Good Morning! <=2017

Bayvistafarm · Post by **Bayvistafarm** » Wed Mar 30, 2016 1:20 pm

So finally I get to ship the thing back to Berryhill... at my cost. They will fix, or replace. What a pita to box up. Thank goodness WLLady left some packing tape, and some bubble wrap. I guess I will go to town now, before bus and pay AGAIN to have something shipped. I wonder what it will be tomorrow, lol.

Bobbi · Post by **Bobbi** » Wed Mar 30, 2016 5:26 pm

Shirley- Holy cow. I think you deserve a few glases (or bottles, no judgment here) of wine for that. Lol

Ross- I second Kb.. Have a chat with my girls too please.

kenya · Post by **kenya** » Wed Mar 30, 2016 5:36 pm

Eggsaggerate wrote:QR_BBPOST
Killerbunny wrote:QR_BBPOST And to crown it al I went down to close up the turkeys and it looks like Stephen has got hurt. Maybe slipped in the mud or something. His neck seems crooked and he looks scared. I've put him in a coop on his own so we'll see what the morning brings. He was fine 1/2 hr earlier.
Symptoms sound similar to one of my meat turkeys, if he is with another tom maybe the results of a fight see

Good video!

Jaye · Post by **Jaye** » Wed Mar 30, 2016 6:05 pm

KB, just read about Stephen.

I so hope he will recover soon and be back to his former self!

ross · Post by **ross** » Wed Mar 30, 2016 6:22 pm

Maybe send your hens here for training guys ? Lol

SandyM · Post by **SandyM** » Thu Mar 31, 2016 7:07 am

Morning,

Raining and then there is raining. My goodness. Even ducks would be asking when will it stop! I haven't read the good morning thread in a few days so I feel out of the loop.

I also feel a bit lost. My silkies, except my broody mom are all re-homed. It's amazing how much work the Silkies were everyday. I know most of it was me, pampering and checking to make sure everyone is good. But today is raining and depsite their covered pen that had 2 tarps on they still would of got wet and I would of been blow drying the wettest at bedtime. (usually my porcelains who did not care about rain). Then adding a heat lamp to make sure no one got the chills over night from being damp. Every day I open the Silkie coop I expect to redirect my Roo who would pound the crap out of them each morning..but now it's just my broody and well, she's easy peasy. Lol.

So I'm down to 13 layers and a Rooster free ranging. Light duty over here.

if I were to make/cross my own 'meat' bird what would you recommend? I'm not going to do the franken chickens as originally planned. I have a moral issue with getting a bird that has been bred so poorly, with no regard for the breeds health, I can not support it. So I'm back to square one. Robbie suggested to me that I cross 2 desirable breeds (Malines/Cornish) to make my own and this way I wouldn't have to buy 'Frank' a few times a year and micromanage their growth and health.

SandyM · Post by **SandyM** » Thu Mar 31, 2016 8:01 am

P.S. Got my temporary outdoor cards yesterday.

Post by **Killerbunny** » Thu Mar 31, 2016 8:13 am

So this am I am cautiously optimistic. Yesterday Stephen was eating and drinking. Still neck bent and walking backwards but some walking forwards too. We checked his head out carefully last night and found that his left ear has some bruising and a little blood in the canal but nothing elsewhere. We put polysporin eye drops in his ear to try to stave off infection in case the drum is broken and I'm giving him Metacam for inflammation and pain relief. This morning he got up to greet me and is walking forward better. Could be a long road here but he's such a great Tom. I had to split Justin from the girls to collect eggs that I hope were fertilised by Stephen and had to let Stephen back with the girls yesterday. Too stressful for him to be away. They still stay around him and have no interest in Justin - interesting.

Post by **WLLady** » Thu Mar 31, 2016 8:15 am

Good morning everyone!
Holy moly rain! the river is already at 9m-well, it WAS last night-i'm sure it's only getting higher! thankfully it floods out the OTHER side, and not onto my land, but i'm sure we'll have our fair share of erosion from this past couple of weeks of rains. My front field is floating and full of geese. My back field must have sharks in it because the horses are IN the barn...and they're never in the barn. but i love having the barn, it's nice and dry in there. and i love the sound of rain on the tin roof

had one of my cats refuse to come in last night. she sure was begging for in this morning at 6am! she's in, towelled off (because i don't need her getting the sofa wet) and safe and sleeping. the other 2 woke me up at 2am yowling for "IN!!!! NOW!!!!"
woke up to 4 turkey poults and 1 cornish hatched. and lots more peeping and pipping.....fingers crossed that moving them to the brooder didn't upset the humidity too badly...today is actually hatch day...so. and today sometime i pick up my sportsman from berryhill! (if we haven't all just gotten on an ark by then) yay! got a spot almost cleaned out in the front room for that and the hatcher-just need to run the vacuum around to get the dust bunnies cleaned up.
congrats sandy on the outdoors card. and KB, i hope stephen keeps getting better!
Sandy-it depends on what you want in a "meat bird". do you want a boiler? a roaster? a rotisserie bird? do you want to process them-aka breast, leg, wing take it apart into pieces and freeze bird? For me and my hubby, we did the frankenchicken cornish crosses ONCE. and ONLY ONCE. they taste amazing. they really do. but NEVER again. We now process all the extra cockerels from my heritage (and non-heritage project) breeds. I really really like the size of the welsummer and barred rocks. and the boys are good and chunky at 18-22 weeks. I'm growing them out past that quite often to select a few to carry on breeding with, so there's no shortage of boys around my place. they make a respectable roaster. they're a little big on the rotisserie on the bbq, but if i want a bird specifically for that i could process earlier (around 16 weeks). since i have dark cornish i would be pretty tempted, but i need all those birds right now for generating chicks...they're a wonderfully compact meaty bird. but they are the proverbial PITA to hatch and raise. they're not quite as dumb as turkeys, but pretty darned close. i would say my favorites for us are barred rocks or barred rock cross boys. rhodebar and welbar boys have nice big size too, and it's been tricky getting good "proper" colour on them so i get lots of extra boys there.....they dress out to 5-6 pounds at 22 weeks or so. if you wanted bigger then maybe jersey giants....but i personally will never grow cornish anythings for the freezer again, either the crosses or the frankenchicken type cornishes. i have enough trouble with the dark cornish for chicks. if you want a smaller bird though i hear that the bantam cornish aren't as picky as the standard. but i have zero experience with bantams.

Post by **Home Grown Poultry** » Thu Mar 31, 2016 9:01 am

Morning all. KB your hens should stay fertilized for about 30 days? glad hes getting better!

Kathy I bet your super excited for that sportsman eh! fingers crossed for a great hatch!

Sandy I was also going to suggest the banty cornish. they have one of the best feed to mest conversion rates. crossing 2 breeds is always a crapshoot. but that cross as suggested has been done by a few and works very well. I also do like Kathy does n eat all my extras. if it dont meet the SOP its out of the coop and in the freezer.

I have about 30 cockerals/roosters that will be done ASAP! I just need to finish the darn plucker for crying out loud! it spins it should work, I just have a few odds n ends to finish before im done. plumbing, wiring, reassembly. I only want to do it once. LOL

I hope my pond trench is working!

later!