Recent content by bhwms

Thanks for the invite to reply. I’m here - I read the forums when I get the email. Call me a “lurker.” Just busy since coming out of retirement. Next batch of hens out on grass and have a new bigger coop under construction. Turkeys and meet birds coming in July.

Yes. Tractor Supply or a hardware store will have welding rods or rolled rods that could be bent to the proper shape. A coat hanger could be used in a pinch.

For the future, one way to do this is to use a “fowl catcher” which is a long stick with a hook on the end. You hook her foot and pull her towards you slowly. If you want to buy one, several places sell them - I know Meyer Hatchery sells them. I’ve seen them elsewhere also.

I try to buy 20 or so at a time, and get others to go in with me on my breeds (currently Barred Rocks and Australorp), then we get price breaks. At Meyer Hatchery, they are $4.58 qty 1-5, but $4.02 qty 26-49. Better price breaks up to 100+. Shipping is $10. At Murray McMurray, $5.71 qty 1-5...

I caught one ravaging my garden once. I went inside to get my rifle, and by the time I got back, he took out an entire raised bed of peppers. Dispatched with extreme prejudice.

This isn't local, but I thought this would be interesting to someone. USDA publishes new standards for organic livestock, poultry production

https://www.earthclinic.com/remedies/how_to_make_apple_cider_vinegar.html Search for a post by "Lisa" in Thousand Oaks, CA.

If you go to a run that is uncovered, make the run long and narrow. That makes their "swooping" more difficult. I lost a couple of roosters (free-ranging bachelors) to hawks. What worked after that was "scare tape" - it's a shiny metallic tape like "Police Line - do not cross" tape. I got some...

Are birds like humans in the sense that blood in the stool is red if undigested and black/tarry if digested?

How is your bird now? Going through something similar with one of mine so I’m very interested in how it turned out. I’m working with the State poultry vet and the cooperative extension to get tests run. I expect results soon. It is heartbreaking.

For carbon monoxide, another poster already said: it is heavy and sinks to to floor. Where is your CO detector? I would temporarily move it to chick height and see if it goes off - standard troubleshooting is 3X MTBF (mean time between failure) so if they’ve been dying in say 3 days, then I...

I was about to post about this - Justin Rhodes did an interview with a larger chicken producer who uses a mister in his (large) tractor. It's set with a thermostat that turns on when it gets hot. He said it drops the temperature 20 deg F. I bought a kit for this summer and will be installing it...

I would be careful getting chicks from the feed store. We bought 25 of what was labeled and verbally described as "Layers" - "sexed female chicks" from the local TS. Thirteen of them were roosters, so they were obviously straight run and not just female. Not a total loss because they were a dual...

I love the Cornish X. I have 51 chicks in their brooder outside my office window right now. 50 birds is about 600-700 lbs of feed (+/-). My only issue with them is I cannot sustainably breed them - I have to buy the chicks from a hatchery. That's not a huge deal, but this year they were hard to...

My experience with Tractor Supply - be careful. We bought "sexed Bard Rock & Astrolorpe(sp?)" hens as chicks from them - 15 total. We ended up with 8 roosters. When I mentioned this to the manager, he said, "yeah, occasionally the staff mixes up the S/R from the hen batches" and wasn't willing...