California - Northern

[ronott1]

Roosting UP in a tree. Safer than on the ground, but my tree climbing days are well behind me. Not that I was exceptionally coordinated, I did love the joy of climbing. Falling out of a big ole tree caused me to have a lumbar laminectomy at the tender age of 16. I appreciate your idea. This is one street smart chicken. I hope she survives until we can find her a home. Any rehoming or rescue ideas are welcome!

If we find a taker, I'll provide the ladder and will enlist someone to pluck her off her perch.

oh yes, climbing trees is what Grand Kids are for....

 

[ronott1]

I was curious, so I went out and measured them and the biggest ones are 6 inches across. They are growing only in one place, and only about 6 of them. It appears that they like the area that I put the droppings I rake out of the chicken yard. I wouldn't want to disturb/pick them since I am throughly enjoying looking at them whenever I go out to the chicken yard. I have never seen them growing here before. I do like hearing about them and knowing what they are

Here are some other interesting mushrooms I took pictures of today. They make such interesting subjects for photography.

watch out for that death cap mushroom!

Great pictures!

Mushrooms grow where wood is buried.

The Earths largest singe organism is a fungus in Oregon. It is as big as a Forrest!

 

[Grandmas Basket]

oh yes, climbing trees is what Grand Kids are for....

My one and only grandchild, Mira June, is not quite 2 1/2. She is adventurous and would no doubt love to go chicken grabbing. Unfortunately, now that she is very adept verbally, she probably would share her adventure in glorious detail with her parents (with embellishments for maximum effect). The fall out could be supervised visits plus restrictions on touching the grand-baby-to-be, due in August. I think I will enlist my son instead. He's nearly healed up after severely twisting his ankle while hiking the Na Pali Coast trail last October. Yep, he owes me one. Had great fun calling and excitedly announcing "Mom, I'm OK but I just got a Life Flight ride but at least I didn't break any bones!"

 

[Grandmas Basket]

If they aren't up too high, I've been able to use a steel garden rake and push that up against their bellies or chest, like you would use your finger, arm or hand to get a caged bird of it's perch.

-Kathy

I have a great rake. Hadn't thought of using it on chickens - Thanks for the tip!

 

[AmyPaperlady]

I think maybe I've got someone pretending to be a rooster... Quiche has a not-bald ('tis fuzzy, but the outer feathers are gone--I know it looks like skin in the photo, but she moved) spot at the top of her neck, just under her skull, and Curry's back feathers are just fluff. They are the only 2 that have any broken feathers--then again, 2 out of 5 is 40%... The 3rd photo is to show that she used to have feathers all the way back...


Now for just fun photos!


My 10-year-old holding Omelette.



10-year-old being a monkey, 5-year-old copying (she's the one that brought the stool over) and Omelette appearing to think they're nuts

 

[chrissyr]

I have never had problems with pine shavings in the 50 years I have been doing this. People say all kinds of things online. I have not used cedar shavings much, so I don't know about that. I know that if cedar shavings get wet they can stain a bird, but until recently I had never heard anything about cedar being a bad thing. When you read this kind of stuff online these days it would seem everything is bad for chickens.....kind of a miracle any of them survived.

Walt

Thank you Walt. Yes, neither have I through the years. Although I see the chicks picking at them, but never a problem. The internet can sometime NOT be helpful with stuff like this. Gets people thinking the wrong way. You have way more experience than me, so it's nice to hear you haven't had a problem.

I love seeing all the colors! What a fun basket you must put together.

I'm going to admit something; I have a really hard time eating fertilized eggs. Did anyone else have this problem before they started chickening? I don't know what my problem is because I know that there's nothing wrong with eating them. It's just a mental hurdle.

That's totally ok. When I was pregnant with my son I actually couldn't even LOOK at an egg without getting sick. I got rid of my whole flock for a couple of years. Clean eggs in clean nest boxes, just couldn't even look at them.
I even have a friend who just got 100 pullets for eggs. She sells them. But she said she can't eat her own chicken eggs. She buys the store's. Not sure why, but that's the story. That really shocked me. I couldn't wrap my head around that. She loves her birds though.

 

[chiqita]

watch out for that death cap mushroom! Great pictures! Mushrooms grow where wood is buried. The Earths largest singe organism is a fungus in Oregon. It is as big as a Forrest!

