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  1. ScottyHOMEy

    A box for dust baths -- how big?

    I've lost three birds over the winter to what I thought was cold. They lost a lot of feathers to what I have thought was the one aggressive hen at the top of the order. Thinking mites as the alternative, I've been equally aggressive with dusting the birds and the coop. With a smaller flock...
  2. ScottyHOMEy

    Wait time after dusting for mites?

    I'm about at wit's end. I know there is one aggressive RSL in the coop who is a pecker, and the other birds all show signs of her handiwork. But things ahave gotten worse the last few weeks, to the point that I'm suspecting mites. I haven't been able to positively identify any, but the...
  3. ScottyHOMEy

    Topical treatments for pecking?

    I've been out of chickend for a few years and rely quite a bit on wht was handed done to me by my grandparents. Doing quite nicely, lots of thanks given regularly for what I was taught. Need some help with the latest challenge. It wasn't something I saw before I got the run open. I saw the...
  4. ScottyHOMEy

    The ladies' first outing

    If you've followed at all, this is the first year for chickens at the new abode. It's nice to have them around a after a hiatus of several years. All hatched in June, the meat birds went to freezer camp in August and the pullets started laying just a few weeks ago. Time and funds have made the...
  5. ScottyHOMEy

    Right on schedule!

    Some of you might recall me posting about 8 weeks ago, when I'd been bamboozled by my neighbor's daughter, the Mischievous Miss Sarah, who had slipped an egg into my coop just as my pullets reached the 12-week mark. Too early . . . to fine an egg . . It didn't take me long to sniff out the...
  6. ScottyHOMEy

    Eureka! Success again!

    I wrote almost exactly eight weeks ago about my suspicions (yes, I was being bamboozled by the neighbor's daughter) when I found a nicely-formed, full-size egg in the coop with my then 12-week-old pullets. This new laying flock is a mix (see signature below). I didn't see a thing in the coop...
  7. ScottyHOMEy

    Chickenly music

    It only comes to mind to post about it after a conversation on another board about a cherished acquaintance of some years back who was a pianist, but also a voice coach to operatic sopranos. Last weekend, I helped the neighbor on one side, Nick, butcher the last of his ducks, before the...
  8. ScottyHOMEy

    k staven

    What is your role here?
  9. ScottyHOMEy

    Last minute questions on dressing ducks

    The neighbor kid mosied over last weekend to ask if I could help/show-him-how to do up the six Pekin ducks he has. I've never processed a duck before, and I'd ask you to help me get by what I suspect is my overthinking on it. About all I'd thought of up to this point, and having done some...
  10. ScottyHOMEy

    Winter feed for layers

    So I'm in coastal Maine where the winter weather is not as severe as it is up north and inland, but can still get down to 10 below or less, with a couple of stretches of a week or more where the highs won't go above 20-25. As far as their combs, all my birds are good for winter -- BO, BR...
  11. ScottyHOMEy

    On the perrennial topic of getting them to roost . . .

    We've had an epiphany here today/this evening/tonight. Epiphany nothing! It's a whole new world. The pullets hatched in June, twelve weeks ago last Friday. Four weeks ago a very handsome and commodious three-step roost was provided for their use and comfort. The darlings were ecstatic...
  12. ScottyHOMEy

    An egg? So soon?

    It will no doubt still be some time still before they're all layin' regularly, but one of this years pullets (3 RSL, 1 BSL, 2WW, 1 BR and 1 BO) laid her first egg this morning. And a fine egg it is, too. I'd have expected the first ones to be small (and maybe this one is for what they will...
  13. ScottyHOMEy

    Crooked/crossed beak

    I've got eight laying pullets, hatched 8 weeks ago last Friday, all doing well (only losses were in shipping). Only concern with any of them is one White Wyandotte whose upper and lower beaks are crossed, one twisting each way. I like to keep my critters so that they can keep themselve clean...
  14. ScottyHOMEy

    Happy ladies!

    I was a little behind schedule (I go to bed at 0330 easier than I get up at that hour), but I got the meat birds over to the butcher's for chicken Monday. Good, clean efficient operation, a good crew, and a coffee shop atmosphere amongst the folks lined up to get in. Those aren't the happy...
  15. ScottyHOMEy

    One of the new girls is missin' some feathers. Worry or not?

    Just got my first ever mail-order chicks. Ten layers, fifteen Cornish Rocks. Hatched last Friday (this bein' Tuesday). Layers are all fine. Noticed last evenin' that one of the meat birds had a big pink spot under her tail. Gave a look, and at the time it could have been as simple as her havin'...
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