Recent content by brandywine

Two nice young Narragansett tom turkeys. Hatched July 2010, broody-raised free range on pasture. I kept them as "hens" and got a visit from the Sex-Change Fairy just after Thanksgiving. Too many toms! No shipping, local pickup only. Western Pennsylvania (southern Butler County)

I have two bourbon red hens (and an inordinate number of toms, but that's another saga.) One of them managed to raise two poults this summer. She kept them away from the rest of the turkeys for months -- keeping mostly to the safely electrified goat pasture and run-in shed, clever girl. She...

Four English shepherds and one German shepherd. The ES are absolutely crucial to having free-range poultry. I could not do it without them. They patrol day and night, chase off hawks (also crows, balloonists, low-flying aircraft) and kill possums and raccoons. I've had absolutely minimal...

I asked about fair market value for specific birds. I did not solicit advice for initiating a range war with my neighbors by gleefully murdering their dog. If you enjoy living in a state of simmering angry conflict with others in your community, well, that's your choice. I try to have...

We raised 100 Freedom Rangers last year and 75 this year. Butchered at 11 weeks both times. Totally free-range on pasture with plenty of tree and shrub cover. The persistent evil heat wave cut the weight down by over a pound average this time -- instead of 6-7 pounds with some well over...

Not sure where the right place to post this question might be, but since the occasion was my neighbor's Jack Russell terrorist, I'll try here. I have the photos and some of the bodies. What would you consider fair market value for: 1) An easter-egger pullet about three weeks from laying age...

McMurray Hatchery is telling a friend of mine that electronet fencing won't work for turkeys. They say that the turkeys just stand there and get shocked. I have never heard this before, but I've also not tried my electronet on the turkeys. It worked great for last year's meaties. I was...

The last of my buff orps to go broody this year is having ... complications. First, I've had to cull most of the eggs, and two broke on their own. One of those fouled the nest, and I suspect it was this that spoiled the other eggs. She was down to five (I started her on 14) yesterday, and...

Some caveats about breeding from the Freedom Rangers. We kept three pullets and a gorgeous tricolor cockerel from last year's lot of 100 rangers, with the plan of separating them in the early spring and hatching out eggs. The cockerel became so amazingly obnoxious and nasty towards all my hens...

For quite some time mine resisted going in to their coop, and required me to bump them off the porch railing and knock them out of a tree with a stick, followed by some "gentle persuasion" from the stock dogs. Now they coop up by themselves, knowing what's coming if they don't. The two young...

Thanks, this is what I was looking for. I guess the late Dale was normal, at least as far as her egg equipment was concerned. I looked all over the web for the kind of nitty-gritty information in the extension publication that MotherJean posted. I wasn't able to get a great look inside the...

Posted this over in behavior and egglaying to be greeted by crickets chirping. Anyone know? ************************* I kept three Freedom Ranger hens from last year's meat flock. (An experiment I will not repeat.) One died with a grossly enlarged heart this spring, I sent one to the...

Mount Healthy says they look like Amber links to them. Thanks ve! I will declare this mystery resolved. They are doing quite well, and are clearly looking forward to becoming free-range chickies when their quarantine is up.

I kept three Freedom Ranger hens from last year's meat flock. (An experiment I will not repeat.) One died with a grossly enlarged heart this spring, I sent one to the processor with my Cornish this week, and one -- the famous Dale "Supersize" McNugget -- died suddenly last week. On necropsy...

Amber Links seem likely. I called Mount Healthy, which sells them (and which many local feed stores use) and they offered to look at some photos and give an opinion, so I'm emailing them now! I had thought because it had "link" in the name that the pullets and cockerels would look different...