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Any thread recommendations for meat chicken breeds that aren't such genetic freaks? Not looking for any "hybrid" meat/egg breeds. Looking for a meat bread without insane genetics where the birds start dying because they gained so much weight in 3 months that they start suffocating to death.
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May 25, 2022 07:22
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I raised some rainbow rangers from Meyer hatchery last summer. I found that they were too food focused for my taste but they are supposed to be better than the Cornish cross. I also raised out a bunch of Fry Pan Bargains from Meyer and the New Hampshires (I think) were the best growers of the group. McMurray has a Delaware line that is bred for meat, if I were raising chickens strictly for meat I’d try them.  The New Hampshires are on the left here next to a Ranger. They are all 6 weeks old in this picture. This year I’m letting my broodies raise their own, mostly, so I’ll be having half Legbar-half whatever roosters for the freezer when the time comes. Usually it’s 12+ weeks when they get really obnoxious. I’m a lazy cook and they just get thrown in the crock pot as a whole bird so size isn’t an issue.
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May 25, 2022 10:17
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Joburg posted:Talk about live prey! Our little buff Orpington cockerel caught this big toad yesterday and it took him a long time to figure out how to eat it. Tiny little murder beasts. The first time I saw one of my hens rushing about with a frog dangling from her beak, I followed because I was concerned she'd choke or something and then watched as she basically opened her giant maw of death and gulped it down with no problem before rushing back for more.
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May 25, 2022 15:03
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kafkasgoldfish posted:Tiny little murder beasts. I saw one of our roosters grab a snake and before I could finish asking myself if it was venomous or not, he sucked it down like spaghetti. My next thought was, "I guess we'll find out shortly."
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May 25, 2022 16:44
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There's a short vid on YouTube where a cat is outside playing with a live mouse it just caught. A hen runs up, grabs the mouse from under the cat's nose, takes a few steps and proceeds to viciously wham the mouse on the hound a few times. Then a quick gulp gulp and the mouse is gone.
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May 25, 2022 17:20
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MrUnderbridge posted:There's a short vid on YouTube where a cat is outside playing with a live mouse it just caught. A hen runs up, grabs the mouse from under the cat's nose, takes a few steps and proceeds to viciously wham the mouse on the hound a few times. Then a quick gulp gulp and the mouse is gone. Poor mouse video https://imgur.com/Dz3Cx2c
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May 25, 2022 20:57
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one of my roosters caught a young eastern brown snake (like the second deadliest snake in australia) and ran around with it for a full minute while the rest of the flock tried to get it off him before he finally swallowed it. it was alive and thrashing the whole time. somehow he came to no harm. they may have limited understanding in many areas but they know their way around a snake
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May 26, 2022 01:11
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after very long and careful consideration, i've decided to get back into guinea fowl. i think i can sell bonded trios of the adults to the vineyards around here for natural snake and rat control. bringing these magnificent idiots back into my life is not a decision i make lightly, but the time has come. (also i want to see if moose will adopt a keet) mahershalalhashbaz fucked around with this message at 01:16 on May 26, 2022 |
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May 26, 2022 01:13
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My guineas have all paired off, I’m surprised that they’d be happy in trios. One of our Guinea hens is sitting on a nest. I let her collect eggs for 3 days and I’ve been removing the new eggs since then. Today she was not about to let me. She came at me 3 times! I’m really impressed but I will have to try again tomorrow. The other 4 hens are still laying in the nest and more eggs will screw up the incubation of her babies. Speaking of babies…  Popcorn Leghorn has 3 chicks and a fourth has pipped! She is doing so well! On the other hand, Rose is having incubation trouble and her lone egg has not hatched. It has blood vessels so it is still alive, I think, just late. 
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May 26, 2022 01:42
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I've at least four pipped and wiggly eggs. Exciting!
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May 26, 2022 17:13
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my cat is norris posted:I've at least four pipped and wiggly eggs. Exciting! Egg-citing!
