[COLOR=0000FF]Does anyone on the list raise Cochins (bantam or conventional)? I've thought having just one[/COLOR] [COLOR=0000FF]pullet[/COLOR] [COLOR=0000FF](preferably a bantam from a line that DOES lay decently) would be fun. [/COLOR]
We've lost a few birds lately. We culled a mean roo (worst EVER, thank God not my breeding)--he also was carrying a gene for recessive white which did NOT belong there. We also had to cull a severely prolapsed Jubilee Orp hen, and my beloved Jubilee roo Placido has some kind of facial/head tumor that I reduced as much as possible, but it's growing back already. He still is holding his weight and mounting hens, but his beak also looks funky and I think we are going to cull him this week while he feels OK instead of letting him go until he gets worse. He is already blind on one side because the tumor tissue closed the eyelid (the eye itself is fine, but he can't use it). I don't want to wait for him to suffer. My remaining two Jubilee hens will go into the layer flock. Thus ends my most expensive chicken experiment ever. I love Jubilees but will never have them again. When you get breeders to talk about them privately, the stories are all the same. They are so inbred the hatch rate is low, the survival rate of hatched chicks is low, but if they make it they are really gorgeous and nice birds. The gene pool is just way too small. I toyed with the idea of making blue Jubilees, which takes three years, but now that Placido is sick, that's out. You really need a Jubilee roo (or two or three) to do it right.
Segue: Eight weeks since my SSDI hearing today. No news. DH continues to be optimistic. I continue to want them to hurry the heck up and just tell me yeah or nay.
In happier news, I'm taking two of the rescue kitties from my former bipolar neighbor's fiasco to a former employer to declaw them for my daughter. He uses the laser to do it. I don't declaw mine, but these two otherwise darling rescues were raised with no manners at all and they strop at everything. It's easy to trim their nails, but they both really put their entire bodies into scratching everything. I don't like it, and I know my daughter won't like it when she finally takes them. She's also going to need scat mats to keep them off counters and tables. I will be glad when they are living with DD, but have no idea when that will be. She has applied for 32 teaching positions and had 6 or 7 interviews so far, but no job. It's hard for new graduates to break in unless they know someone who knows the principal or superintendent. I'm proud to say she graduated with a 3.98/4 average from the University of Kentucky.
[COLOR=0000FF]BTW, if anyone wants some Biele cockerels for meat,[/COLOR] I have three chicks, $1 each (1-4 weeks old). I have had 100% males (7/7) so far this season. Culled a few, gave one away to some folks with a farm and he's become their son's pet (named Milton) who likes to sit on the boy's shoulder. I hate to cull them because they are so sweet and calm at this age. Very Zen. I will hang on them a little longer, but not much. You can process them at 12-16 weeks and they have a nice amount of breast meat by then. I even vaccinated them against Marek's. We just don't "do" much meat processing at all, maybe 1 or 2 a year.
To everyone with animal or human health issues (yours or a family member's), I feel for you and hope everything turns out OK.
I wanted to let
Oh my gosh, Faraday! I had no idea there was even such a thing as a chocolate barred Orp! Now I'm going to have to add on to my chicken wish list, which I had finally gotten under control. That is beyond beautiful.
Janet and I had some but she had a bad predator problem and :/they were gorgeous and very expensive lol.
I'm okay with the little pops and crackles, but that big BOOM just rattles you! And don't even get me started on the obnoxious screeching ones! 
We're out in the middle of nowhere, only a hand full of houses nearby and most on a lot of acreage or tucked into farmed fields, but it still sounded like war had broken out all weekend long. One of our dogs (who is normally not gun shy) got out of the dog yard several times until we finally found where she had goten through. Ironically, the one that IS usually gun shy was pretty calm up until yesterday. Who knows what they were thinking? 
I was worried about my babies during all that, too. My hens are usually fine, just seems like there's more poo than usual under the roosts in the morning, but I had my Silkie fuzzies and my babies that had never experienced fireworks before! Everyone survived, with some cuddles to make sure, and seem unfazed today. I had debated leaving the babies out overnight starting this week, but realizing what last night was, obviously I had to change my mind on that one!
