Awesome Poultry Presentation

Jim Hermes our OSU poultry specialist was in Grants Pass last night. He presented 2 1/2 hours of solid information on care, maintenance, feed, brooding. lots of good info on having a home flock or going small commercial.

Probably the most interesting thing he talked about
was a proposition currently in committee in the Oregon Legislature to make it easier for small poultry (1000 or less birds) producers to get their meat to market.
Things are looking up for people with a desire to have a small flock of poultry within city limits all over the state. Salem just passed an ordinance to make it possible to have a small flock of layers within city limits.
The main thing is if the flock (sans rooster) is clean and quiet and they don't fly over fences they are allowed in most towns in Oregon.
Josephine County is a rural county with only two incorporated towns and many wide spots in the road. Poultry are allowed everywhere in Josephine County with guidelines about quiet, clean and maintained areas.

Eight eggs per day. Woo-hoo!

My hens are doing great but I've got to do something about that crazy white Moscovy Drake of mine. He is lonely--he needs a girl duck. All he has done for days is chase every hen that looks remotely white.
Its getting embarrassing.
Yesterday while I was mucking out the lambing stalls I hear this enormous ruckus and sure enough it's D.B. Cooper the name he has earned by degrees.
His name started out as Duck Breath--but was shortened to D.B. the other day which of course lent itself to D.B. Cooper because I am going to have to pen him up because he can't leave the girls alone.
Yesterday was kind of hilarious because several hens and the Wyandotte rooster joined me chasing down that perverted Duck. This current group of hens are way cool---they look after their own.

Here is a portrait of the culprit ---peering in the door of the coop. Never let him near your hens unchaperoned.