I found the killer of my chicks in the hen house, it is a Marans hen!!! I caught her today, I heard some chicken fighting/screaming I looked in a marans hen was had thrown my white silkie out of her nestbox and had a chick by its head trying to crush it! I lost one today earlier and she was trying to kill another one! It has a good size gash by its ear, like all the others! I cleaned the wound, gathered all the chicks and brought them inside. I cut the tail feathers off the hen, marking her, so I know who to cull when it comes to processing time. My hubby wanted to right then, I don't know how to properly clean a hen (only helped do it once last year) and I certainly don't want to waste a whole chicken. Plus thats the last of chicks for the year except a couple guinea eggs the gals are setting on. I am definitely going to keep the broody silkies in the hen house we are building so this does not happen again.
My computers charger is down to 32% and my charger died so its good bye till the new one comes. So thank you all in advance!! Chat soon!!!
Found killer of my chicks
see you soon!
Glad you found the bad girl. Now make soup out of her.
I am back wow a lot of posts to read and yes when the meat chickens get processed she is going to plus all the extra roos from this years chicks. And those nasty red silkies too!
hen
LoraK, A large .... older hen is usually good for grandma's whatever soup recipe or French fricassée ... or even better a Cajun fricassee. The 3rd would be my choice. If you must wait ... I suppose normal processing is best. If the bird is going into a meal ..."tout de suite" ... then SKINNING a bird (not plucking) takes just a few minutes and requires little to zero aptitude. If I can do it ... anyone can. All you need are poultry shears or pruning shears or really strong meat scissors (Henckles ... Forschner; etc.). I skin a bird once a month or so for this purpose. Processing by pulling feathers is a real job and one needs about 20 birds to process to justify all the equipment and preparation. Best wishes. Sorry to learn of the problem with hen hurting other chicks. Most folks figure out that hens with chicks need to be separated in a brooding quarters due to animosity and pecking order. What your Marans hen did ... is pretty common occurrence given the close living situation in the coop. I constantly have 3-4 broody hens from April through September .... with clutches of 3-10 chicks beneath them. The broody hens stay away from other chickens when they have biddies. They get real real offensive when another hen is close. Your silky broody just didn't have the ability to fend off the larger hen ... the normal scenario. You may not want to be so tough on your Marans hen ... she was just doing the normal thing that mother nature tells her to do. Kelly
Hi Kelly, Though it might be natural she is a one of the lower hens and she does bully the banty hens so she will be a my first older chicken we eat. Shes just about a year old. I might even pick a few others to process when the time comes. I have plenty of this years roosters to process too plus twenty meat chickens. So we should have a freezer full plus we are raising three tamsworth pigs, two for us and one is up for sale, mostly likely my parents will buy half and a friend the other half.
LoraK, If we're here on the farm next year ... we'll have a couple pigs, sheep, goats and a miniature horse or two added to our menagerie. We're in a state of great change here given the nature of my work and the www. If our current business diversification goes fine ... we'll stay here and be quite happy. If not .... we'll be off to who knows where. I not familiar with the Tamworth breed of pig .. I only heard of them. I know the Hampshire pigs. We had a cold spell a few days ago. My neighbor's and my (shared) Game Fowl hens lost 2 chicks during the night. They fend for themselves. When its 40f degrees and windy and raining ... its really tough for the little ones to make it. Oh well ... we have 6 more hens setting on 50 eggs. We'll have more chicks running around here than we can count before long. Kelly
Hi Lora. Are all your Marans roos very solid and heavy? Eiffel is built like a tank--he is simply gorgeous and has been from day one. If I were every to suggest a dual purpose chicken for eating, I think it would a Marans like Eiffel. But I am not eating my birds--I haven't evolved that far:0)
Oh marans (cuckoo anyways!) are built like a tank! I have about 12 of them plus Marshall running around the yard right now. they are a very heavy breed. I am keeping them until they are about 17 weeks old then they will be processed. I sold all but a few hens. After all the processing I am going to go through the birds and choose some to sell. I over did the chick thing this year. I know I have three white faced black spanish roos (they sent two extras) and I only need one so I am going to try to rehome those since they are so unusal around here anyways and some marans. We are going to process all the delaware adn buff orpington roos. And I love that name! Fits him very well!!!