Hi all--haven't been around recently. My red-sex-link, Svetlana, is doing great. I recently lost Felicity, who I rescued from a bad situation where the was being picked on and overbred. Her eggs were never normal (she laid sporadically and the eggs were thin-shelled and malformed), so I...
Meet My Chooks!
Be sure to check out my Coop and Run Page, and my Mud Eradication Page, too! :-)
Part I: Clarice
I became a chicken mom purely by accident. In 2003 I moved to a small farm in Middle Tennessee with my dogs, cats, tortoise, and horses. I had no intention of having chickens--I'm...
My Mud Eradication Project
When I originally set up my chicken coop and run, I just bungied a tarp across the flat wire roof I put on the dog kennel. This worked (kind of) until it filled with rain, causing the wire roof to sag and tear. It also never did a great job of keeping out the rain...
Pick a Little, Talk a Little
Craigslist Finds Chicken Coop and Run for 4 Lucky Pet Chooks
My coop and run started with a 10x10x6 chain link dog kennel, found on Craigslist for $100. On left the kennel as I found it; on right the kennel with wire cover, hardware cloth apron, and original small...
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I'm curious: Do you think this is funny?? B/c I don't. I think it's extremely rude. I think it's clear from my post that these are pet chickens, and for you to suggest such a thing is reprehensibly rude. You may operate this way, but I do not, and I made that clear.
There is...
There's nothing wrong w/ Bianco! He's gentle to the other girls and would be w/ Clarice, except she runs away and fights him. He has to hold her down roughly b/c she won't give in. I'm not blaming her, but I'm not about to blame him either--he's just acting the way roosters have been bred by...
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Yeah. <sigh> I won't rehome Bianco--I know what happens to roosters out in the Real World. I can't do that to him. I guess I'll just keep things as they are for now--i.e., Bianco and Audrey in the adjoining run during the day w/ Clarice and Svetlana in the main run. I'm not going to...
The fact is that cutting off a bird's beak is inhumane. Period.
I also don't agree with butchering. But we're not talking about that here--just debeaking.
So as I've discussed elsethread, last summer I got 2 young pullets, Audrey and Bianca, whom everyone here said WERE pullets, to join Clarice and Svetlana after Olivia passed away.
Shortly thereafter it became clear that Bianca was really BiancO. Since I knew that it would not go well for him...
Of course it's not needed! It's horribly inhumane. It's done by commercial poultry places b/c otherwise the horrible overcrowding and stress cause the poor birds to pick themselves and their co-inmates (if allowed contact) to death.
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Critters can dig right under if it's dirt. You need a wooden floor, raised up off the ground, preferably sheathed in heavyduty hardware cloth to prevent critters from chewing in.