of sheer numbers to select from guaranteed quality) but not a real joy to someone with a small backyard coop and room for two dozen chooks that wants exhibition specimens. Partridge, self-buff and MDF are just some of the varieties which are a sure set up to disappoint people that can't produce and keep back the top three percent of what they breed up in a season for breeding onwards with. Now self-black and white varieties, there's where you can relax and may often produce WAY less to get them jest right. I only needed three generations in my bantam Chantecler project to produce exhibition whites...the buff and the partridge...HA, those ones will take effort and more generations.

Plus or minus modifiers, age and environment (feather growth rate; genetic &/or how the bird is kept) play a role in when or even IF a specimen makes the grade to express perfect mottling for that variety and breed. I don't show any landfowl for fear of bringing home Chronic Respiratory Disease, so I simply do not care when "exactly" a specimen is show worthy, only that I remember if I want photos of that one looking its best, that remember to stop and take pics before it goes over the top.

Keep also in mind that some of the white expressed in feathers can be attributed to age greying where pigment cells get tired as they age and stop producing pigments...NO pigment = white.

There are only two pigments in birds; black (eumelanin) and red (phaeomelanin)...no colour is white. The shiny aspect to feathers is due to oils from the preen glands and/or bubbles in the feather (think hummingbirds!), the structure of the feather lends to the reflective brilliance our eyes see...think male hackle and the edging...some glitter like Christmas tinsel.

​

Note the "transverse groove" on back 1/3 half of this cushion combed male Chantecler. Genetically expected from pea & rose combs...see the hairs in the comb? Cushion...




Page 47 of Genetics of the Chicken Extremes.

You hit the "language barrier." Just like my Aussie Black Swan Piper, he is a direct Holland import and I dunna speak his language so well... Sigi speaks Dutch so if you had said "Carnation" or "King" comb...I bet she got lost in the translation and never made the connection. It was Penedescenas which she mentioned having side springs which was a DQ in other breeds but wanted in this one.

I looked up your breed in David Scrivener's Rare Poultry Breeds and he more or less says the Internet has greater amounts of info on them. He does mention that the Spanish Empordanesas also have the same comb type and comments "Genetically, they are probably related to cup combs." Your Penes lay a darker egg than these Empordanesas do, coming in a Buff in black, white and blue tailed varieties. No white earlobes either...so the Penedescenas are the only breed known to lay dark eggs with white lobes.

Some tidbits of info if you want studies that mention this phenomenon in the comb.

Asmundson 1926 studied side sprigs in Leghorns.

Jull and Punnett say it has a relationship to crested too.

Taylor 1946 studied multiplexed combs thru crosses of single to other comb types like rose and pea.


If you are wanting to study inheritance genetics in chickens, best place to start off is Dr. Clive Carefoot's book Creative Poultry Breeding (nfi). Veronica Mayhew over in the UK got special permission from Clive to publish his book (he never wanted it published where they EDITTED it to make it more saleable...his words are good to go as is, where is!). Start with that book (just under 200 pages and worth reviewing cover to cover from time to time) as it is totally AWESOME for us chickeners...I am a huge fan of Carefoot...his sensibility, his humour and the funny things he did like liquor store boxes with setty hens inside--never used incubators.


Dr. Roy Crawford, editor of the poultry "bible" (Poultry Breeding and Genetics) had Dr. Carefoot write the section on breeding. Good ol' Uncle Roy (as he likes to be called) says that Clive was an amateur geneticist and I figure Dr. Carefoot is truly incredible in his ability to make genetics in poultry understandable and USEABLE for us poultry persons.

I would recommend you get Dr. Carefoot's book first, then maybe Sigi's latest book on chicken extremeties. The Colour Genetics one is great for someone really into the colour varieties but if you are only doing self-black, basically all e-series except Wheaten make a great base for Black. Autosomal red will mess with the expression of black and you DO need to keep selection up for the kind of black you want....described in so many ways; green sheen, violet sheen, blue black, brown black, flat or dull black...so when was BLACK ever just BLACK? When a black chicken is based on Wheaten (eWh) along with things like autosomal red, like what you see in a self-buff variety...then you will get red pigments leaking into the black (what you call "copper hackle" perhaps?) ...on the hackle, saddle of males, wing bows. You will also see this if you don't have the proper amount of black enhancers like Melanotic and recessive blacks. Sorta like there was not enough pigment or paint to do a full body cover up--not enough black was extended to the extremeties and fizzled out along the way. A chicken based on Extended Black (E) without proper addition of enough black enhancers will not have the right amount of black to be completely self coloured.

