at the moment I am short of time. my aunt and uncle are here with me about 1 more week. I will try to take some pics soon. I am making a small coop and run inside the big one and will move my araucana boy with 2 NNs (big brindusha and aniela), 1 lakenvelder and 1 wyandotte. babies are growing up and need more room.
Naked Neck/Turken Thread
- Thread starter josh44
- Start date
at the moment I am short of time. my aunt and uncle are here with me about 1 more week. I will try to take some pics soon. I am making a small coop and run inside the big one and will move my araucana boy with 2 NNs (big brindusha and aniela), 1 lakenvelder and 1 wyandotte. babies are growing up and need more room.
nchvac
Chirping
- Oct 26, 2015
- 163
- 4
- 63
I've discussed here that my NN Rooster absolutely loves corn. He will not touch the feed I give the egg layers, and demands with what ever length of stare down time it takes that I give him corn.
Well, a couple of weeks ago I had a situation where two of my chicks were attacked by the others. One had its head eaten off and the other was scalped down to the bone (is doing fine now but has no feathers and not much skin up on top of head, but no infection). Anyway, someone mentioned that they may be bored and to give them something to do. Well I had seen them scratching around a lot, so I threw them some cracked corn in their pen and they love it. Too much I am afraid. They are now not eating much of their grower feed but instead are demanding corn. They just love it like pops I guess.
Problem I have is I need to keep them busy, and I like them showing their natural tendencies to forage and I want to help them develop that as I let my big ones out during the day. However part of this pen is going to be laying hens and the other is for meat. I don't think they are going to grow as good with corn as feed, but at least they are eating something.
Does anyone know exactly what I can expect the carcuses to be like? Also, would I be better to give them scratch grains instead of plain corn? I see it has 8% protein instead of 6%. Some say corn and scratch grains are "junk food". Hopefully someone here knows.
Thanks
Well, a couple of weeks ago I had a situation where two of my chicks were attacked by the others. One had its head eaten off and the other was scalped down to the bone (is doing fine now but has no feathers and not much skin up on top of head, but no infection). Anyway, someone mentioned that they may be bored and to give them something to do. Well I had seen them scratching around a lot, so I threw them some cracked corn in their pen and they love it. Too much I am afraid. They are now not eating much of their grower feed but instead are demanding corn. They just love it like pops I guess.
Problem I have is I need to keep them busy, and I like them showing their natural tendencies to forage and I want to help them develop that as I let my big ones out during the day. However part of this pen is going to be laying hens and the other is for meat. I don't think they are going to grow as good with corn as feed, but at least they are eating something.
Does anyone know exactly what I can expect the carcuses to be like? Also, would I be better to give them scratch grains instead of plain corn? I see it has 8% protein instead of 6%. Some say corn and scratch grains are "junk food". Hopefully someone here knows.
Thanks
If they free range the corn is fine. But on chickens in runs they need way more protein than the corn provides.
We had done one time we tried to fatten up on corn chops. They were eating it like crazy but was not gaining any weight, in fact looked and felt like they were losing weight. We out them back on Game bird crumbles and chops together and they began to gain weight.
Before I started keeping chickens, I read every book I could find on poultry husbandry, most of which were written in the early 1900s. In one of the books they specifically addressed diet and conducted a number of experiments in which chickens were fed one type of grain only in the categories of corn, wheat, rice, oats, etc. The results revealed that the chickens who displayed the most overall health problems and the poorest growth were the ones fed exclusively corn. Not only were the chickens unable to get sufficient nutrition on a corn-only diet, but the corn also triggered the depletion of additional nutrients and inhibited absorption of others. These were controlled studies in which the chickens were confined so they only received the grain being tested. From what I understand, these studies played an instrumental role in the development of comprehensive chicken feed with ratios of various ingredients intended to produce the greatest health and vigor. Just food for thought....no pun intended.
Which of the books you've read was your favorite.
I like The Kellerstrass way of raising poultry also, The call of the hen
Fire Ant Farm
Get off my lawn
I got my 9 week weights on my German New Hampshire chicks. They are roughly the same weights as the hatchery NNs from Ideal at that age (this is just comparing boys to boys). I went through a lot to get these special GNHs from a very good breeder, so I was a bit amused. That being said, though, I've been happy with the look and health of the GNHs overall and as I have three girls will be keeping a quad for breeding for at least a couple years. I plan on crossing the GNHs with my NNs.
I was thinking - if the GNH boys can roughly match the growth of NNs while being fully feathered and at the "disadvantage" of having to "spend" all that protein on feathers, perhaps when brought into the NN line there will indeed be a size benefit. (And, of course, there are variables that cannot be controlled, at least in my management/abilities, with regard to season, feed, etc.).
