California - Northern

[gryeyes]

Is that what you feed your ducks? Little goldfish? What else do they eat?

Oh, no! The goldfish are for FUN! I use the "feeder" fish because they're inexpensive and they may very well get eaten. But the goldfish "safe zones" are there so maybe a few of the smarter ones survive.

I feed my ducks what the whole flock gets: Nutrena All Flock.

For flock treats, bagged salad makings, BOSS (Black Oil Sunflower Seeds), a head of cabbage hung on a cord from a shepherd's hook, "baked egg" treat, and JUST for the ducks: frozen peas tossed into the pond. Also for everybody, melon guts and rinds (cantaloupe, for example), sometimes a whole watermelon. Other kitchen scraps.

 

[Chickengirl1304]

Oh, no! The goldfish are for FUN! I use the "feeder" fish because they're inexpensive and they may very well get eaten. But the goldfish "safe zones" are there so maybe a few of the smarter ones survive.

I feed my ducks what the whole flock gets: Nutrena All Flock.

For flock treats, bagged salad makings, BOSS (Black Oil Sunflower Seeds), a head of cabbage hung on a cord from a shepherd's hook, "baked egg" treat, and JUST for the ducks: frozen peas tossed into the pond. Also for everybody, melon guts and rinds (cantaloupe, for example), sometimes a whole watermelon. Other kitchen scraps.

Oh ok haha. Maybe that was a dumb question, just curious what they eat. I have those little fish too they're fun.

 

[debs_flock]

Quote:
They really are a striking bird, I love them. I can't decide which I prefer, the goldens or the silvers. And I love their personalities, very friendly and inquisitive.

Before I try to scrounge up a hose to run between the faucet and the pergola where I will be installing a misting system for the flock, I had to lug my window A/C unit to its working position.

Ahhhhh!

Yesterday, I picked up some feeder goldfish for the waterfowl pond. These were to supplement those I bought last week; not as many made it home as I had planned. (Took too long to get home...). The day before, the contractor who built the pond (and all the other constructed improvements here) cleanly sawed a large Terra cotta planter exactly in half, as I requested. With each half placed in the pond in separate spots, the smart goldfish have hiding places.

Mama duck has noticed the goldfish. I can't tell if the ducklings' dives are hunting dives or just their normal exuberance with submarine swimming.

Off to scrounge up a suitable hose to get water TO the misting system, then find the instructions I read so thoroughly last Summer.

I just sent off for 5 mister systems to put around all my banks of runs (well, almost all). I actually need three more to cover everyone. But that's already 130 feet of misters! Dang, I didn't think of the other two, I should have ordered them at the same time.

 

[lawatt]

They really are a striking bird, I love them. I can't decide which I prefer, the goldens or the silvers. And I love their personalities, very friendly and inquisitive.

mine are quite suspicious of me so far, but i'm sure they're just calming down from their harrowing Journey Inside A Box this morning. i love their dark dark eyes. and my house is fondly called the Silver House, as it has galvanized metal siding on parts of it, and silver is my jewelry color of choice... so the silver campines will fit right in (same logic got me my two silver penciled plymouth rocks last year).

and the roof is on the new pens, the guys are working on the henhouses, & then it looks like it will be wire mesh sides and doors for the runs... can't wait til it's done!

 

[debs_flock]

Quote: Ah, then you also need to add a Lakenvelder (can't seem to get a photo to post today, it just locks up). Beautiful black and white birds.
http://feathersite.com/Poultry/CGK/Lakens/BRKLakenvelder.html

 

[lawatt]

Ah, then you also need to add a Lakenvelder (can't seem to get a photo to post today, it just locks up). Beautiful black and white birds.
http://feathersite.com/Poultry/CGK/Lakens/BRKLakenvelder.html

they are! i currently have one light sussex, two cuckoo marans, and one australorp in the black-and/or-white dept -- and two birchen marans chicks. the black and blue isbars should mix in well, too -- but then i've got a bunch of brown-and-grey-ish birds, too. can't be TOO color-coordinated!

