BYC Café

[KingOfFools]

I saw the BYC Coffee house thread was a good attempt in 2011, and then it stopped. So, I want to restart it.

Here is one of the several places you can chat about anything (assuming you follow BYC rules). I know there are already several of threads kind of like this, but I wanted a café to hang out in, and the one I saw I liked has been dormant for 4 years so here it is revived.

 

[KingOfFools]

Everyone that knows me calls me Trib, even my wife, so feel free to do the same. It is my real name shortened.

I am an Army brat, but I serve in the Navy. I am stationed in Southern California right now and I love it here.

I have the most beautiful, perfect, amazing wife anyone could want, a little girl who I smart, pretty, funny and adventurous, and a new baby boy with blue eyes like you've never seen.

We have 8 hens and 1 rooster. Today, I am drinking coffee and i have the day off. I slept on the couch to watch my colicky son so my overworked stay-at-home wife could get some rest. (we actually switch every day).

I have the day off, so I can do something about a chicken coup that's too small with some wooden shipping crates I acquired.

Hope everyone else is having just as wonderful a morning.

Trib

 

[Shadrach]

How to build a house.
@bruceha2000
Dig a big hole.

Chuck some liner in the bottom and throw bits of concrete and stones over it.

Get some H block and dry stack them up with bits of metal down the holes and into the concrete base.

Por concrete in the holes and cover the back with paint and then butile sheet.

Slap some insulation on the walls and cover that with heavy duty polythene sheet and pimple board.

If you've got this far and it looks like the picture you're in with a shout.

Block off the front with some bricks leaving holes for windows and doors.

Chuck some planks over the top.

Fix some plywood sheeting on the planks.

Insulation on top of that.

More paint butile and pimple sheet. Oh, don't forget the hole to let the smoke out!

Hard this bit. Shovel earth down all the exterior gaps and over the roof.

Compare project to picture. It should look something like this by now.

Wet and hot and zappy.

Need a big canon sticking out of that big window really.

Oh yeah, more digging for wet stuff.

A few bits of glass and a big hammer needed to make windows and doors.

Get all the explosive stuff in the blast cabinet outside, leccy water and gas.

Gonna have to cook I suppose.

Might even have a shower once in a while.

I burn a lot of stuff cooking; extractors leccy and lights, plus other bits.

Need to chuck a few weeds on the roof and banks.

Got the stove in eventually.

Tea and boogie.

Get the chickens round.

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

Hey Trib! Nice to meet you! I tried to start a picture thread which had been very successful in the past but just sort of floated into never land this time. Such a shame because I really wanted to get to know members better!

I'm Lauren and I've been around BYC a while, though I post less these days due to school. I've had chickens for about 16 years now and did plenty of 4H and showing. I can't keep chickens while I'm away at school and I really miss them.

I'm in vet school now and Im studying to be a poultry vet. I'm really excited about some of the opportunities I will hopefully have when I graduate!

At my apartment now I just have a dog, which has been a lot of fun. We've been going to agility and a few other training classes and she does great. I've only had her since August, so I'm very proud of her progress.

 

[KingOfFools]

Hmmm, just found a "Trib To Do" list by the coffee pot in the wife's handwriting. Wonder how long it's been there?

 

[KingOfFools]

Well my boy is up early, but he's cooing and smiling. Gotta love it. Time for a Folgers refill...

 

[KingOfFools]

Update: The to do list has been there... A terribly long time. Oh man...

 

[KingOfFools]

Well I completed half my to do list and I fixed the problem I had with my coop. Time to grill out. Grass fed beef patties.

 

[Shadrach]

So, we were talking about the wonderful free range life the chickens and I live here.. As I mentioned Hinge took a goshawk hit.
If they make it back to the coop and eat, I wait until they are roosting to give them an examination. I mentioned to the main house that I could use a hand but they were off to dinner apparently. The track is now open and the three or four days they've had to spend here has all been too much for them. Nobody to talk to and no one to impress makes this lot fray around the edges.
Notch is fine. He's just lost a few feathers. Well done him.
Hinge isn't so fine.
It's quite difficult to take pictures with one hand while holding a chickens wing up with the other with a point and squirt camera. The chickens don't like the flash etc etc.
This is a shot under one wing. All that white is bare skin and the red is of course blood.

This is more of the same side.

This is the other side under her wing.

It looks as if she has two puncture wounds, one under each wing. A goshawk claw across her back sideways on could account for the wounds. She also has a small wound on her belly.

Her feathers are matted with blood on both sides and a lot have been ripped out. Others feel out during cleaning.
She was very calm as I cleaned her up. I stand them on the kitchen table or on the floor and don't restrain them. If they flap away or panic I let them go and gently steer them back to where I want them.
Hinge is pretty feral. There is no way to catch her during the day.
She's back on a perch in the coop with her family which is a lot less stressful for the chicken than being shut in some strange container. I'm the one who deals with the stress overnight hoping she is still active in the morning.

 

[Mtn Margie]

Hey, I will join in, the wind is blowing hard and it is getting ready to snow again. Hot coffee cafe or tea, whatever works! I have a DH, 4 sons- 2 fledged and 2 still nesting- 23,21,18,10. Love the 10 yr old, he keeps me sane! I have 2 beautiful granddaughters. 26 Chickens of hatchery stock and Mutts. I am looking forward to getting an order from Sand Hill Preservation Center this summer.
Cat and a horse round out the beasties.
A poultry vet would be seemingly in high demand, so would a degree in EnviroSci. Good luck with your studies!