California - Northern

[ronott1]

Quote: I will find out next week...

 

[zooweemama]

I will find out next week...

Be sure to share the delicious details!

 

[Meg2000000]

That is a problem with the show quality Polish having such big crests! I do trim them some so they can see better, but their vision still isn't very good. Makes them startle easily but they are super gentle and friendly birds. I love them!

I really enjoy seeing pictures of everyone's poultry! So bring them on!

Loved your pictures! Those Polish guys are adorable!!! They look like a stuffed animal!

 

[Meg2000000]

My 5 week olds.


Samson and Harriet


My hot pullet.

And just for fun...

I love the butt! Haha this is such a cute picture!! You've got some real talent!

they're so handsome! now that i've got a pair of five-week olds (as of yesterday), here's a question -- should i wait a few days (or longer) so that they can get to know/recognize me before taking them out on brief free-ranging excursions? i don't have a fenced yard, & they seem too afraid of me now to let them loose... but not sure how much time to give them to adjust?

thanks!
laura


edit: just counted off on the calendar, and realized my new ones are 6 weeks old today (hatched 5/27).

Hi Laura,
I am new to chickens too.. what a blast! I only had my first 3 for a week before I left for vacation for a month but had them already trained! They really are quick animals I just grabbed a bag of meal worms and shook it and called "hey chickee chickee chickee" and threw some on the ground. I started really close to them and then moved away still putting some on the ground. I'd do that all the way back to the coop. Now, they can be across the yard and if one of us shakes a bag, they come running!

So talk to me about substrate. What kind of bedding do YOU use in your coop. Some people use sand, pine chips, straight up dirt etc in their coop. My concern with pine chips is 1) cost 2) clean up 3) a giant compost pile full of almost nothing but pine chips. Sand seems good. But I am concerned about how easy it is to clean...straight dirt seems like the worst option as the poop builds up and I would step in major bad. And the run currently is dirt- I do not want to line that with sand but nor a bunch of chips. Leave the dirt? I have read all over BYC on this. There is no clear choice. You guys share my climate so I thought I would ask what you all do. TY

I don't have much experience but for what it's worth we left the bottom dirt and covered with pine stall bedding (the pellets). I think it's like $7.50 a bag and 2 covered the ground for our 8X4 coop. When we got back from vacation we added a layer of wood shavings (about the same cost for a big pressed cube of it and we only had to use like 15% of the bag to cover the ground.) The chickens love scratching in it and it smells like a new house in there!

I love seeing all the pics! It helps me learn what all the chicken acronyms mean! Finally got WC chocolate and BLRW, thanks to Chickee.

Zooweemama, I loved your photo of ducks on the pond. Will be thinking how lucky they are to be cool during the sweltering days this week. I am also interested in what to cover the coop/run floor with, so would love to hear more about what folks use and pros/cons.

I finally got a few pics to post, so Chickee can see where her girls are going to live. We're not very fancy here, so hope you don't change your mind!

The coop under the apricot and cherry trees.

WOW! What a great setup you have! Love your dog too

pine shavings with a little cedar to keep the bugs lower

I'm new but I think that everywhere I've read it says cedar was poisonous to chickens.. I could be totally wrong though!

 

[lawatt]

hi folks --

quick question: i've had my six-week-old cuckoo marans pullets for two whole days now, and they are quite frightened by me -- despite trying to move slowly & speak in soothing tones, and offer treats (except they're so skittish, they don't seem to peck at the treats until i've moved away, so not sure there's any association being made). it's not clear to me that they got much human interaction as they were growing up this far.

so, any suggestions on calming them down & helping them to adjust, or is that just a matter of time?

thanks,
laura

 

[JerseyGiantfolk]

It's a tie between the Heritage RIRs and the EO Basque at seven each. I am not keeping the RIRs as breeders. I will have three EO Basque pullets and one or two cockerels of those, so they will be the most. I will be breeding the Cream Legbars and currently have three cockerels and two pullets of those. I am going to hatch out a batch of the CLs as soon as I can and try to get four pullets. I should keep two cockerels for breeding. I plan on keeping two of the Heritage RIRs and selling two of my Hatchery RIRs.

