Poultry Enthusiast

Security

Be careful, sadly there are people out there who want all sorts of things without paying for them (kids toys, tools, cars, livestock trailers). Including your chickens. I don’t post my address online for a reason. Anyone with the latest trendy chicken breeds will be targeted. Some people will just take/damage anything because they missed part of the evolution process!! Keep an eye on all the poultry and smallholder mags – if they feature a particular breed it will be a target. SOME PEOPLE THINK THEY ARE ENTITLED TO TAKE WHAT THEY WANT. We all know that people with intelligence and integrity will not do that. Enough said.

author_clairespringcottagefarm

Brown Eggs vs White Eggs: Is The Difference Only Shell-Deep?

Since the dawn of man, eggs have been a staple in the diet of almost every civilization, from caveman days to modern times. Thankfully, the hours our anscestors spent foraging for eggs and other food sources have, for us, been replaced by a trip to our friendly neighborhood grocery store or farmer’s market. While our prehistoric predecessors may have gladly taken whatever eggs they could find, for us, it is a simple choice of brown eggs vs white eggs. Our goal is to make healthy food choices with as little fuss as possible, so let’s take a moment to examine the difference between brown eggs and white eggs so we know which one is the healthier option.

You may be surprised to learn that the single deciding factor when it comes to the final color of an eggshell is the breed of hen that laid that egg. White chicken eggs, which are the preferred variety in most areas, are laid primarily by the White Leghorn hen. White Leghorns can easily be identified by their snow white plumage from beak to tail.

Brown eggs, on the other hand, are laid by a greater variety of hens. Rhode Island Red, New Hampshire, and other varieties are common laying hens used for the production of brown eggs. These birds have red or brown feathers, and are somewhat larger than their snowy sisters.

If you are interested in finding out what color of egg a particular hen will produce, there are two ways to go about it. First, if you have nothing else to do or are easily entertained, you could wait around until she lays an egg, and then just check the color. If, like me, you don’t have the time or attention span necessary, you could just look at the hen’s earlobes. There are exceptions, but more often than not, the egg shell will match the color of the hen’s earlobe feathers.

You may be surprised to know that there are more varieties and colors of chicken eggs than simply white and brown. Blue eggs, green eggs, and speckled eggs are also available, though they tend to only be available through specialty stores, farmer’s markets, and directly from producers.

Nutrition In a Brown Egg vs White Egg

There are a lot of misconceptions out there regarding brown eggs vs white eggs and whether or not brown eggs provide any particular health benefits. The truth is that the only difference between brown eggs, white eggs, and every other color is the shell. Nutritionally speaking, two eggs of identical size who came from hens raised in the same conditions will be exactly the same.

The health benefits of one variety of egg over another have nothing to do with the color of the shell. Commercial egg farms keep their hens packed together in small, crowded cages. These stressful, dirty conditions make the hens more prone to disease. In order to prevent this and to keep production high, the hens are given high doses of antibiotics and hormones.

In order to get the freshest, healthiest eggs possible, you need to shop locally and buy from small producers whose chickens are not treated with hormones or antibiotics and are allowed to forage as much as possible. These hens are healthier, happier, and produce eggs that are free of chemicals and have higher levels of omega 3′s. Sure, they may cost a little more, but the flavor and health benefits, not to mention supporting your local community, are worth it.

Why Do Brown Eggs Cost More Than White?

When setting the price for any sort of product, the first factor that comes into play is exactly how much that product cost to produce. White eggs are the preferred variety of egg in the majority of the United States because they are simply cheaper to produce than brown eggs. White Leghorn hens are smaller than Rhode Island Reds, which means that they also eat significantly less. When you pay more to feed a hen producing the same number of eggs, the cost per egg goes up and that cost is passed on to us, the consumers.

Second, customer expectation comes into play. Most of us, when comparing two items, look at the more expensive one and automatically assume that it is a superior product to the less expensive one. Combine this with the misconception that brown eggs are somehow nutritionally superior and you have a situation where a manufacturer can raise prices a little bit more without suffering a loss of demand for their eggs.

Brown Eggs vs White Eggs: Geography and Marketing

The question of brown vs white eggs also changes depending on where you live. Certain areas have a cultural preference for one type of egg over another. For example, much of New England prefers brown eggs over white eggs. While this may in part be due to the predominance of the Rhode Island Red hen in local egg farms, this is actually the result of clever marketing by egg producers.

