The road less traveled...back to good health! They have lice, mites, scale mites, worms, anemia, gl

[aoxa]

Anyone else want to chime in on why you got your birds and why you chose the breeds you got? I'll try to work on it tomorrow to get some of these answers consolidated and see if I can come up with some advice on what breeds I think will be suitable...though there are many, many suitable breeds for any given purpose but I can give you some info about the breeds I have had and why. 

Didn't I answer this a few weeks ago?

Took me forever to answer

Though a lot of the reasons I expanded certain breeds were due to demand, and others I really wanted to help preserve.

I have my red sex links for eggs. I don't find they burn out as fast as other people mention. At least mine don't, but then I don't force feed light.

 

[aoxa]

For the next quiz on the OT....take the plunge.  Fear is not an option. 

I couldn't find the first part of the quiz

What page is it on?

 

[IttyBiddyRedHen]

We got chickens in 2011 because DH grew up with them and wanted some. For eggs mostly. I am just a city kid. It's all new to me. But we are on our 2nd flock. The first were oegb....former birds raised for fighting, but had been set free a few years back. So they were half wild when DH was offered some chicks for free. We had 13 then, 7 roos and 6 hens. We had to cull the extra roos 3 months later, when they all reached sexual maturity at once. So, we ended up with 1 roo and 6 hens for a year.
We bought 11 plymouth rock chicks back in May 2012. 1 chick died, one roo we gave away, and the game rooster killed one of our barred rock hens. He was culled the next day.
So, now..we have 8 plymouth rocks, and 3 game hens left. The pr hens just started laying eggs.
All of the chickens are healthy, and have never, yet...had illness, mites, pasty butt, issues. Just some injuries here and there. I am learning this chicken keeping life, and have picked up alot of great info from Bee and others on BYC and the FF thread, and the gnarly thread.
I recently started the ff on them all, and they gobbled it down for 2 weeks straight. Only this past weekend have they started to cut back. So I have cut back their feed amounts.

 

[aoxa]

Anyone ever see this? God it had me laughing so hard. Drop the food kid! DROP THE FOOD! The fluidity of those birds is something else!

 

[maryhysong]

Anyone else want to chime in on why you got your birds and why you chose the breeds you got? I'll try to work on it tomorrow to get some of these answers consolidated and see if I can come up with some advice on what breeds I think will be suitable...though there are many, many suitable breeds for any given purpose but I can give you some info about the breeds I have had and why.

Some of my current flock happened by chance. I've always loved the looks of Buff Orpingtons and they are supposed to be good winter layers so they were my first choice. When I went to pick up my POL pullets tho the girl had already sold them; that's another story tho. So I got my BO roo and three barred rocks. I lost the BR to the dogs. Later I picked up 4 BO pullets. I have 2 of them and the roo left after the dogs.

A friend gave me some older Welsummers because she was thinning down and wants to concentrate on her Buttercups. She also gave me some pullet chicks that look like Buttercup XWellie crosses.

And I bought EEs for the extra colors in the egg basket as I will be selling eggs at the farmer's market next summer.

I wanted the Black Copper Marans because they are a DP bird, the roos are beautiful as are the hens and they lay chocolate eggs. The breed also needs dedicated breeders that will actually kill their culls and not pass them on when they are poor quality birds.

Part of the plan is to have stock that is reasonably SOP so that I can sell to the 4H kids, there not being anyone around here that breeds and hatches much of anything, except occasional mutts.

 

[aoxa]

Anyone else want to chime in on why you got your birds and why you chose the breeds you got? I'll try to work on it tomorrow to get some of these answers consolidated and see if I can come up with some advice on what breeds I think will be suitable...though there are many, many suitable breeds for any given purpose but I can give you some info about the breeds I have had and why. 

Some of my current flock happened by chance. I've always loved the looks of Buff Orpingtons and they are supposed to be good winter layers so they were my first choice. When I went to pick up my POL pullets tho the girl had already sold them; that's another story tho. So I got my BO roo and three barred rocks. I lost the BR to the dogs. Later I picked up 4 BO pullets. I have 2 of them and the roo left after the dogs.

