Recent content by Finnie

I used to breed caged birds, and one year I got into button quail. They were cute and they had neat color genetics to play around with, but they were WAY more trouble than they were worth!! The males fight and scalp each other and even get aggressive with the females. I had to keep separating...

I love Langshans.

One other piece of advice, since you haven’t bought your tarps yet. Examine the label to make sure it does not contain any lead. The Chinese made ones do. I did not know that for a long time, and now I have tiny bits of deteriorated lead tarp all over my property and smooshed into my dirt. And...

The speckles increase with each molt. I’m surprised yours is quiet. My SS are usually my most talkative. Follow me around and complain about everything under the sun! 🤣

I don’t have emus, but my instinct tells me they would try to eat it. Is it in large pieces, or tiny shreds? Can you remove it? That patch of ground would be better off having the netting removed, no matter what your plans for it are.

I think the red one is a cockerel too. But if it were mine, I wouldn’t get rid of it until I saw the saddle feathers. Or, if I were holding it and spread out the wings and saw red shoulder patch color coming in.

Yes, I only made pets of my turkeys in the beginning, and then I learned better. I think that’s what a lot of people do. It was pretty neat at first until it got old 😂 I think trying to have imprinted pet turkeys gets perpetuated by the internet. Unsuspecting people read that they make fun...

Now that I’ve finished the 4 pages, I think you were right that this chick probably never would have hatched because of its malposition. I have had chicks pip at the wrong end and hatch on their own just fine, and also some that didn’t make it. But those air cells had been at the correct end of...

Hey I know I’m late responding. Four pages I didn’t read (yet), but I just wanted to chime in and say I have done this too. Try not to feel too bad. One of the ways we learn to get better at things is by the experience we gain when we accidentally do the wrong thing. :hugs

Oh, he’ll regret it all right, and not just the toms! He will regret the poop all over the porch. He will regret the turkeys perched on top of the house that somehow can’t get the nerve to jump down. He’ll regret the claw scratches all over the hood and top of his pickup truck. He may even...

When you took the chicks out, did you candle the remaining eggs? I usually remove the dead looking ones and leave the potentially alive ones in. And then candle each day until I no longer see signs of life. Those never do pip, but I wait until they die on their own just in case. Generally, as...

They might just learn to stay inside the netting with the flock for the most part. But they also will occasionally become full of beans, run around flapping their wings and taking off flying, just for fun and exercise. When I had turkeys inside a 5-strand electric wire fence (probably about 3...

Nice! The TSCs around here only seem to get lights as well. Two years ago I got some buff Brahma pullets from two different TSCs. Ever since I have been looking for a male. They will often get straight run Brahmas, but not usually buffs. So this year I finally ordered cockerels (and more...

You don’t say how old he is, but that big pink comb and the flashy pattern on the wings say cockerel to me. (That I circled in red.) Pullets would have a more uniform even pattern to the markings on their wings. Another thing to look for is saddle feathers. If you can pick him up and look...

What is your reasoning for wanting an aggressive rooster? If your birds are going to be restricted to a run, it’s not like you will need him to fight predators. (Not that that would work very well as a security system anyway. You would have to be replacing lots of roosters.)