Wisconsin "Cheeseheads"

[dustergrl]

Duster, I am unsure what that is. Is it just skin missing feathers or is it a lump? Any other symptoms?

It's missing down where feathers haven't yet grown in... not a lump. Sorry the photo isn't that great, he is the most enormous fighter. His green iridescence is already showing on the "big boy" feathers he has. Is it possible that he's just a super slow feather-er? I have only seen a couple feathers around the coop and they aren't his.

Skin doesn't look red, just pink.

 

[dustergrl]

Kinda looks like this? That's normal. It just looks worse or more obvious on the dark chicks.

YES. Just like that. He must just be feathering suuuuuper slow, even compared to my other roos. He's eating well- he's all over me when I have the mealworms lol!

 

[irishrovr]

YAY! The fence is not 100% completed but I believe it is relatively deer proof so I can begin to move the plants out to the garden tomorrow. Yesterday I put up a temporary West Virginia style fence (I leaned everything I could find along the fence so the deer would just go "WTH" and walk away shaking their heads) along the west side of the barnyard as I had a visitor to the garden the night before. No damage, but, then not much is peeking out of the ground right now. It didn't get near the beans, peas and corn that sprouted. The chickaroos have been locked out for a couple of weeks already. The fox took care of the bunnies and I chased away the gophers with ammonia balls so I should be in good shape this year. If not, I'm hanging up the trowel!

Between the gardening and the fencing I was a hot mess before the shower. My socks were so bad I just threw them away.

I'm going to sleep well tonight!!

 

[Firstchic]

I will be getting 22 baby chicks middle of July or there abouts. These will be in addition to the 3 roosters and 2 hens I will be getting on Sat that are 5 weeks old. I now have just 4 adult hens. So, my question was when can I put the new hens in with the 4 adults I have now? I recon nature will just take its course on when the Roosters can do their thing. Maybe, this is normal for chickens, but, today, one of my Blacks jumped on the back of the other Black, clamped onto the back of the crown (?) and was pulling like mad. I shooed her off and everything was fine.

 

[Firstchic]

How many hens total will you have? 3 roosters are alot.

I don't understand your question. Are you asking how soon you can introduce your chicks to your big girls, or how soon before your roosters will be, um, mature?

I personally like to wait until my chicks are almost the size of the adults before I introduce them into the flock so they are better able to defend themselves. My coop has 2 sections. 3/4 of it is for my main flock. The other 1/4 I use for a breeding pen, a broody/chick raising area, a grow-out pen, a bachelor pad, a recovery unit, whatever I need it for at the time. Right now, I have some 3 week old chicks in there. They will probably stay in there until they are 16 weeks old or so before I let them out.

As for the roosters, Jim said it best.

Yeah, I have decided to keep the Roosters separate for a while. I will need to find out how far in advance I want to put the Roosters with the girls to have babies say the first of Spring or late Spring. I know that putting the Roosters with the girls all the time and collecting the eggs everyday may result in blood in the yolk, which would freak out DDIL. So, to make it easier on her heart, I won't put them together until I want more chicks. I have plans to keep probably two Roosters for 26 hens....not enough? too many?

 

[jvls1942]

Quote: where did you get the "blood in the yolk" information ?

 

[Cindlady]

you are in sad shape when you have even chickens looking down on you...

At least they were up high at the time! Went to Menards with my son last week and were looking at the fencing. I was standing between the 4' and the 5' fencing (yes! they have 5' fencing there now!) and he starts snickering..... I said "I'm shorter than the 5' fencing, right?" He says "Yea, by about this much." Holding up fingers a little over 2" apart!

I'm shrinking!!!!!

(I'm not short and fat..... just compressed!)

I tried getting the hen out of the loft but she kept running to the back and the ladder isn't tall enough for me to climb into the loft. (see above) I left it open for her to come down and when I went to feed she got a friend up there!

Guess that's it..... Night All!

Oh, nobody went broody after Terri O gave me the eggs.... now that they're no longer good to hatch... Storky is glued to a nest!

 

[Firstchic]

where did you get the "blood in the yolk" information ?

From the lady who is selling me the roosters and hens. Is that not true? It seems to be reasonable as they would be fertilized. I have even seen blood in store bought eggs on occasion. But, now that I think about it, those production birds are not exposed to roosters. Ok, so what causes that?

 

[ejb3810]

If anyone that reads these posts has Citron Spangled Hamburg bantams or Maiden Rock bantams which were developed by Dan Powell please contact me. I am interested in attaining some and any age birds would be considered.

 

[jvls1942]

Quote: that confirms it,, chicken people are crazy ..

blood in the egg comes from somewhere along the tube while the egg is forming,, then when the shell is formed (last procedure in the egg production) the blood is encapsulated with the rest of the yolk etc.. has zilch to do with the rooster..

I made a couple of coops with thick straw bedding for the pups in the peacock pen.. they are out of the house.. they don't know what to think about the great outdoors.. a couple of them whined for about an hour.. they finally shut up after Annie fixed them some puppy chow and milk replacer. ..

no rain here yet today.. starting to cloud up now, though..

..........jiminwisc........