I didn’t get out to the barn until 6:30 but I managed to finish just as the kids arrived to catch chickens. The butchershop is clean!
My husband had managed to get one more storm window up before they got here, just 1 more to do. Still no word from the electrical inspector.
It was my intern’s family and their friends who came to help. She wasn’t able to help a lot as she was technically working, babysitting the boy in green’s little brother. She took all the photos for me. That’s her brother in the gray shirt and her sister.
All the birds were inside the coop when we got out there, so they had to be chased outside. My intern’s dad is inside chasing them out. Then we shut the door and the first thing we did was catch all the roosters and put them inside. We didn’t need anyone attacked while catching hens.
I was surprised to learn their dad didn’t know how to cull for layers, so I did a quick lesson on what we would be looking for. His fingers were bigger than mine and his daughter’s were smaller, so it took a bit of attention to convert what they found to the right color band.
Catching birds
We looked for the physical characteristics for a good layer: comb color, vent color, space between pelvic bones, space between pelvic bones and keel. Ideal would be 3 fingers between pelvic bones and 4 – 5 fingers between keel and pelvic bones. Nice yellow color to vent, deep red on the entire comb.
Checking birds for quality
The band colors this year:
Red:
Pelvic: 2 - 3 fingers
Breast: 3 - 4 fingers
Pink:
Pelvic: 2 fingers
Breast: 2 - 3 fingers
Orange:
Pelvic: 1½ - 2 fingers
Breast: 2 fingers
Yellow:
Pelvic: 1½ fingers
Breast: 1½ fingers
Green, and Purple
The boy in green had never caught birds before so he had a good time learning, for a while. His brother stayed outside the pen mostly.
We got no ideals (3 fingers between pelvic bones and 4 – 5 fingers between keel and pelvic bones) and only 3 Reds, 1 for each breed. They were all very small between the pelvic bones.
I was trying to grade, hold a bird, and write down each one. I only forgot to write down 1 of them. Not bad!
Our intern’s dad with an Australorp reject
The Barred Rocks were the worst, 21 of the 34 birds were not banded as being too small. There was 1 rooster and I wrote down 11 of the 12 remaining birds. They were half decent (red, pink, orange), and half on the small or immature side (yellow, green).
The Australorps had 15 of the 39 birds not banded. There were 5 roosters. Ten of the hens were decent size, only 5 small or immature.
The Buff Orpingtons had 4 of the 14 birds not banded, 6 were decent size, 4 small or immature. No roosters.
My husband manning the coop door
I needed 32 birds: 18 for my new flock, 6 for my intern’s family, and 8 for my brother. I had 40 banded.
This makes 18 birds.
My intern’s family wants 6 birds, 3 Barred Rocks (maybe 2 yellow, 1 green) or maybe 3 Buff Orpingtons (2 orange, 1 yellow) and 3 Australorps (2 pink, 1 orange).
My brother wants 8 birds, 3 Barred Rocks (2 green, 1 unbanded), 3 Australorps (orange), and 2 Buff Orpingtons (yellow).
It took us just over an hour to do all 87 birds.
Lily the barn cat sitting in the evening sun, waiting for my husband to come up to do evening chores
Saturday we will be doing all the set-up for Freezer Camp on Sunday. We are setting up a canopy outside the house with borrowed outside chairs and tables for the potluck. My intern’s dad is coming to do the canopies (there’s to be one at the barn too) and will probably have kids in tow.
The food will be set-up inside to keep the flies out of it. I’ll be doing that on Saturday and making the meal for the potluck (roasted squash, onions, pears, and garlic; chicken meatballs with a sauce).