I thought there was a cave fungas in mexico? Ill hace to mario some probing questions about his beloved cave fungas. You could have just gotten me out of a trip to mexico! Woo!

[COLOR=000000]I think maybe I've got someone pretending to be a rooster...[/COLOR] Quiche has a not-bald ('tis fuzzy, but the outer feathers are gone--I know it looks like skin in the photo, but she moved) spot at the top of her neck, just under her skull, and Curry's back feathers are just fluff. They are the only 2 that have any broken feathers--then again, 2 out of 5 is 40%... The 3rd photo is to show that she used to have feathers all the way back... Now for just fun photos! My 10-year-old holding Omelette. 10-year-old being a monkey, 5-year-old copying (she's the one that brought the stool over) and Omelette appearing to think they're nuts

Omlette does seem to think they should be leaving it to the pros.

 

[lawatt]

I have another plant question for everyone. Are there any plants that you've noticed that the chickens leave alone? I know I've seen lavender mentioned (and I also saw that someone DOES have their chickens pecking at it), sage... anything else? What about salvias? I'm trying to get a little list put together, because I'm going to start planting soon. I'm hoping that since the plants will have almost a year's head start that they might stand a chance if I put enough in there. Any suggestions are welcome! And yes I DO realize that this might be a pipe dream and I may end up with a giant patch of dirt, but I'd like to try, at least. lol.

small sprouts will almost certainly be torn up by the feet scratching, but once plants are larger, there are actually quite a lot that chickens don't eat at all, or will only briefly nip but then leave alone. Ones that i have no trouble growing (except again, protecting them if they are very small so they can't be uprooted) include:

-- lavender
-- rosemary
-- sage -- the regular cooking kind they won't touch at all, i also have some other salvias and they sometimes nip at those, but if the plant's large enough it'll be fine
-- lambs ears -- they actually do like to eat the leaves, but if the plant's big enough, it can spare them.
-- CA poppies
-- fever few
-- mexican daisies
-- catmint and other mint plants
-- blue flax -- again, they nibble on these, but do not demolish the plant
-- daffodils and narcissus (lots up right now, chickens haven't touched them)

granted, if the plants were enclosed into the coop with the chickens full-time, i'm sure they be wiped out -- if not eaten, trampled -- but my chickens roam through my garden whenever they're out and about, and it's survived just fine:

that's a massive sage plant behind them, and a lemon tree -- and this picture makes the garden look like it's all gravel, but it isn't, here is is without chickens:

 

[chiqita]

small sprouts will almost certainly be torn up by the feet scratching, but once plants are larger, there are actually quite a lot that chickens don't eat at all, or will only briefly nip but then leave alone. Ones that i have no trouble growing (except again, protecting them if they are very small so they can't be uprooted) include: -- lavender -- rosemary -- sage -- the regular cooking kind they won't touch at all, i also have some other salvias and they sometimes nip at those, but if the plant's large enough it'll be fine -- lambs ears -- they actually do like to eat the leaves, but if the plant's big enough, it can spare them. -- CA poppies -- fever few -- mexican daisies -- catmint and other mint plants -- blue flax -- again, they nibble on these, but do not demolish the plant -- daffodils and narcissus (lots up right now, chickens haven't touched them) granted, if the plants were enclosed into the coop with the chickens full-time, i'm sure they be wiped out -- if not eaten, trampled -- but my chickens roam through my garden whenever they're out and about, and it's survived just fine: that's a massive sage plant behind them, and a lemon tree -- and this picture makes the garden look like it's all gravel, but it isn't, here is is without chickens:

My chickens eat mint are narcissus are listed as a plant to grow as a chicken treat in my gardening book. It is interesting your girls don't find it that interesting!

 

[lawatt]

My chickens eat mint are narcissus are listed as a plant to grow as a chicken treat in my gardening book.
It is interesting your girls don't find it that interesting!

this is a pretty nice little book, and has a good list of "chicken resistant plants" (p. 141) -- but a lot of the trick is the have the ratio of plants to chickens right, so even if they nip a few leaves, they move on to nibble something else, rather than staying and chowing down.
http://www.timberpress.com/books/free_range_chicken_gardens/bloom/9781604692372

other plants my flock ignores: scented-leaf geraniums, calla lilies, foxglove, thyme, oregano, borage, love-in-the-mist...

edit: all the plants in my garden are also ones that deer don't like to eat, since they are a far bigger plant-predator around here than the chickens are!