Texas

[Kiki]

Hi Texas crowd! I’m in Little Elm, just west of Frisco. Looks like it will be a tad cooler today.

Susan

Send some cool down to Houston please.


Welcome!

 

[007Sean]

Hi Texas crowd! I’m in Little Elm, just west of Frisco. Looks like it will be a tad cooler today.

Susan

Howdy Susan Welcome to the Texas thread. I use to live near McKinney, had to drive to Little Elm to buy beer...yeah, it was that long ago!

 

[AllenK RGV]

I am at 44 not counting the new hatches, which isn't bad since most are babies or bantams..one point I was at over 100 because I was doing so much hatching. Out of the 44, about 14 are for sale or destined for freezer camp. I have 10 in the incubator but I'm going to resist "counting my chickens before they hatch".

I figure with 15 shipped eggs I'll hatch about 7, 4 of which will be boys, so that leaves me 3 girls to pick the best two from. The boys will go in the freezer.

I think I can manage to stay in the range of 40-50 if I can resist impulse buys and wanting to keep what my broodies hatch

Wow 44? 2-3 years into it myself and only 23 chicken on hand(9 i want to cull). I was happy with just having the 6 I had for a while but I wanted more. I wanted to build a new coop for myself to raise three foot tall malay's and somehow my wife decided what I was really wanting to keep were Silkies(Im thinking happy wife happy life)....hmm...23 and still need to build 2 more coops(the current count is looking like two for her one for me). I am now thinking the best way to limit the chicken expansion is to ensure the coop I need is up and built BEFORE I fire up the incubator(thank you Kiki that was smart advice, I now know why you offered me that tip) or souce an egg. At least doing it that way requires a 2-3 month waiting period as chicken keeping seems to be more high risk than owning a gun. Those silkies are still cute though. @Celticdragonfly I agree it is so easy for us guys with a pile of lumber just laying around to build a chicken coop and here is how one easily obtains that pile of lumber in his shed:

Yesterday's most memorable moment was Me up on a ladder knee deep in rebuilding my coop, drenched sweat and the neighbors Friend wanders over and starts chatting me up admiring those silkies and asking me if I was interested in selling. I mentioned I have a few extra. eheh I lost him when I was asking about him about Brownsville's animal ordinances(god I'm an idiot). I asked him him how he felt about roosters as mine aren't fully sexed out yet.....he wandered away before I knew it.....I didn't close a sale. Also, he said he really wanted hens, doesn't everybody that is what I want too!

My work crew of two hired hands were let loose on finishing out my coop roof, when I came back with $33 dollars of needed screws.... My wife told me they(work crew) asked her a question..red flag...for my simple project. SIT DOWN AND RELAX (RED flag) calm down cause they got this....Who's hammering(Red flag), as I know I don'tlike nails and didn't thinhk I owned any! what the heck there is an injury(nurse Allen to the rescue)? How on earth did one of my guys smash his head on a pry bar(REEEEEED FLag)? Ok that was my day as I tore down a roof hobbled together with hurricane straps at confusing to me angles.....Dude I just wanted to enjoy my tea that is why I gave them simple instructions and thought prebuilding it visually with a full scale model in the driveway would show them the vision of the task at hand. I set out all the tools needed the night prior it should have been easy. I didn't even know there was a prybar in my tool shed.


Regardless I do still want to keep malay's. It looks like I will try to source the (Malay)eggs next year. The silkie bachelor pad is my next project to get going. Wifey won't allow a single cull because she will not allow me to "Cull" the obvious genetic misfit's out of hippie love for all of god's critters. Half of my April hatch have names now and they all are named after rock stars. I have named 1 roo, he is a defective roo with an obvious learning disability and a 15 degree angle bent into his head midpointed at his beak he is now "Ian" after my daughters husband. I do love the "Real guy" but he is an 18-25 year old male.
How in the world did I get here?
Who names chicken that is the fastest way known on earth to ensure misfortune happens I learned that in my first year.

The future Bachelor pad will be built out back in the most high risk region of my property on the back fence where wildlife roam and my cat has the slowest response time. I don't think I need hardware cloth for that pen. My plan is to look at my growing stack of spare lumber and ensure the 50 ft roll of chicken wire is placed in easy reach of my lawn guy and am not going to give him instructions on how to build it. Hopefully my tea wont get cold then. Aww baby "let go an let god....." is going to be something I hope she takes well. Someone once told me chicken keeping should be entered into with the philosophy of of chicken=death.

Cool thing now my chicken now are getting loads of compostable rotten fruit from the fruit store down the street for my compost stack. I guess there is an upside to all of the border chaos our polticians are creating at the border for me. It is getting harder for my wife though cutting off the rotten bits for our breakfast smooties.

Oh well there is my incoherent update on how much I enjoy chicken keeping. I obviously need more "help" from the VA on the psych front. I feel proud I have things to do and am not yet a statistic.

