I was waiting for a sunny and non-muddy day to sort birds. Today was sunny, but still muddy, but I decided to go ahead and start the "what to do with the chickens" process. See, I can't really figure out what to do til I know what I got, right?
FYI, C= male over a year, K= male under a year, H= female over a year, P= female under a year
Here's what I found:
4 large hens in egg layer flock (all will stay)
10 "pet quality" Rosecombs to either take to auction or sell as pets, mostly young, various faults make them non-breeder birds (all will go)
Of the following listings, at least a dozen will be kept, the rest sold. All are cream of the crop birds, my breeding pens, the best stuff I have.
BLACK:
4C (two are 100% my line, 2 are 50% my line)
3K (all 75% my line)
5H (2 are 100% my line, 3 are 50%)
6P (all 75%)
BLACK BREASTED RED:
3C (two are sentimental old "keepers" that have faults that should not be bred from)
6H
(I hatched no pure BBReds last year, only BBRed X Black, see next list)
BLACK BREASTED RED X BLACK:
(this was done to improve type, all are "Black Red" in color and need to be bred back to BBRed, or to each other)
3K
6P
BRASSY BACK:
1C
2K
2H (1 is "keeper" due to being extremely old)
1P
BLUE BRASSY BACK:
1K
4H
2P
BLUE (not purebred, he is from Blue Brassy Back X Black):
1C
BLUE SPLASH (may throw brassy genes?):
3P
GOLDEN DUCKWING-ISH:
1H (high % Old English)
------
So.... now I need to figure out how they would best be paired/penned for breeding (can do this on paper) and then figure out what I want to keep, and what to sell.
Here's everyone getting sorted (no they don't normally live in little cages!)
Oh yeah, and I went down to what used to be my "home" poultry show yesterday for a couple hours to drop off some birds. It was weird. I enjoyed visiting with a few good friends (who I seem to be able to count on one hand these days) but over all really didn't feel comfortable. I was amazed how many unfamiliar faces are there! Wow. Thank goodness for a few friends, and a good dinner and conversation after leaving the fairgrounds. :-) To REJ, I'm sorry I forgot the cream puff!!! You were sweet to save it for me, unfortunately I didn't remember it til I was halfway home. :-(
I guess you would say mine are hobby chickens. We do not eat our chickens.(Quite often they find themselves sacrificed to nature's predators.) I raise them for their eggs and for the beautiful lawn ornaments they become. Even the guinea fowl are for entertainment. We supply family and friends with free-range chicken eggs and do not charge for these eggs. But I depend on serious chicken raisers like you to keep me in birds.
ReplyDeleteBoy, I bet they were giving you the stink eye that day! -BMc.
ReplyDeleteWow! Your birds look great as always. If I counted correctly, looks like somewhere in the upper 60's! I have 26 now (and some of those are laying hens)... and I think I am going to stay around there and hatch around 50 every year. It is so nice only having a handful --- with our set up we can feed everything in just a few minutes if we don't have time. The hard thing is with those colored varieties you have to hatch so much more to get decent birds! It feels weird having empty cages everywhere, but it's also nice when I want to separate stuff! I'm glad it doesn't sound like you're quitting yet!!!
ReplyDeleteMike, I'm definitely not quitting entirely. I'll still have some! Less will be nice! Besides, I can only hatch chicks if I am home to deal with them... daily. So if I have to travel then I can't have chicks on the ground. Last year that meant waiting til late June to hatch. This year it might have to be even later. That's just not conducive to hatching show birds. I know lots of people are hatching now, but it's muddy and gross and chicks are the LAST thing I want to deal with this time of year!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I have entire empty coops... weird.
See you in Fresno?
I won't be in Fresno :-(.... I will be in Australia until the 21st! I don't have anything worth showing right now, anyways, and I have everything in breeding pens already. Turned on my incubator yesterday and the humidity won't stay consistent (of course, being fully functional is much too convenient), so I've got to tinker until I can get it right.
ReplyDeleteHope you win big...good luck!