I suspect that I MIGHT find that any growth advantage may come a bit later in the GNHs than in NNs and will need to keep the for GNH boys longer to evaluate for a keeper (provided they don't start trying to kill each other). I only say this because the sole *hatchery* New Hampshire pullet I kept in the NN flock (about 8-9 months old) is heavier than the other NN girls, with a very nice body shape/conformation for a dual purpose/meat bird. Polly is a good girl and keeps Mr. Snapeity Snape Snape the happy (she's a bit of a favorite).
I gotta tell you, if there's not added benefit in crossing in the GNHs, then this is a lot of work for not much return, although it is temporarily engaging/amusing. If that happens I may give up all fancy schmancy cross attempts (and their associated cost and trouble) and just keep a mixed NN flock (with maybe another batch of Ideal chicks added in) and breed the big 'uns.
- Ant Farm
(Cross-posed to the Breeding for Production Thread - please forgive any duplication on your eyeballs...)
I was thinking - if the GNH boys can roughly match the growth of NNs while being fully feathered and at the "disadvantage" of having to "spend" all that protein on feathers, perhaps when brought into the NN line there will indeed be a size benefit. (And, of course, there are variables that cannot be controlled, at least in my management/abilities, with regard to season, feed, etc.).
I suspect that I MIGHT find that any growth advantage may come a bit later in the GNHs than in NNs and will need to keep the for GNH boys longer to evaluate for a keeper (provided they don't start trying to kill each other). I only say this because the sole *hatchery* New Hampshire pullet I kept in the NN flock (about 8-9 months old) is heavier than the other NN girls, with a very nice body shape/conformation for a dual purpose/meat bird. Polly is a good girl and keeps Mr. Snapeity Snape Snape the happy (she's a bit of a favorite).
I gotta tell you, if there's not added benefit in crossing in the GNHs, then this is a lot of work for not much return, although it is temporarily engaging/amusing. If that happens I may give up all fancy schmancy cross attempts (and their associated cost and trouble) and just keep a mixed NN flock (with maybe another batch of Ideal chicks added in) and breed the big 'uns.
- Ant Farm
(Cross-posed to the Breeding for Production Thread - please forgive any duplication on your eyeballs...)
I got my 9 week weights on my German New Hampshire chicks. They are roughly the same weights as the hatchery NNs from Ideal at that age (this is just comparing boys to boys). I went through a lot to get these special GNHs from a very good breeder, so I was a bit amused. That being said, though, I've been happy with the look and health of the GNHs overall and as I have three girls will be keeping a quad for breeding for at least a couple years. I plan on crossing the GNHs with my NNs.
I was thinking - if the GNH boys can roughly match the growth of NNs while being fully feathered and at the "disadvantage" of having to "spend" all that protein on feathers, perhaps when brought into the NN line there will indeed be a size benefit. (And, of course, there are variables that cannot be controlled, at least in my management/abilities, with regard to season, feed, etc.).
I suspect that I MIGHT find that any growth advantage may come a bit later in the GNHs than in NNs and will need to keep the for GNH boys longer to evaluate for a keeper (provided they don't start trying to kill each other). I only say this because the sole *hatchery* New Hampshire pullet I kept in the NN flock (about 8-9 months old) is heavier than the other NN girls, with a very nice body shape/conformation for a dual purpose/meat bird. Polly is a good girl and keeps Mr. Snapeity Snape Snape the happy (she's a bit of a favorite).
I gotta tell you, if there's not added benefit in crossing in the GNHs, then this is a lot of work for not much return, although it is temporarily engaging/amusing. If that happens I may give up all fancy schmancy cross attempts (and their associated cost and trouble) and just keep a mixed NN flock (with maybe another batch of Ideal chicks added in) and breed the big 'uns.
- Ant Farm
(Cross-posed to the Breeding for Production Thread - please forgive any duplication on your eyeballs...)
Sounds like a fun project. I think I may still try NN and Dark Cornish. Although my project birds are giving the Dark Cornish a run for it
Fire Ant Farm
Get off my lawn
Quote:
I'd love to try that cross one day. Not in the cards at the moment. There are only so many breeds/chickens I can keep!!!!
- Ant Farm
I'd love to try that cross one day. Not in the cards at the moment. There are only so many breeds/chickens I can keep!!!!
- Ant Farm
I know one of mine will have to go if I do. Fly strips are working really well next to the fly bag trap. No room left on 36 hours of collecting.
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