It goes without saying that the majority of the time, local agricultural products are going to be fresher than products shipped from across the country. Even I recommend buying locally whenever possible. Decades ago, the airwaves of New England were bombarded with advertising from local egg producers, extolling the virtues of their locally produced brown eggs. The message stuck, and brown eggs are still vastly preferred over white in much of New England.

White Eggs vs Brown Eggs: The Final Verdict

When you take an industrial brown egg and compare it to an industrial white egg, there is no negligible difference between the two, so you should simply go with whichever variety is cheaper in your region. If, however, you want the healthiest, tastiest egg possible, seek out a small, local producer of organic eggs whose hens are allowed to wander around outside and forage as much as possible. In the case of brown eggs vs white eggs, I call a tie.

Scots Dumpy – Scotlands original “gang-aboot” hen

The Scots Dumpy is widely acknowleged as Scotlands original “gang-aboot” hen , possessing unique characteristics which present a challenge to the breeder to achieve and maintain. However, as poultry keeping developed from a presence on the farm, and a seasonal harvest, into a specialised industry, sadly the dumpies, as did many other breeds, gaveway to more suited breeds for that purpose. Nowadays, with the ever increasing interest in organic produce, especially free range poultry it is surely a benefit to observe a revival in all our forgotten, rare and free range poultry breeds

Scots Dumpies were first exhibited at the Metropolitan Exhibition in London in 1852 and were popular around the turn of the century, but as with many pure breeds, had suffered serious decline by the 1950s/60s. Even in the early 1900s the then Dumpy Club records indicated some concern as to the breeds future, although by 1920 various colours appeared, in addition to the traditional barred, black and cockoo, most likely, by crossing with other breeds, and indeed likely progeny sacrificing true type. More recently, in the late 1970’s some birds were imported from Africa to enhance the the native bloodlines, this particular flock travelled to Africa from Scotland as part of a wedding gift, in 1912.

The original Scots Dumpy Club was certainly established and running about 1900, but there is no date relating to its end. However the current Club was re-established in 1993, and is enjoying popular support nationally with over 100 members and member groups.

The Dumpies as a breed has an interesting history, whether it be the Romans, or Robert the Bruce, they are mentioned. Popular tradition has it that in one night encounter with the “Scots” the Romans got themselves into the thistles and alerted the chooks, no quarter asked or given. (to the Romans – not the Dumpies) The thistle is now the national emblem of Scotland!!! A romantic tale no doubt, but there is no doubt that the breed would not have lasted so long if it could not have earned its keep; as a utility breed, it would not have survived in such a demanding environment. Known localy as, Dadlie, Hoodie, GaeLaigs, Laighies, Creepie or Bakie, also “coileachchime,” and “coileach degh sheinneadair”, (a real mouthfull! and so early in the day), its origins in Scotland are uncertain, however it is accepted by some authorities to be descended from birds arrived here with traders, possibly Phoenician as early as 300B.C. while other theories lean more toward the Roman occupation, whichever, the breed is ancient, and indeed Aristotle and his contemporaries argued the merits and pedigree of many shortlegged poultry breeds. Skeletal remains found in York, fairly recently, dating from from the eleventh century belonged to Dumpies, and specific reference to the breed goes back as far as the 1670s.

The type should have a square and deep body, with a broad, flat and long back, also should display a deep and pronounced chest, moderate length neck, a small head with a strong short curved beak and a bright red face carrying a generous wattle, together with a long flowing hackle. The maximum leg length, one to one and one half inches with four toes. These characteristics make the Dumpie a low set bird within a somewhat ungainly, but solid frame, displaying the distingtive waddling gait in a good specimen, however the battleship breastbone is something not often evident these days.

The colour carries the same sex-linked barring gene as in many other breeds, including our other native, the Scots Grey, it was the first sex-linked gene to be discovered in any species, in 1908. Extremely prolific layer, producing reasonably sized eggs brown through to “whitish” depending on the strain and the plumage colour; Cock should weigh 7lbs hen around 6lbs, however, original birds are said to have carried another two lbs.

