Disco Nixon posted:

Yeah , they get rid of them pretty early, around 18 months while hens can keep laying until 5-6 years.
The only difference is that instead of laying 6-7 eggs a week they might lay 4-5 eggs.

Balobam posted:

Fluffy Bunnies posted:

Next time the lottery gets super high you should have the chickens pick the numbers, VS.

Inveigle posted:

Lynza! Please post some photos of your flock. You know we all like seeing chicken photos here.

The Rat posted:

An hour later, armed and armoured, Khârn stood ready once more.
‘You don’t have to do this.’
Khârn looked at Kargos by the console. ‘Yes, I do. I’ve done it before. Open up.’



The Apothecary worked the key controls and the doors swung silently outwards. Beyond them, sticky with drying blood, a set of bone steps went down into the shadows. Another roar, wordless and deep-throated, came echoing up from the gloom.



Khârn walked forwards and let the darkness fold over him as Kargos swung the doors closed behind him. The first thing he heard was the dead whispering in the dark. The second thing was the beast’s breathing. Even his genhanced eyes couldn’t pierce the absolute lack of light. He walked slowly, drawing no weapon despite the temptation, listening to a daemon breathing in the black.



‘Khârn,’ said something unseen, from everywhere and nowhere. Whatever it was, it smelled of fresh graves and funeral pyres, and its teeth were wet.
‘Lord?’
Slow thunder answered. No, a laugh. A chuckle. ‘I am no one’s lord. I never was. Even less so now.’
Khârn swallowed, still edging through the dark. He heard the thing that had once been his gene-sire licking its maw.
‘I want something from you, Khârn.’
‘Name it.’
‘Hnnh. Take your axe. Take your brothers. Kill three hundred souls on the thrall decks.’
Khârn stared in the direction where he was sure the monster was at rest. ‘Why, sire? To what purpose?’
‘Three hundred of them. Take their mags.’



Khârn heard the thing smile, heard the wet peeling of its fanged maw curling into a grin. Something huge, winged, and wreathed in the smoke of dead souls tried to move closer to him, and strained against the rune-etched chains that bound it. He saw its eyes burning in the dark, orbs of ember-fire, the colour of boiling blood.
‘Take their mags, Khârn. Build me a throne.’



(Apologies to Aaron Demski-Bowden, author of the outstanding book [i]Betrayer[/], from which the above is taken.)







I can't be the only one going overboard. Post your ridiculous mag/clip/belt hordes, goons!

(Note that I have good reason to stock up. I will stop buying mags, after 1 July 2013.)

The Rat posted:

He's a Polish rooster that I got by trolling cragslist for cock. Due to his complete timidity, he does not at all live up to his predecessor, who unfortunately had his head bitten off by a fox.

This one was a huge rear end in a top hat; chased people around and attacked them and everything. He was awesome.




Come on, I can't be the only one in TFR with a stash of mags. (I didn't have anywhere near this much till the CO legislature got lobotomized and started thrashing around.)

The Rat posted:

I never thought I'd say this, but those chickens look fabulous.

Inveigle posted:

Do they have inhalers on Amazon? Order a few for Saturday delivery.

Lenswork posted:

Here's another photo of my little chicken family.



I'll be sad when they are big enough to go in the run with the grown chickens, but I won't miss the smell in the kitchen.

CROWS EVERYWHERE posted:

Most of my neighbours who raise chickens for eating as well as eggs have RIRs. They are nice reliable layers and then once they're a year or two old, they're nice and fat and ready for eating. They're also pretty good at free ranging, being smart enough to go in when it rains and tough enough to scare off most cats during the day.

Errant Gin Monks posted:

[RIR]

I only have one.

Velvet Sparrow posted:

And watch Tet for signs of a head injury--Silkies have a hole in their skull through which their brain protrudes, so thumps to the top of their heads can cause brain swelling and resultant difficulty with balance/walking. If that happens let me know, I have a treatment that's worked for me in the past.

piscesbobbie posted:

I had a weird dream that humans could control the sex of hatching chick eggs by adjusting the temperature in the incubator (I know, weird dream!).