Best advice, keep up selection for the blackest of the blacks you produce. You don't have yellow legs to worry about so go BLACK woman--more than just slimming so you CAN have that extra slice of pie after chores in the cold while it lasts!

​

I have a line of bantam Buff Brahmas (gold Columbian) here where the females ooze ebony...even their irises are dark dark never mind the dark slate down (eb Brown).

Basically, like produces like/like begets like...no real rocket science there. Breed forward from what you want more of and select for excessive expressions until you feel enough is enough.


Quote: alfalfa sprouts
red onion
avocado
English cucumber
tomato
arugula
white cheddar cheese
pumpernickel rye

A much better healthy lunch than we had yesterday...bangers (sliced beef hotdogs) and beans...had a chicken white meat half left over, so made garlic toast grilled marble cheese buns with chicken salad (cubed chicken, mayo, sliced green onions--easy peasy!). I can say the DOGS loved the choice...hotdog slices and chunks of chicken treats from Rick...nummy!

​

Dinner was mashers, asparagus (spring food--yee haw!) and Pork Parmesan. I had no bread crumbs kicking around, so used Corn flakes...timing on that was impeccable.

Pork Parmesan

4 Pork tenderloin cut into steaks
3 tbsp Flour
2 EGGS beaten
1/4 cup Corn Flakes crumbled and sieved OR dried breadcrumbs
1/4 cup Parmesan Spices (Montreal Steak Spice, Parsley)
1 tbsp olive oil

On one plate, flour. Second plate, beaten eggs. Third plate, Corn Flakes and spices. Dip steak in flour, then egg, then in Corn Flake/spices.

​

Large fry pan, put in olive oil, medium heat. Cook until one side of steak is golden brown and cooked throughly. Turn and cook other side.

Enjoy and don't breath on too many people after din din...we are old but not rotten smelling like old nippy cheese...not past the expiry date, eh!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Did you know that Corn Flakes is fifty years old today? That was a steady eddy in my diet....good, bad or neutral...a breakfast of champions....

​

Cornelius or Corny​

Loved this roo a doo Corny staring back at me off the box...funny that he is such a wonderful icon! One of the urban legends is that Mr. Kellog went to a concert and was told by Welsh Harpist, Nansi Richards that the Welsh word for cockerel was "Ceiliog" which sounds alot like Kellog. Interesting bit a trivia.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[Bunnylady]

John the Contractor is meeting me at The Ranch this Saturday to plan construction of a second coop. He has finished his last two jobs for other people. I simply must get more pullets and hens out there so those randy boys stop beating up their brethren and terrorizing the too-few girls.



The property I tried to "advertise" for BYCers to buy, back in September, on the other side of one of my rooster-hating neighbors sold later that month. It was a super deal: 2.65 acres with a little fixer-upper house. It took some time for the new owners to get it all ready for occupancy. In the past few weeks, we have heard the distinctively obvious sounds of a bovine.... I haven't seen it, don't know if it's a cow, steer or bull, but I absolutely love that it's there, bellowing every now and again. (One of the Pub Regulars, who lives on the other side of Mt Aukum Rd nearly opposite the entrance to my road, asked ME if *I* had gotten a cow.). Nope, not me, it's on Star Wizard Road. Heheheh. Take THAT, Mr. Nasty Retiree, who lives in the country but doesn't want to hear "country" sounds.

Oh, gee. What a shame it isn't a mule!

And I hate to say it, Linda, but I have a feeling that you may never get enough females at the Ranch to create peace among the boys. When I had a bunch of chickens free-ranging in my pasture, I had several "family groups" composed of several hens and maybe 2 - 3 roo's; there were a number of roo's that hung out together in a couple "bachelor flocks." The bachelors were just too socially inept, I guess; new hens tended to get absorbed into the family groups with the top-ranking roo's, rather than hooking up with the bachelors. I've noticed that birds raised together continue to hang together. I don't know, maybe if you confined a few hens with one or two roo's for a while, they might continue to hang together once they were returned to the rest of the flock?

We were absolutely flabbergasted to see a street sweeper swoosh the roads out here. C'mon! STREET sweeper? I had passed it on Mt. Aukum/E16 earlier in the day and was wondering what the heck it was doing out here... We don't have streets out here - they're all ROADS and Perry Creek Rd is one of those .... Forget what it's called when pea gravel is imbedded in the slurry.

