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Fraction
Mar 27, 2010

CATS RULE DOGS DROOL

FERRETS ARE ALSO PRETTY MEH, HONESTLY


Not quite "backyard", but here's some of the chickens at my friend's allotment :3: I'm not sure how many chickens they have now as I've not been in like a year, but at the time these photos were taken they had a bunch of plain ol' chickens and some adorable silkies.






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Inveigle
Jan 19, 2004

^^^ Those chickens seem pretty interested in you. Were they expecting treats?

I agree with Chido! We need more photos of broody cochins!

Also, LOL at Umi singing under the pith helmet. :3:

Tim Jong-un
Aug 22, 2008

:shepface:God I fucking love Diablo 3 gold, it even paid for this shitty title:shepface:

I dont have any more broody cochins at the moment,I try to break them from it ASAP since I incubate all my eggs. I do have more lemon blue pictures though.

Big Bertha, shes kind of sun bleached at the moment. Since I have no plans of taking her to any more shows I dont have to keep her show quality any more.




A picture of the feather lacing on one of my other lemon blue hens. Trying to breed the feather shaft into the same color as the the feathers so it looks like a solid petal but it's so tough to do on multi colored birds when your trying to maintain a pattern.



A somewhat more clear picture of Merry the lemon splash rooster. Not a standard color but it's useful to have around for lightening and darkening the Brown reds and the lemon blues.

daggerdragon
Jan 22, 2006

My titan engine can kick your titan engine's ass.
Are you sure those are animals and not just feather pillows turned inside-out? :P

Can people also take a picture of the eggs their chickens put out?

I really like RazorBunny's suggestion for selling the dropped feathers on Etsy.

Tim Jong-un
Aug 22, 2008

:shepface:God I fucking love Diablo 3 gold, it even paid for this shitty title:shepface:

I havent eaten store bought eggs in years so I dunno if the standards are larger or not.

Bantam Cochin egg on left, Standard Cochin egg on right.

Fraction
Mar 27, 2010

CATS RULE DOGS DROOL

FERRETS ARE ALSO PRETTY MEH, HONESTLY


Inveigle posted:

^^^ Those chickens seem pretty interested in you. Were they expecting treats?

It was feeding time, and they are (or were, last time I was there) pretty friendly critters anyway!


If I owned this chicken I would literally (try to) use it as a pillow. :haw:

Pucklynn
Sep 8, 2010

chop chop chop
Has anyone here ever tried more "exotic" birds like quails? My local organic grocery was selling quail eggs and it got me thinking about whether or not that might be a viable little side-business.

Anyone have any experience?

Tim Jong-un
Aug 22, 2008

:shepface:God I fucking love Diablo 3 gold, it even paid for this shitty title:shepface:

A fluffy blue bird named Buford.





Imgur is getting really annoying, it takes me 10-15 trys to upload a sub-200 kb picture.

Inveigle
Jan 19, 2004


I think Big Bertha is beautiful! What fantastic colors! Does she have feet feathers too? I can't figure out what all those feathers are where her feet should be.

Buford has such a pretty comb. :3:

Thanks for posting all the photos of your chickens. I'm really enjoying looking at them. Out of curiosity, do you sell fertile eggs or chicks?

Fluffy Bunnies
Jan 10, 2009

Pucklynn posted:

Has anyone here ever tried more "exotic" birds like quails? My local organic grocery was selling quail eggs and it got me thinking about whether or not that might be a viable little side-business.

Anyone have any experience?

It's perfectly viable to keep quail, though I don't know about a side business. There's a goon in TFR that has a quail as a pet and tons of hatcheries sell them. I seem to remember there being some goons that raised quail in their basement, but I can't find the thread. As for information, http://www.backwoodshome.com/ has a few articles on it if you search them up. http://www.omlet.us/guide/quails/ has sort of a 101 about them.

I don't yet have any personal experience, just a bit of reading what I can find.

Tim Jong-un
Aug 22, 2008

:shepface:God I fucking love Diablo 3 gold, it even paid for this shitty title:shepface:

Inveigle posted:

I think Big Bertha is beautiful! What fantastic colors! Does she have feet feathers too? I can't figure out what all those feathers are where her feet should be.