The birds do not breed 100% true as regards leg length. The short-leg condition is due to one of the many well documented examples of lethal genes present in poultry, this particular gene is known as the Creeper Gene (Cp), which shortens the bone length in the limbs, a characteristic most noticeable in the new hatched chicks where the legs are much shorter, and stronger than those of the normal leg length chick. Cp is dominant to cp and causes the legs to be shorter when present in a single dose, (Cpcp) whereas when it is present in a double double dose, (CpCp), it is lethal and the embryo dies on or about the twenty-first day of incubation. The creeper gene is incompletely dominant so, when two short-legged birds (Cpcp cock x Cpcp hen) are bred, resulting progeny in: —-

F1;—25% CpCp lethal; 50% Cpcp short leg; 25% cpcp long leg

If short leg (Cpcp) is bred with normal leg (cpcp), F1; 50% short leg–50% normal leg length ,and two normal leg length (cpcp) birds, are bred, 100% normal leg length would result. Important to note that, since CpCp is lethal, then the progeny will give a 2:1 surviving ratio, two creepers to one normal length bird, instead of the usual 3:1 ratio, (Mendal Rules) although these ratios can only be approxamate as they must be averaged over large flock numbers, and also, breeding strain and strength must be taken into account. The same gene is present in the German Kruper hen, French Courtes Pattes, Japanese Jitoko and Chabo, also the Manx cat and Dexter cattle.

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Are the Chicks Going To Live This Spring?

Among the most influential causes of failure in raising chickens are problems with brooding the chicks after they have been hatched from the shells. It is not a very difficult matter to operate in incubator, nor to hatch eggs that are strong and fertile. Every machine that is offered as an incubator is furnished with complete directions, which if followed, will give, at least, fair results, if the eggs are of good quality. The big problem lies more in what to do with the baby chicks after they have been removed from the incubator than in what to do to get them out of the shell in which they have developed. The highest percentages of losses in the rearing of chicks are experienced during the early weeks of the chicks’ lives, thus making the problem mainly one of checking mortality and the causes of it among the baby chicks.

Causes Of Baby Chick Mortality

There are many causative agencies which, unless carefully and thoughtfully guarded against, will tend to increase the death rate among baby chicks and decreases the strength and vitality of the year’s flocks. One of the foremost among these agencies is traceable back to the parent stock which produced the eggs from which the chicks were hatched. There are hundred of chicks hatched every season which have little constitutional strength and vigor with which to begin the big task of growing and developing into mature birds. They ere, perhaps, just a pace ahead of those chicks which did not have strength enough to more than pierce the shell, but never get out of it. Weak vitality is undoubtedly inherited. Breeding stock which is not strong and vigorous will not produce eggs that will hatch strong, vigorous chicks, chicks which will live to maturity. What are the actual conditions among baby chicks that are the product of poorly selected breeding stock? In first place, the chicks are usually under-sized and small. Every chick that is worth while taking out of the incubator should be good and big and strong enough to stand firmly upon its feet. Sometimes faulty operations of the incubator, irregularly in its temperature during the progress of the hatch, and neglect to attend to it regularly, which cause week chicks, but in the great majority of cases the fault is back of the incubator, to be found in the parent stock. The chicks from such stocks will not only be small but will often be stunted in growth, uneven in development, lack “pep” and “ginger,” be the first to show sign of diarrhea, hang back, remain under the hover, and finally drop off one by one. The operation of brooder temperature can do little to save those chicks which have so severe a handicap at the very start. In order to avoid losses of this kind there is only one thing to do. Select The Breeding Stock, Both Male And Female, Most Carefully. Be in mind the all-important role of vigor and stamina in the production of livable chicks. Use hens, well matured females, which are strong and in perfect health, with red combo bright, active carriage, and businesslike alertness, combining with this due regard for records of egg production in pullet year, type color, and other desirable qualities. Select a male that is alike strong and healthy, with size and quality added to it. A bit better attention to the parent stock which is to be relied upon for the spring’s flock of chicks will cut down tremendously on the losses. No medicines or tonics of careful broodings can saw chicks that are not originally endowed by Nature with strength and vigor. One cannot repeat too many times the extreme importance of this factor in building up better success in poultry raising.

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A second cause of baby chick mortality may be found in a perfectly human fault, namely the failure to practice selection and the very start, beginning and the very time that the chicks are ready to leave the incubator chambers and be transferred to the brooders. This cause is somewhat closely related to the one discussed above. Every poultry man that is actually desirous of having permanent success in poultry keeping must have a clear idea of what good chicks look like, and then we willing to sacrifice those chicks which do not measure up to that standard, never even bothering with them after taking them out of the incubator. This means that all crippled chicks, very small, under-sized, weak, and abnormal chicks will be killed and disposed of when the transfer is made from incubator to brooder. Transfer only those chicks which look strong and healthy, which have fluffed out properly, which have absorbed the yolk entirely, and which are on their feet. There is often a temptation to give certain chicks a chance. I believe this false economy. I happened to visit a Barred Rock breeder last spring during the height of this hatching and brooding season. I noticed that his records show very slight mortality and that every chick was strong, big and healthy. I asked the reason, and he told me that he had selected his chicks very rigidly every season for over seven years, never putting into the brooders any chicks that were not of the best quality. The result was self evident. Now he doesn’t have to remove very many after a hatch, because it has so improved the flocks that he finds fewer and fewer weaklings and cripples each season. He did not have many losses last spring. Many can learn much from this example. Cull Out

