2018 Newbie Chat!

[Anna Ranieri]

That looks so good.
My birds only got some baked potato but I am giving them the turkey breast bone and scraps in the days ahead.

I brought Frodo into the house for a few minutes today.
He’s gotten very used to being handled now and actually walks up to me when he wants me to pick him up.

I’ve always wanted one of my bantam Cochins to let me cuddle them; I just never thought it would be Frodo.

He thought the TV was strange and was a little disturbed by my dog, Charlie’s, toy lol.

I’m keeping him in a dog crate in the garage right now as I treat him with Corid. He’s still very thin and his comb and wattles are still pale and shrunken.
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View attachment 1597591

Poor boy - I hope he gets well soon

 

[Anna Ranieri]

I'm checking the area daily. They are cotton tails. From what I'm reading(10 minutes ago) they are solitaire animals(which is true because they are never together when I search for them) until breeding time, this breed are not into the digging(unless it's for a nest), the babies are 4 inches long when born(the chickens may eat them?), they drink lots of water(hence my disappearing water), makes will fight with males, females will fight with females. They are right there with chickens as far as predators. I never thought about a raccoon eating them and they do. They don't usually live more then a year and 50% don't make it out of the nest.

I'm pretty sure they can not dig under because I have hardware cloth on the ground on the outer side and it wraps around so they would hit it. If they are not leaving I will add more hardware cloth on the inside to keep the chickens safe. I tried catching the first one, super fast and zig zagging everywhere. The second one moves slower and looks like at some point it had an injury to its nose--that is how I figured out there were two.

Obviously they are feeling pretty safe. They are probably thinking we got food, we got water and we got dogs and electric fencing, we are staying put.

I'm thinking that at least one may crawl under the straw in the pool to keep warm.

I must have a sign on my forehead that reads all animals welcome...lol. Although I do not want baby rabbits, what a nightmare that would be..

Are they your rabbits or wild ones - just curious

 

[Anna Ranieri]

Here's one I took today
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So beautiful

 

[Anna Ranieri]

Jellybean and Pedro both laid their first egg today. both seemed to have a pretty hard time of it, Jellybean seemed really scared, she kept running all over the place clucking profusely and didn't know what to do with herself. Both kept going in and out of the nest area and kept digging in the bedding and when I opened the door it fell out and ended up more on the run floor than the nest, so I had to replenish lol. Pedro was calmer than Jellybean leading up to the lay although she did a lot of running around too and sang the egg song loads which sounds so pretty, I wish I could have recorded her but couldn't work out how on the phone I have. At one point Jellybean indicated that she wanted to go into the bungalow so I let her and Pedro followed, I still have the indoor cage up but empty and both went over to it wanting to get in so I quickly put in bedding, food, water and some treats, as neither had eaten much all day, Jellybean ate a little then scratched around loads, then decided she didn't want to be in there after all so flew out, so I let them both outside again. After several hours of panic clucking Jellybean finally settled in the nest and laid a pullet sized egg which has a greenish tint to it, so I don't know if there's something wrong or if her eggs will be that colour. Pedro started getting panicked about an hour or so before she laid, she sounded so distressed I prayed for her, she eventually laid but her egg is massive, bigger than Lilah's yet she is smaller than Lilah and Jellybean and I've noticed it has smears of blood on the shell, I'm guessing its from the strain of laying but is this something I need to be worried about and is there something I should be doing?
Meant to say both egg shells are hard which surprised me as I was told they would be soft, is this correct or is there something wrong?

 

[No More Empty Nest]

I've read that the first eggs can sometimes have streaks of blood on them, especially when big. If she was mine, I'd just keep an eye on her and make sure there's no blood around her vent.

 

[PNW_Peepers]

Unfortunately Ash didn’t like the garage. She isn’t sitting as well as I’d hoped. When I checked on her all the eggs were cold. I put her back outside. I’ll just passively hint to DH how badly I want an incubator. With any luck I’ll get one for Christmas.

 

[Anna Ranieri]

I've read that the first eggs can sometimes have streaks of blood on them, especially when big. If she was mine, I'd just keep an eye on her and make sure there's no blood around her vent.

Thank you, I will

 

[No More Empty Nest]

Unfortunately Ash didn’t like the garage. She isn’t sitting as well as I’d hoped. When I checked on her all the eggs were cold. I put her back outside. I’ll just passively hint to DH how badly I want an incubator. With any luck I’ll get one for Christmas.

Awww, so sorry for you.

 

[emrya]

So a Roo White is back in with the flock, some minor hackle raising but no drama so far. His wing is still a bit dangly, but with the temps and everything I figured it was better to put him with the rest. Other than seeming a little scrawny compared to his hatch mates, everything is good!

 

[CannedMonster]

Jellybean and Pedro both laid their first egg today. both seemed to have a pretty hard time of it, Jellybean seemed really scared, she kept running all over the place clucking profusely and didn't know what to do with herself. Both kept going in and out of the nest area and kept digging in the bedding and when I opened the door it fell out and ended up more on the run floor than the nest, so I had to replenish lol. Pedro was calmer than Jellybean leading up to the lay although she did a lot of running around too and sang the egg song loads which sounds so pretty, I wish I could have recorded her but couldn't work out how on the phone I have. At one point Jellybean indicated that she wanted to go into the bungalow so I let her and Pedro followed, I still have the indoor cage up but empty and both went over to it wanting to get in so I quickly put in bedding, food, water and some treats, as neither had eaten much all day, Jellybean ate a little then scratched around loads, then decided she didn't want to be in there after all so flew out, so I let them both outside again. After several hours of panic clucking Jellybean finally settled in the nest and laid a pullet sized egg which has a greenish tint to it, so I don't know if there's something wrong or if her eggs will be that colour. Pedro started getting panicked about an hour or so before she laid, she sounded so distressed I prayed for her, she eventually laid but her egg is massive, bigger than Lilah's yet she is smaller than Lilah and Jellybean and I've noticed it has smears of blood on the shell, I'm guessing its from the strain of laying but is this something I need to be worried about and is there something I should be doing?
Meant to say both egg shells are hard which surprised me as I was told they would be soft, is this correct or is there something wrong?

All that is completely normal.
Their hormones are changing now that they’ve come into lay and they aren’t really sure what’s happening.
They just know they need a nest area.
They’ll get used to it quickly.
Blood streaks happen with brand new layers but should go away very soon.
Many chicken breeds that lay extra large or jumbo eggs are actually not the largest breeds.
Many large breeds lay a small to medium sized egg.
One of the huge pluses when pullets start laying is the personality change.
They often become less skittish and flighty than they were when younger and gain some confidence.
You’re also going to see how they all want to use the same box lol!
And one will be in there and the other one needs to lay and she insists on the same box the first girl is in and stomps around complaining about it very loudly.
It’s pretty funny.
Unfortunately they become louder after they start laying.