The Moonshiner's Leghorns

[GracePoultry]

What kind did you get? Liking them so far?

I got 4, all different breeds. white crested, blue Swedish, buff, and Cayuga. So far I really like having them, messier and flightier than chickens but I really enjoy having them, and I'm excited for them to start laying

pretty bad photo lol, but this was them today. almost fully grown!

 

[GracePoultry]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/ask-the-moonshiner-anything.1660344/post-28547296

thanks

 

[The Moonshiner]

I got 4, all different breeds. white crested, blue Swedish, buff, and Cayuga. So far I really like having them, messier and flightier than chickens but I really enjoy having them, and I'm excited for them to start laying

pretty bad photo lol, but this was them today. almost fully grown!

Yes they are messy. I've almost always had some ducks around. All I have right now are some little Calls.

 

[GracePoultry]

Yes they are messy. I've almost always had some ducks around. All I have right now are some little Calls.

thats cool!! Calls are bantam ducks right?

 

[The Moonshiner]

thats cool!! Calls are bantam ducks right?

Yep. They're little and obnoxiously loud.

 

[KF0002]

Do I see new pictures? Of Moony's birds?

It is the second awesome thing that happened today! The first thing was I got put on call at work and I got to stay home! Thank you Jesus! lol

 

[KF0002]

They're full buff.
I don't mess with reds anymore. Seems they all go back to the same line and they don't thrive well. Or at least here they never did.
Ya I'm not a fan of buff birds but for some reason I really like the buff leghorns.

I am determined to create a Red line that is vigorous and more robust than what you and I have experienced with the birds from MM. The Red x Brown chicks seem very vigorous and sturdy. I haven’t lost any yet. Fresh blood is good to introduce into a line with outcrossing, not necessarily outcrossing to a different breed but to a different variety or family line, then line breeding with birds not too closely related to keep the vigor. Tight inbreeding for too many generations with a small gene pool is what causes unthrifty and weak stock, which is what I am assuming happened to the MM Reds. I hope to raise enough of these Buff chicks up to adults to have plenty of birds to use in the Red and Buff lines to keep them hardy and vigorous.

 

[KF0002]

Since I was put on call today I played musical brooders and wing banded some chicks. We butchered an aggressive Sussex rooster so that freed up a pen to put the biggest Red x Brown chicks in. Moved some 3-4 week olds out of the building to the brooder the biggest ones were in. Rotating chicks is constant this time of year. Im glad I got to stay home so I could get some much needed things done.

 

[The Moonshiner]

The same thing happened with the Isabella to who was it Cackle?
I remember them coming out and selling out then a couple years later they didn't become available again and were soon discontinued.
I talked to them about them and they said they couldn't get them to hardly survive shipping at that point.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Since I was put on call today I played musical brooders and wing banded some chicks. We butchered an aggressive Sussex rooster so that freed up a pen to put the biggest Red x Brown chicks in. Moved some 3-4 week olds out of the building to the brooder the biggest ones were in. Rotating chicks is constant this time of year. Im glad I got to stay home so I could get some much needed things done.

I'm glad I'm not dealing with chicks yet. I'm still trying to get playing musical pens for adults done.
Did some counting heads today to see which groups would need which pens. Wish I had a row of about 2 dozen huge pens.
I collected rubber bowls and soaked and scrubbed most of those. Funny there seemed to be so many and so much work just doing them. By late season I'll be thinking I ain't got enough bowls WTH.