2018 Newbie Chat!

[CannedMonster]

I have 13 chickens, 2 buff orpingtons, 2 speckled sussex, 1 maran, I Don't know what 3 are, 2 silver laced wyandottes, 1 golden laced wyandottes,1 Rhode Island Red, 1 Plymouth Rock, 1 Rhode Island White

I am located in central wi

Sounds like a great mix!
I love my 3 Speckled Sussex and I also have Plymouth Rocks- 2 Partridge and 2 Silver Penciled.
I have 3 Australorps and one turned out to be a cockerel.
And there’s 2 Easter Eggers.
These 12 are four months old.
I also have 3 Naked Necks- a cockerel and two pullets.
One red sex link and seven bantams.

 

[CannedMonster]

Well I gave Pippin an egg from Emily and a bantam egg that might be Crickets...I’m not sure.
Nobody laid today so I guess those two are it.
She’s staying in the box now.
She hasn’t switched boxes and she’s keeping the eggs under her.
I hope the eggs are fertile.
I’m pretty sure Emily’s is.
I guess I’ll candle them after a week and see.
I hope Pippin is able to go the whole 21 days.
I take her out of the box and put her in the run twice each day so she can eat, drink and poop.
She goes back up to the nest after about 5 minutes or so.
Frodo shares the box with her and often keeps her company.

Frodo is looking better. I think it’s still going to take quite some time before he’s 100%.
He has a lot more energy than when he first came back and he’s starting to get some red in his face.
I’ll be relieved when he’s improved enough to crow and be interested in the girls.

 

[llombardo]

Well I gave Pippin an egg from Emily and a bantam egg that might be Crickets...I’m not sure.
Nobody laid today so I guess those two are it.
She’s staying in the box now.
She hasn’t switched boxes and she’s keeping the eggs under her.
I hope the eggs are fertile.
I’m pretty sure Emily’s is.
I guess I’ll candle them after a week and see.
I hope Pippin is able to go the whole 21 days.
I take her out of the box and put her in the run twice each day so she can eat, drink and poop.
She goes back up to the nest after about 5 minutes or so.
Frodo shares the box with her and often keeps her company.

Frodo is looking better. I think it’s still going to take quite some time before he’s 100%.
He has a lot more energy than when he first came back and he’s starting to get some red in his face.
I’ll be relieved when he’s improved enough to crow and be interested in the girls.

Hopefully him hanging out with Pippin is the start.

 

[CannedMonster]

Hopefully him hanging out with Pippin is the start.

I’ve been wondering if he’s the type of rooster that bonds to one female.
My friend insists that he became depressed after the little hen he had at her house died.
He wasn’t interested in any of the other bantam girls.
They were all with Hector except a D’uccle that’s with her little Japanese rooster.
He’s preferred to be in the coop with Pip although he will come down into the run on a regular basis but he doesn’t show interest in the other girls.
He did tidbit for Pippin a little bit today.

 

[Anna Ranieri]

That's too bad, mine were fine with them, scratching around, seeing if they were edible. Only thing I wasn't happy with is that it rained hard the next day and they all crushed down. I hope it doesn't take longer for the run to dry out with them in it. But at least they're not mud.

Their run is three quarters covered and tends to get very dark the end their hutch is in, and for some reason having the leaves on the floor made it seem darker, I think the darkness caused them not to be able to make out properly what it was and also hard to assess if potential threats were about, b'cos they were fine walking on and scratching through the leaves at the front of the run where it is much lighter. I've covered the floor with the softwood bedding chips I use in their houses and they are fine with it - looks messy though, where as the leaves looked so pretty, but its doing the job I need it to be doing.
I know very little about leaves, however from raking up and clearing leaves over the years, I've always found after rain the top layer dries quickly but underneath stays wet for some time and in a lot of cases can turn to mush eventually. Just thinking it might be worth your while to rake and turn it over to give the bottom layer chance to dry too.

 

[Anna Ranieri]

She hasn’t laid anything since then.
She’s acting normal and eating so as far as I’m concerned she’s taking a winter break and/or molting.
I never see any feathers of hers lying around so I’m not so sure she’s molting.
She’s due for a molt soon as she is about 15 months old.
As long as she’s healthy I don’t care really.