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May 26, 2022 17:22
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my cat is norris posted:I've at least four pipped and wiggly eggs. Exciting! 
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May 26, 2022 21:03
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when i say "peep peep!" to the incubator some eggs wiggle there are now at least 7 pips
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May 26, 2022 21:26
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M o r e babies
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May 26, 2022 22:31
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Only thing cuter than baby chicks are one with a momma and it makes me sad to take eggs from our broody hens even if they're all infertile.
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May 26, 2022 22:37
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my cat is norris posted:when i say "peep peep!" to the incubator some eggs wiggle
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May 27, 2022 00:58
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my cat is norris posted:when i say "peep peep!" to the incubator some eggs wiggle  I decided Rose’s incubation problem is too many belly feathers. For some reason her brood patch isn’t bald like it usually is for brooding so we trimmed it today and I did some eggs shuffling. Fauna’s pipping eggs went to Rose, Rose’s overdue egg went to Blazer, and half of Blazer’s 8 went to Fauna. The last of Popcorn’s eggs hatched and the little chick has splay leg.  I taped them so hopefully that corrects them. Popcorn is doing a great job with the chicks but keeps parking her butt in the coop doorway and that makes all the other birds mad.
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May 27, 2022 01:25
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I love this thread so much.
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May 27, 2022 03:04
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my cat is norris posted:I love this thread so much.
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May 27, 2022 06:29
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one baby is out and wooblin' around so i started the stream https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqXNJhAtcrg i thought i moved all the wiggly eggs up front but now i see one in the back doing a dance. babies!!
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May 27, 2022 14:07
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my cat is norris posted:babies!! my cat is norris posted:babies!! my cat is norris posted:babies!! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
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May 27, 2022 14:15
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Another is mostly out, and one is wiggling like mad!
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May 27, 2022 14:59
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So the two brahmas we have, Edam and Mozzarella, have grown at different rates. Edam is way bigger than Mozzarella, almost twice the size. Edam is also one of the greedier chicks. We, uh, didn't get a rooster by accident, did we? Because that would be a violation of our permit (along with having a few too many!), and not something that can really be hidden. Please tell me Edam is just bigger because she's a big old piggy chick!
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May 27, 2022 15:05
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my cat is norris posted:one baby is out and wooblin' around so i started the stream
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May 27, 2022 16:03
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https://www.aliexpress.com/item/325...703958753%21sea
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May 27, 2022 16:13
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MrUnderbridge posted:So the two brahmas we have, Edam and Mozzarella, have grown at different rates. Edam is way bigger than Mozzarella, almost twice the size. Edam is also one of the greedier chicks. There won’t be that much size difference at that age between girls and boys, or most breeds for that matter. I’d start looking for other causes of delayed growth. When my little naked neck chick was noticeably smaller than the others I decided she had coccidiosis. I don’t use medicated feed so I got some corrid and put it in their water for 5 days. She is now almost the same size as the others.
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May 27, 2022 16:26
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okay so i left the house for about 2 hours and came back and we have 11 babies now?? oh my
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May 27, 2022 16:27
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my cat is norris posted:okay so i left the house for about 2 hours and came back and we have 11 babies now?? oh my I've had the stream on and hearing your first exclamation when you came back of "So many?!?!" made me laugh out loud  Thanks for putting the link up; it has made a long Friday a delight.
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May 27, 2022 16:33
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my cat is norris posted:one baby is out and wooblin' around so i started the stream I've learned from a few years of following this thread that I am never doing quail. I'm glad someone does at least and this feed is unbearably cute!
