The Old Folks Home

[drumstick diva]

imagining "puppy roosters," makes me

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Cattle has now usurped beans. In case anyone was wondering.
Moo.

 

[ronott1]

imagining "puppy roosters," makes me

Yes!

I really like the new Del roosters and the Pita Pinta roosters.

 

[microchick]

We have a number of strictly-house-pet vets that once started out as cattle vets. Big money in being a cattle vet because they're few and far between, so high demand, and can be a big volume clientele depending on the size of the cattle operations. Gotta be hardcore and tough, and the ones I've talked to that have retired to saner critters did so because it was too physically demanding and hard on the body.

IF we decided to put cattle on our property (and per the CC&R's we're allotted two), I'd probably go mini Jersey or Dexter. But I doubt I ever will because of coyotes and a desire to have my orchard lawn stay that way and not be reduced to a dusty wallow.

It's true what was said about hatching vigor. We had an aggressive Emden goose (Atilla) who was basically a feathered Rottweiler. I could always tell his eggs in the incubator because they violently rocked before hatching. No problems selling his goslings, either, as they were little bulldozers in the brooder.

Love all the cattle pics!

Same here with the vets. Our local vet does the bulk of his business with large animals and has a huge building with pens for cattle and horses that are being treated on site. He's in the field more than in the office due to the cattle he is dealing with and I often get the feeling that dealing with small pets is more of a public service to him than a calling...although he does a really good job with them.

Around us, especially with the Amish, it's not the number of cattle that their acreage can support but the number of cattle they can squeeze into a few acres. Most of the pasture on their farms is WAY overgrazed. I remember the ex-owner of our farm being here about a year after we bought the place and decided to let the pastures and timber repair itself . The pasture grass was knee high, mixed with clover. He looked at it and asked if that is what it would have looked like if he had pulled his livestock off of it for a year and we told him yes. You could just see the gears clicking in his head.

I'm very concerned with the hatching vigor of my flock. I have one little pullet from last June in our shop now because she just isn't thriving and developing as she should be and a cockerel with the flock that is the same way. I've put a hold on hatching any more chicks from my Buff O's for the summer and am concentrating on bringing in some new eggs from established flocks around us to hatch. I bought from an established NPIP breeder only to learn later that he was getting his breeding stock not from another established breeder but from a hatchery. If only I had known then what I know now................

I have to agree. I really appreciate the majesty and power of a bull. Really impressive pictures of that boy.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Grain farming is technically "king" here. Not as many people have cattle anymore with everything that's involved with them. But as far as livestock, cattle would be king. I always found it humorous when we used to show at the Canadian Western Agribition...how the cattle producers looked down at the sheep...

Some of us had cattle too...but we were commercial breeders and not purebred breeders. But I mean...every type of livestock has it's place.

Most of the vets around here do everything. There's no avian vets for sure...but I never really thought of vets in the country changing to smaller species from large animal vets. That's really interesting. Our vets are about our age. So far they still do all types of animals. (Except llamas) I see them getting older. So I have to think, I guess that must mean we are doing the same.

Ron, those are BEAUTIFUL!!!

"Aggressive" was maybe a poor choice of words. (which it why I shouldn't post at night)

It didn't convey what I was trying to say. Good doing? That's still not what I want to say. The breeder was meaning the animals that dug in and did well. Not aggressive with each other per say...but aggressive with life? You know the ones that get in there and do well as opposed to the ones that are easier going and stand back and may be pushed out of the way a bit.

I've got a few roosters, and hens I can think of off the top of my head...who just hatched right out kung foo fighting and have sailed through the whole experience a head above the rest. They "may" not be my favorites or as sweet as some of the others...but they're getting the job done with flying colors. Or some of the exquisitely tiny chickens I have that have held their own all this time against my biggest chickens and flourished. Maybe vigor is the word I should have stuck with? I agree with you that in chickens there are a lot of other factors.


We have two Charolais bulls from the same breeder; one's 11

and one would be 4 now. The 11 year old has lovely vigorous calves...the new bull's going down the road because his calves aren't vigorous. We've bought 2 of those Charolaise bulls lately and are disappointed. We're no longer buying from that breeder. It's interesting how their selection process has influenced such a change.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Lol...the pic of that black bull is taken at the feedlot where all the bulls are measured for performance from the fall. Those are all bulls he's standing with. We walked into the middle of that corral to look at him amidst all those bulls. It was nice to be out of that pen.

For me, it seems I'm getting higher numbers of chicks from specific hens. Especially the first chicks I hatched from the 3+ week old eggs. I haven't been setting as many of theirs as some of the large fowl, but I've got as many chickens from them. If I'm hatching much this year. I should be able to figure out more because it will be dedicated breeding's with selected pairs.

 

[ronott1]

Grain farming is technically "king" here. Not as many people have cattle anymore with everything that's involved with them. But as far as livestock, cattle would be king. I always found it humorous when we used to show at the Canadian Western Agribition...how the cattle producers looked down at the sheep...

Some of us had cattle too...but we were commercial breeders and not purebred breeders. But I mean...every type of livestock has it's place.

Most of the vets around here do everything. There's no avian vets for sure...but I never really thought of vets in the country changing to smaller species from large animal vets. That's really interesting. Our vets are about our age. So far they still do all types of animals. (Except llamas) I see them getting older. So I have to think, I guess that must mean we are doing the same.

Ron, those are BEAUTIFUL!!!

"Aggressive" was maybe a poor choice of words. (which it why I shouldn't post at night)

It didn't convey what I was trying to say. Good doing? That's still not what I want to say. The breeder was meaning the animals that dug in and did well. Not aggressive with each other per say...but aggressive with life? You know the ones that get in there and do well as opposed to the ones that are easier going and stand back and may be pushed out of the way a bit.

I've got a few roosters, and hens I can think of off the top of my head...who just hatched right out kung foo fighting and have sailed through the whole experience a head above the rest. They "may" not be my favorites or as sweet as some of the others...but they're getting the job done with flying colors. Or some of the exquisitely tiny chickens I have that have held their own all this time against my biggest chickens and flourished. Maybe vigor is the word I should have stuck with? I agree with you that in chickens there are a lot of other factors.


We have two Charolais bulls from the same breeder; one's 11

and one would be 4 now. The 11 year old has lovely vigorous calves...the new bull's going down the road because his calves aren't vigorous. We've bought 2 of those Charolaise bulls lately and are disappointed. We're no longer buying from that breeder. It's interesting how their selection process has influenced such a change.

Gottcha about aggressive.

The boy in the first picture is the father to the one I am holding. Everyone that has them is very impressed with the Pita Pinta cock birds.

 

[chickadoodles]

Ron your birds are very beautiful!

 

[microchick]

They almost have a Speckled Sussex look about them, only larger.

 

[Kusanar]

My mom worked at a VA hospital for a while and they had a soldier come in, he was in Vietnam and tried to go AWOL, stole a motorcycle and took off through the jungle with his lights off... He might have made it, had he not hit a water buffalo... When they found him, the buffalo was still stomping him and the motorcycle... He wasn't expected to ever leave the hospital and even if he did, he was facing charges for going AWOL...