California-Southern

[FaerieChicken]

Yay! I love my Phoenix! Where are yours from? They're such a cute breed. He's a bad hatch, I think the his egg didn't get turned enough so his left side is totally deformed

he's happy and feisty and eats and poops right so I guess he's ok, he's just terrified of Nero so they can't be in the coop together. They're fine out ranging though, but that wasn't going to happen yesterday.

His name is Derpy and any derivative thereof, such as Sir Derpster, Derpydoo, Derperautomous, Ah-Derp-Derp, etc. I want to get him a girl of his kind but I don't know where to get sexed pullets.

Here he is!

Well I must say, despite any physical deformities, he is definitely handsome! I received my guy, Joaquin, from a lady whom raises/breeds lots of different poultry. We were looking for a Phoenix and we were directed to Central Coast Feather Fanciers. From there, they put us in contact with the gal whom provides for 4-H and happened to have some hatched at that time. She had showed the Sire at the Mid State fair 2016 and took best of breed! So the guys we have, which I am trying to rehome 1 of them, are the best of breed offspring.

Your Tom is beautiful, by the way! Is he a blue slate mixed with something? That tail coloring is awesome! I want turkeys....and ducks and geese....

I received him from the same gal as stated above whom I received the Phoenix from. His Dam is a self blue hen and the Sire a Bourbon Red tom. Just hatched out one of his offspring, my hen is a Royal Palm.

We had minimal flooding at the big coops. Nobody wanted to go outside. The poor baby coop was the worst. We are going to move it, to see if we can find a better draining area. This is what we had to do to even get out to the coops without sliding.



Good luck everyone with tomorrow's storm.

Wow, hitting left and right! Up and Down, side to side and all around! Crazy mad love for these storms, dang I hate mud! I can't wait to get my porch enclosed to keep them off of it. All my chooks are freekin poopers!

 

[Sylvester017]

Wow, hitting left and right! Up and Down, side to side and all around! Crazy mad love for these storms, dang I hate mud! I can't wait to get my porch enclosed to keep them off of it. All my chooks are freekin poopers!

It's been downpouring so hard I actually haven't minded having the chickens on the raised porches and opened the baby-gate to allow entrance to our side to keep them from getting soaked or chilled -- the concrete slab responds to hosing off all the poops later on.

 

[FaerieChicken]

It's been downpouring so hard I actually haven't minded having the chickens on the raised porches and opened the baby-gate to allow entrance to our side to keep them from getting soaked or chilled -- the concrete slab responds to hosing off all the poops later on.

My crazy chickens like to roost up in the trees, I think they just don't care about the rain! My turkey hen is broody in my berry bush, and she doesn't seem to mind either!

 

[Sylvester017]

My crazy chickens like to roost up in the trees, I think they just don't care about the rain! My turkey hen is broody in my berry bush, and she doesn't seem to mind either!

That is so-o-o funny! Normal feathered fowl seem to take to inclement weather pretty well -- as long as they are acclimated to it. Unfortunately I have one Silkie prone to CRD issues and inclement weather brings on symptoms if she frolics in mud puddles and rain with all the others. So, I have to section everyone from the mud and pouring rain just so she can stay with the flock. Hey, the rain will stop by next week according to the forecast so losing a week of scratching and foraging in the backyard won't hurt them. They'll be back in the sunshine by Monday taking their sun baths and digging for worms again! Hey, so will I -- I'm behind in my gardening!

 

[Amelia Egghart]

Redwood bark update:

Mites!

I knew this was a potential issue, so I threw some sevin on the bark when I put it down but looks like there were enough mites to still get to the birds. Ugh. Only see redness and a couple lifted scales on my rooster, no one else. I'll bathe his legs and treat him today, and give the perches and everyone's legs a spray of poultry protector followed by vetrx. That's all I can do for now though.

Shucks! It looks so good in there!

 

[Sylvester017]

Redwood bark update:

Mites!

I knew this was a potential issue, so I threw some sevin on the bark when I put it down but looks like there were enough mites to still get to the birds. Ugh. Only see redness and a couple lifted scales on my rooster, no one else. I'll bathe his legs and treat him today, and give the perches and everyone's legs a spray of poultry protector followed by vetrx. That's all I can do for now though.

Shucks! It looks so good in there!

Vitamin E and/or A oils were recommended to me by the vet to massage into beak, combs, wattles, face, legs, toes, and toenails for its health benefits, frostbite, or mite issues on the legs/toes. Poultry Protector is good if it is sprayed directly on the mites. Hope you and your flock get through these horrible downpours! First time in 6 years my hens have stayed out of rainy weather - in the past, rain meant fun scratching for worms but wisely they've been staying undercover this whole week. I thought we'd have to shut them up in the run to keep them out of the rain but they've been keeping undercover on their own.

When we got our first birds we had this little custom-built coop made by a feed store customer and it lasted us 5 yrs before passing it on to someone else. It was a cute coop but made out of the cheapest materials (OSB and 1" flimsy poultry wire). We kept it covered with tarp all the time to protect from brutal sun rays or pouring rain. If rain was forecast we used a pop-up canopy over it but during sudden downpours it was a challenge diverting water from flooding the dirt floor. Years later I resolved never to have flooded coop/run floors again and we built a roofed slab patio for the new coop and it's been such a blessing!

OLD COOP - no slab foundation no patio roof


NEW COOP - same location as above but with patio slab floor and roof over the coop/run.

 

[JShubin]

 

[Amelia Egghart]

Vitamin E! Thanks! I just bought some for my needy Phoenix, so perfect

At least your covered area is cement. I'm going to have some cleaning to do...

LOL poor pathetic birds! All but the Phoenix are on the porch - he's on the couch. Brat.

My neighbor let me use their Amway LOC multi purpose cleaner. It dissolved chicken poop, even the old cecal that turned black and hard. So I'm not too concerned about the porch

 

[Sylvester017]

Poor drenched birds! Putting some paver stones on a dirt floor will give the chickens a place to stand out of the cold water. That's what we did when we had our dirt-bottom little coop. SoCal is so notorious for heatwaves and humidity but once or twice every decade or so we get these torrential downpours!

 

[Sylvester017]

Vitamin E! Thanks! I just bought some for my needy Phoenix, so perfect

At least your covered area is cement. I'm going to have some cleaning to do...



LOL poor pathetic birds! All but the Phoenix are on the porch - he's on the couch. Brat.

My neighbor let me use their Amway LOC multi purpose cleaner. It dissolved chicken poop, even the old cecal that turned black and hard. So I'm not too concerned about the porch

The birds look so sad huddled against your door. It's usually what my hens do too except it was so rainy today they stayed huddled under the porch next to the garage door where there's less wind.

I buy liquid vitamin E oil bottles from Walmart and massage it into my chickens' face, beak, comb, wattles, legs, toes, and nails. I have all feather-legged breeds and the vet said to go ahead and massage the oil into the leg/toe feathers too because of the health benefits. I like the vit E oil because after wiping off the excess I put the birds back to roost and by morning there's no greasy residue on the feathers like vaseline leaves behind. I used vaseline once on my Leghorn's comb and it made such a mess on her head feathers that dirt stuck to her head and stained her pretty white feathers horribly until her next molt. With vit E oil it absorbs cleanly overnight into the feathers/skin plus provides added health benefits that vaseline doesn't.

Amway and Shaklee both had good cleaners and laundry soaps. I used to love Basic H but can't remember which one sells it. But that stuff lasts for years on the shelf. I had a 20-yr old bottle that cleaned just as well as it did the first day I bought it.