Ok we needed a new thread so here goes we came from here
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/906256/
I do not have any Poultry but here is one of my wild doves.
chicken portaits and pictures PART 2
A beautiful wild dove, Wren! Great way to start the thread!
Here is an OEGB from my hatch in mid November. I think it is my favorite. I just love the color. Not sure if it's a hen or a roo, but it's pretty anyway!
And another oegb from the same hatch.
OEGB stands for Old English Game Bantam, for anyone who is wondering.
Thanks Wren and i'm not touching this one except for a pic of my new Silkie Chicks.
Love The Wild Dove Do you have alot in your yard?
Claire i couldn't read all of your post because of the length of those !
i will keep you posted on my Diamonds
Heres my new chicks and i just love them. One is Claire Bear and i haven't a name for the other yet
We have both the Rock (city) doves and the Mourning doves. There are Ring neck doves in the area but they have never came to the feeders.
Claire the first and second are hens i don't see any red on their combs. The first is either a Self Blue or a Porcelain the second looks like a BB Red (maybe)
If you have porcelains or self blues in pairs i would love to trade eggs as it would give you and i new bloodlines to work with. I try not to inbreed and i'm constantly looking for new blood lines.
Harmony
Thank you Harmony! Sadly, I only have 6 OEGB and no pairs except for the mature fawn duckwings that I have out in the coop. These 6 that just hatched are all different. There is one other greyish-brown one (see picture here) but I don't think it's self blue or porcelain. And again, it might just be a hen. However, I might find a decent OEGB roo in self blue or porcelain in spring at Jacob's Cave, in which case if I can get them together, then I would have eggs to trade!
Wren the doves eat under the feeders and i also put bird seed and corn on thr ground. The seed and corn attract woodpeckers,blue jays, tow wee, doves and the dreaded big fuzzy tailed seed stealers.
UH OH i told Claire i wasn't going to interupt her holiday swap and here i'am doing it.
Heres my brooder it's in my kitchen i sit at the table at the computer and watch them.
Good deal Claire i would love to trade.
Harmony - no worries - this isn't interrupting the holiday swap at all! That's a totally different thread!
I'm off to get ready to go to school - have to leave early today because of all the snow. Argh...I hope I don't end up in the ditch again.
Be Careful as my DH says keep it between the ditches (ssshhh i'm really not here)
Here's one of my Easter Eggers that I got from Ideal:
This was some of them 2 months ago:
Boy they grow up fast!!
Wow Sue - what great colors in that EE! Almost looks like a millie!
so cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!;)
Went to La for TG. This is a pic of my mom's girls. They are black and gold sexlinks. The younf hens are 8 months old and laying like gangbusters. The older hens are molting right now and not laying much but they will pick back up soon. Mom has about 30 hens and gets about 20 eggs a day.
Beautiful hens! Such shiny feathers and lovely colors!
I took this one to show the colors on the black hens's feathers. Isn't it beautiful?
Yes, it's a green hen! Not a black hen!
The breed is great if you want heavy layers. They rarely go broody and they lay large brown shelled eggs for years. Then, when they do get too old to lay, they are big enough to make a fine gumbo with. Mom gave away her oldest hens because they were starting to slack off in laying. They were 7 years old. They are still laying well for the lady Mom gave them to.
CajuninKy, your mom has beautiful chickens and fantastic layers! I just can't get over how wonderful the light hits those feathers!
Thank you for the kind words. She is really proud of her girls. They are beautiful. I hope to have some like them one day. Right now I have 2 bantam roos, 1 bantam hen and 3 bantam pullets. I also have 1 game cock and 2 game hens. My hen had layed a couple of eggs after she raised her last chicks and then she started molting so she quit laying. The pullets have never started laying even though they are old enough. I just figured it was because of the time of year and not enough daylight hours. I always check the nest boxes just out of habit but I quit even being disapponted anymore. When i came back from vacation this week I was happy to see the animals again and fell back into the routines. I fed the flock and checked the nest boxes. Imagine my suprise when there were eggs in the nest! Eight of them. One was broken and 6 were cracked so the dogs and cat will get those but the intact one will be for me. They were all cracked because we had freezing temps while we were gone. I'm going to have to insulate the nest somehow. My coop needs a lot of work. It's an old dog yard that I am making do with until Spring. I want to reroof an old stone root cellar on the property and attach a small yard to it.
Don't laugh too hard at my try at being artistic with my photo. LOL
Fabulous! What a wonderful welcome home gift from your girls! You must be so pleased. I always think it's exciting to find eggs in the nest.
Today was special for me because it was my most-ever eggs day. I got 9 eggs today and that just made me gleefully happy. Here is a picture of my eggs, since we are sharing eggs! No laughing at my asparagus dish.
The dish goes really nice with the blue eggs. How many hens do you have and what kinds are they?
Well, I have about 20 that I got from a coworker who moved, and they are some of the ones who are laying, but many of them are 5 years old or older. Then I got a few at the state fair, and one from the shelter. Then I got 5 red sex-link chickens from a family who just had triplets and couldn't afford them. Then I got a few more at Jacob's Cave animal swap in Missouri. Then I got 9 Thai birds from Chicken Run Rescue in Missouri. Then I got a few birds locally from Craig's List. Then I locally rescued 21 birds from a bad situation with some dogs that were killing them. Long story. Oh, and that doesn't count any of the roughly 100 or so eggs that I have hatched since August.
