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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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.
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!
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...
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...
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...
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...
How big a flock? How many birds can you possibly handle space- and time-wise? And how long before you admit that you need to build on to accommodate the ones you absolutely, positively HAVE to have because you want more interesting egg color/feathering/personality, etc. the next time around...
I do the same most days - just toss it out there and let them have at it. But on dismal days, when they don't want to be scratching around out there, I sometimes sprinkle a little in their feeder or on the floor of the coop (because I spoil them). If I just put it outside, the wretched chipmunks...
Now that the cold weather is approaching and they won't be as apt to dust-bathe (with the run usually under a lot of snow in winter!), I'd like to keep parasites to a minimum. I've never given my birds straight garlic before, though they have eaten leftovers with some garlic in it In my house...
Oh, there's hope alright. My crevecoeur Blackie was almost 10 months old before she laid, then she became one of my better layers! I'm still waiting for my black silkie to lay... she's somewhere around 7 or 8 months old now. I imagine your girl will get there eventually.
Think about it - it has to hurt less than a bikini wax!
Just make sure she sits still while you do it. In retrospect, I'd have had someone else hold my hen.