California - Northern

[BCollie]

Well, to bed early tonight. Tomorrow I go to school to pick up my diploma(I did not want to go to the graduation ceremony), then I go to the doctor at 11, get home by 12:30, get Splash ready to go to the vet, take her to the vet, get the blood sample ready to ship, go to FedEx, drop it off, then finally go home. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day! Today I managed not to cry about my girls possibly having mg, lol. But I have been an emotional wreck the last few days. I definitely need a good night's sleep. Good night, all!

 

[TheKeeper]

No we give your kids fappy birds to take home..

Ha! I fully blame Mario for that. Fortunately, Parker moved on from it quickly.

Let me know if/when you have any seramas eggs. I'd love to have a frizzle hen & debs_flock hens are all broody.
How are the silkies chicks?

 

[PetRock]

I'd spring her out myself if I didn't already have four dogs of my own.

What a cute dog! She looks like she could be my dog's litter mate! Ours was a rescue dog and we aren't sure what breed mix she is. She is a header so we are assuming there is some kind of cattle dog in there. (As you can see, we seem to collect black and white animals!)

 

[caychris]

The Chickens enjoying the run this evening I tried to set up a video but having trouble with that so here are the stills



You can see the buffs keeping their distance from the Dels they often run for cover under my chair.


Rare moment when everyone is happy.


Penny/Pete

 

[InWrongCentury]

THE COOP IS ALMOST DONE!!!



Which is good, because the chicks are only getting bigger, and I've had to be creative in placing their feeder and waterer because they were destroying them in their chariot races around the brooder. Better news, no pink/red combs yet!

Also, maybe a coop where I augmented the plans and let my artistic side run amok wasn't such a great idea for my first go at building a structure...

 

[ronott1]

The Chickens enjoying the run this evening I tried to set up a video but having trouble with that so here are the stills



You can see the buffs keeping their distance from the Dels they often run for cover under my chair.


Rare moment when everyone is happy.


Penny/Pete

They really enjoy the new setup!

I hope you can get the video up soon.

 

[ronott1]

THE COOP IS ALMOST DONE!!!



Which is good, because the chicks are only getting bigger, and I've had to be creative in placing their feeder and waterer because they were destroying them in their chariot races around the brooder. Better news, no pink/red combs yet!

Also, maybe a coop where I augmented the plans and let my artistic side run amok wasn't such a great idea for my first go at building a structure...

It looks nice!

The chickens will not care about art. They just want a place to be safe at night and lay their eggs. The artistic part is for us of course.

Good Job!

 

[caychris]

I have found the ramp to be the chickens biggest problem with my design. I think I will ultimately have to replace it with longer one as this one is rather steep. I added some sandpaper sheets in between the grip boards and it seems to help.

Shortly after my pics the buffs went to their cage door wanting in. So I let them in and they went to bed quite easily on their own. The dels seemed to be a bit confused still about where to go. I put one on the ledge outside the coop and she went in. I tapped the top of the ramp and called to the rest and 2 of them came up and went inside on their own. The last one seemed lost so we coaxed her up the ramp with carrot tops. She finally went inside and they have been there since.

I think they are getting it. Though they do not roost yet they still huddle in the nest box together. I think this is a hold over from when they were in the small box in the garage.

So far the pecking of the buffs have not pulled any feathers or targeted eyes. Most of it has been targeted at the back of the neck or top of head. Seems like a lot of Im showing you who is boss so dont forget your place. THe buffs did similar things to the little buffs when they were put together so a taste of their own medicine probably wont hurt them too much. Some of the chasing was prompted by the buff running around with a piece of watermelon in its beak.

I'm trying to determine the order among the 4 dels. It appears that Penny has taken it upon herself to be in charge of putting the Buffs in their place. the others do not go much out of the way to push them around unless they show too much spirit. We shall see how things evolve. Ill try to get them together more over the next couple of weeks. I need to get the second feeder in the run. The buffs are a little small for the water container in the big run. I need to figure out how to lower it a bit.

 

[AlpineButterfly]

Welcome back, @AlpineButterfly !

Thanks!

Welcome Moon Chicken! Glad to hear from you again Alpine. I can't imagine being away from home that long. It was 13 years between our vacations, mostly gardens that kept us homebound.

Yeah, it was a long time. But it wasn't so bad, since it's close enough that I did come home for a day partway through. One of the nice things about living with people, is there is usually someone who can take care of the critical things.

Hi my NorCal peeps, I started building my coop today.

The nest box will be in the right corner - 1"cubed, is that really big enough for a Brahma?

Oh, I missed that there were other coops being built! Yay! I don't have much guidance on size, other than it seems like you always end up needing a bigger one!

THE COOP IS ALMOST DONE!!! Which is good, because the chicks are only getting bigger, and I've had to be creative in placing their feeder and waterer because they were destroying them in their chariot races around the brooder. Better news, no pink/red combs yet! Also, maybe a coop where I augmented the plans and let my artistic side run amok wasn't such a great idea for my first go at building a structure...

I like it! I'm so impressed with everyone building their own coops. I bought a pre-made flat-pak one, and added my own run to fit in the space I had. Aesthetics were pretty important to me (to help ease the housemates into having chickens in the planter), but I was worried I wouldn't be able to build an entire coop with all the things my chickens needed. Turns out, I've modified the store bought one anyway.

 

[AmyPaperlady]

Well, I tried putting everyone together late this afternoon. I didn't want to dismantle the pen in case integration didn't go well, so I opened up the top and swung on in to get the new girls out. That was fun

I'm actually surprised I didn't end up stepping in the nest box.

Anyway, there was chasing and pecking and feather pulling, but it seemed to be going OKish. Then Cookie got trapped behind the feed buckets by everyone, and the base of her comb got torn a little. (A very little--I think it stopped bleeding pretty quickly.) I had my husband go get the Blue Kote and then how to figure out how to not get any in her eyes, since I've got the spray can. I finally sprayed some in the lid and dabbed it on with my finger. I got most of the purple off... Anyway, Cookie and No-Name are back in the pen, and I think I'd better get some sort of fencing up before I try again.