Any other hawaiians out there?

[TropicalBabies]

So folks, What are you/we doing to prepare ourselves and chickens for this impending storm/hurricane? My coops are completely open due to our WARM spring, summer, fall and my chickens always free range our yard. I have airtight feed containers but like my chickens, most all is under an eave and my bulk in a rubbermaid rubbish can.
I have opened up feed bags that I staple to the sides of their sleeping quarter coops during wintertime.
You folks have any awesome tricks or ideas to weather out this incoming weather?!

 

[CNJ]

Hi all, I live on Oahu, my roosters are near 5 months old and their hormones are raging. I had to strangle them with velcro collars to muffle their crowing. The mongoose ate a few of my chicks, but they don't bother the bigger chickens. I bought a16"x5"x5" spring trap online from ebay and set it the other day with a piece of shrimp. I caught a big rat and drowned it in my pond for 5 minutes and then put him in the trash can on rubbish day. I hate that mongoose, I hope I can catch it. This is a video of my chicken when they were younger. I had to build a bigger coop for the Jersey Giants.

 

[TropicalBabies]

Hi all, I live on Oahu, my roosters are near 5 months old and their hormones are raging. I had to strangle them with velcro collars to muffle their crowing. The mongoose ate a few of my chicks, but they don't bother the bigger chickens. I bought a16"x5'x5' spring trap online from ebay and set it the other day with a piece of shrimp. I caught a big rat and drowned it in my pond for 5 minutes and then put him in the trash can on rubbish day. I hate that mongoose, I hope I can catch it. This a video of my chicken when they were younger.

Aloha @CNJ !
I saw your post on another thread and was thinking the background of your flora and fauna looked very Hawaii. Florida is close but NOT Hawaii.
I love your coops. Being I understand chicken keeping in Hawaii, I totally appreciate what you got going. People from Maine or Ohio... are probably scratching their heads.
Hey, sorry about your pesky mongoose and your losses. Pretty brassy to attack your chicks in your yard. We don't have on Kauai (yet), we tend to have badly contained hunting dogs mostly. A friend who breeds in Lihue said the rats were attacking and killing his chicks. I have not had any problems with rats other than stealing feed out of a dish, I shot it with a pellet and that seems to be the end of things for now...

I hear ya with roosters... they will calm down. How many will you be keeping? Right now I have 2 roosters and 10+ cockerels, 2 are close to being roo's and the rest are still being cool. I think it helps to have an established rooster to keep the testosterone in check or so far it has been even though the hens have been doing the disciplining. I put the cockerels on craigslist and think I may have found some more homes for some more of them. Slowly but surely.
K, den. Good to see you, welcome to BYC. Stay cool and safe!

 

[CNJ]

Aloha @CNJ !
I saw your post on another thread and was thinking the background of your flora and fauna looked very Hawaii. Florida is close but NOT Hawaii.
I love your coops. Being I understand chicken keeping in Hawaii, I totally appreciate what you got going. People from Maine or Ohio... are probably s

I hear ya with roosters... they will calm down. How many will you be keeping? Right now I have 2 roosters and 10+ cockerels, 2 are close to being roo's and the rest are still being cool. I think it helps to have an established rooster to keep the testosterone in check or so far it has been even though the hens have been doing the disciplining. I put the cockerels on craigslist and think I may have found some more homes for some more of them. Slowly but surely.
K, den. Good to see you, welcome to BYC. Stay cool and safe!

I bought a 1-2 chicken plucker from Hatch Time. At first I was going to butcher six cockerels, but after I did two, I decided to let the others get a little fatter. The plucker is perfect for back yard chicken enthusiast. I will keep one Jersey Giant and one white Rhode Island. I plan on breeding my white Rhode Island with my Lemon Cuckoo Orpington and latter use him to refresh my new bresse hatch. The bresse eggs I got has a lot of crooked toe chicks. I think this is common in the USA.

 

[TropicalBabies]

I have not been a part of culling for eating a chicken since I was a kid. I am very sure I would have a hard time doing it now unless it was necessary. Easier to sell chicks and eat eggs. I like the plucker and if I ever have a change of heart I will look into it.
Interesting breed the Bresse. I had to look it up being I've never heard anybody talk about this variety b4. out of all the chicks that I have hatched I have only had one chick who had curled toes and that was the only hatch whos DNA was close. I think the daddy could have been the son. I've heard that is ok, just sisters and brothers should not but I had already sold that roo and purchased another because I did not want my lines so close. Just asking for it maybe. Anywho, maybe their lines are too close being it is an imported breed. I used tape and all is fine now. He is a little cutie

 

[CNJ]

I have a hard time taping their feet by myself. As long as they can walk around, I let them grow up. I used the vinegar and baking soda method to put down a crippled chick before. They go to sleep and don't wake up.
Butchering chickens was fast and easy. I have a killing cone that they can't back out of. Once I put them in, they are stuck upside down. I slit the chickens throat and let the blood drain out in a 5 gal bucket. It takes about one minute, then I wash the chickens feet as a sign of respect, then I put it in 150 degree hot water and then throw it in the feather plucker for another minute. I'd say over all less than 10 minutes. Looks like store bought chicken.

