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Hedge's chicken chronicles

Hedgelj

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Mohicanish
Plumage looks good to me your thoughts @bowhunter1023 ? @giles ? anyone else?
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bowhunter1023

Owner/Operator
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Appalachia
Feathers look fine to me. IMO, if they were truly bothered by the rooster, they'd be avoiding him. My hens stay tight to our rooster for protection and from the looks of it, he's not "saddling" them, so I don't think he's the issue. Now, that said, he's an easy variable to isolate and if you do separate him for 4-5 days, you'll have enough time to see if that was the case.

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But don't take him so far away that they can't hear him crow because a hen won't lay if she doesn't have a rooster crowing nearby...

:rolleyes:

True story: I had an old neighbor say that to me once. Old feller from the country and he was dead serious. I laughed at first, then realized he was serious. I politely explained that (at that time) we didn't have a rooster and my hens lay just fine and that's not how it really works 😂
 

Left field

Active Member
I forgot to mention i have 6 Buckeye pullets on order for April.

It's a breed that was bred and standardized for/in Ohio. In enough of a dork that that style of thing intrigues me. They are also pretty rare almost endangered so i like supporting something like that.
I read up on those and thought the same things nv wife wanted boring isa brown egg layers 😂
 
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Hedgelj

Senior Member
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Mohicanish
I read up on those and thought the same things nv wife wanted boring isa brown egg layers 😂
Funny story about that. My wife wasn't that thrilled about us getting chickens but she now enjoys them except for 2 things
1) They shit all over the front porch as they wander through
2) They made a bunch of dust beds in the flower beds at the house.

Now her one request was pretty eggs. So i did my best, we had 3 barred rocks (light brown) 1 easter egger (bluish) 1 buff orpinton (dark brown) and a wellsummer (brown with darker spots on it).

When we first got them i got "white" ceramic eggs to encourage them to lay on the nesting box. The day after i put them in my wife was like "OMG we got two eggs!" I asked her what color they were and then started laughing at her. She was literally minutes from trying to make an omelet for our youngest with them because he loves eggs.
I still laugh about it and put sharpied "X" on the two eggs i put in last week.
 

Hedgelj

Senior Member
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Mohicanish
Buckeyes have started laying, we're getting almost 7+ eggs daily.

Going through feed pretty well even though they are free range.

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My youngest is trying to sell the extra eggs off the front porch. I'm all for supporting an entrepreneur.

Today I'm working on the new meat bird coop for my daughter's 4H project. It's freaking hot but I'm making progress.
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jagermeister

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Ohio
meat pen
I'm going to put eye bolts in it with a rope so my daughter can move it with the garden tractor so they stay clean.
How many meat birds will you have in there? Looks great, by the way.

For reference... I just ran a batch of 50 cornish cross in a 8' x 12' chicken tractor. I had to move them 2x per day at minimum. Meat birds are messy suckers that's for sure.
 
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