A Journey Through a Different Way - Funny Story Pg. 69

[tink]

This is one great thing about this website...or bad thing. lol There is always at least one other person who either lives the crazy way you do or they will think it is great that you are living the way you do!!! Does that make sense? Some of the crazy things that go on around my house...I am sure that I could find someone who would say it is okay!! Likewise....a chicken in your house sounds fine to me! At one time we had two baby goats in the house with diapers on following us around everywhere we went!!! At first I thought you were going to say that your house was "Gpat Castle".

Any new critters around?


Don't you love our lives? Thanks for the update...I have missed you.
Tink

 

[wildorchid053]

i think some critters are ok.. but i went down stairs and in my kitchen eating the cat food was a raccoon lol.. i threw a toy at him and he stood up and just looked at me then waddled out of the screen door and left... i also saw a man herding 4 pink full grown pigs into his front door one evening.. i guess they spend the night indoors lol

 

[jen5680]

I didn't read thru all of these pages since there were so many but i did read alot of them.
Do you just mix the babies in with the bigger chickens? Did I read that correct?
My son named our BO Rex too!! i thought that was cute. Actually we can't figure out if it is a Rex or not. I am hoping that it isn't but...

Does this look like a Rex or can i change it to Goldie?(The Back up name if it is a girl LOL!)

 

[ruth]

Quote:
Hi Jen - no, that's not a Rex, it's a Goldie or Buffy like we call all of our Buffs. We also have Blackie that lives in the backyard and on the back porch. Everyone who visits takes pictures of Blackie - Blackie looking the windows, Blackie pecking at the back door, Blackie in the kitchen, etc. Blackie is the only one I would call a "pet". She was one of my original four Black Sex Links and just doesn't think she should hang out with the rest of the chickens. She comes running when she sees us, jumps on your lap to be petted, squats to be picked up, and will come in the house every chance she gets.

 

[jen5680]

Well thanks for letting me no that Rex
is now offiially Goldie!! My son will be thrilled
because we can't keep roosters. I am a chicken
outlaw and hating it!! I would so love to move to
the country!!
I don't no if you didn't see it but I was asking you
if you just mix your babies in with the adults? I have
some that i would love to put out there with the others
but I don't want a masacre on my hands, I have read that
the big ones will be really mean to the little ones.
We also have a blackie, my only australorp. I am thinking
that he is a roo too so he won't be around long.
thanks again so much.
Jen

 

[ruth]

Quote:
Hi Tink - your goats had diapers? Why didn't I think of that? When Confetti had her triplets (two survived) I brought all three (Mama and two babies) inside to live in my bathroom for a week. I figured I was renovating it anyway and it was already in a state of destruction so what's a goat or two or three? I put down old sheets and it was definitely an adventure. It was freezing outside and I was having to bottle feed the little buck she rejected but wanted to keep it with the mama and sister and didn't want to go out to stables every two hours in the dark and cold - so - logical solution, bring them all in.

As I said - I've got the Goat Castle thing going on here.

As far as new updates - let's see:

First, in a real effort NOT to become Goat Castle I foolishly spend a lot of time and money trying to restore the old gardens "parterres" and I've had some screen doors made, to my own design, in order to let some of the hot air out of the house and let some of the cool breezes in:

As far as the barnyard critters - I can't think of any new ones other than the constantly hatching chicks and ducks. And yes, Jen5680, I do just toss the young ones out at two weeks old and everyone gets along fine.

Scarlett has become quite the Peace Keeper. She works the coop especially in early evening when everyone returns for the day and the gang rapes and roo fights start - she runs in and breaks them up. She also tries to keep all the little babies together when I open the cage and let them run free. It's kind of cute to watch because she obviously can't keep up with them all so she's learned to just stay in the coop and lay there and watch them.

Here, she's looking up to make sure all those on the roosts settle down.

It's quite impressive watching her work. She can be anywhere on the farm and if she hears a chicken yell, she goes running. If the hen is being jumped, she gently nudges the roos off or grabs them by their tail and pulls them off. If two roos are sparring, she gets between them and breaks them up. They are all learning to obey Scarlett.

Many of our chickens have decided they like sleeping under the carport or outside in the bushes much better than getting locked in the coop at night. Of course, they are the first ones running around the next morning and saying "nah, nah, nah, boo, boo" to the ones still locked in the coop.

And then, there's the two GPs, Addicus and Scout. Not sure what to do with them. They are having to live in the backyard and will shred and eat anything they can get their mouths on. So far, two grill covers, brooms, mops, bags of potting soil, and many other items have met their doom. They are having to stay in the backyard because they will also catch and eat any chick, duckling, chicken or grown duck they can catch and since my flock isn't afraid of dogs, they don't run and are easy to catch. I'm working with the puppies and they know better which is even worse because they get so tricky about it. I'm hopeful they will learn and grow out of it but until then they have to stay in the fenced yard.

For those who say "once a chicken eating dog, always a chicken eating dog" that's not true - Scarlett herself killed and ate four grown drakes when she was a puppy - now she sleeps with them. Lucy killed six of our first ducks the first time we let them out - just swiftly in a matter of a minute and left them - same way she kills varmits. Now she's around them all day and night.

