Welcome back Coopchick719! It sounds like you've had a busy year. I have not been on here that much either. I'm not adding any more chickens. I have 34 aging chickens and hope to take a break from chicken keeping when I retire in 4 years. We'll see who's left by then.
@Madie'sOddFlock ...
Sorry to hear about your hatch. I once hatched just one chick out of twenty eggs. I had a bad rooster and it turned out the other eggs just weren't fertile. I did another hatch with shipped eggs so she would have company.
I still have that solo hen. She has a beautiful gray-olive egg and...
I've only incubated in late winter/early spring, when we are still using wood heat and the house is very dry. It might depend on your incubator too. I have a Brinsea Octagon. I use very low humidity (20 - 30 %). Then at lock-down I bump it up to 70%. The only way I can keep the humidity...
Zero eggs here for the past week. I suppose it is just as well, because I just wormed them.
My hens are getting older. As much as I miss hatching, I am restraining myself. I hope to retire in 4 years and maybe do some traveling. I could see taking a break from animals (and not searching...
I refer to this article frequently for sour crop. It is so detailed and informative!
I have a question though: the lemon juice, cinnamon, etc. formula is clearly posted in one section. Further down (second paragraph below the crop-bra photo), the same formula is referred to as the baking...
Skiing was great in the morning, before it got too wet. I might be the last holdout in central Maine without a cell phone. Almost broke down and got one this year, but I really don't need another distraction.
We also had deer munching on apple trees this year. Strangely, the deer do not usually bother the garden.
Our snowy lawn showed what appear to be fox tracks this year. It looks like he was digging around for mice. I wish this snow was not expected to turn to rain here. I'm hoping to go out...
I know the rats are around, but they're not getting in (due to excessive hardware cloth lining under the dirt floor of the coop). Three times now, we've had a lone rat get trapped inside during the fall, when the doors are left wide open all day, but it appears all of them are living outside...
Ha! That is a funny image. It has been a cold weekend.
The tarps around the run are now up and snow tires are on, - mostly due to DH's efforts. It looks like a little snow is coming tomorrow, and then more serious snow on Friday.
We're real silent-types here in Maine :D
I'm not ready for winter, at least psychologically. Electric waters are plugged in, but I still need to add tarps around the chicken run.
It would be good to get snow tires on too!
Only a few hens like to lay in the communal box. Most prefer the individual boxes. It has worked as a good hiding place for those lower on the pecking order, but it takes up quite a bit of space.
I had to plant carrots twice this year. Even though I watered, the first batch failed due to drought. My squash looks good, but it is in a hoop house with black plastic and drip irrigation. It has holes in it from the cucumber beetles, but I go on a daily beetle crushing mission.
The big...
I wondered why this thread was so quiet, but just today figured out I had been logged out for a few weeks.
I have a very old hen that I just treated for fly strike. It has to be one of the nastiest things I have ever had to treat, but she seems to be doing okay now.
We just saw a weasel run through the yard early this morning, with a mouse-size creature in it's mouth. The coop is fairly secure, but I think maybe I should avoid letting the chickens roam around today.
Last year we lost 7 hens to a mink, before we were able to trap it. The mink was coming...