Recent content by swordgeek

  1. swordgeek

    Not My Good Kitchen Scissors

    12/18/08 Let's talk about how my morning is going. Let's add one more thing to the list of stuff I never thought I'd ever have to do, shall we? Last time, it was the vaseline and the chicken. Did I ever tell you about lubing up the chickens? If not, remind me to sometime. This time, it involved...
  2. swordgeek

    Lubing Up The Chickens

    12/08 (For the uninitiated, it appears you're supposed to smear Vaseline onto your chickens' combs in frigid weather to keep frostbite at bay. Who knew? If anyone had ever told me I'd be doing things like this someday...) The second bus has only just left, so my Starbucks hasn't kicked in yet...
  3. swordgeek

    Bannas?

    Bananas? Mine even eat the peel.
  4. swordgeek

    Do chickens eat lacewings?

    If it flies, and isn't bigger than they are, they'll eat it.
  5. swordgeek

    My first time with a broody - ugh!

    Well, thanks, folks! I feel a whole lot better about things now, and much more confident that she won't die of starvation out there. It's actually pretty funny watching her with the other birds. Though I have 3 cozy nests for 8 hens, side by side, she prefers only one of them. Unfortunately, so...
  6. swordgeek

    My first time with a broody - ugh!

    Sometime during this past week, I noticed my 10-month-old black silkie, Julia, spending an inordinate amount of time in one of the nest boxes, making little cooing noises and hunkered down like a little zombie chicken. Hmm, I thought... I could swear she already laid today! Nighttime came, so I...
  7. swordgeek

    Add more than ONE pullet to established flock?

    You could always bring home, say, an additional 2 or 3 instead of just one, to be on the safe side. Just sayin'... It happens!
  8. swordgeek

    Are corn cob leftovers ok for my girls?

    Totally picked clean, every time. I'm not such a huge fan of corn, so when I eat an ear, I always manage to save a little on the cob just for the birds (though they're still getting a lot off cobs that are human-cleaned). Whenever I go to BBQ at a friend's house, I collect everybody's cobs and...
  9. swordgeek

    crumbs left over from pellets

    I just started mixing my grower crumbles and layer pellets. They'll eat anything, apparently. As for the dust, I dump it into a little pile for wild birds and chipmunks to snack on. Or when I'm lazy, it just goes into the compost.
  10. swordgeek

    Will my Chicken Survive eating this?!

    Not sure if it's the same with chickens, but I remember my mother always saying that when our dog swallowed string - or more commonly, the silver tinsel from the Christmas tree! - if we saw it dangling from his behind, we should CUT it, not pull it out!
  11. swordgeek

    Confused! Girls will be 20 wks old should I switch to layer feed yet?

    At 20 weeks, I think it's safe to switch them. My pullets are also 20 weeks, and I've still got some grower crumbles around, so I've started mixing the layer pellet in with the crumbles both so they get used to it, and so I don't waste the older feed. Up until now, I've kept both kinds of feed...
  12. swordgeek

    pumpkins

    I have in years past, and they loved it! Particularly loved the seeds.
  13. swordgeek

    Are there bugs your chickens just won't eat?

    My older girls used to love slugs, but after a bumper crop year of slugs their first year, they were so sick of them they haven't touched them again. My 5-month-olds have shown no interest in slugs, though that may change. Meanwhile, the older girls are crazy for worms and will play tug-of-war...
  14. swordgeek

    IS this molt?

    Oh, yes - this is indeed the molt! It's pretty awful, isn't it? My poor redcap hen looks like half a hen right now, and my rooster looked absolutely embarrassed to be seen without a tail. (It's finally growing in again, so he's starting to strut.) The first year I had my birds, they shed some...
  15. swordgeek

    DE for bedbugs - really?!?

    So, I was hanging out, chatting at my local Agway today (something I won't admit to everyone I know). The owner and I got to talking about natural methods of worming vs. medication (we don't have worms, as far as I know, but I like natural methods!) and he swears by DE. That got us off on a...
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