Is this, like, tarmac rather than asphault?

Our new grandson Evan James and his proud Paw Paw

Congratulations!

 

[CanuckBock]

Tara - the fruit cocktail cake is in the oven as I type. Thanks what an easy recipe. My team will love it. That being said, Airelle you are absolutely right about the sugar and carbs. We need complex carbs, not the refined one. When I was being good, I use to "Eat Clean" which eliminated refined sugars and you cooked from scratch. We eat so many process foods today. I am not innocent in this...fast easy...in a rush. My grandmother lived until she was 94 and her mother was 96. Most of her siblings made it to 90 or 91, with a few exceptions. Her family was self sustaining, raising their own plants and animals for food. They raised, butchered and smoked their meats, canned their fruits and vegetables. She cooked regularly with lard. She ate eggs and bacon and everything else. She also cooked from scratch using whole/slow foods. She only had arthritis in her shoulder because she fell on it walking across wet grass when she was in her 70's.

Glad it tweaked you to try it. The fruit cocktail I buy has no added sugar...at least that seems a healthier choice.

Your post has tweaked a walk down memory lane...

My family on both sides lived to 80's and 90's and ate things like caraway seeded dark breads and of course, that pleasurable thick rind bacon (fruit of the gods-salty, greasy & sweet heaven). Even drained off the fat and used that for cooking...really grosses me out now when I think of it. That coffee cup on the counter, keep adding more; science experiment. Maybe with just a bit of attention to health, I can expect to mimic their life expectancies.

My fav Gran had a turn of the century lot in Winnipeg. Grew corn and veggies...up until she could no longer hire someone to turn it over for her. Horded butter which she left on the shelf to go rancid. Hard times make you a little off...worried about water (metered) and if one used up too much toilet paper. "OK Gran, where's the SEARS (nfi) catalogues?"

Underground chickens...yeh, my Gran was some bad one...in the garden shed were her precious chickens. NOT allowed poultry in the city but you try and stop that spitfire of a woman. Widow with four kids, she use to have the public nurse come by and tell her about the food groups. She tried as best she could but in reality, food was sometimes in short supply. Not just her but for a lot of people back then.

During the war times over in England, fighter pilots signed for the luxury of an egg a day. Rations were one egg per family per week...ONE EGG!

In North America, we raised chickens and shipped eggs over as part as the war efforts...

​

In 1917, it was YOUR patriotic duty to raise chickens! Dunna hafta hold a gun to my head to see the logic there is in raising chooks, eh?

I was told that during the California gold rush (1848–1855), eggs were fifty cents a piece which is $13.60 per egg in 2012 dollars.

I fondly remember my Gran, short as she was wide, but huge in stature in her flowery house dresses, knee high stockings, and the hair style she got done religiously ever few weeks. I know where I got the booming voice and stubbornness...

Thanks Gran--a renegade before her time--I can't help being gob struck over poultry...it's in my very genetics!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[ozexpat]

I just love this shot. I have been removing bits of flotsam and jetsam from the waterfall rocks to improve the stream drops into this or that pool and became entranced with the growth in the mosses. Oooooh.


We were absolutely flabbergasted to see a street sweeper swoosh the roads out here. C'mon! STREET sweeper? I had passed it on Mt. Aukum/E16 earlier in the day and was wondering what the heck it was doing out here... We don't have streets out here - they're all ROADS and Perry Creek Rd is one of those .... Forget what it's called when pea gravel is imbedded in the slurry. The sweeper flung the gravel everywhere. It made three passes at that corner, flinging gravel into the Pub parking lot. A real "Huh?" 45 minutes for us local folk.


My "watering hole." Still waiting for some BYCers to show up for a good draft brew, glass of wine from local wineries, or made-from-scratch meals. Or a dart game. That's a real, wood-fired pizza oven at the front of the place.

And here's the sign for the hardware/etc. store where I sell some of my eggs. The sign is much fancier than the establishment.

i feel a spring road trip coming on

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I had to interject and share, since my daughter seems so excited.

This is her FB post.
"I'm so lucky. living! in Koh Rong Island, Cambodia."

She texted this morning that she has her own beach bungalow, and is trekking through the interior jungle across the island tomorrow with 2 girlfriends to a secluded beach.
She said they only have electricity from 6-10 PM.
Really, isn't that all you need?

I imagine beach pictures will be forthcoming. It might have to wait till she gets back to the mainland.