Anyone have luck catching a feral chicken?? UPDATE: Rooster caught, no hen

[staceyj]

Sorry can't look at it, parental restrictions. It's annoying I'm only 13 and yet my younger sister is registered as an adult on everything.

No sctually I didn't load it correctly. I'll try again.

 

[staceyj]

Good morning @rjohns39 !
What's the weather there this morning? And how far are you from Knoxville?

 

[rjohns39]

62 with a little over 2" of rain since midnight. It's about two hours.

ETA: Good morning.

 

[staceyj]

62 with a little over 2" of rain since midnight. It's about two hours.

ETA: Good morning.

Wow! That's pouring. I'm hoping the front holds off here til later today. I want to get the pressure washing done out back. It's a beautiful morning here, 62 also. The sun is burning off the fog. I love the color of the light in the morning. Have to wait though to get started because of the sleepyheaded neighbors.
I asked how far because one of my kids is in grad school at UTKnox. She's coming home for thanksgiving.

 

[rjohns39]

I'm about 25 miles west of the UT Cookeville campus.

ETA: It's always fun when they visit for the holidays.

 

[rjohns39]

If you get a chance Pop over and wish NFC happy birthday

 

[Sassysouth]

My dad cornered a wild chicken thinking it was one of ours that got out and put it in our yard. We had heard reports of a chicken out on our street for about two weeks by that time. The chickens ran away from her knowing she was sick (thank goodness) I then treated her for lice in the quarenteen zone. She was so riddled she couldn't lay an egg. I helped dad build a makeshift coop out of a cardboard box and she loved it. She is super happy now and lays big eggs almost every day. Here is a recent pic of her staring at some vultures a few trees away.

Sweet baby!! So glad you helped her out!!

 

[Sassysouth]

If you get a chance Pop over and wish NFC happy birthday

Who is NFC??
My birthday was yesterday and hubby is in Montana, again. He did send me flowers which was a nice surprise. My 2 sister-in-law’s took me to breakfast.
My son has has a cold and sore throat for a couple of weeks, but his tonsils don’t look so hot this morning. He is finally getting his wish to stay home from school and go to the doctor. He hasn’t felt great, but has still been able to go to school. I will update later.

 

[apryl29]

I have never heard of California Whites.
To make my life easier, I am so tempted to build Sesame her own little coop. I need to be patient though. Sign. Chicken business is hard.
Lemondrop was hard on that Crele Orpington and now that white Cochin Cockerel was being hard on her today. Weird. That Crele looks like a Ostrich with those legs. Very funny looking.

I just looked up the crele orpington and they're soo pretty! I love the thick thigh look that orpingtons have. It's hilarious when they run.

Leghorns are normally easy going

My leghorn is a jerkface.

Your coop looks fan-TASTIC!
I love PDZ too. It's magical.
It's like the stuff the school janitor used to come and dump on a pile of throwup when somebody puked in the classroom!

*Make sure you buy the bag with the horse on it. They package the same stuff in a smaller bag "for chickens" now at the same price.
I hate it when companies do that crap.
When I get it home I pour it into big kitty litter jugs and put them in a deck box which is right next to my coop/run. It's where I keep all my supplies.
I live where it's humid almost all the time. I think it protects it from absorbing moisture.
Then I made a "flinger" out of the top half of a milk bottle.
After a total cleanout I fling a light dusting of it on the vinyl floor of the coop.
I don't exactly have poop boards because my coop isn't that big but I have three greenhouse trays I ordered online that fit exactly right on the floor of the coop right up to the edge of the nesting area.
I sprinkle pdz on them, then the shavings go on top. I love how it makes cleaning a breeze. I can pop on a glove and just pick the poopy piles right up. Poop literally never sticks to anything!

Thank you! It's taken months of back breaking labor to make it not look like a blind squatch w/ no thumbs built it, now it looks like it was built by one w thumbs. So glad I bought the bag w/ the horse on it, I didn't even see one w/ a chicken on it, but I totally agree.. that's bs when they do that. It's the the Veterycin stuff, it's all the same thing, but in different bottles marked for different uses, but of course they only carry the most expensive kind.
I used the entire bag I'd bought, but the cat litter container idea is brilliant! I was trying to figure out what I'd do w/ the extra stuff so it didn't get gross. With Odin's space last night I used a mini dust pan to toss some pdz down on the floor and a plastic rake the spread it out a little more. His space is under the smaller roost. I *could* let him out w/ the general population, but my concern is that no one but me would be able to go out to the coop & my daughter loves going out there to visit w/ her chicken, so until it's too cold for her to want to go out he's going to stay confined.
I love the tray idea. I was trying to find a tray for my poop board to avoid the whole edging thing, but I couldn't find one that would fit so I just did the edging. Do you use the pdz in the bottom of the nesting boxes? I was thinking about it, just to keep the moisture from settling in there during the winter. I put in a couple space for them to dust bathe, but since it won't stop raining I'm worried that they dirt is too wet now. I'm going to get some peat this weekend (stupid stuff costing $$) to mix in with it so hopefully it'll help keep the dirt broken up. I'm worried it's going to freeze. I'm thinking about taking a bucket of dirt home with me just so it can dry out for them.

I had a kitty litter scoop that broke (flimsy POC). I had this (pic below) colander spoon in my kitchen drawer. I picked up at an outlet store somewhere and it is PERFECT for scooping poop! It is very sturdy and durable! The chicken poop always fell out between the kitty scoop slots too.
View attachment 1180713

I had the same problem w/ tiny pieces falling through, but it got the big stuff. I'll have to keep an eye out for a scoop like that. It looks like it'd work better along the edges. The one I got from the dollar store had a rounded edge which seemed weird to me.

I've given up trying to figure out chicken pecking order. I would think I know who top hen is only to see her get pecked by someone else. My sweet little Wheaten Ameraucanas were the youngest in the flock till I hatched eggs. One of them made it her daily mission to show the new arrivals they were at the bottom. She would go chick bowling. Wait till they were all together scratching, then run into the crowd full speed just to watch them scatter. I swear I heard her laughing as they ran away.

Is it wrong that I laughed reading this?

I went to vote this morning and our ballots are paper and are scantron, so you fill in the little bubble w/ a pen... I managed to mark the wrong bubble for one thing and had to go have the ladies void my ballot and give me another one. I hope you guys have better luck voting than I did, but on the bright side I'm meeting a guy at a farm tonight to get some more pumpkins for my ladies. I figure I'll store them in the basement and toss one out once in a while so they have something to peck at in their mud field.

 

[apryl29]

Who is NFC??
My birthday was yesterday and hubby is in Montana, again. He did send me flowers which was a nice surprise. My 2 sister-in-law’s took me to breakfast.
My son has has a cold and sore throat for a couple of weeks, but his tonsils don’t look so hot this morning. He is finally getting his wish to stay home from school and go to the doctor. He hasn’t felt great, but has still been able to go to school. I will update later.

Happy Birthday!
There's some nasty sickness stuff going around my area too. My boss has been off for a week w/ bronchitis and a sinus infection. My little one was sick (& my big one was faking sick), and a variety of other people have had other things here and there. I hope this isn't a sign of how the winter is going to be.