Chicken Breeds Resource

I found this website with short video clips of different breeds of chickens (and ducks, guineas, etc...).  The videos I was looking at appeared to have been taken at a poultry show in Europe so the animals are very nice representatives of the breed.  It was helpful for me because I could see how the animal actually moves - much different than looking at a two-dimensional representation.  Enjoy!

http://www.mypets.egzoticpheasant.com/browse-chickens-videos-1-date.html

Birdie, It's HOT Tonight

The heat is on!  

The ground has mostly dried up inside the coops and we're down to just a handful of broody hens in nest boxes.  The rest of them are out teaching their chicks to forage and keeping them near water.  

We're two weeks into the heat and it was about this time last year our well went dry....and stayed dry until the middle of August.  Right in the middle of that parched dryness we had 14 back-to-back days of heat indexes over 100 humid degree temperature, barely dipping out of the 90s at night.  Yeah, it was a downright nasty evil hell for our feathered friends.

All things considered this year is a cake walk (so far.....) Over the last year we've strengthened our housing infrastructure to better buffer the heat. We now systematically conserve and store water.  This is good and has meant being able to manage the bumper crop of chicks, poults, and keets.

Several of the projects have had excellent break throughs. The Aikikos have finally produced several dark skinned, rumpless, pea combed GIRLS and we hatched our first barred chocolate rock!

Also, I've been tinkering with a genetics app to make it easier to document and track field observations.  Yeah, I'm geeky but at least I aspire to someday be organized.  I'm looking into how to put it together so other people can use it too.

Mottled Java "Nannie"

Nannie is the last of my trio of mottled javas. She enjoys being a part of the flock but isn't especially chummy with any other hens.  I've never had her go broody but she's very good at helping new moms.

Nannie and Brandi have an easy respect for each other.

Nannie likes to help take care of everyone's babies.

The Taco Party

Is it a taco box or.....

or an upcycled nest box?

Do not disturb for the next 21 days!

Free Range Fractures

FROM WORLD POULTRY
March 2013

Skeletal health in laying hens is a major welfare and economic problem with up to 80% of hens suffering bone breakages in some free range systems. A new three-year study hopes to reduce the fracture rates in laying hens thanks to a grant of £532,000 funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and supported by industrial partner, Noble Foods.

With the 2012 EU ban on battery cage systems, as many as 30 million hens will be housed in alternative systems, mostly free range. This means a possible 24 million hens suffering bone breakage each year in the UK, which the industry and government view as unsustainable.
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Sparky's editorial reaction:  80% of the free range hens have broken bones - from collisons with other  birds?? What?? And this research is to figure out what to do to solve the problem?? I was very nearly compelled to pull up my user name for World Poultry (barndirtisaeuphemismforshit) and leave some snarky comment about how warped it is to need a study to prompt common sense. BUT, then I realized that this kind of study is absolutely necessary because the established poultry industry is amazingly removed from the reality of chickens. They're still trying to figure out an entirely new business model. So be it if it takes some absurd study to come to grips with what the rest of us already knew....free range is completely different from battery cages.

Feathered Friends...or not

From World Poultry January 2013A Royal Veterinary College study has found that hens reared in commercial conditions do not form friendships and are not particular about who they spend time with.  Full ArticleThe research published by Applied Animal Behaviour Science and funded by BBSRC, was carried out to discover if the welfare of chickens could be improved by taking advantage of 'friendships'. ************************************************************************************

Inseparable Cousins....yeah, really, cousins.

Sparky's Reaction: Do they truly have no desire to form relationships?  This is quite contrary to research done on birds in the past and goes against everything I've ever seen.  If it's true and not a research flaw,  what do we do with the knowledge that with selective breeding we are capable of eliminating social structure?  

PS I'm sure I'm taking this way beyond the researchers intentions...at least I hope so but, isn't there something a little slimy in thinking about how to take advantage of friendships in terms of food production.  Like, the birds with the most friends taste better?  Is the next step to genetically isolate and replicate popularity.  Eew.