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

[theuglychick]

I just got in from wiping dirty little chicken butts I cut away all dirty feathers that I can't get clean. It's the more glamorous part of chicken keeping.

No molting yet.

I spent a good portion of the day out there with them doing yard work and giving their house, and run a tidy-up.

They were born the end of this February. So they are technically still pullets I suppose. Started laying the last week of July-1st week of August.

They are loose in the yard from about 8 am til bedtime.

They like to follow me (or the dog) and weave between my legs (or his!) when I'm trying to get from point A to point B. If I sit they want to sit on my lap. They each get a good lookover every single day.

Easy-peasy since they're tame and spoiled rotten and there's only six of them.

They get looked at from their head to heiney hole.

Today's check:
Dory was clucking and kept heading back to the nesting box whenever she thought she could get past me.
I kept booting her out.
She HATES THAT and tells me what I think are dirty chicken words I'm sure over her shoulder as she walks away. She would flash me the bird I think if she didn't need it to walk!

No mites, lice or other critters.

Everybody's poops look good- god knows there's enough of them!

Everybody's eating fine.

Ruining my garden as usual and helped themselves to lettuce, thyme and oregano.

I was raking pine needles which they thought was WAY fun.

Then later they all settled down for very long dust baths in the sandy soil which refuses to grow grass.

Put themselves to bed as usual.

When I locked up their house Dory was on the roost with the rest of them but making THAT NOISE again!

The girls on either side of her both gave me the stink eye.

The temperature change was the only difference today!

 

[21hens-incharge]

@theuglychick

You never did tell us how many chicks hatched.

 

[theuglychick]

That's awesome! I'm glad it well!

Well folks, dinner was a success. DW, DS, and GD all thought it was perfect or close to it. DW introduced GD to sour cream—big hit, it got spread over everything and she just kept shoveling it down. GS (the 12 yr old) complained it was too spicy—but aquiest when offered chocolate milk to cool down the fire. So Raw milk Chocolate milk will be for desert.

 

[staceyj]

Mine were born in feb and started laying in jul like yours. Australorp, BO, BR, AND EE. I had a LED Light in the coop when days got short so they could see to eat. 12 hrs, 6a - 6p. No heat in coop and they layed pretty well all winter, not quite as much as summer- maybe 60%?
The Aussies had a partial moult, mostly the neck area, inNov I believe.

They didn't mind the led?

 

[Sassysouth]

I just got in from wiping dirty little chicken butts I cut away all dirty feathers that I can't get clean. It's the more glamorous part of chicken keeping.

Can you stop by here? I have 16 feather footed chicks that are confined in a small space.

 

[theuglychick]

Thank you for asking! I set 42, 10 were my friends but we knew they were kind of a crap shoot. Her birds were murdered by some predator so out of desperation we tried incubation to see what happens.

None were fertile.

I also set 16 Cream Legbars, and 1 dozen Super Blue Egg Layers, and 4 olive eggers (CL X Marans cross).

I ended up with 12 CLs, 9 SBELS, and 3 OE. I also added in 9 salmon Faverolles chicks that were shipped in. So it was a decent hatch rate.

@theuglychick

You never did tell us how many chicks hatched.

 

[theuglychick]

Sure! I'm actually quite the pro at it now!

Can you stop by here? I have 16 feather footed chicks that are confined in a small space.

 

[FlyingNunFarm]

The cold snap here got me thinking. I don't heat my coop because, well, fire! I've also seen how it can be a problem if they are used to heat and you lose power. They haven't acclimated to being cold so it goes all sorts of bad.

I'm worried because all I've heard is how awful winter is going to be. I wondered about a heater that would only come on when it gets really cold. Keep the coop at 10 degrees or something. I have a heat bulb if I really need it but there's no way to regulate that temp.

Is one of these safer? Has anyone used one?

 

[theuglychick]

Best idea ever!!

We need to start CNN. Chicken National Network. "All Chickens All the Time"

*Coupe my Coop.
Renovations to existing but outdated coops.
*60 Chicks and Counting.
The story of a backyard flock that keeps getting bigger.
*Days of Our Cluck
Follows a dramatic heritage breed family and the problems then endure for being so well known.

There's enough breeds to have show a day for years.
Learning episodes to keep everyone up to date on the newest chicken news.
And then a show that's just footage from hidden coop and run cams.

 

[theuglychick]

I responded to someone's questions on training chickens with resources on clicker training from Karen Pryor, Sophia Yin (RIP), and the Breilands.

I'll try to find it.

Here is one of my fav videos on clicking chickens!
https://drsophiayin.com/videos/entry/sophias_trained_chickens/

That's awesome!

Why did I think there was a post clicker training for Chickens? I must stop reading without my glasses