Wisconsin "Cheeseheads"

[judge]

Good morning everyone-
Does anyone know about how long to keep a roo before butchering? I know that out of the four that I hatched out in Feb. 3 are roos, and they are so big! I have the four in a separate coop for now, but I have been leaving their door open so they can mingle with the flock. Seems to be going well. ANother question- the coop they are in is what I want to use as a "transitional coop". How will they Feb. chicks know how to go in the main coop so I can put the 6 week olds in the transitional coop instead of the brooder? And with the 3 "little" roos will they be able to roost with the main rooster in there? Hope this is clear, and if anyone can tell me what they would do I would really appreciate it!.
Ok duckie people- I have 8 ducklings in their own coop. Four 6wk. pekins, and 2 5wk Rouens and two 5wk runners. At what age can I let them free range, and will they come back to roost like a chicken will at dark? I am a little worried about my little rouen that had that gimpy leg. He is a lot smaller than his brother, but he is getting bigger. Will a chicken peck at a duckling? There again- if anyone has some advice I would be grateful.
Have a good day all!
ETA- Amyable- I reread your message about your ducklings and it seems they will come home at dusk, but you kept them in an enclosed area for about two months. Maybe I will open their coop door and let them come out into the fenced in area for now. The chickens sneak out of the fence and free range around the farm all day, but maybe the ducks won't figure that trick out yet...

 

[PsycoPeep]

I just picked up all 10 of my chicks of various breeds between 2-3 1/2 weeks of age and tried vent sexing them. They all look the same to me and I don't see any "bump" on any of them. However, I don't know what I'm looking for either. Can anyone point me to a tutorial on how to sex and is there something that shows a picture or a drawing and shows the difference so I know what to look for?

 

[Apyl]

Good morning everyone-
Does anyone know about how long to keep a roo before butchering? I know that out of the four that I hatched out in Feb. 3 are roos, and they are so big! I have the four in a separate coop for now, but I have been leaving their door open so they can mingle with the flock. Seems to be going well. ANother question- the coop they are in is what I want to use as a "transitional coop". How will they Feb. chicks know how to go in the main coop so I can put the 6 week olds in the transitional coop instead of the brooder? And with the 3 "little" roos will they be able to roost with the main rooster in there? Hope this is clear, and if anyone can tell me what they would do I would really appreciate it!.
Ok duckie people- I have 8 ducklings in their own coop. Four 6wk. pekins, and 2 5wk Rouens and two 5wk runners. At what age can I let them free range, and will they come back to roost like a chicken will at dark? I am a little worried about my little rouen that had that gimpy leg. He is a lot smaller than his brother, but he is getting bigger. Will a chicken peck at a duckling? There again- if anyone has some advice I would be grateful.
Have a good day all!
ETA- Amyable- I reread your message about your ducklings and it seems they will come home at dusk, but you kept them in an enclosed area for about two months. Maybe I will open their coop door and let them come out into the fenced in area for now. The chickens sneak out of the fence and free range around the farm all day, but maybe the ducks won't figure that trick out yet...

I free range mine from day one being outside, the first week I guess I need to put them in the coop but after that they go in on their own at dark. They go in later than the chickens but it hasnt been an issue here since I dont close up till after dark. I think my oldest babies are 6 or 7 weeks old and the youngest are almost 5 weeks. I put the youngest out to free range at just under 4 weeks old and the older ones went out around 4 weeks old I think. I noticed that when puting out more than one ducklings the chickens didnt even look twice at them. I have had zero issues with adding new babies this year. my older babies are now right in with the rest of the adult ducks The youngest have taken to the geese Oh and yes a chicken will peck a duckling but I havnt had that with this group, I did last year when I only added the 1 baby.

 

[PsycoPeep]

Small animal & consignment auction in Kendall, WI.

Sat. May 18th at the Brandau-Hill Auction Center.
9:30 = caged animals.
10:30 = tool & household.
Noon = goats, sheep, calves...
Check-in is at 7AM.

 

[JustJohn]

I just picked up all 10 of my chicks of various breeds between 2-3 1/2 weeks of age and tried vent sexing them. They all look the same to me and I don't see any "bump" on any of them. However, I don't know what I'm looking for either. Can anyone point me to a tutorial on how to sex and is there something that shows a picture or a drawing and shows the difference so I know what to look for?

It might be best now to wait and observe if they have combs growing fast or heavier legs or saddle feathers growing. Behavior is not always a good indicator of gender, but roos will often be more curious and aggressive. Try to keep your comparisons to like breeds. For example my Cochins are all docile and the roos did not even try to crow till they were 7-8 months old.

Good luck

JJ

 

[delisha]

I just picked up all 10 of my chicks of various breeds between 2-3 1/2 weeks of age and tried vent sexing them. They all look the same to me and I don't see any "bump" on any of them. However, I don't know what I'm looking for either. Can anyone point me to a tutorial on how to sex and is there something that shows a picture or a drawing and shows the difference so I know what to look for?

Vent sexing works at hatch. Some breeds are sexed by color or markings. Some are sexed when they crow or drop an egg. Color change in wattles is the first clue in 3 weeks or more.

Quote: and this too.

I think will all off your birds..you better get going on a huge coop..and soon. Chickens grow so very fast!


