Well the Billy and Nanny goats have gotten together and I should have an early spring kidding. I just set another incubator full of eggs for a winters worth of fryers. I'm just hoping that some drunk doesn't wipe out the power pole again and kill all the eggs like last time.
I also got myself a trio of bantams for natural incubation in the future but they are still settling into their new home and not showing any tendencies, as of yet, to nest.
One of the Buff Orpington hens has turned broody so I stashed a half dozen eggs under her.
that is the best way. good luck. all my broody hens have gone through their broody period and some are starting to molt.
After 5 days the hen got off the nest. This has been my experience all summer. Which is why I got the bantums from the Amhish, but every feathered creature I have is going into moult at the moment so I doubt I can bet another hen to get brood before spring now.
I have come to the conclusion that after several generations of incubator raised birds they loose the nesting instinct. So if the bantums work out I should be able to re-instill the broody nature.
I never had much luck w/ broody hens. They always squished their offspring. Not one or two, more like half. :shock: Now I let them sit on them and then on the 27th day take the eggs and put them in my incubator inside the house and raise them seperately until they are larger.
The eggs started to hatch yesterday, one day early. If my candling is getting better I expect a 50% hatch rate or 10 chicks. Parents are Buff Orpington hens and Light Brahma Rooster. The hatched chick has the buff coloring.
is there a sex link in that cross?
Well I have both yellow chicks (Buff Orpingtons) and white chicks (Light Brahma). If the Sex link exists then the hens would be yellow and bleep white since that is the parentage. I had a couple other chicks hatch earlier and both were yellow and have turned out to be hens so I'm hopeful that a sex link exists. I realize that I too few of a sample to be definitive. But it shre would be a kicker if it proves true.
I know that with pigeons one egg will be male color dominate and the other egg will be hen color nutural.
its been years since we've hatched out our own here but my favorite used to be the rhode island red/barred rock cross. if any chicks were to hatch out here these days they'd all be mutts since our only rooster is of unknown variety.
Chicken Question.....
I bought 23 chicks (white chickens) this spring (April 15) to raise for the freezer. Because of my Dads illness, I never got around to killing them. Now they are grown and would probably be too tough if I killed them now...
What do I do with 24 grown chickens?
Do you like eggs? Hens should sart laying at about 24-28 weeks (6 months) of age which means October. And no it's not too late to butcher them, in fact 5 months is just about right for fryers.
If you like keep a few hens and a rooster for eggs and fry the rest. Also, a stewing hen is a 2 year old egg layer that's been butchered. My old hens are nearing 3 years of age. Too old for fryers but still in the running for Chicken & Dumplings.
well old chickens are suited for the slow cook/braise/soup route.
The broody hen got back on the nest, I quickly gathered the days harvest of and stuffed it under her. I've giving it another go.
The surviving chicks from the brooder are one white (Brahma) and 2 brown (Buff Orpington) I'm guessing the white one is a rooster and the 2 brown ones are hens. If true this could mean that a Brahma Rooster crossed with Buff Orpington hens yields a sex linked offspring. I'll need to run a bigger test of this later.
Use ducks, muscovy works the best, they lay more eggs than the average chicken, said to lay 364 days a year. They take better care of the eggs and will defend them in most cases. They also will watch over the chicks when they are born too. I have used indian runners and they work nice for being such a slender duck. Good luck! :-D
I plan on getting Khaki Campbells. I believe the record for one KC hen laying eggs is 378 eggs in 365 days. There has been a lot of research on ducks as laying eggs. One study in Vietnam showed that the best laying breeds of ducks are, in order: Khaki Campbell, Call, Indian runners, with muscovy coming around 5th or 6th although if you want a meat duck they are the best.
We just added 40 chicks to be here on the 5th if feb.
After two sets of eggs from the Buff Orpingtons I have a total of 3 white (all roosters) and 4 buff (all hens) so the sex link seems to hold. I now plan on buying a dozen Light Brahmas and a dozen Buff Orpingtons and mating up one Light Brahma rooster with 3 Buff Orpington hens (as my current arrangement) and one Buff Orpington Rooster with 3 Light Brahma hens inorder to verify the sex link and also see if it works in reverse.
It has been a while since I have been on a farm. But when I was alivestock manager I always counted on my khaki campbells and indian runner ducks for eggs. they were really great layers, and fun to have around in the garden for bug eaten to boot.
