LFG

I'd love to see one of those opened up

Google "Beautiful Wood Nymph"

In 7 years that's only the third snake I've dealt with. Like I said, I think the chicks draw them in

I'm getting killed on chick starter right now. Chick sales seem to die when the temperatures get over 90, and I have about 50 right now that will probably stick around until they are old enough to sex. The girls sell for a lot more, but I will go through a lot of feed between now and then. The chicks draw in the predators, too. I had a possum 3 weeks ago, the raccoon last week, and pulled a 5 and a half foot black snake out of the grow out pen last night. Everything eats chicken

That makes a huge difference, and the boys eat a lot more than the girls. If you guys are having the heat wave that we are, they eat less when it gets this hot as well

Hey Petee, good news. My second generation is proving to be great broodies. My original flock never sat on eggs, but I had one start sitting 3 weeks ago, and had four sitting within a week. Maybe your girls will do the work for you next year Came home to this yesterday

Oh, there's nothing wrong with her other than that toe. Her color looks really good. She will be a nice layer

For anyone wondering, this was the only picture that I could really see a whole foot in. The second toe from the right is pretty crooked. That's not a genetic issue, crooked toes usually come from incubation temperature or humidity being just a tad off. I'm also trying to decide if she has an extra toe, or if I am just seeing her shank where it attaches to the foot. There should be 3 toes of similar side facing forward and one facing to the inside for balance. In a Styrofoam incubator like Petee's, especially a still-air (no fan), it's very possible to have areas that are a degree or two warmer or cooler than other areas. Minor changes like that affect chick development, and it's no fault of Petee's. We determined that the larger eggs had issues, and she hatched over half of the eggs from the younger birds, which is a very good hatch rate for any shipped eggs, much less Marans.

No, that's just a genetic fault. I had one in my last batch. I'm going to hang on to him for a while to see how he grows out. I need to find out which of my birds is throwing that and remove them from the program. I had a huge hatch last week, and have more hatching today. Out of 50+ chicks, I don't have a single one with the toe issues you are experiencing. I could see it in a couple of your pictures, and I know you are right, it just still makes me wonder if it's an incubation issue. Very strange. I'm hoping this week's hatch goes well. I set two dozen from only the blue pen, the ones that didn't hatch for you, and I had a lot of clears, but 33 developed eggs at lockdown. The girls that I hatched when you hatched will be going to that blue rooster in October. I think the fertility issues can be attributed to a couple of hens, and those birds are older, so I'm going to replace them with all new girls ahead of next year. That's a gorgeous rooster, and I really want to grow out some of his babies to compare to the matings from the other pen. So you let all of the roosters go? Maybe if you are ready next spring we can try again and get you some better boys to choose from

That is a very odd solution to a very odd problem, but at least you are open minded

Do you have another rooster? For the first 3 years I only had hens, and when they got older one hen started acting like a rooster, even crowing. It was the most horrible sound, but it was an honest to goodness crow. I started looking online to see what was going on, and it was a combination of no rooster and the hens aging, kind of a "henopause". Their body chemistry changes, and when their ovaries start failing they start exhibiting more male-like characteristics. It sounds like yours is younger, though, so I'm not sure what would cause that. The funny thing was when I told a few of my Mexican friends about it. They see a crowing hen as very bad luck, and will immediately put one down. They won't even eat it

Oh, I just remembered what else I wanted to tell you. The overcoloring and your comment about the toes had me concerned, so I went over my birds closely yesterday. One rooster is overcolored, though not as bad as yours, but I have no extra or bent toes. None at all. I wonder if the eggs being on an airplane or the difference in incubators would have anything to do with that. Thank you for telling me, because it's definitely something I will keep an eye out for, but none that I hatched from that same batch had those issues

Free ranging sounds great in theory, but you will lose chickens. All of my pens have the L fence 1 foot deep, and the walls are built with 2x4s and welded wire. My mistake was running a 2ft strip of chicken wire around the grow out pens. The chicks weren't roosting, they were sleeping by the fence, and the coon was reaching in and pulling them out at night. I replaced the chicken wire with hardware cloth and haven't lost any more, but the coon was still coming around. They are so dang smart that eventually they will find a way in. If I lose a chicken to a predator it's my fault, but it sure did feel good to see the culprit behind bars