But all the losses in chick flocks are not due to lack of vigor and inherited strength. If it were so the possibilities of remedying the trouble could be relatively simple. The actual management of the incubator must answer for some of the weakness in baby chicks.If the temperature during the hatch has been irregular, one day about ninety or ninety-five, another day one hundred five, and so on, or if the air which circulated through the incubator chamber was dry and stale, not moist and fresh, as it should be, the chicks which do hatch, and the percentage will be small, no doubt, will be handicapped in strength and ability to grow rapidly and steadily. They will be first to suffer from brooder surroundings and the first to go through digestive troubles. Try to operate the incubators according to instructions, thus preventing a cause of chick weakness that is traceable back to your own door, and nowhere else. Hatch The Chicks Properly

Little chicks come out of the shell in a temperature which varies from one hundred three to one hundred five degrees F. Particular pains should be taken not to chill the baby chicks during the transfer from the first home to second, or the brooder. Many hundreds of chicks die every year because they were chilled at this home. Have the brooders in readiness before starting to change the chicks. A temperature of from ninety-eight to one hundred degrees is none too hot for the first few hours under the hover. Use a box or basket in which to transfer the chicks. Have it lined with woolen cloths, or other suitable material which will break any possible drafts. Do not use too large a box or basket, as it is best to allow the chicks to huddle close to each other. Cover it over with a cloth while carrying from cellar to brooder house. Remember they are very tender little creatures. If they are chilled they may not show the effects of it for two or three days, but then they will gradually dropped, “paste up”, and die. Chilling is one of the causes of a whitish diarrhea. It is possible to chill the chicks after they have been in the brooder for several days. The brooder temperatures should be most carefully watched. Gradual lowering of the temperature is desirable; it hardens the chicks and gets them ready for range conditions. At the end of the first week, the hovered temperature should be lowered to ninety -five, then by another week to ninety, then at the end of the third week to eighty-five and then dropped according to outside climatic and seasonal conditions. But during all this time give them sufficient heat to keep them comfortable, to prevent them from crowding and huddling together to keep warm, for in this way many smother, or are injured seriously. Teach the chicks that the hovers are the sources of heat and they can go to them when they feel bit chilly. Then live up to your end of the bargain and keep the fires going. This is an especially important warning where the coal burning brooder stoves are used. Many, many chicks have been sacrificed because the stoves were not carefully watched and tended to regularly. Chilling is undoubtedly one of the most influential factors in causing chick mortality. Chicks raised artificially under brooders must have constant care and constant access to heat, as they would under the mother hen. Avoid Chilling Every Time

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Excessive moisture has no place in the brooder house. It leads to leg weakness and other serious ailments. The floors in a brooder house should be dry, high above the soil surrounding the building. A moist floor is not only damp and uncomfortable, but during the spring season is bound to be cold and chilling. Two inches of dry sand is used to great advantage in many successful poultry plant. This can be used either over a wooden floor, cement floor, or even a natural dirt floor, but the latter is not desirable for brooder house, mainly because of rats and other vermin gaining easy access to such a house. The ventilation in the brooder house should keep the air changed, without causing floor drafts, which lead to leg weakness. A little barn chaff or barn or cut alfalfa can be use on top of the sand, especially under the hover, during the first few days with good results. It is often desirable, if the chicks cannot be gotten out of doors, to moisten a part of the sand in the brooder run every morning to prevent their little toes from drying and cracking. Another excellent way in which to overcome this trouble is to sow oats in the sand a weak before the chicks are put into the brooder, keeping them moist thus furnishing a moist stop to soften up their feet as well as succulent food in abundance. Still another solution of the moisture problem is to store up in the cellar in the fall sods that have been cut from grassed plots, each one about eight inches thick. If they are packed together they will retain their natural moisture problem is to store up in the cellar in the fall sods that have been cut from grassed plots, each one about eight inches thick. If they are packed together they will retain their natural moisture and will be much appreciated by the closely confined chicks. Some moisture in the brooder is essential, but they should be able to have dry and moist runs, the latter being much smaller in extent than the former. Of course, the most satisfactory way to check troubles arising from cracked toes is to get the chicks out of doors early. This will depend upon climatic conditions very largely. Control The Moisture Carefully.