I keep hearing about the sexlink thing. Our neighbour has "sexlink" chickens. I thought it was just a breed, but it sounds like it is something completely different and I don't quite understand. I would look it up on the net, but I would probably be sent some stupid porno site junk and I don't want to bring that on to my computer. Great day. Cindi
Quote from: Cindi on December 24, 2006, 09:30:00 AM
I keep hearing about the sexlink thing. Our neighbour has "sexlink" chickens.
Seach for sexlink chicken and you will avoid most porno links.
Cindi
Go to the following site and I think you will find all you want on sexlike chickens
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&rls=com.microsoft%3Aen-US&q=sexlink+chickens
Jack
Jack, thanks, I'll check it out. Great day. Cndi
For those too lazy to do their own research sexlink is the trait of birds (and animals) to take the characteristics of the parents on a basis of sex. IE the rooster is one color and the hen a different color. The offspring, if sexlinked, will have all the males the same color of the father and all the hens the same color as the mother. A second variation is that the offspring have different colors that their parents but each sex is distinguished by a particular color.
Brian, I admit I am probably one of the lazy ones that you are speaking about. But, it really is not an actual laziness. It may be referred to that. It may be simply how some of us learn. We all learn differently.
Me, for example, if someone speaks to me about something and physically shows me an example. I NEVER FORGET. If I were to read this in text form, I would get it, but it would take a longer time, maybe with having to read it over and over.
On the internet, sometimes the information is so great, it is difficult to pick out the important parts, because of all the muddle inbetween. If someone is to pick the important parts out and give that information, it may be very simple to understand and remember.
The sexlink thing, now that you explained it simply as you did, I get it. I looked and read on the internet and did get it too, but it too longer. Have a great day. Keep bringing on information for us who would prefer to be rather lazy. Cindi
the sex link thing is very useful if you are going to caponize your cockerals.
Randy, OK now this is getting funnier by the minute. Ha, ha, (that means LOL). Great day. Cindi
Mr Bray
you sure are a smart guy
good luck
kirk-o
Serendipity has struck. The area to my north is being turned into a park by the developer who his planting houses on the hill west of me. The name of the development is The Orchard. named such because of mine and a neighbors orchard. But the developer decided that 2 small orchards of 12-20 tress wasn't sufficient so he planted 100 (yes, 100) flowering Japanese cherry and plum trees in the park area. won'thelp this year but next year with 100 flowering fruit trees near by my bees should go bananas. I did an informal survey and decided that within a 1/4 mile radis of my house there are approximately 300 fruit trees and three beekeepers.
Brian, ah, now this is your lucky day. I am happy that someone has some sense to plant more fruit trees. The world cannot have enough. Greatest of days. Cindi
brian-whatever happened with the broody hen? did she hatch them last year?
i want to try to hatch some guinea eggs with a broody hen but first i have to move her and then see if she remains broody. then i have to try to find guinea eggs. i saw some on ebay.
The broody buff orpington got off the eggs before they hatched. I have a trio of bantams that I got 2nd hand from the Amish and both hens went broody on the same day. I put eggs from the other chickens under them but only had one chick hatch. Only two unhatched eggs left. I wondered were the other eggs went.
Set another batch of eggs under the still broody bantams. They should hatch this week--If I have any left. Found out I had have an old laid out egg eater in the same pen as the bantams that was given to me by my neighbors when they moved a few months ago. seems she's been sneaking in and eating an egg now and then. My wife promised the neighbors we would let the chicken die of old age but my ax is starting to drool.
the hen i tried to move isn't cooperating. o well...no new guineas this year. i need to get one of those automatic turning incubators.
Brian, get some game hens they can hatch a rock. They will also defend their chicks against anything. I've seen game hens fight off hawks, dogs, and a 600 pound sow I had that loved chicken. But you have to be careful around small children.
Currently the 2nd banty hen hatched out 2 chicks I put under her from the Orpingtons. The Rooster and both hens herd those 2 baby chick every where. They make a very protective trio for thos chicks. I'm hoping that my experiment works and these 2 chicks will grow up to be broody like the hens that hatched them. I have come to believe that artificial incubation has been breeding the broodiness out of several breeds for fowl.
There is even one breed of pigeon (called Owls) that have such short beaks that you have to foster the eggs to another breed of pigeon to raise them successfully.