Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[junebuggena]

The thing about the defects is that they were so obvious and only in that breed and it happened over repeated hatches. I had a bunch of chicks hatching at the same time that did not have defects so it was clearly the Barnevelders. I even had multiple clutches of Marans from the same person hatching out just fine along with other eggs from other bird owners. When I have had temperature spikes in my incubators from extended hot weather not allowing them to stay cool enough, I had hatching issues that I believe were temperature related because it was the only time eggs from my own flock had such hatching issues but I do believe the defects I was seeing in the Barnevelders were genetic due to inbreeding. Unless there is something about Barnevelders in general that makes them prone to hatching with their intestines on the outside. Sure, I could disinfect the intestines, push them into the body cavity, treat for infection, and hope all goes well but I did not think it was a good idea to keep them alive if it was a genetic defect.

That indicates that the chicks hatched prematurely, possibly due to temps being a bit too high. Could also be mushy chick disease, which is caused by bacterias inside the egg. Not genetic.

 

[Duck Drover]

Excellent article! Thanks for sharing. From my research, many long-time breeders have closed flocks and practice line breeding, which is distinct from inbreeding. Here is a quote from the article, though I recommend reading it in it's entirety, it's not long:
[COLOR=0000CD][Now not all chicken lovers are interested in breeding to a standard. They just want to keep some chickens. And that's alright. But if a person has become interested in chickens and wants to set the goal of having a chicken that actually represents the breed and produces offspring that represent the breed, then starting with unrelated parents is not necessarily a good idea. My opinion.[/COLOR]
[COLOR=0000CD]I have said in the past few articles that if you want to get 5 show quality Japanese then you have to set 100 eggs. I know that there are a few breeders out there that chuckle when they read that statement. And rightly so because they are setting 30 eggs and getting 10 show quality birds, and they are doing it year after year after year. How do they do it? An old breeder of Plymouth Rocks by the name of Ralph Sturgeon said it best in the title his little book, " Start Where You Are With What You Have". That's the first step. But the rest of your steps have to be calculated. We are talking about the difference between line breeding and inbreeding. The basic flaw of inbreeding is continually breeding brother to sister, disposing of the parents and taking their offspring and breeding brother to sister. This will eventually end up at the dead end of infertility. (Emphasis mine)[/COLOR]
[COLOR=0000CD]I had a man call last week asking me if I had any good birds to sell. I said I would but good had to be defined. I have what I would call good birds. I am talking about Black Tailed Whites now. I could have sold this man a trio of good birds, but I could not guarantee that they would breed true. Four years ago I got back into Black Tailed Whites by getting breeding stock from four different strains. What I have now are birds that are crossed from three of those strains. I have disposed of one of the strains. I have to set 100 eggs to get 5 show birds. But one of my strains is from a breeder, and he is a breeder, that if he set 30 eggs he gets 10 show birds. The difference here is that I have blended three strains together and he has been breeding the same strain for 50 years. The quality of offspring from his birds is pretty predictable.][/COLOR]

I have been told by a breeder that you could get away with inbreeding (brother to sister) for one generation, but after that you better put mother to son, father to daughter, etc and build a line breeding program. Line breeding closes the gene pool and emphasizes both the good and the bad. When the bad shows up you select away from it year after year. When and if you introduce new stock you will be introducing a whole other gene pool and you have really no idea what is in it until you start raising them up.
Good luck!

I raised and hatched what are now called Easter Eggers but were the early stages of Ameraucanas for many years without putting much thought into breeding practices. We kept hens and ate roosters and when we had plenty of chickens to feed we sold chicks to people who wanted more chickens. That was back when I lived a rural lifestyle of self sufficiency and before the internet. If you wanted to read about keeping chickens you got a book that went through the basics of keeping them alive. Our chickens had a coop to roost in but they free ranged and learned to stay safe from predators if they decided to sleep in the barn or in a tree. We ate eggs year round but when we got more eggs than we could eat we hatched them in our Little Giant incubators (much like the ones I still use). I have always loved our Easter Eggers (sold by hatcheries as Aracaunas before the breed standards were ever published) because they each had a unique look to them, which is true for many "mutt" chickens and they layed an assortment of colored eggs unique to each hen. Chicks were hatched and old hens died so our flock replenished itself naturally by keeping a rooster we liked the looks of and eating the rest, with the mean ones getting served up first. I am not sure how my focus shifted when we changed to backyard chickens or why I want show quality birds when I have no interest in showing them. I suppose at this point in my life I need something to work towards before the Alzheimer's sets in and takes away my mental capacities. There are days when I am sure I am crazy for having backyard birds and other days I can't imagine life without them. Years ago I laughed when I saw Silkies and never thought I would want a flock of them! I could not understand the point in bantam sized birds that weren't worth the effort to process them. It is strange how I ended up here but I do enjoy it most days. Please forgive my pain killer induced ramblings. I will be so grateful to have my thinking back to normal again because it sure does get muddied lately.