Toe, tail and wing picking, a form of cannibalism, if you please, is one of the most serious baby chick ailments. This seems to be especially prevalent in the larger flocks of chicks, such as are kept in the colony system of brooding. It usually seems to start with chicks that in some way have injured their toes and started bleeding. In some cases chicks quite by mistake grab at a toe of another chick and accidentally start it to bleeding, with the result that trouble is commenced. The sight of blood seems to craze the chicks. Sometimes a lack of protein in the ration is the cause of cannibalism. As a general rule the following suggestions will be of some benefit in trying to overcome this habit. Do not place too many chicks together in a small room. Two hundred-fifty in a room about twelve by fourteen feet is sufficient for best results. This will depend somewhat upon whether they can be gotten out of doors or not. Keep the chicks busy all day long. Feed their little grain in chaff carefully teaching them to scratch for it. Get them out of doors just as soon as weather will at all permit, after they are ten days old. Remove any chicks which may have been picked on first appearance, keeping them by themselves until healed. Watch the flocks very closely, looking them over many times a day. Place plenty of feed hoppers before them, in a order that all may be busy in them. In some cases an extra hopper or two containing nothing but meat scraps will help a great deal. Watchfulness Prevents Many Troubles.

Feeds and feeding methods are responsible for further chick troubles. Never use any but the finest quality of grains or mash ingredients. Do not over-feed. Never feed the chicks until they are at least forty-eight hours old and better seventy-two. Nature has planned for them to use the yolks which are enclosed in their bodies on the day they leave the egg as a food for several hour after hatching. Keep things simple by using a good quality commercial medicated chick feed (to help reduce the chances of Coccidiosis – if your chicks have been vaccinated for it you will not need their feed to be medicated) or if doing things using the old methods begin feeding mashes, mainly wheat bran, at the end of the first week, using chick grain up until that time. Keep fresh water before them at all times. Sour skim-milk was thought years ago to be the greatest poultry feed imaginable for baby chicks. They would start feeding it when you put the first water before them, the day they are transferred from incubator. Use a regular water pan. It is thought to be easily digested and keeps the digestive organs in good running order, enhances growth and produces strong chicks, besides cutting down on disease to a great extent. Measure the amount mainly by the way they eat and rate of growth they make. Use much common sense as well as feed. Feed Right.

There are one or two contagious diseases that cause considerable losses in the chick yards. Coccidiosis is one which is caused by a parasite and may show itself with blood in the droppings. Another is contagious white diarrhea previousy known as Bacillary White Diarrhea and now known as pullorum disease. This is due to the infection of the digestive system with Bacterium Pollorum and although most common in chickens can also affect other fowl such as Turkeys and Guinea Fowls. It is carried from one generation to another through the mother hen, whose ovaries are infected with the organisms, and thus any chicks produced from eggs are most likely infected. Their droppings picked up by other chicks spread the infection. As a precaution against this trouble, to put it in a nut-shell, keep the incubator chamber darkened during the hatch to prevent the chicks from picking up droppings on the floor of the chamber. Disinfect the incubators and brooders between each hatch or brood with a five percent solution of a good standard disinfectant. Keep their surroundings always sanitary. Try to locate the carrier in the breeding flock, either by trapnest or blood agglutination test, if the latter is possible in your locality. Chicks suffering from this form of white diarrhea will begin to droop after a few days, the biggest mortality being during the second and third weeks usually. Their droppings are whitish in color, and of a thick, glue-like, mucilaginous consistency. The symptoms of ordinary white diarrhea, caused by over-heating, chilling, bad feeding, etc., are often confused with those of this contagious disease. If chicks are purchased from off the plant use utmost care to get them from farms which do not have the contagious white diarrhea on them. Make inquiries. Look Out For Pullorum Disease.

THE EFFECTS OF INCREASED CARE

From this hasty discussion of a big subject I trust that every reader will appreciate that the cause of baby chick troubles are many but that they can be prevented to a large extent by a careful study of every phase of their care and management. It means being on the job every minute during the spring season. Every effort should be made to increase the fertility of hatching eggs, and to increase the livability of the chicks themselves. Then every effort should be made to take care of them in such a way as to keep them growing steadily, suffering as low a mortality as possible. Many chicks will always die, from unknown reasons, but greater care and efficiency in managing baby chicks will save many that otherwise would have followed the many that never live. ~ Willard C. Thompson

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