Utah!

[ElkMtnCove]

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I checked w/the DH since he's the one that 'does the deed' and he said he'd rather gut an elk than process chickens... so I'm out. However, if you haven't done the "meaties" yet, one word of warning I wish I'd be given... They are such sweet birds!! I'm pathetic but I held each one, thanked them for what they were about to provide us with, etc. and then bawled.

Excellent meat for difficult emotionally. We had buff orp roos once that were mean and that wasn't hard, but the meat was certainly better on the Cornish Rocks (I got the kind that do a better at higher altitude).

Good luck w/this! Oh, and we tried the naming them "Chicken Parm", Drumstick, etc... didn't help.

 

[hen-thusiast]

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Join the club. We've got at least FOUR red-tailed hawks plus that big ol' fox.

We have taken the safest route and the ladies have been in lockdown all summer. They still have a huge indoor/outdoor run, but they've been upset. I guess the neighbors had to wrestle one back from the hawk.

I've heard shiny objects work great. Also windsocks, very thin rope and things for the ladies to duck under. A hawk that bold will definitely want chicken dinner, so be careful. Our hawks have been pretty bold too.

 

[kimbobim]

This may be a weird question, but do any of you here in Utah have birds that are molting already? I have several RIRs that will be 2 the end of October. They've never really molted hard (except for one that's been molting for six weeks and looks like she's gone through a car wash). A couple of weeks ago when DH came in from opening the coop, he mentioned that it looked like they'd been fighting - red feathers everywhere. When I went to see if anyone was injured, I tried to pick up Lucy and got a double handful of feathers that just came right out. The other RIRs are all bare in patches, but not completely naked. Their feathers are starting to grow back in, look like blue quills right now. And now this week I've got some 16-month old Black Stars that are losing patches of feathers, too. I've checked them all very carefully - no sign of lice or mites or worms (I dusted them, just to be sure). Haven't changed their food or water, other than giving them cold watermelon in the heat. Their egg production did slow way down from 8 to 2 eggs a day, but I thought it was due to the heat. Is this molting? I thought they were supposed to molt later in the year, like September or so.

I only have experience with one molt and it was not 'normal' - our 6-yr old Black Star molted in January, and it was hard and fast. One day she looked fine, the next she was almost completely bare - I thought maybe a predator had gotten to her somehow, but her previous owner told me that's just how Lola rolls. I had to make the poor thing a sweater, I was afraid she'd freeze to death (it's more of a poncho, really ...

).

So, do any of you have molting advice for me? I've upped their protein (scrambled eggs and yogurt), but don't know what else to do.

thanks!

 

[metraideanne]

Just wanted to celebrate... Found my first egg last night. Don't know who laid it but I found one!

 

[NurseDr]

Congratulations on the egg. It is such a fulfilling sight. Mine have been laying for about a month. Now I'm getting six eggs a day, six are laying and one is still not.

 

[muddypuddles]

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Conrats on the egg!

Kimboobim: It sounds like they're molting but I don't know. Mine went through a molt last fall--late September I think (they were about 9 months). I remember reading on here that they would have a mini molt during the first year and I thought wow! if this is a mini molt I wonder what a REAL molt looks like. Looks like you're finding out!

 

[darkroo]

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It is always eggsiting to get your first egg.

I get that way with every bird's first egg.

I blow out everyone of my girls first egg and keep them.
congrats.

 

[PacsMan]

Urban hens won’t roost in WVC

Sad....

 

[hen-thusiast]

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Most of our flock is 17 months old and I've heard they molt around 18 months. And yes, one of the EEs is molting hard and our GLW went through some sort of mini-molt although I'm not sure if it is related to the babies she's raising. I think our two disabled pullets are around a year old and it looks like they are going through some sort of mini molt as well.

Not like poor Lola, but our EEs feathers have been falling out in wads and she's all prickly. Hasn't laid in a couple of weeks either.

Congrats metraidanne on the first egg!

 

[bragabit]

I've got two free roosters in southern Utah if anyone wants one!