California - Northern

[Farmer 87]

thanks a lot this is my first year raising backyard chickens .I was raised on a farm but only had one or two chickens and never understood how it all worked.I know this is a little bit off topic . but when you go gather your eggs in the morning do you leave one do you take them all

 

[ChickNmamma]

that is a cool little mix .got some greens and brown eggs .I recently added to my flock to get a number of 23 head .14 black Australorps 6 week straight run , 2 Barred rock pullets dotie and roxy. 2 RR pullets Kathleen and lisinga,2 americana pullets ame and spaz. and now to gold star hins and 1 gold star rooster

Hello and Welcome to BYC!

You are going to have a pretty easter basket of eggs there.

Just to let you know - on this site they call the Americanas "Easter Eggers" or EE. I find it funny that you named one Spaz - most of my EEs were nice and mellow - except there always had to be one crazy one in the bunch!

 

[Ali707]

Promised you guys a shot of our new waterer. Hard to find this little buggar and the price tag was a shocker.

The flock has finally gotten used to it and love it!

I had this one in my last coop and the price tag IS ridiculous, there are pros and cons to it though. The pros, if you set the hose up right they never run out of water. I actually forgot to turn the hose on once! When I finally figured it out, I have NO idea how long it had been that there was no water in there... Somewhere between 1-3 days. I think they would have been dead if it had been 3 days though!

Cons, You have to unscrew the top to clean inside and in the summer it gets stinky quick! At least once a week I had to clean it, but then again, I didn't know of ACV back then so that might have helped some.

Good luck with it and after a month or so, let me know what you think of it. It was nice that they NEVER ran out of water though. Except for user error.

that is a cool little mix .got some greens and brown eggs .I recently added to my flock to get a number of 23 head .14 black Australorps 6 week straight run , 2 Barred rock pullets dotie and roxy. 2 RR pullets Kathleen and lisinga,2 americana pullets ame and spaz. and now to gold star hins and 1 gold star rooster

 

[ChickNmamma]

thanks a lot this is my first year raising backyard chickens .I was raised on a farm but only had one or two chickens and never understood how it all worked.I know this is a little bit off topic . but when you go gather your eggs in the morning do you leave one do you take them all

I put a fake egg in the nestbox so the birds know where to lay. I don't leave a real one because I might not remember to collect it the next time - and I don't want to leave one there too long

especially when it is hot!

You can also use golf balls. Just so the hens know its ok to lay an egg there - because there is already an egg there...

 

[Farmer 87]

so chickens don't know the difference between real eggs and bacon eggs

 

[Ali707]

Have you checked the poo pictures. The range of normal is amazing.
http://chat.allotment.org/index.php?topic=17568.0


I've seen that planting of Northern/Southern on the freeway median. Someone told me once about it's significance. I had forgotten all about it.

I used to have a friend that was a palm collector. He had everything you could think of. He once pointed out an extremely rare palm growing in someone's yard backed up to Hwy 50 near Watt Ave. That was 25+ years ago and I still look at that palm every time I drive by. When I went to Hawaii in 1988, somehow a few palm seeds came home with me that I had picked up, he got every one of them to grow.

Thanks again for that link. I have referred to it several times now. I was too ignorant before to even consider that their poo could be a sign of anything abnormal, and this time around I am not using medicated feed so I am being paranoid.

 

[Ali707]

so chickens don't know the difference between real eggs and bacon eggs

bacon eggs?

That would be handy. A bacon egg....... saves you the effort at breakfast time.

 

[Farmer 87]

lol I meant fake eggs .dumb predicted text. but stay away from those bacon eggs. bad for your cholesterol

 

[ChickNmamma]

lol I meant fake eggs .dumb predicted text. but stay away from those bacon eggs. bad for your cholesterol

Nope, they don't know the difference. Although I suspect they would eat the bacon eggs if you put them out there - they are omnivores!

I have had a few sillies try to hatch the fake eggs too. I left them in there just long enough to determine if they were really serious - then I switched them for real eggs so they would actually hatch a chick - instead of a rock...

 

[gryeyes]

The auto waterer I use in my coop is similar to this one:
http://www.flemingoutdoors.com/auto-poultry-waterer-with-cover.html

Instead of the cover just hovering there like the one in the link, the one I found has two long cut-outs through the "wall" for drinking and the cover snaps onto the sides of the circular unit itself. The cover has a high peak so nobody can roost on it.

EASY to clean.

In other news. I found a present on the kitchen floor from my cat, Lizbeth: a dead cottontail bunny.

She had to hunt on the property behind mine to accomplish that job. It's quite a step up from the various lizards she usually brings me. She ignores the flock (well, she does watch chicks but has learned they are off limits) so I am thinking she is taking out frustration with getting pecked by broody moms or "groomed" by goslings who pinch her ears too much.