Making Lemonade [Selective Culling Project - very long term]

[Auntiejessi3]

Finally caught up! I'm a bit perturbed that I wasn't getting notifications, but a good read nonetheless

 

[U_Stormcrow]

In fact promise more pictures, it seems appropriate that I actually provide said pictures. Here is the hatchling I currently consider Tubi the most successful to date. Of course A lot can still go wrong, and likely will.

Don't see it yet? Of course that's the point. Here are two close-ups.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Wow. Voice to text even more unintelligible than usual. Tempted to leave it, may edit later.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Wow. Voice to text even more unintelligible than usual. Tempted to leave it, may edit later.

I was wondering, especially at "Tubi" instead of "to be"

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Egg sales are proving very seasonal, and it looks like the season is over. Going to swap from the more expensive 18% non-GMO feed back to my 24%/20% mix and start culling hard to control costs over the winter, then ramp back up in the spring.

Raining hard today, no pictures, but that's the new plan.

White with leakage will be going away, then most of the (largely) black birds and of course virtually every male. Currently sitting at 78 birds, 12 (duck) eggs in the incubator, and an unknown number of eggs (chicken and duck) under a pair of ducks sitting a nest. Need to cut that to less than half, say, 30 birds?

 

[3KillerBs]

Egg sales are proving very seasonal, and it looks like the season is over. Going to swap from the more expensive 18% non-GMO feed back to my 24%/20% mix and start culling hard to control costs over the winter, then ramp back up in the spring.

Raining hard today, no pictures, but that's the new plan.

White with leakage will be going away, then most of the (largely) black birds and of course virtually every male. Currently sitting at 78 birds, 12 (duck) eggs in the incubator, and an unknown number of eggs (chicken and duck) under a pair of ducks sitting a nest. Need to cut that to less than half, say, 30 birds?

Do you know if the invisible chick above is male or female?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

No, I'm still very bad at sexing birds

 

[3KillerBs]

No, I'm still very bad at sexing birds

I was fortunate in that my 6-7 cockerels in this order of chicks (they move too fast to count and I haven't caught them for individual attention recently), showed themselves very clearly with the first obvious combs popping up by 2 weeks.

 

[3KillerBs]

No, I'm still very bad at sexing birds

I presume you're hoping that it will be your new primary sire?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I presume you're hoping that it will be your new primary sire?

Its being spared the knife regardless, but if it turns out to be a cockerel, I'll keep him and Big Barred (for the size and pattern genes), and dispatch both Pretty Boy and Phoenix Blue.

and come January, I'll incubate only the largest eggs. If I have to choose between eggs, I'll take the lightest - but if I'm down to just 20 hens or so, getting more than a dozen eggs in a day will be unusual. So unlikely it will come to that.