You can't tell the diffrence from the few chickens I had left and the ones I bought from the guy who kept them in a 50 gallon tote. The turkey is huge and struts and gobbles with the other three toms I was left with. All of them will be waaaay to big to cram in an oven for Thanksgiving. I think I'll have to make steaks and chops out of them. They are cleaning up my garden for me right now.
The rescued laying chickens haven't given up any eggs yet, but they look wonderful. You would never know that they had such a bad start in life. I'm so glad we took them now. It has been a lot of work, but they certainly responded well to kindness and good food. Our old laying hens are gone. We had a little party for them first with lots of treats and thanks for all the eggs.
Now that it's so quiet here and I don't spend much time in the back yard, hubby is trying to talk me into a new hobby. Hunting! I like the wandering in the woods part ok, but not so much the shooting. Are there any other women here that hunt?
Chicken Update and hunting question
Jyl, nice to see you posting! I hope things are quieter at your place and you can enjoy your chickens and the turkey. You deserve some respite! How is the pig doing?
I have a woman friend who's quite a hunter; she shoots clay pigeons and also real critters. This spring she brought over a wild turkey that she had shot, because we have a chicken plucker. She was very impressed with what short work that made of getting the feathers off. Turkey and goose is harder to pluck than chickens but the machine still makes a huge difference.
DH hunts, but only on our property. He just put his deer stand up today. I help butcher chickens but that's about it...
I used to hunt but the last couple years I haven`t gotten my liscense.I did get a small buck once and a few partridge.The older I get I don`t like to kill anything.My dh still gets his hunting liscence and I go riding around with him some.
I haven't touched a gun in over 17 years, but I used to be a crack shot. We learned about guns and gun saftey from the time we could walk and Dad had me shooting at 5. By the time I was 10 or 12 I was the best shot in the family on targets and clay pigeons, but when I refused to shoot an animal, Dad was pretty dissapointed. I was allowed to go hunting only to fetch wat the dog wouldn't after that. The only living thing I ever shot at was my brothers butt with a BB gun. Boy, I paid for that one!
My dad taught me to shot also,he was left handed so thats how I learned,the first time my dh saw me shoot he asked why when I was right handed and I told him thats the way my dad taught me.My dad was the one that helped me and showed me how to clean my first dear kill as dh was on the road.Dad has been gone a year this comming Dec. and I still miss him so much.He was so proud of me that he told everyone that his daughter shot her first dear,I was glad that my dh was on the road because the towns peaple would have said that he was the one that shot it,men hate to believe that a women can do things like that.
I'm really not sure if I could use a rifle or a shotgun with my pacemaker/defibrillator. I 'd hate to set that thing off hunting. Husband says that I could consider a cross bow. Being over 55 in Michigan qualifies you to use one. it might be fun to try one on some targets. I took archery in college and loved it.
Does the pacemaker/defibrillator affect your mobility at all? I suspect you really need to keep your stress levels down with that thing, don't you?
My husband has a cross bow. He has some shoulder issues and at the time he bought it you had to have a doctor's certification of need before you could buy and use one for hunting. But this year they've made it open to everyone.
I work out 5 times a week, but certain motions like shoulder shimmys in belly dance can really rattle it and if my heart goes above 160, I really get nailed. Unfortunately panic attacks will get it up there. Even if they don't, it will try to correct the beat and I get smaller shocks that feel like someone slapping me on the chest.
I'd doing things like tia chi for relaxation. The chickens think It's a riot when I do it in the back yard and one of the turkeys almost seems to do it with me. (though in acuality, without any hen turkeys, I think he has other things in mind)
I hope things are calmer and you're not having panic attacks! That sounds scary. My father had a defibrillator, but then, he was 92 and you sort of figure it goes with the territory at that age. Sounds like you need a quieter life than you've had recently.
My husband does t'ai chi, too. But not around our chickens...
I've only hunted rabbits but my DH goes deer hunting on our property. Since you haven't handled a gun in awhile maybe you could look into a safety class and practice shooting at a gun range. Personally I like target shooting(better at it than my DH!) and it's exciting bringing home your own game.
No, I belly dance with the chickens. The turkeys prefer tia chi. (Actually, I think the chickens just like the jingely little hip scarves)
Maybe we should go on u tube....Dancing with chickens!
Notice: for anybody watching this that doesn't understand I am making a joke here.
The silly birds are still holding out on me for eggs, so I figured if they liked belly dance, I'd pipe some music into the coop. They seem to prefer Haifa Wehbe. Of course now the eggs will probably be pre scrambled from all the shimmies they do.
I hope my neighbors like Arabic music.
Ummmm.... I suspect Arab music is an acquired taste, Jyl. I would frankly prefer to hear no music when I'm out in my yard, since I like quiet.
How old are these hens? When are you expecting them to start laying? And are you using supplemental lighting in the coop to compensate for the shortening days?
Got the light going, giving them high protein feed, I think the young ones are just a bit slow do to their rough start and the three older ones are moulting. I get one egg every two to three days from them. I'd forgotten how bad store bought eggs are!
I usually have rock and roll playing when I'm out there. The neighbor would have to be hanging over my fence to hear it, but hey, who knows.....
hmm.. wonder if music would calm my chickens. The neighbors target practicing for deer season is driving them batty. They hide under the coop & refuse to give me eggs the last 4 days.
The people at our feed store said not to use high protein with laying hens. Our layer pellets have 16%, while for the chicks I started off at 24% and then dropped to 20% until I separated the pullets from the cockerels. The pullets then got 15% and the cockerels, since I was trying to fatten them, continued with the 20%. Once we butchered the cockerels and put the pullets in with the older hens they all got the same laying formulation. I'm thinking I should have kept the cockerels on the 24%, though. When they were twelve weeks old they ranged from 1 3/4 to about 3 lbs. dressed, which seemed very small to me.
Kyttyn, I could see where your neighbor's target practice could spook your hens. Maybe music would help. Whenever ours feel threatened, by an overly-interested hawk or if we have to catch one and scare the rest, the egg production drops for a few days. Of course, cloudy or rainy weather can do that too.
I usually switch to layer once they start producing eggs. They are getting mix of crumbles, sweet feed, corn and whatever is left in the garden I let them go in every day. Once winter sets in and they are restricted to the coop and run they will get layer, with a few handfulls of catfood and odd stuff from the house.