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May 27, 2022 16:57
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Enfys posted:I've had the stream on and hearing your first exclamation when you came back of "So many?!?!" made me laugh out loud  they just keep hatchingi was so worried but they just keep hatching i think i'm up to 18 now oh dear it's 20 and there are 12 eggs left to hatch...i only put in 4 of my own and a few were chucked as damaged or duds so HOW MANY DID THE FARM SEND MEEEEE i never counted! my cat is norris fucked around with this message at 20:27 on May 27, 2022 |
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May 27, 2022 17:01
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i have moved the cam into the brooder pen there are currently 4 babs still in the incubator with at least two more eggs i expect will hatch tomorrow is the last day of incubation according to nature's timer, but i will keep things running through sunday just in case there is a late-comer
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May 27, 2022 21:58
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Babieeeeees
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May 27, 2022 22:47
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Rose’s chicks hatched yesterday! I checked yesterday morning and from 3 eggs she had 2 chicks, empty shells, and no third chick. I looked all over and didn’t find any sign of the chick, I decided that one of the chickens must have eaten it. In the afternoon I was fussing around with Popcorn’s splay leg chick and realized she had an extra chick. I was so relieved!! Claudia duck hatched 3 little ducklings, but she won’t let me close enough to get a good picture yet.
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May 28, 2022 10:01
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Congratulations!!!! I think my hatch is over at 22 little quails. We lost one overnight because of a gap in the brooder pen that I didn't realize they could fit through. Several tried to freeze themselves to death, and one managed it, sooo now my bull snake has a taste for poultry... IN HAPPIER NEWS, updated brooder stream! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRzxjOKs6t0
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May 28, 2022 15:16
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Yesterday I went out to give my ladies an afternoon treat of blueberries and found one of them collapsed dead on the ground She's been fit and sassy and had eaten breakfast normally, so I'm guessing a heart attack or aneurysm or the like. Her name was Grumpy because when we brought her home from the battery rescue, she yelled. And yelled. And yelled. Yelling was her default response to life because she was a bit, um, "special" for a chicken. She never figured out what her wings were for and would stand on the ground yelling up at her friends in confusion. If you picked her up and put her on a branch with her friends, she would yell at the ground in confusion. She yelled about everything though, and when we got to know her we realised she wasn't actually grumpy, more like perpetually perplexed by existence. Her best friend was also adopted at the same time, and they are both the strangest chickens we've had in their own ways. They seem to have had the hardest life and been the smallest and least healthy of all the ex-batts we've adopted, though they flourished with care. Her best friend is named Pecks because she spent the first month or so obsessively pecking walls like a woodpecker in what I'd guess is some sort of stress displacement activity from her battery days (she still does it occasionally but has overall adapted to life as a fat happy matriarch who rules the garden and all within it). I quarantined the two of them together, and they became inseparable pals for life .When I finally introduced them to the flock, Pecks immediately became the new boss by virtue of being crazier than all the much larger, healthier hens, and she made sure that no one picked on the much slower Grumpy too much. If anyone tried to chase Grumpy away from her treats, Pecks would jump on their head and sit on them. They were devoted to each other, and she is now bereft and has spent the day sitting in a corner by herself chasing the other hens away if they approach her  Grumpy grew a pair of inch long spurs after we adopted another 3 hens last year, so I like to think she took her duty as the boss's best friend very seriously. She was a great and weird little creature, and I will miss her 
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May 28, 2022 17:50
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my cat is norris posted:Congratulations!!!! Your streams have been really lovely to watch after a hard week 
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May 28, 2022 17:52
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I'm so sorry about Grumpy. It's beautiful that you got to know her so well and appreciate her despite her oddities.
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May 28, 2022 17:55
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Aw, Grumpy sounds like a real character. I hope Pecks recovers from the heartbreak.  effervescible posted:Babieeeeees And even more babies! The seagull pair that nest on the chimney opposite our house (and who dine in our backyard) proudly revealed to my partner and I their two hungry chicks in their nest this morning.
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May 28, 2022 18:20
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Oh lord, you know your hen has been broody and busy hatching chicks when the comb has fallen over to the side like that. A hard working mum, that one.
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May 28, 2022 19:45
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Rest in pecks, Grumpy.
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May 28, 2022 22:08
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