Buford has such a pretty comb. :3:

Thanks for posting all the photos of your chickens. I'm really enjoying looking at them. Out of curiosity, do you sell fertile eggs or chicks?


Yeah those lowest feathers that stick straight out are off her feet. The feathers grow sideways out of the toes so the feet arent really ever visible. I dont sell eggs or chicks though and I rarely sell adult birds. What I dont use as breeders or show birds I try to trade to other breeders for birds I need.

Chido
Dec 7, 2003

Butterflies fluttering on my face!

Tim the Enchanter posted:

Yeah those lowest feathers that stick straight out are off her feet. The feathers grow sideways out of the toes so the feet arent really ever visible. I dont sell eggs or chicks though and I rarely sell adult birds. What I dont use as breeders or show birds I try to trade to other breeders for birds I need.

You know what you need to do? You need to create a brahma/cochin mix so fluffy that it resembles tumbleweed. Oh, it also has to be in a blue laced red color tyvm :colbert:




Fluffy butts yay! :3:

Tim Jong-un
Aug 22, 2008

:shepface:God I fucking love Diablo 3 gold, it even paid for this shitty title:shepface:

Couple more pictures. First is another Brown Red hen, her red has sun bleached into yellow though. Is bad to happen on birds that have been bred red to red too many generations which is why ive started breeding back into blacks to darken them back up.





A shot of the breast feather lacing of one of the Brown Red roosters.



And a small herd of happy white cochins with shaved butts so they stay cleaner.

Nettle Soup
Jan 30, 2010

Oh, and Jones was there too.

Pretty red hen has a beak like a hawk!

Tim Jong-un
Aug 22, 2008

:shepface:God I fucking love Diablo 3 gold, it even paid for this shitty title:shepface:

Nettle Soup posted:

Pretty red hen has a beak like a hawk!

Yeah she got a beak trim right after. Most of the time they keep them filed down themselves but some are special little snowflakes too lazy to peck around to wear them down.

Fluffy Bunnies
Jan 10, 2009

Tim the Enchanter posted:

Yeah she got a beak trim right after. Most of the time they keep them filed down themselves but some are special little snowflakes too lazy to peck around to wear them down.

How d'you trim them? Is it like dog claws or do you use a file or..?

Zeta Taskforce
Jun 27, 2002

Pucklynn posted:

Has anyone here ever tried more "exotic" birds like quails? My local organic grocery was selling quail eggs and it got me thinking about whether or not that might be a viable little side-business.

Anyone have any experience?

I don’t know anything about quail. I’m barely knowledgeable about chickens, and that is all book knowledge, not the hands on knowledge that others have. But I will put on my BFC hat here. Also I grew up on a dairy farm.

First, you should do it, but you shouldn’t jump into it. Do you have experience growing quail on your own? If not, get some and see if you enjoy doing it. That is the most important thing. There is no aspect of farming that is lucrative. Well :420: maybe. And it is not always fun, but if you don’t find it rewarding on some level, then there a thousand easier things you can do that will make more money. Next, there is a wide gulf between being able to produce food on a small scale and then being able to sell this food and get a high enough price for it to justify what you put into it. Someone who buys it is going to have different concerns. They need their suppliers to produce enough product to make it worth dealing with, and produce that product consistently. Also they want to make sure no one will get sick. A grocery store, even a small organic one will want to deal with a limited number of suppliers that are stable.

I don’t have the exact formula, and you will need to study how others do it and learn best practices. But it might look something like this: First, you get a few birds and see if you like to do it and if you are good at it. If you are, then you get more birds and start selling a few eggs on the side to like minded people who appreciate your quality and local nature of their food. Word of mouth and facebook and they tell their friends about you. You reinvest the money you get into increasing the size of your flock and improving your facilities and learn what you need to be official and legit and you start selling at farmers markets. If the demand is there, then you expand more and start talking to your local natural food stores. Maybe you keep expanding from there.

