The Chicken, Duck, Turkey Thread

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

guinea fowl, huh?

That'd never occurred to me...thanks!

This might be a silly question, but since I've no idea... Obviously, they lay eggs, but do they lay anything like chickens do, or even turkens (cross between chicken and turkeys)?

I'll certainly give those some thought, though...

a reply to: seagull

Their eggs are a little richer than chicken eggs, not as rich as a goose egg though. The yolk is bigger (in proportion to the white), but they're about 60% the size of a chicken egg.

Guineafowl are a lot more free ranging than a chicken is, so actually finding the eggs can be a challenge sometimes (heh, even finding the guineafowl themselves sometimes can be a challenge). And, all the hens will lay their eggs in one spot, then one hen will sit on them. One hen can sit on as many as 40 eggs at a time.

Oh, and when I say you'll hear them go into alarm mode...I'm talking from MILES away! You will definitely hear these birds! Ever heard a peacock? Well, imagine about 80% of that volume.

a reply to: TheRedneck

Fantastic birds stories !

I will need to get pics of my mums birds, she has 7 chickens, 3 peacocks and 1 peahen, 3 ducks
me and my dad built their coop last year and the peacocks and hens came with the grounds!

I love the chickens they are so friendly and they can be great companions
they happily sit on your lap !

the peacocks are friendly and will feed directly from your hand.

I will get you some pictures and post them here for more chicken / foul news !

a reply to: TheRedneck

For $5 i can buy a nice young hen at heb already cleaned.

Id just let them live out their days.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

Well...yeah, I suppose. However, when you consider the difference in taste between a fresh free range chicken and a store bought one, full of hormones and pumped full of salt water, I'll take free range any day!

i don't mind cleaning chickens so much, but scalding and de-feathering them definitely sucks donkey butts, no mistake about it!

a reply to: sapien82

I'd love to hear more about the peacocks. I looked some up a while back and there are so many different varieties I wouldn't know where to start choosing one. Also, do you have an idea where I could find a source to get a pair? I can look up some places online, but I am almost certain I have heard of closer breeders; I don't know how to find them.

TheRedneck

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I dislike guineas for the same reason I dislike geese: both are mean as crap to humans!

A bantam rooster is another bird that can be a terror to anything trying to attack... it's almost like they have a size complex and make up for it with attitude.

TheRedneck

a reply to: TheRedneck

Where are you? I just looked some up this morning. Local outfit asking $150 for a pair of 6 month olds here in CO.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

For $6 I can buy 10 pounds of leg quarters at Wal-Mart. Not free-range, but it's meat that I don't have to pluck and clean. So yeah, I say let them live their lives out unless something changes.

TheRedneck

a reply to: TheRedneck

Geese put on a good front, but you only have to cut through the bravado one time and they'll never mess with you again.

All of my geese have gotten "froggy" at some point. Snatch one up by the neck one time and they'll respect you ever afterwards.

Guinea fowl on the other hand, I doubt you could ever catch one they're so damn fast.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

My friend and I had a routine of going to his brother's place every Wednesday with the kids to fish and cook a beer can chicken, just to get the kids outside a bit years back. His brother has a nice place in the country, with some guineas and a peacock. It was my turn to drive, and he had a few beers. He decided to prove to all of us that he could catch the peacock. After several falls and one fantastic dive into the bean field, he lost his $100 sunglasses, never caught the peacock, and while the peacock laughed at him, he was convinced the bird had his glasses. They are amazingly fast and agile. He no longer chases peacocks.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

North Alabama.

I'm thinking about trying a few of the local flea markets...I know they are good for rabbits and goats. I haven't seen any peacocks there in a long time, but maybe someone there can at least point me in the right direction.

TheRedneck

originally posted by: TheRedneck
a reply to: redhorse

Our chickens are smarter than I used to think they were... now the ducks, that's a different story!

TheRedneck

The thing about ducks vs. chickens is ducks will tend to the nest and do a better job hatchi g without you tending it. With chickens you are better off incubating and hatching. They can do it but they have to practice and they eat each others eggs and even chicks right at birth. Very competitive with chickens but not with ducks.

Also never let a rooster mount a hen in front of you. That is an alpha thing. The rooster is cuckolding you. Kick him off and chase him a little establishing your alpha presence. This is important if you free range because you never want a rooster flying at your face when you bend over unaware of a rooster close by. A spur in the eye happens fast when you least expect it.
So always be alpha to a rooster. They respect you for it and test you less often.

Funny chicken (well, rooster) story:

Got a bunch of straight run leghorns once. Wound up with a rooster in the bunch (just one amazingly). He seemed pretty cool at first so i decided to let him live. Well, that rooster grew up to be one mean, honery, nasty SOB. He'd come after me every single time he saw me, and he had the wife and the dogs completely terrified of him. So one time I tried the 'snatch him up by the neck trick that works with the geese'. I was holding him in my gloved fist hollerin' at him not to mess with me "EVAR AGAIN!". His pupils were gettin' big, then small, then big, then small. I think he figured that was it for him. I could tell he was thinkin' about spurrin' me, but he thought better of it. I was plenty mad, and he knew it. So I tossed him off into the yard and he took off. He was REAL calm after that! Figured I fixed his attitude problem.

The next day I'm telling some of the guys at work about my "chicken choking" experience with the rooster which was always a source of entertainment for them. That night I come home and I'm working in the garage when all of a sudden this rooster shows up and decides it's D-Day! He takes off like a missile straight for me, hackles all up; he's in Kamikaze mode! All I had around me was a flat blade shovel which I grabbed. As he got near me I teed off on him with that shovel big time! I hit that rooster so hard Jack Nickolas would have been proud. Even rang the shovel like a gong off his stupid hard head..."BonNgggNgggg!".