 

[pennyJo1960]

@ Duck Drover

Please forgive my pain killer induced ramblings. I will be so grateful to have my thinking back to normal again because it sure does get muddied lately.


I understand that so very well I have tramadol from my Dr. many he trusts me not to abuse but could take at least 12 a day
for a month or more if I needed. last time in there I asked to lower the amount I get as I did not need a year
supply in my cabinet...... It is now on the controlled list but my pharmaceutical company send 3 months at a time..

 

[Duck Drover]

@ Duck Drover

Please forgive my pain killer induced ramblings. I will be so grateful to have my thinking back to normal again because it sure does get muddied lately.


I understand that so very well I have tramadol from my Dr.  many he trusts me not to abuse but could take at least 12 a day
for a month or more if I needed. last time in there I asked to lower the amount I get as I did not need a year
supply in my cabinet......   It is now on the controlled list but my pharmaceutical company send 3 months at a time..

I have been taking Tramadol twice a day since February 24th in anticipation of surgery (first scheduled for but then cancelled on March 15th). I had been taking 800 mg of Ibuprofen every four hours in order to walk and without the anti-inflamatory I can't even put weight on my ankle anymore (which may be a good thing since my ankle pops with the tendon being torn). I thought I would only be on it for 2 weeks but it will be 2 months instead.

The Tramadol makes me dizzy and groggy. I swear I fall over sitting down! I am using a knee scooter to get around and I fall off of it into the walls and doorframes. I have to set an alarm to take it or I can't remember if I took it and run the risk of overdosing by taking it twice. Does it effect you the same way?

I am grateful for the pain relief but I am really looking forward to being pain free in the future. You may not have that luxury, though. I will end up on more powerful pain killers after my surgery and then I will probably just sleep day and night considering how groggy I am on Tramadol. I have to take caffeine pills to function since I am not a coffee drinker.

I am on 50 mg twice a day. Are you saying you can take up to 12 pills a day? There are warnings about overdosing, which is why I set an alarm, so it seems taking 12 a day would be dangerous.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Yes it would be bad i have never had more than 6 worst 8 in a day ever
but am more like 4 a day because I don't want to take more than that

 

[elizmartin]

Don't get goats if you want a lawn mower! They will eat EVERYTHING except the grass, or at least save it until they are really hungry. If you want a nice grass mower get sheep. A friendly sheep is quite a pleasure to be around. And as a bonus they won't get into everything and chew your zippers.

Goats are brousers and will eat grass if they "feel" like it….but will sample everything. Can ring and kill a tree in short notice, get out of the most locked gate, find all kinds of trouble to be entertained by….I love them but gotta have good fencing and toys to keep them busy.

Sheep are grazers and will put their head down and mow…are usually more content but will run from most things they think are scary…..

 

[elizmartin]

Got some feed store chicks on 3/10, and this Ancona turned out to be a roo. Free to good home. Thought I'd check here to see if anyone wants him before I have to cull. Landlady will not allow. Please PM or quote this post in a reply if you're interested. Will deliver anywhere between Kent and Mt. Vernon.

I would contact the feed store he came from…not always but many will trade a roo for whatever they have in stock if it came from them.

 

[elizmartin]

Our funny little Penny died late this morning. She's been acting lethargic the past few days, drinking tons but hardly eating or moving. All I can think of is either she ate something she shouldn't have (entirely possible due to her very curious nature), or the sudden warm weather was too much for her.
RIP sweet girl.

I guess I get to hatch some more chicks. I've got a bunch of her eggs waiting to go into the incubator.

Am sorry too…..The weather changes always worry me….its the only time the occasional chicken has difficulties here. Spring and Fall….

 

[pennyJo1960]

well we had a short power outage here, guess it started about 2 am slept through most of it
woke at 6 no power my friend said he could see lights in town then saw a wrecker with
a car it had hit pole here and the corner of our road had it back 1/2 hour ago now need
to reset the timer on the white light in the chicken coop. The tarp on the coop is brown so not
very bright in there but chickens ran out happy as heck at 6:30 anyway. I had a heat lamp
going all winter replaced it with a plain red bulb for nighttime this last month.
pullets are starting to explore outside now the 13 barred pullets are checking out the
lower nesting boxes and they are just about 6 weeks old.. my 5 older barred's
are definitely showing they are boss but have not pecked anyone as I have
3 of Gena's easter eggers pullets also a few weeks older than the barred
pullets

 

[TakeMeHomeJoJo]

If you have lots of crows around, hawks and eagles aren't going to be much of a problem. If you don't have crows around, then you need to keep them in a covered run or provide plenty of places to take cover under.

Thanks!! I have the run covered with wire on top, so they're good there, but I'm hoping to let them out in the yard during the day. We do have a lot of crows....ill keep my eye out for Hawks now that we've got chickens.