The two puppies weren't doing it in front of us. At first I was missing a baby chick here and there and suspected the puppies so I started locking them in backyard. Then I thought I'd let them out at night since at that time all chickens were locked up for the night. But got up one morning and Addicus had killed and was eating a drake (the ducks stay out 24/7). So back to backyard. Then, as I trained the other two prior "killers" I started taking them with me on and off leash - no problem. Then they got smart. First time - as we were heading back into fence they took off running into woods and would not come out. I eventually had to walk away and go back to doing my farm chores. Next thing I know I look around and there's Addicus running across the yard with a young chicken in his mouth. I yell and he drops the chicken and the chicken runs off, unharmed. Next time, same thing happens - they run into woods, I finally had to go inside for a few minutes I come out and they are laying under the tree eating something. I knew right away what it was - they had caught 4 of the baby ducklings that had just hatched the day before and were running around with their mama. That was really upsetting for me but back to yard they went. We'll keep at it - they know better and they don't bother the chickens (Blackie & Red) that hang out in the backyard with them and eat out of their bowls. They also caught a full grown chicken - same one from the pics that came in the house - a few days ago and one had her head in its mouth and one had her tail. We yelled at them and they let her go and she wasn't harmed either so I'm not sure if they are trying to play with them or what but they will stay under lock and key till they can be trusted. Now you'd think that chicken would have learned her lesson but no, she continued to stay in the backyard with them and they didn't bother her any more. They are invaluable as watch dogs though and they really start up with the barking and growling at night when the coyotes start howling. That's another reason I have to keep them locked up for now, they think they are grown and would take off into the woods after the predators and probably get themselves killed or injured.

It's a journey here in many, many ways and we (humans and animals) are all learning as we go.

 

[jen5680]

Another question Ruth,
if they are all together what do you feed them?
thanks again.
Jen

 

[ruth]

Quote:
I feed the babies medicated chick feed for the first two weeks while they are in the brooder. After they are released I feed them chick grower or layer crumbles as well as a mixture of feed. Because I have peafowl, ducks and chickens, as well as ducklings and baby chicks, all running around eating the same things I feed a mixture of feed. I mix it all up in large plastic trash cans. Usually consists of:

Layer Pellets
Black Oil Sunflower Seeds
Layer Crumbles
Chick Grower
Game Bird Feed
Scratch & Grains

In addition to the above feed, they are total freerange. Some will go far into the woods, others never leave the coop, still others stay in the yard and never go far. So I also feed them all table scraps except meat (that goes to the dogs) and everything from my garden - lots of tomatoes and veggies that get too ripe, diced up peels from all the veggies - just about anything and everything. I even dice up the leftover lunch meat for them because DH is always buying another package of it before we've eaten the other 2 or 3 or 5 packages that are in the fridge. Chickens are omnivores and need a large portion of their diet to come from meat protein.

Basically, given enough room and food and fresh air and things to do, the older chickens won't bother the young ones and everyone has a great life running around doing what chickens do naturally - just being chickens. It's when they are caged that abnormal behavior manifests itself. I have a pen of big bad roos, all destined for freezer camp, and the little babies (two weeks old) run in and out of the pen and eat their food because they can fit through the large wire and the roos not only don't hurt them, they seem to enjoy their company. I often see the uncaged roos calling the chicks over and showing them food.

 

[basicliving]

Monique, your parterre and screen doors are just beautiful! Very nice job!

I've never been around GPs, but I've read on BYC that they are so good with chickens and other small animals. But maybe they are just like any other dog, and require training in that department? I'm still working with our two pups - they LOVE to chase the chickens. They've gotten better, but I still don't trust them outside alone with the chickens.

Beautiful place you have there. And I thought the chicken looked very cozy in the house. I wasn't appalled in the least!

Penny

 

[ruth]

Thanks Penny - this old house needed new screen doors - the original ones were long gone, only the hinges remained. But this house heats up worse than outside during the summer, especially the second floor. No amount of a/c will cool it and were were spending $900 a month in electric bill trying. So we had the screen doors made for the second floor balcony, where it's always nice and cool and breezy, and now leave them open 24/7 and leave the a/c off. We either sleep in a downstairs bedroom in the summer since the downstairs unit is able to cool that portion of the house or we sleep in one of the upstairs bedrooms in which we put a window unit. I know, sounds kinda, well you know....in any event that bedroom was not livable before due to the heat in summer and it was our guest bedroom - no amount of a/c could cool it. We finally discovered the problem. When the kitchen wing was added to the back of the original house, they covered over a back window, one of the ones in this bedroom. Then they mirrored the window from inside the bedroom and if you raise the window, you can get into the attic of the kitchen. I touched that window recently because I felt heat coming from it and nearly burned my hand. That's when we discovered where all the heat in the room was coming from. We've now taped over the window edges to seal it off and put a window unit in one of the outside windows and now the room stays nice and cool. We are planning to have the window removed and walled over and have a door cut in the middle of the wall to get to the attic which would make a nice large closet - since there are no closets in this home.

So like I said, slowly becoming the Goat Castle - taped up windows, window units, renovation everywhere and animals too numerous to count. Will we ever get it all done or will we too just finally throw up our hands and say "oh well, we tried....." and just let it all go to ruin?