Judge, I let my ducks out to free range in the large fence. I will lock up my gander when all the hens are setting. One is setting and one will be shortly and the other one will follow. My ducks are with my chickens, I have to change water several times a day.
You can butcher out your birds at any age..I do some at 6 weeks, other at 3 months, and some I am not sure if I am keeping and let mature to see how they develop, I butcher those out at the age I make my decision. Your NYD birds are more than ready for eating.

 

[judge]

I just picked up all 10 of my chicks of various breeds between 2-3 1/2 weeks of age and tried vent sexing them. They all look the same to me and I don't see any "bump" on any of them. However, I don't know what I'm looking for either. Can anyone point me to a tutorial on how to sex and is there something that shows a picture or a drawing and shows the difference so I know what to look for?

I admit that I do not have experience on this, but I did watch a video from Metzger Farms on youtube about vent sexing. From what I know though it should only be done by experienced workers, as this method could seriously injure the chick.

 

[Bigfamily4me]

I forgot to tell you guys about my children's hatch project at school. I put in 7 heritage a Rhode Island Reds. I had 1 quitter and 6 hatched!!! Wow, I'm as good as CC with the brines a mini in charge. I am going to save my Ronnie's for a genesis. I'm a failure with my current incubators. Whatever. I'm watching a bunch of eggs sit right now, probably not going to hatch. Oh well, not the end of the world. At least the kids learn that not all eggs will hatch. They are also learning that nature isn't as easy to replicate as one would think.

I had a dead chick this morning too. It was a brand new baby, so who knows what happened. A coronation Sussex or a faverolle. They look the same right now.

I better go check on the incubator and do lunch.

 

[PsycoPeep]

I definately do NOT want to hurt my little birdie-doo's!

I was just looking to see how obvious it was and I can't see any difference no matter which breed or my largest to my smallest. So I just left them alone.

So would y'all say that buying straight runs is just a waste of money? Should I only order sexed pullets from the feedmill or from someone who knows how to do it? Or would you just say to buy straight runs cuz it's cheaper adn then grow them up and eat the roosters?

I mean, what do you guys do if you get a bunch of roosters that you have no use for? Or should I just look around for older chicks/young adults that way I know what I'm getting?

As for cooping, my husband & I both get paid tomorrow and we've already been talking almost daily about building coops and tossing around different ideas and showing each other pics and such. He works days and I work 2nd shift, so Saturday morning we're going to go to a surplus store and there's also a habitat for humanity re-store, as well as 5 thrift stores between our town and the one we're going to. So we're going to scrounge and forage and see what all we can find. Plus we have some stuff laying around here that we can use to go along with it, too. We might not find "everything" we need in one outing, but we can at least get a good start at it. And we figure we'll be building 3, maybe 4 different coops seeing as how I have multiple breeds I wanna raise. And certain ones I won't care if they're mixed or not and can just put them in whichever random coop I want. Like my easter eggers I don't really care about breeding them, for example, as I'm mainly looking for just the eggs. But 1 of the coops I want for my silkies, showgirls, and sizzles. I figure they can be grouped together. Another coop we're going to put a divider in and have my cochins on one side and polish on the other. Or may just have 2 seperations for the polish and put 1 roo on each side with pullets that are compatable. Then the 3rd coop I think I'll split and put my marans, cochins, and easter eggers in. Oh yeah! And another coop for my naked necks! See??? All thought out! LMAO! But seriously folks, having a plan and knowing what you're working towards is a good start. Then we'll see what kind of materials we can pick up this weekend. There's also a farm auction on Tuesday that I want to check out, too. So I'm figuring we'll be building and getting started right away and hopefully be done by next weekend. Probably not with all 4 coops, but seeing as how we don't even HAVE the chickens yet, we're not in a hurry. I figure the chicks will be living in the house for the first couple of months, so we've got time. I might possibly be pickign up some adults this Sunday afternoon. If that works out then I'm sure we can do what it takes to get that first coop whipped up in no time and then just work on the other 3 as time and money permits.
This is going to be fun!!

 

[199787]

Good morning everyone! I had a lot of reading to catch up on. You all are chatty, but that's awesome! I miss-counted my hatching day and day 21 was yesterday, not Tuesday. 4 hatched already and 5 pipped. One is still just hanging around, but I saw it wiggling so I am hoping for %100!!! Sold 10 more 9 week old hatchery pullets at $7 each (they went quick) so they about paid for the order and I have 11 left. I needed to make room for all these babies! I ordered some barnvelder eggs from TLS_Ranch and I am so excited to hatch them! Hubby is out working on the lean-to for the coop. It's turning into the Tashmahal out there! Liking it...

I do have one 9 week old Turkish White Sultan rooster available if anyone wants it. Really pretty and would make a nice pet. I haven't advertised him at all yet, but for now he is fine with the girls.

TerriO - So what does one do with all those little quail? Eat them? I ate them as a kid when my dad brought them home from hunting. If you don't eat them what do people use them for?
Nice Shiner by the way! Never had a horse give me one before, but had plenty of bruises in other places.

PsychoPeep - Cute puppies. I used to have 2 St Bernards and they were sweet for the most part. My male freaked out so bad in a thunderstorm that he had a heart attack

. The female died of old age (so the vet said), at 7. I decided to get something else after that.

Cuties - I also didn't realize a leg was amputated! Hope the kitty is doing well.

Amyable - how are you eggs doing?

Lisa

Editied to remove foot from mouth