The Old Folks Home

[vehve]

Deb, tough decisions, weighing what's best for you and what's best for the animal, and trying to make the best of the situation. The continuing drought might eventually make it impossible for you to keep her on your land. I'd say most working animals are happiest when they're given a chance to work. However, my experience comes from dogs, I haven't spent much time around horses. I did meet the most adorable little pony on Saturday though. It was a horrid little pig, for treats it would stand on it's hind legs or shake hands with you. Fat too, it kept walking around the stable looking for something to eat. The owner said she would like to keep it together with her real horse, as they're such good friends, but the little guy would eat way too much if it had the same access to feed as the bigger one requires, so they had to have a wall between them.

 

[chickadoodles]

It's a little shaky Diva but here ya go.

 

[Puddin Fluff]

Don't worry, Israeli scientists are working on growing chicken meat in a Petri dish. I don't think it will be all that tasty though...

Diva, of course the word 'renowned' is of Finnish origin. Here is the not at all fictitious etymology of the word:

Back in the 7th century, a Viking chieftain named Reijo lived in Pohjanmaa, on the west coast of Finland. Reijo was know to his friends as "Ren". Now, Reijo was a bit of an collector of all things pretty and valuable, if there was ever a person that became famous for some reason, he just had to have him or her in his collection of slaves, and so pretty soon everyone started to refer to valuable slaves as Reijo's property. From there, it evolved to "Reijo-owned", and since Reijo was called "Ren", it soon became "Ren-owned". Over the years, as the Finnish Vikings plundered all of Europe, all the other languages were influenced by the Finnish culture and language, and so also Gallic languages picked up this term, and from there it trickled down into English. Over the years, the term has evolved slightly, and it's true origins have been forgotten, but still we refer to people with great skill and knowledge as "renowned".

And there you have the completely true history of the word "renowned". Some books will claim the word to be of 14th century French origin, but these writings fail to recognize the effect of Finnish Vikings on the evolution of languages in Europe. You see, the world of language studies is highly racist towards Finns. Another example would be what we today refer to as "French fries". They used to be known all over as "Finnish fries", but the French language researchers and culinarists have managed to erase all connections to the true origins of the dish.

We sooooo need a tiny Viking emotocon!

Good morning, folks!

Mornin... not up for the night ... just doing "alls well" I get up around 2:30 am sometimes to make sure everyone is in bed as they should be.... as it is my son was asleep in his chair... Just me getting up made him wake up and go to bed...

Now I am up for a little while because I have something I need to research... then back to bed hopefully for the rest of the night.

deb

Hope you got some sleep. Animals are like family and they can be difficult to let go of, but if you know the person taking them it does make it easier. Kinda like sending a kid off to college. Maybe you can visit, if they are not too busy for you.

 

[vehve]

Okay, a bit of a sexing puzzle for everyone to think about.

Sire @ 4 weeks, the lighter one. Note the pronounced comb.



Dam @ 3 weeks, the bird on the bottom left. Note the dark legs and beak, and lack of comb. Now look at the two other birds in the picture, both grew up to be cockerels. Note the yellow legs and beak, and pronounced comb.


Then a few shots of the chicks @ 3 weeks. They were not so cooperative, but I got a few pics. All of them have dark legs and some dark coloring in the beaks. None of them seem to have pronounced combs.










Based on these pics, what would you guys say about the sex of the chicks, if anything? Is there a possibility their could be some leg/beak color autosexing being inherited only from the maternal side? I know the sample size is somewhat limited, but still.

 

[ronott1]

Okay, a bit of a sexing puzzle for everyone to think about.

Sire @ 4 weeks, the lighter one. Note the pronounced comb.



Dam @ 3 weeks, the bird on the bottom left. Note the dark legs and beak, and lack of comb. Now look at the two other birds in the picture, both grew up to be cockerels. Note the yellow legs and beak, and pronounced comb.


Then a few shots of the chicks @ 3 weeks. They were not so cooperative, but I got a few pics. All of them have dark legs and some dark coloring in the beaks. None of them seem to have pronounced combs.










Based on these pics, what would you guys say about the sex of the chicks, if anything? Is there a possibility their could be some leg/beak color autosexing being inherited only from the maternal side? I know the sample size is somewhat limited, but still.

The only color autosexing of skin and etc. was with some slkies--and i do not necessarily believe it. Leg and beak color is not normally associated with gender.

The chick with the pink wattles at week 6 is likely a boy.

 

[vehve]

Ron, no 6 week olds in the pics. The first two pics are the parents, their genders are known as they're about a year old at the moment. If you're referring to the bird in the 4th picture, that's actually the adopted mother of the chicks, a one year old broody, she's the sister of the sire. She's also molting at the moment, and that's why she looks a bit interesting.

 

[Puddin Fluff]

@vehve

I don't know about the skin auto-sexing but I agree that the one with the comb is most likely a boy.

Believe it or not, in my August hatch, I had a cochin chick that hatched with a pronounced comb and he was a he. I saw him in the bator still wet and said "well, I've got at least one boy".

 

[vehve]

Puddin, I should clarify, the first two pictures are old pictures of the parent stock at 3 or 4 weeks, I gave them as a point of reference. The four last pics are of the current chicks I've got.

 

[ronott1]

Ron, no 6 week olds in the pics. The first two pics are the parents, their genders are known as they're about a year old at the moment. If you're referring to the bird in the 4th picture, that's actually the adopted mother of the chicks, a one year old broody, she's the sister of the sire. She's also molting at the moment, and that's why she looks a bit interesting.

I see now!

You will need to wait until they are at least 6 weeks old.

 

[vehve]

Ron, yes, the first picture is most certainly a rooster.

Here he is on the left at about a year of age. That pic, like the second one is of the parent stock (hence the labels "Sire" and "Dam" above the first two pictures. I'm just trying to compare the current chicks to their parents at a similar age, but I didn't have a pic of the sire at 3 weeks.