 

[lizanne]

Have to vent for a minute:
So I won eggs from a BYC member on the 24 hour auction. The auction ended on Sunday at 7:30. Her post said she needed immediate payment because she was shipping the eggs on Monday. So, I waited until Monday afternoon, and (after I hadn't heard from her) sent her a PM asking if I'd won the auction, and if she could send me her payment info. She responded with the info, and told me she would ship the eggs Tuesday. She's only in Oregon, so I have been waiting to get the eggs. So today I get an email from paypal letting me know that she was "shipping the eggs". Looked it up, and she hasn't even sent them yet, only printed the label. Really?!?!? You'd think she would at least let me know!!

I might just be cranky, because of the heat and all that... I don't want the eggs to sit in the PO over the weekend.

 

[ronott1]

Have to vent for a minute:
So I won eggs from a BYC member on the 24 hour auction. The auction ended on Sunday at 7:30. Her post said she needed immediate payment because she was shipping the eggs on Monday. So, I waited until Monday afternoon, and (after I hadn't heard from her) sent her a PM asking if I'd won the auction, and if she could send me her payment info. She responded with the info, and told me she would ship the eggs Tuesday. She's only in Oregon, so I have been waiting to get the eggs. So today I get an email from paypal letting me know that she was "shipping the eggs". Looked it up, and she hasn't even sent them yet, only printed the label. Really?!?!? You'd think she would at least let me know!!

I might just be cranky, because of the heat and all that... I don't want the eggs to sit in the PO over the weekend.

I am sorry about that!

There is a vendor rating you can use.

 

[OR4-hmom]

Have to vent for a minute:
So I won eggs from a BYC member on the 24 hour auction. The auction ended on Sunday at 7:30. Her post said she needed immediate payment because she was shipping the eggs on Monday. So, I waited until Monday afternoon, and (after I hadn't heard from her) sent her a PM asking if I'd won the auction, and if she could send me her payment info. She responded with the info, and told me she would ship the eggs Tuesday. She's only in Oregon, so I have been waiting to get the eggs. So today I get an email from paypal letting me know that she was "shipping the eggs". Looked it up, and she hasn't even sent them yet, only printed the label. Really?!?!? You'd think she would at least let me know!!

I might just be cranky, because of the heat and all that... I don't want the eggs to sit in the PO over the weekend.

I know how you feel. I bought eggs and got the tracking info from the seller, who's add said they would be sent immediately. Turns out they print the shipping label and fill orders whenever. It took three weeks to actually get any info. and they were sent on a friday during a hot streak. I guess Oregon handeling is tough on eggs also.

Hope yours get to you quickly and safely!

 

[Hangtown Farms]

So I just need to paint the wooden coop floor and put the doors on the coop, then my girls can go live outside.
So is the deep litter method, using Pine shavings, the best way to go? How much do I need?

everyone's got their own preferences with litter/bedding, so i don't think there's any one "best" -- that said, i use deep litter and love it, since it requires almost no work on my part. i started last year with maybe 2 or 3 inches of pine shavings over bare dirt, and then every time i clean the shavings out of the henhouse (maybe once a month?) i just sweep them into the coop -- it's accumulated up to about a foot thick in places, less so in others (the coop is on a slight slope, so the shavings are deeper at one end than the other). I also sometimes add dead leaves or raked-up straw from my weed-whacked meadow, which the chicklets LOVE to dig through (even when they can otherwise free-range!). i also gave them an old dresser-drawer with ashes from my woodstove in the wintertime, which they loved dust-bathing in, & it just mixed into the litter eventually as well. no smell, no real maintenance, and fantastic mulch for my fruit trees this winter!

Sooooo I have been going back and forth between the shavings and sand. I just can't decide and I have to make a choice this weekend.

I did shavings in my old coop and I did actually clean out the shavings on the floor once every 6 months or so. Of course I didn't really understand the deep litter method either, but I did have flies, and it did kind of stink.

I have been reading up a little on the sand and it seems like there are some converts from the shavings to the sand and they love it.

I am going to use sand in the coop with a poop board, but the run is where I haven't been able to decide. I am thinking maybe sand because the run may get pretty wet this next winter.......?

I use sand in my big coop and like it much more than shavings. My big coop is open though. Sand is harder in the closed coops as it can get real dusty in there..

I use about 3" of shavings in the others and clean it out weekly.
Sand I scrap like cat pooh and add a bag every few weeks. will really clean it good after 6 months or so.