NY chicken lover!!!!

[tgrlily]

Quote:
Last night we had to collect all the young silkies that have moved up to the coops... I guess they have me very well trained!

I'm well beyond any benefits tinfoil may have provided!!!

I've heard that putting a young roo with attitude in with some big tough girls will cure him of his machismo in a hurry!

Supposed to be good for the ones that are mean to their own girls too.

 

[Cass]

That's it. I'm becoming a vegetarian.

I worked til 7:30 last night so ray dealt with the chickens. He said that one of the Marans/OE's had some feathers missing. It was too late to check last night (dark by the time I got home). I forgot this morning and just got home to a half naked chick. Fortunately I had purchased BluKote just yesterday. Why didn't anyone tell me that stuff is permanant dye? Oh, wait. Someone DID meantion that, I just forgot in my sympathic moment to help this chick. My fingers are BLUE. My SINK is blue. The bird's beak is Blue. And I didn't get all the spots cuz the durn thing flapped his wings and covered the rest of the kitchen in BLUE.

Ray is out of town. I need to put the divider back into my totally awesome brooder box so this medium sized chick has a place to hang out. It'll be alone, but will be able to hear the peeps on the other side if the divider. Once I find the drill to put the divider back up. So now it is in a box wrapped in one of my favorite dishcloths, cuz that's all I could find to wrap around it's flapping wings. Oh, that's BLUE too.

And did someone meantion how you have to shut and lock the coop door when you leave the property? I forgot THAT too. So one of my *brilliant* silkies was out with the D'uccles free ranging when I got home, cuz the wind blew the door open. I know I closed it. I just didn't lock it and the hardware meant to hold it closed from the inside didn't hold. Ever try to catch a Silkie that wants back with it's flock on the other side of the wire? It keeps running around the pen, away from you, trying to get in. I caught it and (less than) gently put it back in the run by lifting the top and dropping the stupid bird cuz it wouldn't hold still.

I've just about had it with the silkies. I sincerely can't see any value to them. They best be the BEST MOTHERS in the world, next spring, or they are gonna be soup. Or sold. Or released into the wild to try their hand and making their own way. And now someone said that Amerucanas are just as bad? Gawd, I have THREE of those too.

No tomato plant or pea vine or garlic stalk has ever run away from me when I was trying to help it. I'm gonna join the ranks of non meat eaters. And I'll buy my eggs at the market.

Edited to add: Ok, the D'uccles can stay. They are just toooo sweet. The rest are gonna be soup if they don't shape up and treat each other kindly.

 

[happycountryhens]

 

[featherz]

Quote:
Join the dark side! lol.. Glad to know the d'uccles could stay. I'd be very sad if they ended up soup! Fwiw, I didn't like my silkies much either. They were really cute, but I was worried they were just predator bait since they were just so.. floofy! Plus they were very high maintenance..

I have a BLRW and an australorp taking care of chicks right now and so far they made excellent broodies!

 

[Sachasmom]

Anyone have any thoughts on using Geese as protection for ducklings? I had read on Holderreads site that they put out the ducklings with a pair of Geese to protect them from Hawks, will they protect them from Minks/Weasels?

I lost one of the meat ducks in the brooder in the garage last week, so I moved them into the runner pen, and last night moved the Cayugas and Khakis in with them. They were making a horrible ruckus last night so I went to check them and one's head was bloody, one has a nasty leg wound and a third was limping. None dead, I think I interupted it. I can't see any place where it dug in, so I think it may have gone up and over the wall? At first I had thought they had been fighting, but the injured ducks have puncture wounds. I have both injured ducks inside, they're eating and drinking at least.

I have a leg trap, but its all rusty. (Ya know, they should tell people that they need to paint it with trap paint, just sayin') And it won't go in a box trap.

I was thinking I had another Mink on the property, since the rats have all gone MIA. Might be a weasel or a fisher tho, the bite radius looks large to me to be a mink...

 

[Cass]

Quote:
Join the dark side! lol.. Glad to know the d'uccles could stay. I'd be very sad if they ended up soup! Fwiw, I didn't like my silkies much either. They were really cute, but I was worried they were just predator bait since they were just so.. floofy! Plus they were very high maintenance..

I have a BLRW and an australorp taking care of chicks right now and so far they made excellent broodies!

Do you have any BLRW or Australorp chicks for sale? Or trade? I have 5 very sweet, wonderful, intelligent silkies I'll trade.

I am only planning to keep the Silkie girls. I am hoping that there are 2 or 3, but it really looks like I will be lucky to get ONE. That's gonna be one VERY expensive chicken if I only get one hen out of the bunch. $30 for the 5 was very resonable. $30 for ONE is a little pricey. And if you add in the cost of the tranquilers I'm gonna need soon, if they don't shape up, the total is out of the ball park for not running an incubator.

If the D'uccles laid normal sized eggs, I would only have that breed. They are sooo sweet and well behaved. One of them (Boldy of course) is trying to brood a golf ball. I keep telling her if she hatches it, I'll raise it for her.

She just gives me the stink eye and jumps out of the nest.

 

[happycountryhens]

Tgrlily: These are the pics of the Ameraucanas taken today. They still make weird noises and look like little falcons.







Happy Country Hens

Edited to add that they are 9 weeks old.

 

[pharmchickrnmom]

Sounds like everyone is having issues with their silkies! I did have a very nice half hour with Mumbles. He cuddled into me and fell asleep while I was petting him. A very happy boy. Of course I catch him a couple hours later bullying the others and causing mayhem. Boys!

My big girls are out freeranging but I think that Betty, my glw, is eggbound again. I will have to give her a sitz bath tomorrow am if she doesnt lay. She is in the nest box now. This will be the third time I have had to do this. Considering culling her if she gets worse.

Nice day outside. Spent the day building. so much more to do! toodles!

 

[pharmchickrnmom]

Happy--they are soooooo cute! I love those pics! Now I want some. Lucky you. I think my dh would kill me if I brought home any more chickens! Love your peeps!

 

[featherz]

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Gee THANKS! Just what I need.. Rofl

. My chicks are a set of four 'mutts' under the BLRW (EE/Cochin - but the last batch of the EE/Cochin mixes are gorgeous, even if I did get too many roos), and there are nine BO chicks running around behind my australorp. She's a very good mommy, even though I hatched those chicks in my brinsea and plopped them under her a week early. I think I'll pass on the silkies this time around