What you don’t do is to take a huge plunge and get a loan with the idea that you are going to hit a home run, and you don’t make big decisions by back of the envelope calculations knowing that a dozen sell for $5.00 and if you sell 20 dozen a day, and you need 300 birds to do that and you have the room and you can feed them for $25 a day and gently caress, that is a lot of profit!

So go slow, don’t borrow money, keep track of your expenses, and good luck. If this is something you are serious about, you are welcome to start a thread in BFC if you have questions about the management/financial/tax implications of this.

Tim Jong-un
Aug 22, 2008

:shepface:God I fucking love Diablo 3 gold, it even paid for this shitty title:shepface:

Fluffy Bunnies posted:

How d'you trim them? Is it like dog claws or do you use a file or..?

Nail clippers for the majority of the work then use a file to smooth out any points. Most enjoy having it done but the skittish ones get burritoed in a towel so whatever I need to clip is the only thing poking out. Claws I use a thing that looks like a cigar cutter.

I like solid color birds but Brown Reds remain my favorite.
Heres Rasputin.

Vaga42Bond
Apr 10, 2009

Die Essensrationen wurden verdoppelt!
Die Anzahl der Torpedos wurde verdoppelt!

Tim the Enchanter posted:

And a small herd of happy white cochins with shaved butts so they stay cleaner.

:psyduck: You have to do that for some chickens? How? And I'm guessing they're none too fond of it?

spookygonk
Apr 3, 2005
Does not give a damn

Vaga42Bond posted:

:psyduck: You have to do that for some chickens? How? And I'm guessing they're none too fond of it?

We trimmed one of our ex-batts bums as her poop was mostly wet and matting her feathers. Just held her carefully and used sharp scissors to trim the feathers back far enough. Quick job and some treats afterwards for the indignation.

Tim Jong-un
Aug 22, 2008

:shepface:God I fucking love Diablo 3 gold, it even paid for this shitty title:shepface:

Vaga42Bond posted:

:psyduck: You have to do that for some chickens? How? And I'm guessing they're none too fond of it?

Yeah it's not really shaving,just a few quick snips with some scissors and they're on their merry way. They stay cleaner and cooler while it's hot.

Tim Jong-un
Aug 22, 2008

:shepface:God I fucking love Diablo 3 gold, it even paid for this shitty title:shepface:

Have a 6 week old blue cochin! Shes just growing in her primary feathers so her head is mainly white fluff at the moment. Might be a week or two older I spilled coffee on my notebook so it's kinda garbled.

Velvet Sparrow
May 15, 2006

'Hope' is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune, without the words, and never stops--at all.

Oops, sorry Mods if I inadvertantly seemed to be trying to take the place of taking an animal to the vet, which should ALWAYS be you first course of action. But like Chido and others have said (and I've heard it many, many times on lots of other chicken forums) finding a vet that will even SEE a chicken can be next to impossible, so most chicken owners have armed themselves with information sources to help narrow down the diagnosis and know of over-the-counter medications that can save a bird. When chickens actually LOOK sick, they are VERY sick and you need to act quickly. :(

I hate to see chickens suffer, it breaks my overly-soft heart... :(

Tim, your bantam cochins are gorgeous, I'll have to try and sweet-talk you into selling me some eggs next Spring! :swoon: Bantam cochins are far and away my absolute favorite breed. Or send me your culls, I'd LOVE them!

The chicks are now out in their outdoor run! They aren't happy about the wind, but at least it isn't 100 degrees anymore.

Tim Jong-un
Aug 22, 2008

:shepface:God I fucking love Diablo 3 gold, it even paid for this shitty title:shepface:

Heres another mini-mini cochin! Shes black solid but Brown reds start out looking exactly the same with the white down. The red only shows up once all their adult feathers are in. Lemons start out looking exactly like blues as well.



You can actually see the very tips of little cochin claws since she hasnt achieved peak puff yet. Their eyes start out green and gradually shift to the amber color as adults.

Inveigle
Jan 19, 2004

Tim the Enchanter posted:

Heres another mini-mini cochin! Shes black solid but Brown reds start out looking exactly the same with the white down. The red only shows up once all their adult feathers are in. Lemons start out looking exactly like blues as well.



