Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

GM all:

A bit quiet ....aside from Chicken stuff, I had a brake line blow out on my truck...was lucky that it was at a red light two block from the service station....

On the chicken front, I am always amazed at the different personalities and how chooks interact with each other....and because I have had alot of changes to the flock lately,,,there's been a bit more drama....the pair of broodies are still sitting and I think I may need to use LMP's wet sponge on them....
no, you were lucky you didn't get hurt, thank goodness
 
Is it a good sign or bad sign if a rooster crows while he's on your lap? My big roo Joel has never been a people bird, even as a baby. He's always avoided being caught or held. Lately I've been spending some time here and there holding him and petting him. He doesn't try too hard to avoid it anymore and this morning while u was holding him and talking to him, he crowed twice. I'm just hoping he's getting comfortable with me handling him and not beggining to show any aggression (which he never does). Opinions?

I don't think roos crow as a sign of aggression, their posture changes when they want to fight, and they try to make themselves look bigger.

Holding him a lot is a good idea. Roo's aggressiveness is partially a matter of breeding, and partially in individual thing. I have had a lot of silkie roos in my lifetime and would say silkies have both the sweetest roos and the most people aggressive, it just depends on the individual. What you are doing now should help, he's not likely to become mean, but it still could happen. When you get a mean roo,even a pet, it's a lot easier to turn him into meat, and you can easily get a replacement roo.

Which reminds me -- I have free roosters of all ages if anyone wants them -- Welsummers, Rhodebars, Ameracaunas, Bredas, and some mixed breeds.
 
Very tempting. I ordered heating oil yesterday. The price is down to $3.29 nine per gallon. I don't see it being any lower, and I know it will get much higher.

MCC:

No fair, I ordered my a couple of days ago and the cheapest I could find was $3.40...(most were $3.60) and supposed to get delivered Mon/Tues.....
 
I've been away for a few weeks and I'm not even going to try playing catch-up, this thread moves too fast! Anyway, baby is here... 3 weeks old now, beautiful home birth. We're all doing great, but little lady isn't letting me get much done around here so I haven't made any progress on the last few things that need to be finished on the coop. Chicks are 11 weeks old now and getting so big, I really need to take some new pictures... every day I come outside though and at least one has escaped the coop (which means I've just been lucky that no raccoons have gotten IN). I'm thinking they are hopping up from the roost through the open triangle along the roof that I haven't filled in with boards yet, I thought it was pretty high (6ft drop to the ground), but I can't find any other place they could get out from. Hoping little lady will let me finish up the coop stuff ASAP.

Still can't tell genders for sure of the 5 we hatched, mystery chick is developing some skinny neck feathers, so may be a rooster but it's hard to say bc we don't even know what breed/mix it is and have no others to compare. Two of the 4 australorps have bigger, much more pronounced combs than the other 2, but the neck feathers actually seem broader on the ones with the bigger combs, so I don't really know. DH does not want to keep any roosters, so I'm almost hoping Romeo (australorp w biggest comb) is somehow a hen bc he/she is so friendly. Romeo is the one that keeps escaping (sometimes brings a friend or two, but Romeo is always out), and he just waits patiently and comes running for me to put him back in.

Anyone know anything about crickets carrying some kind of disease? We have a ridiculous amount of crickets in our yard, more than I've ever seen, when you walk through the back yard there are literally hundreds jumping every which way every time you take a step. Other than the escape artists, our chickens don't free-range because of unleashed neighborhood dogs so they haven't been eating the crickets. Our neighbor recently got two ducklings and also has some kind of bug-eating reptile, thinking it would be a good snack, he fed them some 'backyard crickets'... the ducklings died within a day or so and the reptile he said isn't looking too good. After the ducklings died, I guess he did some research and found out the crickets are carrying something and the reason there are so many is because the wild birds aren't eating them. He didn't give any specifics (I'm guessing his wife did the research, lol) and I didn't really know what to search for... anyone else hear of anything like this?? 


So did I read this correctly... Did you have your baby at home? Wow! And I haven't heard about a problem with crickets.

I keep hearing about the hard winter coming our way. I have seen some huge hornets nest in the trees, I read somewhere that was a sign of a hard winter coming, moving their nests from the ground to the trees....not sure if it's true.

 
I keep hearing about the hard winter coming our way. I have seen some huge hornets nest in the trees, I read somewhere that was a sign of a hard winter coming, moving their nests from the ground to the trees....not sure if it's true.
Different species nest in the ground vs in the trees. All of them seem to get meaner in the fall, when they seem to sense they are close to dying anyway.
 
Very tempting. I ordered heating oil yesterday. The price is down to $3.29 nine per gallon. I don't see it being any lower, and I know it will get much higher.



MCC:

No fair, I ordered my a couple of days ago and the cheapest I could find was $3.40...(most were $3.60) and supposed to get delivered Mon/Tues.....

I got very lucky. The people on the budget plan pay thirty cents more than I did.
 
So did I read this correctly... Did you have your baby at home? Wow! And I haven't heard about a problem with crickets.

I keep hearing about the hard winter coming our way. I have seen some huge hornets nest in the trees, I read somewhere that was a sign of a hard winter coming, moving their nests from the ground to the trees....not sure if it's true.


Yes, I've used a midwife (rather than an OB) for all of my kid's births, but this was my first home birth and it was just wonderful. Having two kids already, all of my family 6 hours away in eastern PA, being an hour + away from the nearest birth center, and pretty much as low risk as one can be, a home birth just made sense. The hubs made baked ziti, the girls played outside, and I labored peacefully and comfortably in my own home. It was perfect!

Chicken duty switched over to the hubs for the next week which had me a bit worried since he wasn't very fond of them anymore (think it was resentment from all the time I spent building the coop in the few weeks prior). Thankfully they started associating him with food and running to him all excited whenever he'd come out... it really turned his opinion around and now he likes them again. It's hard to hate something that's gets so excited to see you :)
 

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