So, I have a lot of chickens, many of whom are way to young to lay, many of whom are roosters, and many of whom I obtained from unpleasant circumstances, who are still growing back feathers, gaining weight, and learning to enjoy life again. So you would think that I should have a lot more eggs, but I think so many of my chickens were in a bad way when I got them that they are taking a while to lay again. Oh, on top of that there has been a lot of molting this fall. So, for me, 9 eggs was a big deal. I'm sure by spring I will likely have 50 eggs a day and not know what to do with them!
Many are barnyard mixes. Some are red sex links. I also have nankins, welsummers, cuckoo marans, Old English Game Bantams, Thai, Ameraucana, Polish, Frizzle cochins, flat cochins, 1 leghorn rooster, 1 crele rooster, black australorps, barred rocks, dominiques, Dutch bantams, penedesencas, silkies, seramas, dark cornish, 1 chantecler, partridge rocks, mille fleur d'uccles, porcelain d'uccles, Sicilian buttercup bantams, Delawares....I can't remember what else.
I think I have a chicken addiction problem sometimes!
You'll have to get certification so you can donate them to local food banks -or start selling. You can get cartons from your local Japanese steakhouse...
Until I started visiting this forum, I had no idea there were so many different kinds of chickens. Are the Thai chickens game fowl. I know somebody who raised a breed of game fowl from Thailand. They are huge birds. Your chicken yard must look like the united nations of the chicken world. LOL
Claire you are the savoir of all the chickens! {{hugs}} from all the chickens that would be without a loving home if it weren't for you. I sincerely mean it! It breaks my heart knowing people just discard chickens on the side of the road without a second thought. Ok I'll stop!!
Yes, the Thai birds are game fowl, and they were actually obtained from a cock fighting bust. There were over 100 birds rescued. I have 8 hens and 2 roosters. I have been told by some people that the roosters may get aggressive later, but others say not necessarily. None of the birds were fought - they were all too young.
My biggest problem now is the eating thing. I would like to process some roosters for our own use, but I am not sure if I can eat them. We got a turkey from a local farm for Thanksgiving and she rode home on my lap in the truck because she didn't want to go in the crate. I just patted her on the way home and she made cute little burbling noises. The next day Kelly butchered her and as it turned out, I could not face eating her and I had a vegetarian Thanksgiving meal. This is something I am struggling with now because the roosters were chicks for me mostly, and I don't know how I can eat them. None of them have ever been aggressive.
Cajun your moms chickens with the shiney green reminds me of my white face black spanish.
Pretty, Har!
Claire, part of life is contributing in some fashion. Those boys of yours need to be allowed to contribute too. It may be possible to take them somewhere for processing. I do most heartily sympathize. We're doing it here and at first it really sucks. If you believe in the cycle of life though and believe in being a positive part of it...just trying to find words to get going on...The alternative is letting someone else take responsibility for your contribution or not having a place for all those creatures of yours, though. Imho.
Claire if you are not there and have kelly process them without you haveing to do anything you won't know it happened. Get him to tell you a day or 2 ahead then go shopping or something and when you come home it will be over.
My husband did that when we had some cornish and i just noticed they were gone. When i cooked them i couldn't picture them in my head it just looked like a store chicken to me.
Everytime we send a cow or pig to the butchers, I pet them in their crate in the back of the truck and cry my eyes out. My DH always asks me why do you pet them goodbye when all you do is cry the whole time. But it's my way of letting them go. I know they had the best possible care and this is what they were raised for. We wrap our own meat to save on money but it's always at least a week before we pick them up so I have the time to accept not seeing them every day. And yes I do name each and everyone.
I refuse though to be present when the rabbits are butchered(they are done here) so I don't know who was who. I think everyone has their own way of looking at this but I'd rather raise them myself knowing they have been well taken care of; unlike those in the grocery store.
I hope this helps. :-)
We're cheering for you however you go, Claire.
Good ideas Sue and Har. Maybe the lack of mental prep time for TG was a contributing factor...
I don't have a problem putting down a sick chicken i look at it as relieveing the suffering.
But i can not kill and process any animal i just have a tender heart. My dad was a hunter i helped him clean rabbits and turtles and hated it. I would rub the bunnys fur and wish it was still alive now the turtles i just didn't enjoy that haven't met many cuddly turtles.
Just an idea from a lurker who can't seem to keep her fingers off the keyboard . I do try honestly! Claire, is there someone in your area, possibly the friend who went to the Poultry Show with you, who has extra roosters that they butcher? If you don't know their chickens on a personal level you could exchange the meat, it would be more like chicken from a store but with the benefit of knowing the conditions in which they were raised.'chicken' outou
Sending this before I 'chicken' out.
Oh, SurreyBrit - what a good idea! My friend from the poultry show only has tiny banties, but I might be able to arrange with another farm family something along the same lines. I think I could eat those....I think....
Oh goodness, don't be a lurker! We love participants!!!
Surrey chimes in when it's most appreciated!! Dependable.