You can actually see the very tips of little cochin claws since she hasnt achieved peak puff yet. Their eyes start out green and gradually shift to the amber color as adults.

How old is that young cochin in the photo, Tim?

Your black cochins (that have the bit of red in their adult coloring) are just amazing-looking! Does that black/red coloration have a particular name? I never would have dreamed that a "black" chicken could look like that!

Tim Jong-un
Aug 22, 2008

:shepface:God I fucking love Diablo 3 gold, it even paid for this shitty title:shepface:

Shes 6-8 weeks old I believe but I made a mess on this hatches paperwork so not sure specifically. The black and red colored ones are the Brown-Red color ive been talking about. It's kind of confusing but the name is more a description of the hue of the red on them than what 2 colors they are. Whereas the Lemon-Blue name IS a description of the TWO colors of the bird. Theres an all-red color of Cochins but they died out in popularity in the 60-70s and it's next to impossible to find ones that are true Reds.

Tim Jong-un
Aug 22, 2008

:shepface:God I fucking love Diablo 3 gold, it even paid for this shitty title:shepface:

Baby cochin of the day. A surprised looking little white female. The pullets are all I can even take a picture of since the cockerels immediately go bananas when you set them somewhere new.

Chido
Dec 7, 2003

Butterflies fluttering on my face!

Oh gawd she's so cute! Tim, please never stop posting in this thread, your chickens are so pretty :3: By the way, you said you have brahmas and cochins for eggs, right? Can you post pictures of them too, please?

Ceridwen
Dec 11, 2004
Of course... If the Jell-O gets moldy, the whole thing should be set aflame.

This morning my husband woke me up wanting to know what was wrong with our chickens, because they were making all kinds of racket at 6am.

I go down to investigate and they are having some kind of argument with two squirrels in the nearby tree. Seriously. I just sat there and stared at the chickens and the squirrels for ~2 min and they slowly both quieted down. Went back inside and they did not make any more noise for the rest of the morning. WTF chickens?

Tim Jong-un
Aug 22, 2008

:shepface:God I fucking love Diablo 3 gold, it even paid for this shitty title:shepface:

Standard Brahmas for Chido! I could only lure 2 out because a flock of tweety birds was sitting in a tree and OH GOD IT MIGHT BE A HAWK! So the rest were busy cackling at imagined danger.

Delicious watermelon.


Theres a whole melon sitting there but someone might steal it so I better eat a chunk as big as my head.And of course the other hen chases her for it because there must be something special about that particular chunk.


Vito enjoys melons too! Also jerking his head around right when I try to take pictures.

Chido
Dec 7, 2003

Butterflies fluttering on my face!

:neckbeard: yay brahmas lookit them fluffy butts! I wonder if it's a brahma trait to cackle and sound the alarm at imaginary stuff, Roostroyer does that 3-4 times a day.

Tim Jong-un
Aug 22, 2008

:shepface:God I fucking love Diablo 3 gold, it even paid for this shitty title:shepface:

Todays baby chicken isnt a cochin,its a blue silkie!



I made a thread about breeding silkies a long time ago but forgot about it and never updated. I got out of silkie breeding and started focusing entirely on Cochins. My mother loves silkies though so she took over. I house them all here and take care of them. She comes over and takes care of the breeding side of things for them.

Sunday was bright and sunny so it was Silkie bath day for the 2 month old hatch.



Inveigle
Jan 19, 2004

Tim the Enchanter posted:

Sunday was bright and sunny so it was Silkie bath day for the 2 month old hatch.



O M G ! Wow! Just when I think I've seen a chicken that's the most ridiculously silly/wonderful/impractical creature ever, then ANOTHER chicken comes along that's even MORE silly/wonderful/impractical!

LOL! I love these Silkies! They're like walking fluff-tumbleweeds or poodle-chickens! So pretty! :)

How do the white Silkies manage to stay so clean looking? I always wonder that about white chickens when they are rolling around in the dirt, taking a dust bath.

Also, how do you give a chicken a bath? Do you have any photos/videos of that?