Glad to hear she's doing well
We had a bad experience with neighbours fireworks the other night, had shards of hard plastic showering down on the run and all over my garden, the noise was tremendous, we believe they had illegal fireworks, we called the police but without proof the police are powerless to do anything. All my birds were petrified (as was my grandson too)- Lilah has always laid her egg in mornings since the day she started laying, next day after the fireworks they all were so nervous and not their usual selves, Lilah didn't lay her egg till afternoon, she had laid at 8:30 the morning before which means she had the egg in her for almost 30hrs, I was scared she'd gotten egg bound but she laid it in the end. There's been more fireworks since although nothing as loud or as much as the forementioned but she's hasn't laid since, I don't care about eggs, just worried for her but she's eating and drinking well so I'm hoping its coincidence she's stopped after fireworks or if it is stress induced that she won't come to any harm. We still have unusually high temps for this time of year and temps haven't fallen at all over the past week, if anything has got warmer, so I'm thinking it probably is stress related - just hoping fireworks are finished now, give them a chance to get over the ordeal - Come new years we are going to bring them in with us for the night because we suspect the offending neighbours will do the same.

 

[Anna Ranieri]

@ChooksNQuilts @llombardo - Found out recently it wasn't the neighbour I thought had made the complaint against my birds, I confronted her about it and she was horrified that I';d even think it of her, I explained to her what I was told about the person able to see into my garden, and she understands why I thought it her as she is the only one who can see into my garden from an upstairs window and has accepted mt apology for wrongly accusing her. We think that who ever complained must have heard the birds then came up to my fence at the front of the property stood on tip toes and peered over the fence and saw the run that way because without a ladder, being over 7ft tall, being able to fly or having x-ray vision, there is no other way to have been able to see the run.
I spoke to another chicken owner who has had a complaint and been told to get rid of his chickens who told me to ignore all correspondence from the housing dept and not to reply, I took his advice and I haven't heard anything since, so I'm just leaving it to Jesus, having asked His permission to keep them and almost 3 months on, I've had no more complaint, so here's hoping this is the end of it

 

[llombardo]

@ChooksNQuilts @llombardo - Found out recently it wasn't the neighbour I thought had made the complaint against my birds, I confronted her about it and she was horrified that I';d even think it of her, I explained to her what I was told about the person able to see into my garden, and she understands why I thought it her as she is the only one who can see into my garden from an upstairs window and has accepted mt apology for wrongly accusing her. We think that who ever complained must have heard the birds then came up to my fence at the front of the property stood on tip toes and peered over the fence and saw the run that way because without a ladder, being over 7ft tall, being able to fly or having x-ray vision, there is no other way to have been able to see the run.
I spoke to another chicken owner who has had a complaint and been told to get rid of his chickens who told me to ignore all correspondence from the housing dept and not to reply, I took his advice and I haven't heard anything since, so I'm just leaving it to Jesus, having asked His permission to keep them and almost 3 months on, I've had no more complaint, so here's hoping this is the end of it

Very well could be. I had a county inspector looking over my fence--even had a witness and had it on video. I had just moved in and he gave me a violation for doing something. I marched down there and asked for a supervisor. My main question was, if my german shepherd bit his face off or scared him so badly that he fell backwards(this happened to another idiot that peeked over) who would be responsible? Whatever violation they gave me was waived after that question. Maybe it was one of those people just trying to cause problems?

Seriously, who wants this running at them? Just stupid people

 

[Anna Ranieri]

Very well could be. I had a county inspector looking over my fence--even had a witness and had it on video. I had just moved in and he gave me a violation for doing something. I marched down there and asked for a supervisor. My main question was, if my german shepherd bit his face off or scared him so badly that he fell backwards(this happened to another idiot that peeked over) who would be responsible? Whatever violation they gave me was waived after that question. Maybe it was one of those people just trying to cause problems?

Seriously, who wants this running at them? Just stupid people

View attachment 1583698

Good for you! Some people just don't want others to be happy - maybe b'cos they are miserable themselves
Lovely picture of your gorgeous dog.

 

[Anna Ranieri]

Well I gave Pippin an egg from Emily and a bantam egg that might be Crickets...I’m not sure.
Nobody laid today so I guess those two are it.
She’s staying in the box now.
She hasn’t switched boxes and she’s keeping the eggs under her.
I hope the eggs are fertile.
I’m pretty sure Emily’s is.
I guess I’ll candle them after a week and see.
I hope Pippin is able to go the whole 21 days.
I take her out of the box and put her in the run twice each day so she can eat, drink and poop.
She goes back up to the nest after about 5 minutes or so.
Frodo shares the box with her and often keeps her company.

Frodo is looking better. I think it’s still going to take quite some time before he’s 100%.
He has a lot more energy than when he first came back and he’s starting to get some red in his face.
I’ll be relieved when he’s improved enough to crow and be interested in the girls.

Great news that Frodo is on the mend! - Awwww and how sweet he sits with Pippin