 

[TropicalBabies]

I have a hard time taping their feet by myself. As long as they can walk around, I let them grow up. I used the vinegar and baking soda method to put down a crippled chick before. They go to sleep and don't wake up.
Butchering chickens was fast and easy. I have a killing cone that they can't back out of. Once I put them in, they are stuck upside down. I slit the chickens throat and let the blood drain out in a 5 gal bucket. It takes about one minute, then I wash the chickens feet as a sign of respect, then I put it in 150 degree hot water and then throw it in the feather plucker for another minute. I'd say over all less than 10 minutes. Looks like store bought chicken.

For feet taping I used the regular scotch tape. I flattened foot and put on then put another on top. Pre cutting tape of course, then gentling trimming. It made a huge difference in the chicks life and attitude as it was able to run around with the siblings almost immediately. I kept it on for 2-3 days and it has been perfect since.
Chicken looks good... you look like a good cook. How'd it taste?

 

[CNJ]

For feet taping I used the regular scotch tape. I flattened foot and put on then put another on top. Pre cutting tape of course, then gentling trimming. It made a huge difference in the chicks life and attitude as it was able to run around with the siblings almost immediately. I kept it on for 2-3 days and it has been perfect since.
Chicken looks good... you look like a good cook. How'd it taste?

Thanks for explaining, I made an all out effort to learn this. I got one chick's toe straight and it look like it's going to work, but I kind of messed up the other chick's taping. It was stuck so I kept cutting and adding and I accidently cut it's toe nail and it bled. I stop what I was doing and let him go. The next morning I sprayed WD40 on the taped toes and it came right off. I am impressed; after only having the tape on over night, it looks 90% better. Both feet were really hooked, but now it kind of look straight.

I put the smaller chick with the big chick and the big chick tried to eat them. The smaller chicks got bloody. I had to separate them.

My little older chicks has a tendency to toss the chick feed in the feeder all over the place, so I placed the feeder in a plant pot base, and it contained the mess. This is an advancement for me.

I moved my fried chicken recipe to recipes. Its easy to make and taste very good, I did not give out a lot of seasoning ideas, I left it open to personal taste.https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/buttery-corn-flour-fried-chicken.1424041/#post-23422426

 

[TropicalBabies]

Thanks for explaining, I made an all out effort to learn this. I got one chick"s toe straight and it look like it's going to work, but the I kind of messed up the other chick's taping. It was stuck so I kept cutting and adding and I accidently cut it's toe nail and it bled. I stop what I was doing and let him go. The next morning I sprayed WD40 on the taped toes and it came right off. I am impressed; after only having the tape on over night, it looks 90% better. Both feet were really hooked, but now it kind of look straight.

I moved my fry chicken recipe to recipes. To me it taste better than fast food restaurants, because I get to eat it freshly cooked.

My little older chicks has a tendency to toss the chick feed in the feeder all over the place. After I place the feed in a plant pot base, I solved this problem.

Yikes! I was pretty nervous about cutting a toe too as they tend to squirm a lot. I kind of stopped while I was ahead- so though was not perfect, it did the trick.
Here is my latest additions. 4 out of 4 hatched which surprises me because she is a first... second time broody, first hatch but a lower level hen. Seniors kept forcing her out of her nest box after her first week and i was late in saving her a few times. I had a little bit of a scramble to attach the hybrid nest box to a small grow out pen. There she was able to sit like she had been glued. I never even saw her eat or drink the whole time, just the evidence of. She/Dusty still won't let me see them fully but they are defying mom and hopping out and adventuring today, day 2.

These are the straight run Brahma's that I picked up a week ago. Corse this photo is several days old and today they are MUCH bigger lol.

My next size up being big in the garden "play pen" and also, the next up from that.


These 3 are waiting to be picked up this Sunday where they will hopefully live happily ever after with a super cute and nice couple who have a pretty groovy spot for them.

And then the bachelors... had someone with a large flock of hens who was interested but he has kinda disappeared. Maybe he changed his mind or was not serious to begin with.

and then my loves.... these guys are the future of what my hens will put out for the next few years... I hope. First guy is huge, standing at least 2' tall right now and he is 5 months old.

His brother, as lovely as he looks

Oh my hens are making a racket today... everybody has to lay early and renegotiate the nest boxes after a rain and new nesting materials. If the amount of racket were the gauge on how many eggs I would find in my nest boxes today there would be six dozen... not six.

 

[TropicalBabies]

I used people first aide tape for this guys foot and will most likely use it next time I have curly toes in a chick. I tried using vet tape but it was kinda of worthless and not able to stay on a chicken.

Sorry, best photo I got. K. Got to quiet down the noise at has erupted again outside