Velvet Sparrow posted:

Oh God ohgodohgodohgod read the reviews.

http://www.amazon.com/Chicken-Diapers-Medium-9-10/dp/B00AFWLA70/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1391201333&sr=8-4&keywords=chicken+diapers

I think SA has been there.

Inveigle posted:

And now for a chicken photo from a Redditor. This roo's owner was trying to identify his breed and evidently he's a "Denizli Longcrower" and quite rare.



Video of a Denizli Longcrower crowing. VS, you REALLY need one of these!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqFkLvSoGto

Here's a second vid of the same roo, again crowing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuxfZVFzL6I

c355n4 posted:

CROWS EVERYWHERE posted:

In chicken news here - it's finally rained so the chooks are loving being outside. Their favourite thing to do at the moment is sneak into the neighbour's pigeon paddock (the paddock attached to his pigeon coop), which is full of long, thick green panic grass that is about waist-high on me. For chickens it is like a delicious grassy forest. It's full of bugs as well as nice and cool. You can see where they are by watching the rustling of the grass and it's amusing when they come dashing through when you call them for grain or the bucket-o'-scraps.

quote:

With Alecto gone, the two little chickens are trying to figure out who gets to be boss chicken. But Agatha (brown chicken) is so nice and Virginia (white chicken) is so shy that they don't peck each other and have very gentle tussles for the best dustbathing spot/best spot on the roost. When they are both trying to get into the corner of the roost at night, they try sneaking under each other. Virginia also likes sitting as close to Agatha as she can, and even sometimes pokes her head under Agatha's wing when they are sleeping. They're both laying lots of eggs (Virginia's are white, Agatha's are mid brown) and are good friends with all the neighbour chickens and pigeons.

quote:

Our neighbours who raise game bantams have recently added white bantam hens to their flock (if they're not game bantams as well they certainly look it - small combs, sharp angular tail, long legs) and has a flock of little adolescent chickens - they're grown up enough that you can mostly tell who's a rooster and who's a hen, but they still cheep instead of clucking. The crazy neighbour has added geese, which Virginia and Agatha were rather frightened by until they realised they were on the other side of the fence. The neighbours with an extensive vegie patch have been getting a good haul now that the fence between their yard and our paddock has been fixed - no more chickens trying to dustbathe in their cabbage patch. Their chickens are enjoying getting fresh vegie scraps as well as green grass I throw over for them.

The Rat posted:

It came out of a TFR Secret Santa package for me. According to the packaging, my Santa got it from someone on etsy.

Inveigle posted:

LOL! Mud hens! Now I want to see a photo of them wallowing in the mud!

Explosions! posted:

I got more chickens this year. God the meat ones are so loving huge. They're all 4 weeks old.

Faerunner posted:

OMG SERAMA MAMA!

Errant Gin Monks posted:

Oh somehow my rear end split open, I will run from the humans and hide it until i... *dies*

spookygonk posted:

You can almost see him just sighing, "They'll put me down in a moment if I just stay still."

Cross posting from the Cute Pictures Thread:

Avshalom posted:

i'm worried about the crime baby, i had four other eggs that were meant to hatch at more or less the same time but they're not pipping yet will she be okay as a sole chick if they've died or whatever? is there anything i can do to make it easier on her? she has an ecoglow brooder and a tea towel to snuggle up to and she's quietened down and seems to be sleeping a lot. should i be handling her more than usual? put a quail in there?

quote:

Is this what broodiness looks like? Notice the sounds, puffed feathers and refusal to stand.

McGiggins posted:

That girl really trusts and likes you! She didn't even get super freaky deaky like my mother's hens do, they'd rather peck and squeal-grumble than eat out of your hand while broody.