California - Northern

[liz9910]

Quote:
Ugh nothing like being outside trying to catch a chicken, especially when it's hot! Glad you found her ok. I sent you a PM about Seramas

 

[HighNDryFarm]

OK so Beakface and I are locked in a battle of wills and I am not winning. She hates the broody pen and refuses to sit on the golf balls in there and rushes me in an effort to escape. So I chalked that up to a learning experience and decided to give up on the broody business and try to break her by denying her access to "her" nest. All day yesterday she was locked out of the coop and forced to range. When she went back to the nest at night I moved her back to the broody pen. Let her out this morning and she is right back on that nest. There she sits.

So she is totally disrupting laying in the coop, growling stealing eggs etc. so really can't have her in there for 3 weeks. The alternative is to go pick up a couple of chicks and stick them under her tonight or continue to try to break her. It has been a full week now of her being broody and she hasn't broken.

DH says the chicks are a good idea!! It seems like the simplest way to have her be done with this.

I had no idea a hen could be so darn stubborn. I would like to change my request for a lot of broodies to "A lot of broodies who do what I say."

I feel your pain! My three broodies and now their mom, are fighting over nest so much they're squishing the chicks and killing them! The only way to tell the three sisters apart is one doesn't bite me when I check under her, one bites but no twisting and the other one I wear gloves to check under and I can still feel her bite and twist! I've lost quite a few chicks to these girls nest swapping so I moved the first broodie (Cinderella, the other two are the evil stepsisters) with her only two out of five babies that lived, out of the laying boxes and into the main coop. Yesterday morning one of the evil stepsisters had 2 but when I came home last tonight, both evil stepsisters are in the same box and their mom, Miss Bossy, (who has never gone broodie in her 3 years) is on one of the nests. I shake Miss Bossy loose of any eggs hidden in her wings and move her. I put my gloves on and move one of the two evil stepsisters back onto the eggs and search for the two chicks from that morning. One is dead, trampled in the nest swapping so I took the one remaining chick and gave her to the broodie with the two chicks and in a safer environment. I am SO tempted to fire back up the incubator and put the remaining eggs in and boot these girls out! What drama!

I was glad to find the mom accepted the new chick and when the other broodie took a break from her nest and tried to claim the little chick, Cinderella ran her off! I candled last night and there's lots of full eggs so hopefully they'll just hatch the darn things, take their little fuzzy butts out of the laying boxes and let the hens get back to laying in the coop!

 

[Shark Akhrrana]

How is everyone dealing with the heat?

 

[Happy Chooks]

Wait, I'm only 27 and it's the dump.... right? When did the dump stop being the dump.... what's it's called now?

Transfer station now.

Great pics! What do broody's do when they standoff? Are they fighting over eggs? That rooster is gorgeous!

Broodies don't want anyone near their eggs/babies. The BR is VERY protective of her chicks. Both hens were fine with the other hens chicks, but they were fighting each other. Now they are both cruising around the yard peacefully..................Until the next broody that hatched yesterday brings her babies out, then I'm sure it will start all over again!

Quote: Cockerel.

Quote: My brother was the king of cardboard kitty and potato launchers. He worked in an equipment yard, and he and his friends decided that acetaline would work really well.

No fireworks here, they are illegal and have been for a long time due to fires. We do still hear a few, but not too bad.

Quote: Yep. It has worked well for me until this barnevelder broody. My fault I guess I moved her too soon, she crushed one in the shell and smooshed another one. She's doing wonderfully with the other babies though.

 

[debs_flock]

No fireworks here, they are illegal and have been for a long time due to fires. We do still hear a few, but not too bad.

Fireworks have been illegal here for ages too (national forest and all). Two years ago the next door neighbor got drunk and was setting off fireworks at midnight. Ones that shoot into the air. He was standing in the middle of a pasture full of dry grass/weeds. Did I mention he was drunk? Deputies may have gotten involved.

This is the neighbor that recently moved.

 

[lawatt]

Broodies don't want anyone near their eggs/babies. The BR is VERY protective of her chicks. Both hens were fine with the other hens chicks, but they were fighting each other. Now they are both cruising around the yard peacefully..................Until the next broody that hatched yesterday brings her babies out, then I'm sure it will start all over again!

Yep. It has worked well for me until this barnevelder broody. My fault I guess I moved her too soon, she crushed one in the shell and smooshed another one. She's doing wonderfully with the other babies though.

i have to say, i'm thankfully to only have one broody at this point -- dealing with five at once earlier this spring was too much. but Dixie (cuckoo marans) is the best-behaved one yet! she doesn't hiss or squawk at me when i check under her for new eggs (laid by the others), she just patiently waits for me to go away. hoping good behavior is a trend!

 

[Ali707]

How is everyone dealing with the heat?

Well sweating would be one word.... another would be hiding. I am hiding indoors or in my car with the AC.

I went home at lunch to start the misters, fan and give the chickens some frozen watermelon.......That wouldn't have been a bad thing but I almost locked myself INSIDE the coop!

I put up a latching door lock so that I can better protect against Raccoons, and I didn't drill the hole yet for the wire for the inside release of the hook.

I had a big moment of panic when I pushed the door shut and heard the click. Thankfully a small twig through the hardware cloth to lift the latch saved my life! No one at home, cell phone on the kitchen counter, and no one to pick up my daughter after work.

My last thought before I got it open was that I was going to find out how well that hardware cloth holds! Chicken coop breakout!

 

[lawatt]

and Deb, what a tale about the raccoons and the fugitive chicks! i'm planning on taking my two 8 week old aracauna cockerels to Western Farm Center (local feed store) tomorrow morning, so I'm just waiting for them to disappear on the lam this afternoon...

 

[lawatt]

Well sweating would be one word.... another would be hiding. I am hiding indoors or in my car with the AC.

I went home at lunch to start the misters, fan and give the chickens some frozen watermelon.......That wouldn't have been a bad thing but I almost locked myself INSIDE the coop!

I put up a latching door lock so that I can better protect against Raccoons, and I didn't drill the hole yet for the wire for the inside release of the hook.

I had a big moment of panic when I pushed the door shut and heard the click. Thankfully a small twig through the hardware cloth to lift the latch saved my life! No one at home, cell phone on the kitchen counter, and no one to pick up my daughter after work.

My last thought before I got it open was that I was going to find out how well that hardware cloth holds! Chicken coop breakout!

funny, the same thing nearly happened to me last month -- when the guys built the two new pens, they didn't get enough bolt latches & didn't have one for the second pen's door -- so one of the guys made an improvised one out of a piece of bent wire & several poultry staples -- and it works so well i haven't replaced it yet, but one of the times i went inside the pen and closed the door, it managed to catch ever so slightly -- and i was stuck! had a slight moment of panic (no phone, neighbor too far away to hear me yell), before i remembered that the wire he used wasn't all that thick -- so i shoved hard on the door & the wire bent & popped open. *phew*!!

i really should replace it with a sliding bolt... once this heat wave passes. (this weekend will likely be the first time i regret not having A/C installed when i bought the house!)

 

[Nikon]

It is now a recycling sorting center.....................lah di dah, LOL Just don't look in my trash bags...................

LOL... wow. Must be the policitcally correct term.