I wanted to share some pictures of my lavenders at six months of age. I don\'t have a program to compress the photos, so in order to post them here I have to make the viewable size pretty small because my camera settings are always on \"FINE\" and my files are huge. Anyway, here they are. I culled down to three males and 4 females. At six months, my pullets weighed 4lb 3 oz, 4lb 0 oz, 3 lb 14 oz, and 3 lb 4oz. My cockerels at six months weighed 5lb 3 oz, 4lb 15 oz, and 4 lb 12 oz.
I have them in two pens with four black or split Ribbeck pullets in one pen and 5 black pullets from Paul Smith in the other to improve type, feather quality, egg color, etc.
Got my first eggs starting at 27 1/2 weeks. The 4lb 3 oz pullet lays a large egg almost every day.
I obtained my stock from Harold Shaffer and have a few Blehm chicks coming this spring.
I really like the temperaments on these guys. They follow me around like puppies and the cockerels are very nice. My largest cockerel was taken by a fox, but escaped. He was missing half his feathers and had a couple of cuts and lots of bruising. He sat in my lap and let me doctor him up without complaint every day for two weeks. He\'s a really neat bird. I am certain he would not have escaped the fox if he had not been so big.
I have eggs in the incubator now and am hoping for some great chicks this season.
Still have a long way to go, but I think it\'s a nice start.
