Snow Day December 2016

We received snow on a really cold day.  The clucks are NOT happy with this.  The cold is no big deal, but the snow was distressing for them.  I had to throw hay on top of the snow so that they would come out to eat and drink. However, they were not convinced this was good, so I had to entice them with a scoop of cracked corn.  We have the water warmer under each water fountain for them so that they don't have to deal with icy water.  After seeing the cracked corn on a little paper plate, they ventured onto the hay and are getting nourished and, perhaps, a little exercise too.  The snow is super dry powder and with the wind that we had, a lot of the snow drifted.  Here are a few pix of what little bit of snow that we have for the day and the chickens finally coming out of the coops. 

Cute bird snow prints	Little bird looking for food
Little Bird Prints in the Snow
The Orloffs out in the Pen	Orloffs standing on the hay
The Russian Orloff Pen/Coop
The Coops in the Snow
Welsummer finally venturing out
The Welsummer Pen/Coop

Turkey Day

The Turkeys were 9.5 pounds and 12.6 pounds in preparation for dinner.  So they were about averaged size for their breed. The meat was very tender and fresh. Not at all stringy or tough. All in all, it was a success and we will have plenty of meat to last for the week for leftovers, thanks to sweet Luna and Aries.

Layers and Turkeys

We have concluded the the two turkeys are both hens. I thought they were toms, but as the weather got cooler, they developed feathers on their heads and the snood never got any longer. So we are assuming that they are not going to get much larger. Regardless, and we have fattened them to prepare for the fateful day. 

The Orloffs have started to lay again.  When the standard time went back into effect, we put the lights back into the coop to light up at 4:00 in the morning.  The Orloffs are back to laying, but it is sparse at this point. Only one egg every other day, this week. The "layoff" lasted fabout 10 weeks. Little by little.

Welsummers' First Year Molt

The Welsummers first molt began about 10 days ago, and the one Orloff that is with them, is in her refeather mode. One of the Welsummers is not yet in full molt, but the other two look a little like porcipines. Their pen is a be-feathered spectacle.

Black Spanish Turkeys at Twenty Three (Weeks)

At five months, the turkeys appear to both be toms and so, they are Tom Luna and Tom Aries, and plumping up nicely. They love their cracked corn! Looking back at how tiny they were when we brought them home the first week.We certainly can't hold them in the palm of our hands anymore!

The First Welsummer Molt

The Welsummers stopped egg production this week and have settled into their first molting season. Time to freeze up the older eggs for use later over the next month or we will be purchasing eggs again this year, which we did NOT like doing last year.  We have no new pullets becoming new layers, so there will definitely be a production lapse again this year.  

The problem that we encountered last year was the fact that the Welsummers were so slow in their laying maturity, that it caused us to cool our heels. Also, if I remember correctly, the Orloffs went into the molt earlier season last year which seems to last longer, but I could be wrong. Regardless, we need to be more prepared, not sell the few remaining dozens that we have, and freeze the older eggs so that we have a back up eggs to tap into next month. 

When I start freezing them, I will try to remember to take some photos of the process.

The Blending Experiment Failed

The combining of the Orloffs failed. The three Orloffs were pretty cruel to the one transitioning Orloff. They made her sleep on the floor at night, or in the nesting box. She spent most of her day in the nestbox to try to protect what feathers she had left. The brutes were picking all the feathers out of her back and neck. 

The humane solution was to put her back in with the Welsummers, who were all too pleased to have her back. The Welsummers truly missed her as their "dominant" hen. So, yah, that attempt to combine the remaining Orloffs was not successful. 

The Wellsummers are starting to molt, as well.  The egg production has slowed down to one per day from that pen. It will be interesting to see how the Welsummers molt since we have never experienced the molting season with them. They are starting to look pretty scraggly, but not anything, yet, as scraggly as the Orloffs look 

We were talking about transitioning out of the Orloffs this next spring to raise meat birds along with just a few Welsummers.  A small flock of four or five would probably be perfect for our needs. The Orloffs are too easily stressed out with the rains and heat. While they do fine with the really cold temps, the Welsummers also do fine with the type of winters that we have. We may just get a couple of new Welsummers next spring, and thin out the aging Orloffs that have slowed down on their egg production.