Ok one final share. Please do not condition my/"our" chicken to take food from your hand on the porch wife. It isn't funny when your husband goes out on the porch to have a quiet place for a phone call and chicken run up to him and start squaking noisily. Yes I now agree its so endearing and cute the cuties take food from your hand. I"m thinking to myself that to get even with her I might raise guineas for her to enjoy and I do enjoy the looks of vulturine gineafowl, hmmm. On the bright bright side my silkies are starting to crow. I did have some laughs at them and huge smiles starting my day yesterday! p.s. I was alone in my thoughts drinking tea on the porch then. I'm headed outside now to enjoy my 5 am quiet time ready for a new days sun with a fresh cup and everyone else is asleep!

 

[AllenK RGV]

I am so having a good laugh about how my yesterday went! I totally lost millions of dollars by not having filmed the whole thing. Cause! wow It would have made for the funniest film I've ever seen in the Category of "A comedy of errors" and the keystone cops and chaplain cant hold a candle to my real life. Some days. Who knew that ecting could be so hard?

If you enjoyed Snatch or Lock, Stock and two smoking barrels..... I got a film for you to see.

 

[RUNuts]

Morning Allen!
Sounds like a riot. Lock, stock & two smoking barrels was a funny show. Time to watch again. You will have a diverse flock with Malays, Ayami and Silkies running around the yard.

To give you an update, 23 out of the 40 Barnyard surprise eggs hatched and it looks like I'm approaching the 75% cockerels. I got the 5 hens I wanted for sure. Maybe an extra. Lots of red combs at 4 weeks old. I still have no idea, so it will be a pleasant surprise in 4 more weeks when I count them. I tried to do a head count, but with 16/23 being mostly black, I'm clueless. And can't tell the boys from the girls yet.

The ranch were I got the eggs from had someone dump a game bird rooster. So multiple roosters in the flock these came from. I got one fake (bantam/tiny/miniature) chicken running under the others. He or she is half the size of the largest hatch mates. Quite diverse.

Did you watch The Lion King? In it they "bowl for vultures" to watch the birds scatter. Crazy Lady's puppy likes charging the chicken fence and watching them flush. Bowling for chickens if you will. Glad the fence is still holding.

 

[Kiki]

Morning Allen!
Sounds like a riot. Lock, stock & two smoking barrels was a funny show. Time to watch again. You will have a diverse flock with Malays, Ayami and Silkies running around the yard.

To give you an update, 23 out of the 40 Barnyard surprise eggs hatched and it looks like I'm approaching the 75% cockerels. I got the 5 hens I wanted for sure. Maybe an extra. Lots of red combs at 4 weeks old. I still have no idea, so it will be a pleasant surprise in 4 more weeks when I count them. I tried to do a head count, but with 16/23 being mostly black, I'm clueless. And can't tell the boys from the girls yet.

The ranch were I got the eggs from had someone dump a game bird rooster. So multiple roosters in the flock these came from. I got one fake (bantam/tiny/miniature) chicken running under the others. He or she is half the size of the largest hatch mates. Quite diverse.

Did you watch The Lion King? In it they "bowl for vultures" to watch the birds scatter. Crazy Lady's puppy likes charging the chicken fence and watching them flush. Bowling for chickens if you will. Glad the fence is still holding.

Get a picture of the faker!

 

[RUNuts]

Get a picture of the faker!

He/she is quick! Dart in and out of the others feet squatting right off the floor. They just moved to the tractor, so no more eye level camera shots. Their world has changed. I really like brooding in the quail coop. So nice. So easy.

I think "she" is the black one upper right, just outside the food trough.

 

[AllenK RGV]

Oh @RUNuts if you are looking for a good funny. I noticed League of Gentleman is on Hulu if are borrowing someones subscription as I know you like cheap I doubt you got one of your own. It is worth a look at, trust me crack a beer, yell at the kids to leave the house cause thats how I roll.... and perfect date night for you and your crazy one. Think I youtube bowling for vulture, they do a good job of cutting the Pixar parts out of a mediocre sappy disney flick!

Plus free as rotten fruit!

 

[AllenK RGV]

I'm confused link it for me. this isn't making me laugh charging the fence....one of my stupid dogs charges ours at night and leaves 3 foot deep pretty head prints in our fence. I line em all up and ask who was this? I use my angry sounding indoor army voice and 3/4 quiver in fear... the one who's head actually fits the 3 foot deep dent in my 1x4 welded wire fence tight as Cinderella's slipper seems to enjoy a guilt free life.

May be im confused cause in a later scene I the vultures scatter in fear, and I'm literal cause when she hits the fence the chicken are usually sleeping, gotcha!

 

[RUNuts]

Try this one.

"Bowling for buzzards" - got the species wrong.