Sadly, the Sherriff(Mary from Auburn) lost her breeding rooster last night. She now has to get another one and due to bio security, she wants to hatch her own from eggs, so it will take a while for hers to get going again. She can grab eggs from her pullets for a couple of weeks, so she could get some going now, but it is late in the year for getting production going. The new rooster would be ready in 5 or 6 months.

Quite tragic and sad for her....

Bye

That's terrible!

I remember loosing my roo on Valentines Day in 2010.

Of course, we immediatly put his fertilized eggs in the bator... had chicks in my room for 7 months

 

[ronott1]

hi folks --

quick question: i've had my six-week-old cuckoo marans pullets for two whole days now, and they are quite frightened by me -- despite trying to move slowly & speak in soothing tones, and offer treats (except they're so skittish, they don't seem to peck at the treats until i've moved away, so not sure there's any association being made). it's not clear to me that they got much human interaction as they were growing up this far.

so, any suggestions on calming them down & helping them to adjust, or is that just a matter of time?

thanks,
laura

Hi Laura,

Moving to a new place is stressful to chickens. Also, they may have been raised as chickens and not pets. Mine are big pets for the most part.

They will love you but it will take some time. Start by getting something they love, like worm frenzy. You could use anything though, like left over oatmeal, shredded up cabbage or broccoli. Say here Chickee chickee and drop some of the food near them. They may run off, but they will soon learn that you bring them food. Get closer to them until they will eat the food out of your hand. Eventually you will want to pick them up and hold them.

They may never be cuddly but you will get them to be pretty friendly.

The EO basque that I gave to Megan would walk up to me and jump onto my hand. That is the friendlies little one so far. Mine often become friendlier when they start laying eggs, but the Basque Hens are still 6 or so weeks away from laying.

Let us know how the chicken taming goes!

Ron

 

[Meg2000000]

Wild turkeys in our backyard. I lost count around 26.


can you see my kitty?

I want to live where you live!!

Sorry I was gone for some time. I had to go to a funeral, but now I'm back

Welcome back! I'm sorry for your loss as well. Hope you're doing ok.

I have one bigger coop, three chicken hutches two of which will be use as breeding pens. Those two have runs attached. I also have a little coop that should hold three but four choose to sleep in it at night. I am thinking about building another one in the side yard, a 4x4 for extra space. I have the EO Basque where they belong but need to find a home for three cockerels. My youngest said it looked like a chicken city. She plays the Sims game....

One of them would make a great breeding Rooster. The second looks good but is smaller the last one is pretty but has white feet and an off color for the standard. Any takers? I also have two FBC Marans that have nice copper.

Ron

I love the Sims games!! Just had to comment about that! hahaha

I have eggs in my incubators!

A new one to me are Pita Pintas. I also have EO Basque and Partridge Pendesencas in there.

I was worried that I would not be able to tell the chiks apart until I found a picture of Pita Pinta chicks:

Marraduna EO Basque look like:



Megan, some of these are the ones you have now! They sure do change...

I hope I have a good hatch!

Ron - I am sooooo excited you are incubating for me. You seriously are the best BYC person I know!!

 

[Meg2000000]

Before any work was done:

Inside before any work was done:
Where we are so far:
Please help us decide a lay box/roost orientation. Pleaseeeee....oh my coop is 8x8. I think I like the first idea better. Seems simpler and less work. Would it bother the hens to have the roosting shelf above them though?

Amy Beth the coop looks awesome! You guys have been working hard these hot days!

I am down to 38 from 46. I will be selling a couple of FBC Marans pullets on Monday and it's time to process the Marans Cockerels soon. I am hatching for Megan, so won't be adding to mine(ok, I might get a couple of pullets from the Marraduna Basque eggs

). Hopefully I will get down to my breeding and laying pens soon.

OMG Ron I had no idea you had so many! Wish I could be somewhere that would allow so many!

 

[zooweemama]

Ohhhh hubby's gonna build me a poop board! Woot! He's so nice! I think instead of doing it 2 roosts deep I will line 2 walls with them- put the feeder/waterers under one and the lay boxes under the other? If I put the poop boards 2 roosts deep that sucker would have to come out like 4 feet! That's a lot of reaching to clean plus climbing underneath to access the lay boxes for collection or cleaning. Still mentally working it out.

We did decide on adding fill dirt to the bottom of the coop, PDZ layer and then the pine on top. Having the poop boards will help cut down on the pine shavings usage I think. This will also be a nice experiment on how we want to build our big coop later.