primalmommy on sun 18 apr 04
Phil, it's funny you should mention chickens at this moment.
Having volunteered to be the chicken broker for half a dozen families
who want fancier hens than what's available at the local grain elevator,
I drove downtown today (sunday!) to pick up a box of live peepers at the
post office.
Six families, mind you, ordered one of this and one of that, the
glorious varied flower garden of chickens available at
http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com
The kind you see at the fair, with feathery topknots like Lyle Lovett,
ones with long manes or feathery legs, speckled and striped chickens,
polka dots, and every color from white to blue to gold...
Unfortunately all the chicks are similarly fuzzy, dappled
tans/golds/browns of various sorts. I am not exaggerating when i say I
have spent the last 7 hours making little scribbled charts and trying to
ID chicks.. "let's see, the minister has two buff cochins who have
feathery legs, so let me pick out all the feathery feet gold ones... the
flamboyant writer's sumatras have five toes... the crested breeds have a
little mound of fuzz on top of their heads..." 49 chicks total,
thankyouverymuch.
The hatchery did make colored marks on some of the chickies ordered, but
to make matters more confusing, they randomly threw in extras of this
and that when available.. and the ones that lay pastel colored eggs
(auracanas) come in all colors.
The sad truth is that most male chicks don't survive the first day (we
want eggs, not testosterone, and one rooster can serve a dozen hens) --
so instead of just piling live chicks in trash cans like the factory
eggs farms do, the hatchery stuffs them into your box "for warmth" in
shipping - - like fuzzy yellow packing peanuts. Now they're my problem.
Anybody want 17 red star roosters? Check with the neighbors first.. Oh
yeah, and besides crowing constantly they'll fight each other... worse
than clayarters with an attitude...
So I have my work cut out for me.. I have printed out pix of all the
chicks at the website and when I ID one I color its toenails with a
bright permanent marker..
Some of the families are hard core organic so rather than buy commercial
chick starter, I made my own -- grain from my chicken scratch, clover
and spinach, all ground in the food processor. It's like feeding a
college football team. I turn around and they're yelling for more. My
kids dug worms and cut them into beak sized bits...
ok, back to playing chick detective. folks will be showing up tomorrow
with boxes, wanting their babies.. all but the few i have offered to
raise. my kids are thrilled. A brooder full of chicks in the front room
is better than tv.
go look at the pretty birds. http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com.. I keep an
assortment of cochins, some black australorps and barred rocks.
all done wasting your time. back to pottery talk...
kelly in ohio
who by the way just finished making a website for the Toledo Potter's
Guild (molly's fairies don't know how to build websites, so I mostly
work on it after midnight.) My friend says she is going to fit me with a
shock collar and zap me every time I volunteer for something new. Poor
jeff, holding his head while I sort chicks at the kitchen table, will
probably approve. Anyway go see my site. if you have suggestions, i
would be happy to read them.. http://toledopottersguild.org (disclaimer:
nonprofit org, nobody paid me to make the site, and i don't know what I
am doing so I rely on the freebie "a chimp could do this" sites... )
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Zoe Paddy Johnson on mon 19 apr 04
> The sad truth is that most male chicks don't survive the first day (we
> want eggs, not testosterone, and one rooster can serve a dozen hens) --
> so instead of just piling live chicks in trash cans like the factory
> eggs farms do, the hatchery stuffs them into your box "for warmth" in
> shipping - - like fuzzy yellow packing peanuts. Now they're my problem.
> Anybody want 17 red star roosters?
Actually, many of our chicken owning friends have 2 roosters, and we have
3. Most rooster pairs will work out an arrangement with an alpha and beta
rooster. Our very large auracanna is our alpha, and he has an assistant, a
bantam. We also have a bantam frizzle rooster, but he mostly pretends to
be a hen. The crowing by the large rooster is obnoxious, but the bantam
rooster, just says "Cocky Doodle", in a much quieter voice. The frizzle
rooster has sort of a quiet mournful squeal. So you can work it out.
ZoeJ
janicea@braxltd.com on fri 30 apr 04
This is very true. One of the funniest things we witnessed on our farm was
when one of the male ducks we had (a mallard, so he was small) decided to
challenge our huge Barred Rock rooster. Well, the little duck walked up to
the Barred Rock and stuck his beak up at him like he was going to take over
the local poultry kingdom. The rooster looked down at him like he was a flea
on his butt and walked away. The duck walked meekly around him after that
and didn't dare look the rooster in the eye.
Janice in NC
on 4/19/04 8:30 PM, Zoe Paddy Johnson at pjohnso@UNM.EDU wrote:
>> The sad truth is that most male chicks don't survive the first day (we
>> want eggs, not testosterone, and one rooster can serve a dozen hens) --
>> so instead of just piling live chicks in trash cans like the factory
>> eggs farms do, the hatchery stuffs them into your box "for warmth" in
>> shipping - - like fuzzy yellow packing peanuts. Now they're my problem.
>> Anybody want 17 red star roosters?
>
> Actually, many of our chicken owning friends have 2 roosters, and we have
> 3. Most rooster pairs will work out an arrangement with an alpha and beta
> rooster. Our very large auracanna is our alpha, and he has an assistant, a
> bantam. We also have a bantam frizzle rooster, but he mostly pretends to
> be a hen. The crowing by the large rooster is obnoxious, but the bantam
> rooster, just says "Cocky Doodle", in a much quieter voice. The frizzle
> rooster has sort of a quiet mournful squeal. So you can work it out.
> ZoeJ
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