renee

I would have thought that you'd be asking for trouble by expecting them to raise 4 rounds or more. Yes, I agree. My 'maidens' tend to give me grief with their first round - I was thinking maybe I had to let them wait to 'mature'. You wouldn't keep you 4th year hens as fosters? I never said i take 4 rounds from a pair in a season Oh so you didn't. I misread.

Wow ~ it looks great! You have a wonderful brother-in-law! It can't have been easy in that kind of heat.

When one of them does fly away you will rue the day ... It only takes an unforeseen outside event, like a big bird flying by, for them to scatter.

Sorry, your photo has been deleted or moved from its original place in Photobucket and is not showing at all .... hard to help without a photo to go by.

I would have thought that you'd be asking for trouble by expecting them to raise 4 rounds or more. Yes, I agree. My 'maidens' tend to give me grief with their first round - I was thinking maybe I had to let them wait to 'mature'. You wouldn't keep you 4th year hens as fosters?

Will do. Here's the thing, Carl was talking about pairing for feather a couple of years ago (when I was just beginning) but it never really made sense - so did Nubbly when she said she had spent the past couple of years "putting feather on her birds". I see now that it is the quality of the feather that makes a bird appear bigger than its skeleton. Alas most of my birds would be fine to medium feathered .... and I do like that look - well let's say I prefer a neat bird to a 'beanbag'.

Oh Now I get it! Very good article ~ Thank You.

Agreed! I tried the Bink's method in 2008 but it never really worked for me. Why the delay Clearwing? Are you finding your hens are taking longer to mature physically?Last year I discovered the hard way that many of my hens just weren't "ready" emotionally at 10-12 months and had issues with the newly hatched chicks- not feeding and going scatty, etc.

No, it would be Di. But I get your point Renée is such a beautiful name in French and Spanish but in Australian it turns into Rinaiiiii. (yuk!) I do like your name, and I don't think in an Aussie accent, so that never occured to me! I still don't like the idea "Di" projects..... NnnnYes. It never occurred to me either before coming back to Australia that my name would become so mutilated ... just another of those things one gets used to.

I know of a few Open breeders over here in the West that do just that. This year (2010) I will be selecting my strongest cock bird per variety and doing that too, I have reached the stage finally where I pretty much have bred or acquired a solid Foundation bird and it is time to consolidate the stud. Will you be using the Bink's method of putting 1 cock bird to several hens? Or will you be just putting him to 1 hen and fostering the eggs and then moving him onto another hen?

No, it would be Di. But I get your point Renée is such a beautiful name in French and Spanish but in Australian it turns into Rinaiiiii. (yuk!)

Glad to hear it! I trialled this method this year and it worked a treat. The only downside was when I had an outbreak of FM .... affected chicks not showing signs yet infected new nests ... worth thinking about.

Renee's husband Tony fed their visiting hawk steak to keep it from finding their birds a tasty distraction Hard to believe but it did the trick! It went away never to return - touch wood!

I am so sorry Kaz

Yay! I am not the only one! Thank you GB. At present she is getting 1-2 drops of Ionic Silver 3 times a day. Actually she is showing no signs of discomfort at all and blinks it in perfectly. I found the tea bag a bit messy and tea was going down her ear .... the eye dropper works a treat.

Aha! Yes, I am pretty much renee everywhere too ... sometimes renee philpott as that was my maiden name before getting married a couple of years ago, it just depends when I joined a site before legally changing to my married name or after

Who knows ... really at this stage I have accepted that I will never produce a good photo ... yes, I have it on the macro setting (the flower) ... apologies, apologies, apologies

Well Julie, I Have Tried to get a good photo - and failed. I bought Kaz's "old" camera before Christmas and am just awaiting delivery ... maybe then my photos will improve :offtopic: As I indicated I bathed her eye in salt water and then switched to tea, there was an improvement which you can't see really and now today she is on the Ionic Silver liquid which was the original plan from Friday. I expect to see a slow but steady improvement. If I can describe it I would say it is like her inner eye lid has swollen up, but you can now see her eye which you couldn't on Monday. okay, Take 3. I have fiddled with the camera settings ... you be the judge Note that I offer her my thumb to chew on in the hope it keeps her head still?! She has the reputation of a being "biter" in the nest .... but she wasn't biting today

I am so sorry you had this misfortune Dave. May they rest in peace. :offtopic: For your future pairings.

But beware of any Bathshebas!

Too late - problem solvered!

The Ionic Silver liquid has arrived! I have to say I am most impressed with the service provided by Belinda of Belinda's Natural Animal Therapies. I have learnt that she is a licensed animal homeopath and was very grateful for the accompanying literature she posted. Here's the 200ml container (glass bottle) $11 - a Bargain! Lou Lou will be getting this from now on - stay posted for updates

The suffusion means it has some greyness on the body as opposed to being all white all over.

It does depends on your Breeding area set up, but I think you are making things more difficult for yourself if you breed from late December thru to February.