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Trimurtisan said:
Well I finally found a home for jerk face. When Cleo was there she helped keep him in check, now that she's gone he's running rampid. I'm pretty sure he's attacking my guinea fowl as well, to which I would really like those guys to get along with my chickens. I'm not the biggest fan of guineas but I still don't want them being abused. I wish he was a little bit nicer, I do think his plumage is very attractive, but he has become a risk to the other birds in my opinion, far beyond just pecking order

If you've ever been curious with a face of the jerk looks like oh, this is it!View attachment 1835455 View attachment 1835457 View attachment 1835454

At one point I was ready to just cull him, but fortunately it's not going to happen. I know I get real sentimental when it comes to my animals dying, but I have no qualms dispatching a threat to my animals, and that's the category he had been put in. Fortunately for jerkface, he will be the only rooster on-premises there. The guy has four hens that are all bantams, and wants some more chicks. I told him jerk face was just a barnyard mix, and he did not care. I showed him a picture of the plumage and he was happy as could be, I even told him I thought he was a big jerk.

The conversation went something like this...
"How much money would you like for him? "
"I'll give you a weeks worth of food to come pick him up tomorrow! "

So bye bye and good luck jerk face.
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He’s a cutie. But I agree with you
 
Alright folks, I could use some opinions, critiquing, constructive criticism or however you would like to put it.

It's a bit of a read, so thank you to those who make it to the end. :D
Here's some tunes to enjoy on your stay. ;)
Today we have an artist new to me, but I've really enjoyed her swing and jazz influences the last few days. Then Johnny Cash is well... Johnny Cash! No intro needed. :D
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I'm strongly considering getting all the chickens back into good health, and getting rid of the Barnyard Bantam mix. With my emotional attachment to animals, I got to be a little careful having fragile animals. To the best of my understanding they're not going to be a reliable eggs source. Their expected jobs are to hatch eggs, but there might not be any broody moody girls in this batch. It's not like there's a dozen Silkies. So I look at them purely as pets, and that means 100% emotional attachment.

Being I'm on the lower end of experience with birds, I've been using my experience with breeding plants to judge this potential decision.
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When it comes to plants, I'm extremely weary of using genetics that have not been proven. There's obviously outliers, but if you start with solid genetics then add solid genetics, most times you end with solid genetics. When working with polyhybrid (a hybrid whose parents differ in a number of characters : an individual or group heterozygous for more than one pair of genes, AKA barnyard mixes) plants, you can open some extremely neat recessive traits, but you can also open a whole slew of weaknesses. I do make and grow polyhybrid plants, but only for fun, and if they fail, oh well. Being I know failure is a higher risk, I can just accept failure from the start. When growing out these projects, if it is dioecious (having the male and female reproductive organs in separate individuals) I will cull all the males. if it is monoecious (having both the male and female reproductive organs in the same individual; hermaphrodite) I will not grow anything else that it can cross pollinate with. I like my genetics clean, preserved, and to be what I say they are.
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If I applied that to the Bantams, I would have never got them. I do still enjoy them, and this is where the obvious differences of plants and animals come in, but looking at the black and white, the Barnyard Bantams where a "bad" choice. I didn't pay for them, so the investment is minimal, and I would have no problem giving them to someone who would enjoy them.
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What I would like to do is replace them with a few (3-4) large fowl for egg production. The ducks are going to be providing plenty of eggs here soon, so I'm not exactly going to need them, but it gives the birds a specific job. By having something specific it's expected to do, it takes a bit of the emotional attachment away (though it's admittedly minimal).
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A larger fowl is less likely to be picked off by hawks to which have already killed 3 of my small birds. When and if we have to many eggs to eat, I can always sell the remaining. Part of my end goal is to make money with the birds, and eggs help. ;)
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I'm a bit confused as what I want to do. I'm okay with having all of them as just pets, but I can't handle it very well when my pets are dieing in numbers. I just get to attached and it really makes me depressed. With more experience, I do not expect them to continue to die off, but this has been a rough learning experience for me, and I am just trying to remove emotion from my decision making. I'm trying to look at more of what I should do vs what I want to do to meet my end goals.
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My general end goal to breed and sell some birds. Selling eggs for eating, and potentially for hatching. I absolutely love breeding, so potentially getting specific blood lines is a serious consideration once my experience is up to par. I'm not looking to get rich, but if I can get it to the point that the animals are paying for their own feed, additions of new blood, and maybe enough for a nice night out time to time with my family would be nice.
IMG_3169.JPG

(This tree is at a local park. Growing up I spent hundreds of hours in it. Called it my thinkin' tree. It's still alive and hopefully one day my boys can do some thinkin' in it too. It's not even a mile from our house.)
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Chickens where never part of the plan, and it was a total impulse. Now though, I'm not sure I could just give up on them. I've become extremely fond of them. Anywho, I'm not really sure how to end this, but I would appreciate any opinions on the matter.

Thanks folks! :D
 
Chris, Finding your true end game with poultry can be very challenging. I've been through a handful of breeds and have finally settled on the RIW and BH for my breeding program. I new sell eating eggs, hatching eggs*, day old chicks* and grown pullets/cockerels. I'll ship those with the *.

First figure out what the market wants and be sure it's not a fad. Compare that to what you want and that will give you a framework to base you end game plan.

Hope that helps...
 
rjohns39 said:
Chris, Finding your true end game with poultry can be very challenging. I've been through a handful of breeds and have finally settled on the RIW and BH for my breeding program. I new sell eating eggs, hatching eggs*, day old chicks* and grown pullets/cockerels. I'll ship those with the *.

First figure out what the market wants and be sure it's not a fad. Compare that to what you want and that will give you a framework to base you end game plan.

Hope that helps...
Click to expand...
Thank you for the advice Bob. :)

I've had quite a few conversations with the lady that breed our guineas. She's been very open in regards to her sales and her most solid breed is RIR. She doesn't sell eggs, just birds. When I spoke to her about getting a protective rooster, she said that was also her go to breed. She did mention her best RIR rooster was a mean ole bugger to her, but a complete gentleman to his hen's. She said the next best thing was the Easter Eggers, and everybody wanted the colored eggs . She also said Seramas did well, but they did follow a trend.

My Seramas are not show quality and are not worth much, but a lower price would hopefully help drive increased sales as pets.

I'd expect the Ayam Cemani to be trendy, but I like the rarity for myself. If they don't sell very often that'll be okay.

I tend to fall into trends myself. Our dogs are the only hairless breed from America, the Serama chicken was quickly added to the roster after meeting one, and I researched that Ayam Cemani like they held the answers to the universe. So as you mentioned, I'll try and not do that for the purpose of selling.

In general I don't expect to be selling birds anytime in the next year or even more. I'm okay with being patient in regards to getting it right but I would like to have a good starting spot.

So is RIW, Rhode Island White? And what is BH? I'm still learning the abbreviations. :plbb
 

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