Chicken - Blog Posts
Chickens being dippes in sauce is the ultimate indignity
Inktober 2018: day #5 chicken
The chickens are staying warm tonight! Also, I checked to make sure it wasn't getting hot in there, and with outside breezes available, the heatlamps aren't making the coops hot.
I've quit posting for a little while, but I did want to share that my hen Teryaki is once again a momma! (Well, technically, they're her grand babies, but I won't tell her that).
I'm thinking of eventually starting a breeding project and would like to know yalls opinions on body type. Most probably wouldn't even notice much difference.
First off, cubalaya are much heavier/sturdier in body whereas the marans classic dual-purpose body type can fool you as to how much meat they actually have on them. Cubalayas are technically a dual purpose breed but most keep them for show. It's one of the rare breeds and most online breeders only keep the bantam varieties.
Personally I prefer the small comb and almost nonexistent wattles of the cubalayas along with the hens flat back in line with almost level tail.
What I'm looking for in my breeding project is
Color - white pattern red wheaten (finished breed)
Egg color - Speckled brown (not required)
Temperament - Flighty to escape predators
Foraging - excellent foragers
Egg/meat production - at least 3 eggs a week on the low end (most produce at least 4 a week) & good feed to meat ratio.
I realized I haven't really posted much about Teriyaki's babies. Unfortunately, we did lose smore shortly after the last post with him (the dog got him). Hershey recently passed due to illness. Marshmallow and Cookie are doing great, though! The top pic is of them free, ranging in the back yard, and the bottom pic is of them in the front yard. They're gorgeous mutt birds and so far have been having success free ranging during the day. I make sure they come into their coop at night and lock them up.
My poor sweet boy Sampson broke his spur off again. π₯
Not sure if it's the same one as last time. I assume he may have tried to get my other rooster through the fence and got it caught up.
Either that or he did it getting on the roost for the night, but I didn't see any blood on anything else. Couldn't find his missing spur either, and it's a big piece to just up and go missing. They're at least two, maybe two and a half inches long each.
Anyway, I went back inside after putting everyone up and grabbed a new syringe from the medicine cabinet. Filled it with water and grabbed the antibiotic spray from the pet cabinet along with the chickens' vitamin powder to add to their fresh water.
Went back out and rinsed it out good with the syringe. Then, I sprayed it with antibiotics and added a pinch of the vitamins to their water.
Hopefully, he'll heal up well, but I'm liable to keep cleaning it for a few days.
Everyone's lying down for the night.β€οΈππ€
Made this simple recipe I found today. Ham and egg breakfast bowls.
Ingredients
Eggs - one for each muffin mold.
A bit of melted butter
Circle slice ham or turkey
Veggies of your choice
Cheese of your choice
Salt & pepper or other seasonings
------------
Instructions
With melted butter grease muffin tin and place deli meat inside to make a bowl shape.
Add a pinch of cheese on ham, then add an egg to each bowl.
Next add veggies more cheese and seasonings.
Preheat oven to 400Β°F or aprox 204Β°C.
Once heated, place tin in oven and cook for 15 min, occasionally checking to make sure the egg isn't overcooked or the cheese burned. It's alright if the ham looks a little extra crispy π.
Once cooked, remove, cool, and enjoy!
Teriyaki's babies are getting big! Unfortunately, we had a raccoon come through on a killing spree and had five of our chickens taken. Tulip, Curry, Pepper, Basil, and Cotton. We've overhauled our security and are planning on making a large coop with an even bigger run to hopefully prevent this from happening in the future.
Also, there was a forest fire a few counties over that made smoke come through in the morning. I thought it was just fog, but my parents said it had been smoke.
You can see why I thought it was fog. Kinda thought the mist was happening.π₯²π
Teriyaki hatched her first baby today! 6 more to go!
Teriyaki is currently broody and has about 7 eggs under her. Hopefully, she'll commit to caring for them as they're well-developed now. I just wish she didn't choose now to get Broody since I already have 6 new chicks plus the four adults including her.
So unfortunately my dog killed one of my hens today. It was my Easter egger. Her body was mostly untouched but her head and neck were gone. I didn't want her to go to waste so I boiled and plucked her and she's in the freezer.
She laid one last egg before she got killed so it's in the incubator. I've ordered some more eggs and I'm expecting them to come in around Feb 1st. So we'll see if her last egg hatches. Curry also laid today so I've got her egg with the other so they'll hatch at the same time.π€ it'll be about 21 days till the first eggs hatch but I'll keep yall posted.
Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Nothing really exciting has happened as of late. I got a welder machine for Christmas though. For those of you who don't know I have welded a bit before and hopefully this spring I'll be taking another class for more industrial type welding. Who knows maybe I'll be posting about welding projects in the future! My first project will be our goats big gate for their large pasture. We've been keeping them in a smaller pen while we've fenced in the back of our property and the gate doesn't quite touch the post when you close it so Oreo and Franny have escaped a couple times. I don't have a recent pic of him but his winter coat has fully grown in and he's super fluffy! He's so cute! But he can be a real butthole.π
All of our hens are laying and I'll probably be ordering some hatching eggs soon to add to our flock. Maybe I'll post about their growth as I incubate them and yall can see them grow! I may also hatch a few of my hens eggs for fun. Definitely need an additional coop though as Sampson hasn't been getting along with his father Tulip lately. He's been chasing him out of the coop and into the woods so he needs his own coop and hens now.
I think that's all for now.
Gave the animals a pumpkin today and most is going to be set up tonight for wildlife. I'll try to get some pics of deer and other animals eating it.
So she's produced more eggs and I think it's my Easter egger that's laying them cause they're more green in color. The lighting doesn't do them justice. Cause she's more of a pet breed her eggs are on the smaller side. None from my two other girls yet but I'm hoping they'll start laying any day now.
I tried one of her eggs today with two store bought and hers wasn't as strong flavored as the store bought eggs. Don't get me wrong they were good too but hers had a milder taste if that makes sense? Something about the store bought ones was stronger or perhaps more pungent?
I was also thinking about maybe getting some brahma eggs late this winter to hatch out. My red and white rooster was one I hatched about two years ago now and he turned out to be a handsome mix of golden pheonix and golden comet breeds. β¬οΈ
This is Sampson
AAAHHH! IM SO EXCITED! One of my new hens laid her first egg. It's smaller than a normal egg.
I gave Sampson some peanuts and he decided to stand in the planter. He should be keeping an eye on his hens in the back yard but I guess he wanted a break. So I guess his daddy is keeping an eye on them.