I had a thought. A couple times my girls went broody and snakes got into the nest. Once, the hen broke broody. The next time (different hen) she tried to protect her nest and a bunch of the eggs got trampled.
I watched her drag the crushed eggs out of the nest and eat them.
From a survival...
For clarification, these will not be posted online or anywhere electronic. I suppose there's a possibility that someone might take pictures on their phone, but the presentation will be in person.
I was asked to do a presentation on adaptive breeding in a few weeks. Could any of you help me by providing a good picture of one of your birds, what stage you're at (grex, proto-landrace, etc.), your general location, and which breeds are included in your population? Only if you feel...
I know a lot of people don't agree with me, but I think human breeding has inadvertently selected for a lot of counter-productive behaviors. So many generations have been hatched in incubators and brooded by humans that you get things like broken brooding instincts, Moms that don't know how to...
A friend is asking about breed and gender. I think pullet and some kind of bantam. Any ideas? Friend is not sure of the age, but we think about 12 weeks. Same age as the other she is perching beside.
That was the intent. Thanks for pointing it out. Unfortunately the system won't allow me to make changes to the existing poll questions, only add new ones.
Interesting question. I have 2 broodies, both repeats. The first is a BA. She tends to let her chicks go somewhere around week 8. By that time she is laying again and visibly frustrated with the chicks. With her single hatchling she held out longer. He was 16 weeks when he died, and she was...
Aggression usually shows up between 16 and 30 weeks, in my experience.
How big is this little guy compared to others his same age? Hoovers usually supplirs TS and they say their Jersey Giants are not bred for size but for egg laying.
I have an escape artist. I put the boys in a bachelor pad under the deck. The door is still closed. I realized he was out because the little girls were squaking and the older cockerel was chasing him.
He wouldn't leave the girls alone even after dark, so I put him back. If he's figured a way...
They would need to breed quickly enough to out-compete predator pressure, which brings us back to the broodiness issue.
The JG I mentioned before died protecting his girls from a dog attack but had no human aggression, so obviously he could differentiate on some level. He was 9 months old...
In a sense. I used cardboard under woodchips for the first garden area, but this one is my dry garden. It's quite large, solarizing the whole thing would be cost prohibitive, even in sections.
He got a pass--or a lot of passes--because he was so good with the girls. He was perfect with predators. The dog attack I witnessed he got between the dog and the hens, then played wounded bird and led the dog away before he flew back.
So I found a place that needed what he had. Full...