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Post by Heaven Sent Ranch on May 1, 2012 23:05:36 GMT -5
Ok, very confusing for a novice like myself. So, I'm thinking my best option would be to stick with a true black and not take the chance that I will screw up! ;D With that said, KORFUS, KORFUS, KORFUS!!!
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Post by Heaven Sent Ranch on Apr 29, 2012 18:55:19 GMT -5
I know I'm coming in late on this string but this has happened to me in the past. A woman captured pictures off my website of my Black Copper Marans and sold her eggs and chicks on ebay utilizing my photos. When I contacted her she replied that she had been in the hospital and her children had posted the pictures without her permission. REALLY? OMG, that's the BEST she could come up with? She said her kids got into her saved pictures and put together the ad without her knowledge. Geeezzz...... Debi Heaven Sent Ranch
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Post by Heaven Sent Ranch on Apr 29, 2012 12:58:01 GMT -5
So, in your opinion, if you had two equally significant looking cockerels/roosters you would go with the black but the blue would work without much of a difference in the offspring?
I've always understood that once you put blue into a bird it's there for life and can pop up down the road. I have a flock of poor quality Lavenders and am hoping to do some work with them down the road if I can introduce a high quality black orp roo into them. What do you think of that or should I just scrap the Lavenders and start from scratch?
Debi
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Post by Heaven Sent Ranch on Apr 5, 2012 10:38:11 GMT -5
Hi All,
I have 24 Lavender chicks in the brooder right now. I've been working on acquiring some Blacks to go with them for next year. I might just get them this summer! :-)
Will post some pictures over the weekend.
Debi
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Post by Heaven Sent Ranch on Mar 10, 2012 12:55:25 GMT -5
Hi All,
Just set five and half dozen eggs sent to me by Mr. Wonderful, Don Chandler. Clevenger and Clevenger/Farthing, also some mystery eggs! Thanks so much Don and "the checks in the mail" LOL
Debi
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Post by Heaven Sent Ranch on Mar 9, 2012 14:57:42 GMT -5
Hi again,
Quite a few people have suggested cat food. I give my birds so much protein now that I can't imagine that it is a lack of protein. I'm starting to think that, at least for this one hen, it may more of an inability to assimilate the protein being provided. Which would lead me to believe there is probably something else going on with her.
Currently I am attempting to determine which hen it is. When I do, I will pull her and work with her in an individual pen. She does seem to have slowed way down on the feather picking. Maybe he has had enough of her nonsense. :-)
I'll keep you posted.
Thanks for all your input, Debi
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Post by Heaven Sent Ranch on Mar 9, 2012 1:37:20 GMT -5
Debi, maybe this helps: Increase the space that the chickens have to roam. Oftentimes, when a chicken feels cramped, it will start acting hostilely toward other chickens in the coop. Simply spread the fences out farther so that the chickens will have plenty of space to stretch and move around. Currently this pen has access to about 1/2 acre of pasture grasses about six hours a day. Then they get locked up and still have an 8X12 coop and a 12X12 run.Increase the amount of food and water you give to the chickens. If the chickens feel like they do not have enough food, they may fight for the rights to what little food there is. If there is no food left after the chickens are done eating, simply increase the amount you are giving them until there is some left over. They are allowed to free feed and have auto waterers.Keep the temperature comfortable. In a chicken's environment, it should never be hotter than 70 degrees F or cooler than 40 degrees F. If it is, the chickens might become agitated and violent. Man, I wanta be YOUR chickens! :-) Where I live it gets down to 20 and as high as 112. We can easily have 40 dregree swings in temp from day time to night. I've lived here ten years now and I don't even have an AC in my house, never the less in my nine coops. Remove weaker chickens. If a chicken has been sick or is noticeably weaker than other chickens in the coop, it might be a target for attack. Remove it until it is back to full health and then replace it into the coop. This will prevent it from being attacked. I don't have any weak or sick chickens. Do you have any other ideas? Maybe something I haven't thought of yet. Not that I expect you to know what I think. :-)))
Read more: orpingtonclub.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=gpd&action=post&thread=132&page=5#ixzz1obAVeNvS
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Post by Heaven Sent Ranch on Mar 8, 2012 16:40:44 GMT -5
Does anyone have a sure fire way to get a hen to stop pulling the feathers out of my rooster's hackle. I have 9 hens in this pen and don't know which one is the culprit. My first rooster lost almost 80% of his hackle feathers and originally I thought it was mites or something. After treating him and the girls and the pen for mites, I've come to the conclusion that mites weren't the problem in the first place. I moved the original rooster out and replaced him with another. Within two days the new rooster had started to show missing feathers in the hackle. So it can't be mites. I also don't have any other birds (86) showing this problem. Someone on here said it was probably a feather eating hen and I am now convinced this is the problem. Someone else suggested hanging a ham hock in the pen, something to do with the salt, that may keep her off the rooster. Nope, only the flies are showing any interest in that darn ham hock. Any ideas? Debi Heaven Sent Ranch Red Bluff, CA www.heavensentranch.com
