Allan, my (Peace) seed corn came Thursday or Friday along with the flyer of the seeds they offer. Allan Kapuler may be a gifted plant geneticist, but he sure can't describe his varieties very well! Either that or someone else wrote the flyer, someone who doesn't know (or care) about the seeds. When I get a chance, I'm going to take my SSE yearbook and match up the things he grows, to try to see exactly what traits they have.
Chickens: I needed to get a new start (my 5 hens are ancient), so Saturday was 'chicken day'. I bought a mixed flock, from 2 different sources. (4 each, Ameraucanas, Buff Orpingtons and Barred Rocks). The buffs and rocks came from the same farm. My henhouse is half of my haybarn, plenty of space for a lot more chickens than I have. My own hens are free ranging during the day, and I'll start turning the new gals out as soon as they know where to come back to the feed source and roosts at night. BUT, the barred rocks are cannibals. They've picked the ameraucanas practically to death. In the space of an hour they had big gouged places on one of them and bald spots on the rest. I'd put iodine on the back feathers (at someone's suggestion), and I think it just made a better target. Now, the rocks are in a cage inside the henhouse, and one amerau is in a kennel in my kitchen! Anyone know what I can do to stop it? They pull the feathers out and eat them. The Ameraucanas are so passive, they just squat and take it. (And they're bigger birds, if they were the least bit fiesty, the rocks would have to back off.) If it's diet, it happened long before they came here. If it's space, they have as much or more than where they came from. If it's breed type I just made a serious mistake and now need to correct it as best I can. I'd go back and trade the rocks for more buffs, (big golden peaceful hens), but they've also yanked out their own tail feathers, so I can't even return them. I can respect pecking order but not if it means murdering the prettiest chickens on the place.