They are still kind of small, but giving them hiding room that the big girls can't get in will help. There will be pecking, no way around it, just keep an eye on the backs of the young girls' heads. If you start seeing a lot of missing feathers you may want to keep them separated a little longer. I've lost three of mine to predator attacks in the last month. I was pretty sure it was a coon, he was pulling them through the fence when they slept at night, and that was confirmed when I caught him on my trail cam last week. I've been setting the trap for two weeks, and finally got him last night

Nah, and if you see TPD in this thread, it means Three Pullet Dilemma

My top 3 favorite improvements, in order: 1. Posting Pictures 2. Quoting on mobile 3. Emojis on mobile Honorable mentions would be seeing "likes" on mobile, being able to go to next page or previous page without having to scroll all the way back up, the home menu is much easier to find and navigate, live alerts to new posts, and just the navigation of the site in general. My top 3 dream additions, in order: 1. Maniacal laughter audio to go along with the laughing emoji 2. A missile that I can aim from my post that will shoot up the screen and blow up another post of my choosing 3. Cash rewards for being on the leaderboard Thanks in advance

Ok, just because I'm at work and bored on a slow day before a holiday I'm going to point out the good and bad differences between these two birds. The first, most obvious issue on #2 is the overcoloring. That would be too much color on a bird that is a year old, much less 2 months. The copper should only be in the hackles (neck), and darker than the brownish copper that bird is showing. There shouldn't be any copper in the wings, and he has a lot. See the sharp, straight line copper in the center of the black feathers? That is called "shafting", and is very hard to breed out if you were to use that rooster. He also looks a little long and lean, and if you remember, that was my complaint with his daddy. It could also be the way Mr. Petee is holding him, but he looks a little longer than #7. #7 is beautiful, and I'd love to see him in about 6 more months. His coloring is off to a very good start, his comb looks uniform, his wattles have a very nice rounded shape, his foot feathering looks excellent, I like the darker beak, and his eyes look very bright and calm. See the patch above his ear? That should be copper too, and his is, but it's surrounded by black where #2 just kind of blends in to the rest of the copper. That bird has a lot of potential

Crooked toe is the redneck, DooBwa added the extra toe

Tell your daughter to take #7 if she wants to breed. That's hands-down the best boy. If you are giving her some and you want more eggs, just give me the word. I'll send you two dozen of the young girls' eggs so you'll have a better hatch this time

Oh my... 4 boys and 3 girls. Let me know if you want more eggs, my sales are slowing down like they do every summer, so I'll have fertile eggs about any time you want them. As a breeder, I like having plenty of boys to choose from, and #7 is your best boy. His coloring at this age is excellent, not too much, but not solid black. I see a trace of copper coming in on his saddle, and it's nice and dark. His comb is a little curved, but that will straighten out, and it looks very evenly balanced. The only deduction I see on him is a little too much color in his breast, but that will fade as he gets older, that's going to be a very nice bird. #2 has way too much color, and would be a cull for me. Like I said, #1 looks great until you get to his tail, I don't know what happened there. It's almost like those feathers are opaque. #5 has a little too much color in her breast, but not a huge deal. #6 looks to be the best if she will just develop a little copper in her hackles as she ages. I have a few that are almost totally black, and they are beautiful birds, but ideally you want a moderate copper color. I see that white underfeather, but it will probably go away.

Wow, I hope that was all the boys... #3 looks great so far, if I were keeping one, he would be the one. #4 is very nice. She's a little mossy, but should lay very dark eggs

That's funny, I just posted on the other one to ask you how many girls you wound up with. I hope more than those 2 boys... I've never seen a tail like #1. His coloring around his hackles is great, but that tail is odd. #2 is a little overcolored around the shoulders, but his tail looks more correct. He would be a good match for a girl that was almost black. The hackles on #1 are excellent, but that tail is concerning I'm seeing the same thing in my cockerels, too much copper in the hackles, but that means they should produce good girls. It's odd, but it seems it's hard to get good boys and girls from the same matings, usually what's good for one isn't good for the other. I have 4 dozen set from my blue rooster, those huge eggs that haven't been hatching well. I'm hoping to at least get a dozen or so to see how those chicks look compared to the black rooster

Petee, how many girls did you wind up with? I was an even 50/50, 8 girls and 8 boys

My hope is that OSHA will be more concerned with possible future issues. Thats not the first landfill to slide, but it's the first I've heard of that took a man with it