Warm boot recommendations please

[Tom and Barbara]

went up to the chicken farm to donate the cokerels that we had.......and came back with another 6 day old hens!!!!! it's an addiction *twitches* why...can...I...not....help....myself......*rocks*

 

soooo we welcome, Geoffrey the naked neck bantam, another silver seabright and four partridge pekins that were for the chop because they had splay legs......a bit of string and a leg brace later they're fiiiine

 

Dad is planning on getting us an incubator for Christmas - we'll be setting up in business at this rate!

 

Anyone else with naked necks? Dave finds Geoffrey 'repulsive' but i think he's kind of quirky

[Guest]

 

I quite like the look of naked-necks, but chookiehubbie thinks that they look half oven-ready, so I'm not allowed....

[Tom and Barbara]

yay another fan at least!

 

dave has already started referring to him as 'that vile chicken'

[xChicken04x]

I think there cute in there own way i could never see any chicken as vile although they are a bit strange.....in a cute way....i couldnt resist knitting a scarf for her in the winter though!

[Tom and Barbara]

PMSL!!!! I've already planned the scarf

[feemcg]

What do you mean, somebody stop you - you've got them already .

[Tom and Barbara]

stop me from KEEPING doing it!!! i've well and truly fallen off the wagon fee, i don't think the program is working for me......maybe i should pay more attention at meetings rather than just eating the free biscuits

[feemcg]

I've tried to be strong and the incy has been switched off for 2 whole weeks......but I was thinking this week about putting some Clarence Court eggs in, just to see what would happen......lo and behold, you've already got some under a broody I think we have the incurable form of chickenitis, so basically, we just can't help ourselves . Did you know you have to have eggs in the incy/broody by 1st June if you want them to be winter layers? Thats as good an excuse as any .

[Tom and Barbara]

ooooh really?? well there you go, i was just in time with the dark brahma eggs yesterday then

 

the clarence court dozen are due to hatch this weekend so it'll be interesting to see if anything happens. I think you should get some cc in the incy before the 1st june deadline for the sake of scientific experiment.....it'd be rude not to really

 

do you keep all your hatchlings or do you sell them?

[bronze]

oh poo

that means if my mate messed up this batch for me (I cant blame her she did have my three brats to cope with too) then I'll be too late with my next try

[Tom and Barbara]

can you hedge your bets and set the next lot anyway?

 

there's me saying i just met the deadline - the brahmas take about 2 years to lay an egg anyway don't they?!?

[bronze]

I wish I could

If only I had a broody

I have one incubator....full

 

Fee I think you should do the CCourt ones too. In the name of science of course. Which would you do burfords or legbars (or do they do more) or maybe a box of each

[feemcg]

I kept 3 from my first hatch and sold/gave away 9. I sold 5 on saturday from the second lot - I only want to keep 1 Wyandotte and 1 Orp from that lot so 3 still to go. I think I have 2 frizzled boys and 1 straight/1 frizzled girls so will prob keep both girls as they're bantams.

The wee chicks I'll probably keep 1 of each and sell the rest.

That should leave me with 14/15 big girls by the end of the summer .

[bronze]

Do you manage to sell the males easily?

I have last resorts in place but it would be nice for them to go do their thang

[feemcg]

Yes I'd like to try it out of interest - think I'd do the Burford Browns as the legbars aren't true legbars, only a trade name. Theres a bit of s"Ooops, word censored!"bery goes on about people selling Cotswold Legbars because of this and because they're not auto-sexing.

[Tom and Barbara]

i'm the same bron - we have the last resort of donating the boys to the chicken farm, i know she sells the ones she can but i'd much rather them go sow their wild oats and be happy! it's the only thing that i worry about with this incubator Dad is offering to buy us - if we DID start setting regularly, how easy would it be to move boys on?

 

I didn't realise there was so much to-do on the cotswold front fee, so what is the 'true' legbar?

[feemcg]

I've been really lucky so far and have given away 4 boys (I give them away free as i'm just glad they've got a home). At the moment I have a beautiful Welsummer boy - he's going to be a stunner - so i'll wait a couple of weeks and advertise him. If "Ooops, word censored!"ody wants him he'll go and live at OH's friend's farm where he'll be very free-range i.e. roosting in trees and barns but at least he'd be with other hens and cockerels.

Then I'll have to advertise the frizzle boys........and so it goes on

[bronze]

I wonder how many people on here to breed to despatch rather than for eggs

[Tom and Barbara]

i take it we mean despatch as in 'move on' not despatch as in *makes neck cutting movement*

 

it's the next stage for my addiction i think, to hatch to pass on....would be interesting to know who else does it

[bronze]

no in that case I meant to eat

 

 

I know if I had huge amounts of space I would have to have two lots of birds one that I just fed and cared for no names etc so no big attachment then there would be my pet birds that had names and were stroked etc

 

 

theres one good thing about hatching pretty breeds, the chances of being able to find soemone to have them is higher

[Tom and Barbara]

aaaah - see that's the other thing isn't it, i do quite like the idea of some 'no names' for meat, just to know that the birds we eat were well cared for. Dave would have to learn to despatch though as I'm not sure I could.

[bronze]

No I couldnt either