rachels.haven's Journal

[fuzzi]

You can still use just move the ring about an inch morn & night . To test make a mark on ring and spot under...turn on & next day, are they still aligned.

You've prob already done the mark test

Yep. I date my eggs, and currently am also writing an "s" on the Sussex eggs.

 

[rachels.haven]

Dang it, you all are making me want to get an incubator again.

I did goat stuff today so I got to take some goat pics.

Here's Dator at "Get Fat Camp" with is hematoma behind his scur showing.

Spot the Baby after her hoof trim and new collar.

A second naughty La-noober yearling who has decided to be wild and shy and almost got herself listed today (hence the pics). Eventually jealousy won and she let herself be caught.

Today was dry standard and mini hoof trim day. Tomorrow is trim dry ND feet.

 

[rachels.haven]

Chubby dry ND pics. We're done with May hoof trims!

 

[rachels.haven]

I think....I wound up with these hot messes instead of bantams or mixes. Toe count, shank color, plumage color, and crest-age.

 

[farmerjan]

I thought I had posted that they could be sultans.... Sorry, I can't find where I thought I answered you. It seems that I posted it somewhere though...
I figured that I had posted it, and you had decided that that breed was not available...so was a cross....

They have 5 toes, long wing feathers that extend beyond the body , feathers that extend past the hocks... known as vulture hocks.... feathered feet and a V shape comb at the base of the top knot... It is not really a crest... but sort of. Nothing like the Polish crested breed with the "pom pom" type crest that also impedes their sight.

 

[farmerjan]

I may have mentioned that I had seen some pretty nice Sultans at a show....??? Maybe in my thread???

 

[rachels.haven]

I may have mentioned that I had seen some pretty nice Sultans at a show....??? Maybe in my thread???

Its entirely possible you mentioned them. I remember you mentioning weird European breeds. I didn't think this hatchery carried Sultans so i didn't consider them a possibility, which was dumb because clearly they do and they probably did all along. Odd, because i thought their policy was to house bantams and large fowl at separate facilities. Doesn't matter too much though. Purebred fowl are easier to resell than mixed breeds so it may be a bonus for me.
The website only puts them in the "fair" category as layers. Will anyone want the pullets?

 

[Mini Horses]

Some bird enthusiasts might. There are people who have birds just for looks & enjoyment who really see eggs as a happening, not production efforts.

 

[rachels.haven]

Hopefully.
I took kind of a pretty picture this morning.

I don't think my houdan rooster is totally blind...just not very bright. But i also don't think his beak is rooster quality. It doesn't close. He's got kind of pretty blue eyes though. I actually sort of like him, but im glad i didn't get a bunch. Hatcheries are still for production birds only.

 

[farmerjan]

One thing about these hatcheries... They are HATCHERIES.... most all of them contract out for a good number of the breeds they hatch to sell the chicks. Nearly all of them get their bantams from other breeders that they contract eggs from. Some may keep some of the more popular large fowl breeds for consistency of chicks..... But there is no way they will keep all of the specialty breeds they offer, especially the bantams...
It is interesting that they have something like Sultans... because they are fairly "rare".... but then with more and more "small farms" popping up where homesteader types want something novel, the "odd stuff"... is gaining some ground. That is actually good for some of these endangered breeds and varieties... The only bad thing is that suppliers of eggs usually have to be able to guarantee a certain number of eggs, so they are not just breeding and collecting from the best... and therefore the "purebred" qualities are sometimes compromised... Still, if someone wants to get into a certain rare breed, even finding something like this is a start... if they want to have birds that can compete in shows, they will have to learn to "breed up" and only keep the best of the best. The rest make nice cute backyard birds to add variety to someone's flock. All the culls cannot go in the soup pot. Like with the goats... you try to keep and breed to improve on what you have... and some get sold to others... might be better than what they have, to improve their flock... might be a start for someone... might just be for a "pet" type situation.

Most all bantams are fair layers... being much more seasonal than large fowl. Many will lay pretty good for their first year or 2, and some will lay into the colder weather. Most do not lay much in the winter... but some of them are not bad. The good thing is they don't eat what the large fowl do, and most become pets to a degree so the owners are not so focused on eggs. Never going to get the kind of production that the hybrids in the large fowl that are strictly bred for laying and lay themselves out in a couple of years. Even the leghorns, like the buffs that I got, will lay decent but not like the production leghorns. Some of the breeders have chased type and color that they have sacrificed the production qualities of what the leghorns were known for. But egg production is not something a judge can "see"... and production is next to impossible to "prove" .... At least with dairy cattle... there is "milk testing" like I do, to help prove what a cow produces, so not only can she be exceptional in a show ring, meeting qualifications of size, type, etc and so on... but proving her value as a producing animal also. Same as beef cattle..... producing a calf and that calf being exceptional as far as true to type... same as sheep, and goats... with you milk testing goats also... so they fit the type etc of their respective breed, but also that they can be "proven" with milk testing as to whether they are also doing what they are claimed to do.
Since chickens lay only 1 egg every 20-26 hours... the egg cannot travel the whole oviduct from yolk to laid egg faster than that... there are no ways of doing a "laying numbers" test... They do trap nest counting on some of these big farms where they are developing laying breeds/hybrids... so can get a "total numbers" of eggs laid per hen an d can breed from the ones that produce the most... But again... there just isn't the same way to prove it like with milk testing and calf weight gain, growth and all that they measure in beef cattle... Or in meat breeds of sheep and goats and hogs...