That rooster goes skidding across the garage floor ass over tea kettle and bounces off one of the freezers and slides under the four wheeler. He's down for the count! I figured I killed him for sure...and I wasn't feeling one bit bad about it either!

Well, next thing I know this dang rooster comes to and leaps up. He shoots up like a jumping jack, straight up...right into the skid plate on the four wheeler! Bonk! Right back down, out (cold) again. I practically peed myself laughing so hard, I was dyin'!!

I seized upon the opportunity to go grab him while he was out and separate him from his head. Saved me a trip to the store for supper, he did! Rooster-noodle soup it was...and boy was it good too!

The next day I brought some soup in for the guys. While we were all eating some they inquired about the latest adventures with Mr. Rooster.

I just replied something to the effect of..."Well, how do you like the soup???"

a reply to: bulwarkz

That explains why we have had one brood of ducklings hatch (too late in the year for them to survive, unfortunately), but we've yet to get a hen to hatch eggs successfully.

A story of my own: When the ducks were sitting, Big Red had gotten his bluff in on the ducks. He was alpha and he wasn't about to give them any quarter. That included if they were eating where he wanted to eat, or even if they were just too close to him... he'd trounce them in a New York heartbeat. Until that one day after the ducklings hatched... Red tried to go after a duckling and all of a sudden he had two drakes and two duck hens on him, and they were not playing!

Long story short, they finally let him up after several minutes of trying to pluck him alive, and he decided he wasn't so happy with the thought of going after ducks... the wife and I were just laughing our respective posteriors off!

TheRedneck

a reply to: TheRedneck

I have no idea where you'd get them state side !

I know there are a few breeders here in Scotland , and of course you get the ones in India !

pea foul are apparently really difficult to raise from Chic to adult due to their nesting and chic rearing methods
as they dont build a nest in a tree, the pea hens rear their young in ground based nests hidden in underbrush and teach them to feed for themselves rather than feeding them !

My mum and dad had to put the pea hen and her chics into the poly tunnel and make sure it was sealed so the foxes didnt eat them as my mum had already lost the oldest male and the oldest female to the fox and last years chics were all lost to bad weather !

This year out of 5 eggs only two hatched , one died and the only one male survived.
Ive read that you need at least 3 females to one male , so my mum is going to go and purchase more females for the group.

I have a few pics on my instagram but I cant link them here obviously I'll see if I can save the images from there and attach them here.

Interestingly enough , Peacocks have unique feathers and they differ from most birds in that they dont actually present their feather colours through pigmentation like other animals , but their feathers are made from tiny photonic crystals which refract and reflect light, so they are essentially living crystals!
Making their plumage some of the best nature has to offer !



Here are two images my dad took recently of the larger two males displaying as its nearly mating season and the dance of the feather eyes begins
the two of them will fight each other on a daily basis , and often it comes to scratching each other with their hind claws!
I will see if I can get a video of them in combat

a reply to: TheRedneck

I would have LOVED to watch that!!

A bunch of ducks going postal on a rooster!

I can't even picture a mad duck, to me ducks are just perpetually happy animals. I love ducks, they're hilarious!

a reply to: TheRedneck

You know goose neck sausages are meant to be the best in the world , but no one makes them anymore apparently

Id read about it in primo levis book the periodic table of elements!


That is why geese are so defensive , they dont want to turn into sausages


here are some pictures my dad took of the birds
the first 6 chickens came from a battery farm and are now living the life of luxury with free roam of the land
so it took a while before their eggs started getting to normal standards
the coop took us a couple of days of construction and preparation with staining etc if anyone wants our plans
I can provide the sizes of the wood , contrusction diagrams etc , costs of wood etc

, ,


In this picture you can see on the peacocks leg some blood from fighting with the other males


they are also very curious about what you do in the house and will often just sit on the window ledges gazing at you
on the toilet lol

a reply to: sapien82

Awesome pics! Thank you!

It actually sounds like pea fowl would do good here. There's plenty of brush for them to nest in, and the predators tend to leave us be... partly due to the dog, partly due to the turkeys, and partly to do with the fact I tend to eat anything that wanders down out of the mountain, lol.

I have one question: I use the coop to get the poultry acclimated to "home" (and the dog acclimated to them) and it's worked pretty well so far. That coop is practically impenetrable. But with 6 month old pea fowl, how will they realize this is home? They'll probably be too big for the coop.

TheRedneck

a reply to: TheRedneck

well we didnt put them in the coop with the chickens and ducks !

as peafowl dont like to be boxed in , its their natural way to defend agaisnt predators is just to fly away , but the mother wont fly away with peachics, as she will stand and fight !

So if she is laying eggs and nests , she will do so in a bush low to or on the ground and it will be well hidden so youd need to keep an eye on her!
You have two choices once she has laid her eggs, either build a small temporary fence around her to prevent anything getting near her at night
or once she has laid them pick her and her eggs all up and put her in a fenced off area , or poly tunnel by herself
I dont think she will be safe with the other birds , it wont make her at ease!

My dad just left her too it on the nest for 30 days, and once they had hatched he moved them all into the poly tunnel!
and kept them all in there for another 30 days so they realise its their home !
then he let them out and they all just stay on the land and dont fly away , now at night the peachic flies up to the trees with his mum!

we thought it was a peachic but turned out to be another male
so we now need at least 3 more females !

we actually converted the poly tunnel and just put grid metal fencing over the frame of the poly tunnel then cable tied it all into position and covered one end!