Chicken Math. Or "The story of how I didn't want chickens and got hooked"

[azurbanclucker]

Some progress pics on the Blue Laced Red Wyandottes I picked up a few weeks ago. A couple of them are a little blurry, they don't like to hold still a whole lot. Really dark mahogany and blue coloring on them, I'm very happy with them so far.

An assortment of other girls includes Lavender Ameraucaunas, White Crested Polish, Black Isbar, OE, and a frizzle

 

[anatess]

Thanks. I can't wait to see how they end up. We decided to keep the GLW roo and got a no crow collar for him because I think he's going to look spectacular once he has all his feathers in. Time will tell.

WHOA! I've never heard of a "no crow collar" until now! What is it? Does it stop the crowing or just muffle it some? Can you use it in an urban neighborhood?

Okay, my chicken math story is not as extensive as yours but suffice it to say... my chickens are all illegal immigrants since my house is not zoned for chickens. I can't bring myself to get rid of my rooster (that we thought was a hen) but it would be really cool if we can give him some backyard time instead of just being cooped indoors all day long. But I'm afraid he'll cause the chickens to get deported - I have lots of birds chirping all over my backyard because my neighbors and I have all these songbird feeders, so they mask the clucking of the hens, but a rooster crowing is totally different.

 

[azurbanclucker]

@anatess
https://nocrowroostercollars.com/

Worth every penny. We've had 4 roos so far and I've still got one (We lost Rudy, sadly, and I gave away an OE and Cuckoo Maran roo to a guy who rehomes them as we're not allowed to have roos either. I kept the Black Langshan and as long as he flys under the radar he can stay). They have fitting and installation instructions on that page and the collars work well. Don't feed pelletized feed though, there's a risk it could get lodged in the throat with the collar. Crumble is fine. It won't 100% stop the crowing, it just mutes it significantly to the point where you don't have irritated neighbors at your door.

 

[MagpieDucks]

Some progress pics on the Blue Laced Red Wyandottes I picked up a few weeks ago. A couple of them are a little blurry, they don't like to hold still a whole lot. Really dark mahogany and blue coloring on them, I'm very happy with them so far.

An assortment of other girls includes Lavender Ameraucaunas, White Crested Polish, Black Isbar, OE, and a frizzleView attachment 1082138 View attachment 1082139 View attachment 1082141 View attachment 1082137

I believe one of those would be a GLW and 2 BLRW but it's kind of hard to tell.

 

[azurbanclucker]

I believe one of those would be a GLW and 2 BLRW but it's kind of hard to tell.

Only 2 total in these pics, but yeah, the one really looks looks gold laced until you put her next to the gold laced. It's hard to tell in this shot because of the lighting, but she's definitely blue underneath and a kind of brassy red on top. Once they're out of the grow pen I'll get some good pics and it'll be more apparent.

 

[joel904]

Ohhh welll look what was waiting for me this morning. What to do now???

 

[MagpieDucks]

Ohhh welll look what was waiting for me this morning. What to do now???View attachment 1084313 View attachment 1084315

CUTIE PIE!!!!!

 

[itspebbl]

Ohhh welll look what was waiting for me this morning. What to do now???View attachment 1084313 View attachment 1084315

It's so CUTE!

 

[azurbanclucker]

Took a HUGE step a a chicken owner and went away for a couple days. Made sure all 4 of the 5 gallon water buckets were topped up, left the soaker hose on for cool places to get out of the heat, and let the girls fend for themselves. Even the little ones. Judging by the carnage around the feeding stations the tortoises also got into the chicken feed, but there's very little I can do about that unfortunately. Most importantly, no casualties, and when I got home today the little ones were hanging out with the older girls no problem.

Looks like a new player has entered the egg laying game though, I found a very light (almost white) shelled egg under the lemon tree, plus a half dozen in the coop. Since I can't tell how long they've been out in the AZ heat, they're going to be recycled into scrambled eggs for the girls for breakfast tomorrow.

Big relief to know that my life support measures were successful while I was gone.

 

[JaeG]

The photos of your birds are just beautiful! Thanks for sharing them with us. Have you entered a couple in the Calendar competition?

Birds sure are addictive! You have a gorgeous assortment of breeds.

I hope the heat let's up for you soon. I'm in the southern hemisphere and we've had a very wet winter, the wettest in a long time. Thank goodness our girls have raised runs or they would be wading through (chicken) knee deep mud.