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Post by Heaven Sent Ranch on Mar 8, 2012 16:40:06 GMT -5
Hi Matt and Welcome! I'm new here also and have found everyone to be extremely knowledgeable and friendly, especially "Don Juan"! lol Speaking of knowledgeable, does anyone have a sure fire way to get a hen to stop pulling the feathers out of my rooster's hackle. I have 9 hens in this pen and don't know which one is the culprit. My first rooster lost almost 80% of his hackle feathers and originally I thought it was mites or something. After treating him and the girls and the pen for mites, I've come to the conclusion that mites weren't the problem in the first place. I moved the original rooster out and replaced him with another. Within two days the new rooster had started to show missing feathers in the hackle. So it can't be mites. I also don't have any other birds (86) showing this problem. Someone on here said it was probably a feather eating hen and I am now convinced this is the problem. Someone else suggested hanging a ham hock in the pen, something to do with the salt, that may keep her off the rooster. Nope, only the flies are showing any interest in that darn ham hock. Any ideas? Debi Heaven Sent Ranch Red Bluff, CA www.heavensentranch.com
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Post by Heaven Sent Ranch on Mar 4, 2012 18:03:47 GMT -5
Hi All, I started out with a styro foam incubator. Yuck! Then someone gave me another one, double yuck! After drowning chick after chick I broke down and bought a GQF Sportsman cabinet, holds 250 eggs. It was much better but I still had issues with temps in the winter months. One day I was surfing Craigs List and saw an ad for a Redwood incubator. OMG, bought two of them for $300. Completely restored them top to bottom. One holds 650 eggs the other 300. Now that's how I got into all this trouble!! Seriously though, if you are handy with tools and love to fiddle with things like I do, you can find them very reasonable. I have fairly detailed instructions on my web site for restoring them and many links to suppliers who carry all the necessary parts. These are absolutely the BEST incubators ever made. It's sad that today we as Americans are willing to settle for cheap merchandise. No offense to anyone, I was one of those people. Debi www.heavensentranch.comIf you happen to find one to restore and you need help, please don't hesitate to ask. I can work on them in my sleep! :-)
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Post by Heaven Sent Ranch on Mar 3, 2012 16:29:02 GMT -5
Well, I'll give it a try. The feed I use is the 20% lay pellets from Farmers Best. This morning I gave them grains with Red Cell. I usually put the Red Cell in their waterers but I like this idea better.
Don had mentioned that the problem I am having with one pen, where the rooster is losing his hackle feathers, may be related to a feather eating hen. Never had this problem in the past but a friend of his suggested hanging a ham hock in the pen, something to do with the salt. So I have one in that pen today. So far, they are just looking at it like, "What the H**L!" I'll try it for a few days and see if they go after it.
Sprouts are a great idea. I have so much pasture grass that I don't do that, even in the winter months there is PLENTY of clovers, sweet grasses, etc for them to forage on. There was an article in Backyard Poultry were a woman uses Mung Beans. She has quite the set up for sprouting them and has it organized where she gets a fresh basket of sprouts out to her pens every three days. I've been considering doing that in my spare time. lmao
Debi
Still looking for Black Orp chicks if you have any! :-)
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Post by Heaven Sent Ranch on Mar 2, 2012 17:43:02 GMT -5
Yes, that's what they get full time. They do free range a lot and I give them TMC Game Bird two or three times a week as mostly a treat.
What would you recommend?
Debi
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Post by Heaven Sent Ranch on Mar 1, 2012 11:23:17 GMT -5
I have a question to ask all of you. My birds just aren't laying. The weather has been a bit odd here in Northern California but it was odd last year too and by this time I was getting about 70 eggs a week. Right now I'm lucky to be getting 30.
I feed a very high quality feed with a good 20% protein content. About three times a week I give them a game bird feed, whole grains, just as a treat. I also started giving them Kings Feed supplement. About a cup mixed in with their daily ration. They get to free range on an acre of pasture grass and love eating the walnut meats from the 13 old walnut trees on the property.
I don't use lights although I do have them installed in one of the larger coops. My Orps were laying an egg a day until about a week ago and then some of them just quit altogether. No one is molting or broody and every one looks very healthy and not over weight. My Marans, 21 of them, are laying about 6 eggs a day. I just don't get it. Anyone have any suggestions??
Debi Heaven Sent Ranch Red Bluff, CA
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Post by Heaven Sent Ranch on Feb 26, 2012 12:30:54 GMT -5
Hi Everyone,
I'm new to this group and have already learned a lot! Brazilian waxes for boys and girls. lol
I know I've already asked Julie, Christina and Joy about aquiring a UK Blk Cockerel or a few straight run chicks but I'm here begging again.
Are there any takers out there???
Debi
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Post by Heaven Sent Ranch on Feb 24, 2012 20:20:49 GMT -5
Hi Harry,
Thanks for this info. I'm going to cut and paste it into a file. I've been searching for good black orps. I did find one individual who has some amazing blacks from the UK. Problem is the expense. At $200 a bird, 4-6 wks of age, I can currently afford a half a bird. :-) He doesn't sell hatching eggs or days old. I suppose I could purchase just one cockerel from him and then introduce them to my Lavender pullets.
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