P.S.: I love the chicken guard dog. What a good dog! :)

Inveigle fucked around with this message at 15:27 on Jun 26, 2012

Tim Jong-un
Aug 22, 2008

:shepface:God I fucking love Diablo 3 gold, it even paid for this shitty title:shepface:

They try their best to be as dirty as possible but im pretty diligent about changing shavings/shoveling out dirt that has chicken poop in it and replacing it with fresh stuff. Those tubs in the picture are filled with warm water. Ones got a mixture of baby shampoo in it and the other is just a rinse tub to get it out of their feathers. They're easy to bathe though so I just dunk their bodies in and scrub their crests with my hands then rinse them in the plain water tub. Then they find a sunny spot and just flop over pecking grass till they dry. Ive got the tent set up out there so they can go in the shade if they get hot with food/water.

Inveigle
Jan 19, 2004

Tim the Enchanter posted:

They try their best to be as dirty as possible but im pretty diligent about changing shavings/shoveling out dirt that has chicken poop in it and replacing it with fresh stuff. Those tubs in the picture are filled with warm water. Ones got a mixture of baby shampoo in it and the other is just a rinse tub to get it out of their feathers. They're easy to bathe though so I just dunk their bodies in and scrub their crests with my hands then rinse them in the plain water tub. Then they find a sunny spot and just flop over pecking grass till they dry. Ive got the tent set up out there so they can go in the shade if they get hot with food/water.

Do the chickens mind getting their baths? I would think they'd probably enjoy it. Princess Roostroyer doesn't seem to mind the foot soakings and pedicures that Chido gives him. Such spoiled chickens! :)

Thanks again for posting all the photos. I never get tired of looking at photos of people's pet chickens and hearing stories about them. I guess it's because I can't have chickens of my own right now.

Tim Jong-un
Aug 22, 2008

:shepface:God I fucking love Diablo 3 gold, it even paid for this shitty title:shepface:

They dont mind at all. They get to lounge in the sun and dry and I get to make sure nobody has mites and check for any defects I might have missed earlier.

Blue Cockerel.

Zeta Taskforce
Jun 27, 2002

Tim the Enchanter posted:

Standard Brahmas for Chido! I could only lure 2 out because a flock of tweety birds was sitting in a tree and OH GOD IT MIGHT BE A HAWK! So the rest were busy cackling at imagined danger.

Delicious watermelon.


Theres a whole melon sitting there but someone might steal it so I better eat a chunk as big as my head.And of course the other hen chases her for it because there must be something special about that particular chunk.


Vito enjoys melons too! Also jerking his head around right when I try to take pictures.


Please never stop posting pics.

I wanted to quote your production chickens, not to detract from the super cute silkies and the fantastically different other breeds, but because I think all of your birds look amazingly happy and even the ones that are common breeds that you might not be showing still hold themselves with dignity and majesty. If in my next life I am born a chicken, I hope I get to live with you.

Chido
Dec 7, 2003

Butterflies fluttering on my face!

... I think godzilla is becoming an egg eater. About a week ago we caught her eating a cracked egg on the floor of the coop. Neither my nieces or I were sure if the egg was laid on the brick dividing the nest boxes and rolled to the floor and cracked, or if Godzilla did it.

Today two hens were going to lay heir eggs, but we only got one, and Godzilla's beak is crusty with dried eggyolk. No sign of a broken egg though. No shell, no mess, nothing. I'm gonna have to start kicking her out of the coop early in the moring so she doesn't make it a habit :tinfoil:

She's broody too and does sit on eggs without breaking them, I'm not sure what to make of it :(.

Tim Jong-un
Aug 22, 2008

:shepface:God I fucking love Diablo 3 gold, it even paid for this shitty title:shepface:

Ive had broody hens break eggs and rehydrate off the yolks rather than get up to drink before. Is she sitting inside the coop and just eating eggs people lay near her?

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Chido
Dec 7, 2003

Butterflies fluttering on my face!

she stays inside the coop in the morning. I kick everybody out when the other hens are done laying, but I guess she did it to rehydrate as you said. I'm gonna have to figure out a way to keep them out of the coop while the non-broody ones can still go inside. chickens are more complicated than I though :psyduck: but at least they've survived their first year with me :D!

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