Had an unexpected grass death as a result of processing chickens. I was scalding them prior to plucking, and the water got up to 160-170F, and I was trying to cool it down, so I poured some out on the grass, and added cool water to make it 145F. When I did that I killed my grass. There is a...
It is legal on Craigslist Farm+Garden section to post livestock for sale. Chickens, especially meat birds, are livestock. We use it in my area all the time. And there's tons of FB chicken groups for selling/rehoming chickens.
There's lots of info on here on how to process a chicken, if you...
To be certain, you can either do a test mating (mate the rooster to a hen that lays white eggs and see what colors all the females lay - you need a lot of time and a lot of baby females) or send the rooster's DNA off to check for if he has blue egg gene and whether it's homozygous (all offspring...
Brahmas have pea comb and they lay brown. EEs, Prairie Bluebells, Whiting True Blue, Americauna have pea comb and lay blue. Cream Crested Legbar have straight comb and lay green or blue. It all depends on what the breeds are in your parent flock. I have no Brahma in my flock, and no CCLs, so...
No opinion on most of your ideas, but if you start to see "angel wing", I'd reduce your feed protein percentage. I've been raising FR New Hampshires and White Rangers, and kept them on 23-24% meatbird feed after the first week or so on 20% and started having wing deformities similar to angel...
Processed two of the worst of the WR with angel wing today (~13 weeks?), along with a 6-8m old ginger broiler. Had to skin the GB since he was so old and the plan is to pressure cook him. Lots of stiff connective tissue, legs were hard to skin.
Very pleased with the WR. I think of all the...
Crazy, right? Glad I could help. I couldn't find anything on here about it in meat birds, and was really surprised to see it in mine. Doesn't seem to affect quality of life unless they're trying to fly someplace, so yeah, probably not a big deal unless they're raised outside of...
Actually, yes. At 13(?) wks now, they are both still flying up on top of a 32" tall dog crate. Totally surprised me, I thought my eggers would be the only ones flying up there. I have a few perches about a foot or two off the ground, and they like the low perches a lot too. NH will have an...
Unfortunately, unless you were to trap them yourselves and relocate them to your personal property elsewhere, I can't think of much you can do. Also, they may be considered livestock or nuisance animals/wild animals, and not pets by your local laws. Slaughtering livestock for food is not...
Haven't actually farmed them myself, we get a lot around here naturally. They do nice things for my compost heaps, and like to live in my mulch piles that I use to refresh the coop bedding. So the chickens get a periodic treat when I refresh the bedding. Worm farming is awesome, I'd love to...
Good job on the autopsy! It's not an easy thing for many people to do, especially if you cared about the chicken.
If you found puncture wounds on the neck that look like a snake and not a chicken got to it, combined with the wetness of head and torso (feathers all matted up), I'm gonna hazard...
Did the birds look wet like that on their heads and wings and torso when you found them? Kinda looks like a snake got ahold of them, and couldn't swallow them past a certain point, so spit them out. Might be worth a close inspection for injury and a posting (or cross posting of this thread) on...
Not sure I'll be much help - I plan to cull everyone with Angel wing as soon as I can get around to it in the next month or so. But if it occurs again, or in their descendants, I'll add that info to my post.
It seems to have gotten better since I switched to 20% for some of the birds, but not...
1 cm long hairs: you can ignore them and not eat the skin. Burn them off with a kitchen torch so they at least don't stick out. Remove with a pinning knife (should be info on this site - videos and pics and such - if you search for it). Remove with a table knife (same as pinning knife but...
Sorry I don't have better news. I'm assuming you've looked for signs of a break or sprain, bruises, or other injury, and have found nothing. There's pics on this site of all of those, if you need a visual on what to look for. The search function is helpful, and the Similar Threads at the...
At my farmer's market, they sell them frozen. Don't forget to let them rest before you freeze them, and def check local laws and regulations for raw chicken sales to the public.
Sounds like severe internal injuries to me - there may not be much you can do. I'd give her Nutri-drench by mouth by syringe (just drip it across the side of her beak, she should lick it or suck it up). Small drips at a time inside her mouth, avoid the windpipe (there's a picture of how to...