A friend gave me some older Welsummers because she was thinning down and wants to concentrate on her Buttercups. She also gave me some pullet chicks that look like Buttercup XWellie crosses.

And I bought EEs for the extra colors in the egg basket as I will be selling eggs at the farmer's market next summer.

I wanted the Black Copper Marans because they are a DP bird, the roos are beautiful as are the hens and they lay chocolate eggs. The breed also needs dedicated breeders that will actually kill their culls and not pass them on when they are poor quality birds.

Part of the plan is to have stock that is reasonably SOP so that I can sell to the 4H kids, there not being anyone around here that breeds and hatches much of anything, except occasional mutts.

Note that pure Ameraucanas are excellent layers when you compare them to EEs. My bantams lay me 3/4 eggs a day at least. Even in these dark times. They were born in February 2012.

My EEs were born in March, and though they all were laying by September, they have ALL quit without added light. 3 of them are molting as well.

I give them credit.. when they do lay, they lay a very nice sized egg, and pretty consistently in the summer. At least the one that started laying late July.

Everyone loves the blue eggs. They really help sell those eggs!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Will we be required to dress like that?
I've got boots but no hat so guess I'll be only half-dressed!

 

[Sally8]

Bee, I'm really glad you asked for us all to respond on our chicken breeds and why. I'm curious to read your answers. I never gave it a thought that it ever mattered but am learning that some types don't do well in hot, cold etc temps. That also holds true for dogs (ex. My avatar dog came as a stray and he was so beautiful we kept him, ignorant to the fact of how much energy he would have and that he needed a purpose. Not just herding cats and knocking us all over with his exurbance. By the time he was 6 mo and we took him to a sheep and cow farm, he was terrified. In his best interest, we should have found a home for him where he could fulfill his purpose. We were very selfish in that respect. He's now 10 or so.). Some chickens are very beautiful but not at all useful. Waiting to hear..............

 

[off-grid hen]

Being the product of carpenters and lumberjacks, I had never been around livestock. My parents and grandparents always had a big garden, and we canned a fair amount. Most people hunt for meat where I live. My dad personally never hunted. FF to twelve years ago... I found a great guy and moved into his cabin in the woods. No power, no running water. Together we installed solar panels and got some modern conveniences. I listed to hubby talk about a few of his childhood years spent at his stepfather's farm in England. I kept asking about chickens, Just a few for eggs. He kept saying no. We generally have mistrusting views regarding the food system. I garden and can, so I kept dreaming of chickens. Then I changed jobs. A coworker is a farmer. She and her retired army hubby raise highland beef, pork, chickens, and turkeys to sell. She talked me into it, and I was able to talk hubby into it.

I had no idea what I was doing in choosing breeds. I was going in on an order with other people, and the order was put in late in the season, so I had very little selection on which chicks I got. I stupidly selected breeds for coloring because I had read in the hatchery's catalog about hawks supposedly being less able to spot partridge and barring from above. (Yeah right!). Due to slim pickings, I ended up with partridge rocks, brown leghorns, and Dominiques. I figured I would have lots of predator losses, so I got 5 of each. I wanted to provide eggs for my family of 3, MIL, my parents, and my grandmother.

I loved the whole experience, so this spring I wanted eye candy in the egg carton, but also a multicolored flock. So I got A welsummer, a BCM, a barnevelder, some EE's and a couple of red stars.

Now I am ready to take the plunge and raise some for meat. I don't know if want dual purpose, or just separate meat birds. I will try out be or two DP to see if I get the egg numbers I want. I haven't tried any of the PR's for meat yet. Don't know if it's what I will want or not. I don't even really know what is realistic expectation for a DP bird, I guess. I have treated this whole chicken experience like a big experiment. Heck, I treat life like a big experiment.

 

[off-grid hen]

Y'all had a clue about that first one's body shape.  Remember Speckled Suzy?  Dumpy, full of fat, no good ovary to speak of?  Look familiar?

Yes. My first thought when I first glanced at the photos was "kill the fat one!" There's a lot I don't know, but I do know that production "breeds" aren't supposed to look pudgy.