Coffee's ready...

[oesdog]

Quote:
Do they eat enough calcium? They need calcium to make strong egg shells.
We save our egg shells, dry them, break them into small bits (so they don't look like eggs) and our girls love eating them. It's a good source of calcium.

I tried that with my girls - but they are so scared of "eating their own eggs" they took all the bits of egg shell out of their food and threw it down in the run and just ate the food. Then I had to go clean up the mess!!!!!! I don;t do that anymore!!!

Oesdog - They get my Greek Yogurt!!!!!

Spoiled rotten!!!

 

[chics in the sun]

You know, I haven't put calcium out in a while. I did notice a thin shelled egg in the roost a few days ago - whould that lead to egg-eating? Not just breaking like Math Ace is having, but the urge to eat them?

You have some strange chickens, Oesdog! Mine eat the crushed egg shells all the time. Mine eat Greek yougurt, too.

 

[oesdog]

Quote:
Tell me about it!!!!! I mean I have Gerty who thought sitting on mice was a good idea ( However the new girls Florance, Agnes, and Dorathy eat them!!!) Then this with the egg shells???? None of the girls touched them they just took the bits out of their food and threw them down all over the run???? I spent ages lifting the bits!!!!! They are good girls!!!!!! So I just give them yogurt now instead. I really do love them they are great charactors. Even Bertha fancy sitting chicks for 18 whole weeks!!!!!! They were soooo big it was so funny watching her trying to get on top of the darn things!!!!!

Oesdog - best of luck with the hatch!

 

[karl E lutz]

Good morning chicken wranglers
Oesdog good to see your typing on the thread again,how funny it is that the chickens we love will eat their own eggs.
Storm centers moving through my area are severe this morning,I'm so suprised that the cows don't go in the barn very often, no matter how nasty it gets outside.
I have a couple of calves out in the pasture that I keep on a rope tyed out where the othhers can't go. The forcast for today was severe enough that I moved them in with the others so they would have access to the barn if they felt like it. All they do is lay around in the mud.Well so much for the brain power of a cow.My real concern is the ones that are close to calving. They don't need to be born in a storm,but if one is I can guess the new name already,since the new bull's name is bully!I'm guessing----------------?

 

[chics in the sun]

I can't imagine a poor cow giving birth in a storm, but that would be a great name! Hope it doesn't get too bad. I wish we would get a bit of rain sometime soon.

Well, I put Ginger in the broody cage and she has settled in on the nest box in there. Sky has also stayed on the original clutch in the bigger nest box. She got up for a few minutes to eat some fettuchini and run around, but she was back on there overnight. Now I am going to move her to her own isolated corner that I can fence off, and count and mark the eggs she has in there. If they are all there by Sunday, I will think about giving her some to hatch. I'm a bit leary, though, as I'm almost positive there were two of my EE eggs in that original nest box that have vanished. I'm also wondering if a squirel or snake or something might be getting in. A mystery.....

 

[oesdog]

Quote:
Sometimes Momma hen can tell the eggs that are ok and the ones that are dead or not fertalised and she gets rid of or eats those for protein. She is sitting a nest a very long time. I do hope your sky sticks it out for you and doesn;t just have a bit of a fad like my Gerty did. - THen she was really really jeliouse of Bertha when she saw her chicks!!! They are so funny. That is when I caught Gerty brooding mice!!! She was sat on a load of baby mice in her nest and wouldn;t get off them, they were crawling through her feathers!!!!! She actually attacked me when I shood them away!!! She is a Maran and Grey like the Mice so I guess she thought adoption would be the easier option - talk about a lazy old hen!!!!!!! She just wouldn;t sit the nest for longer than a couple of hours tops before she got bored and the eggs were left to go stone cold for the rest of the day.

Karl - thanks for that. - Hope your Cows will be ok. WHen you said you tied the calves down I had this mental image of you getting a twister and the calves being up int he air like balloons on a string!!!!

- I just think of the film Twister - cow - another cow - No same cow!!!!!! - The cows in the back paddock here are sunning themselves and running about playing. We have great sun right now.

Oesdog

 

[karl E lutz]

we not in kansas anymore bully

 

[oesdog]

Quote:
Bully!!!!!!!!!!!! - Way and clip your little biddy red shoes!!!!!

Hope that old barn of yours isn't full of sharp objects ????? - Or you may end up with BBQ sized cows!!!!

Oesdog -

 

[ChickyLaura]

Good morning! I haven't been here to enjoy coffee in a little while. Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the "beginnings" of spring!

I can honestly say that I've never heard of a hen brooding mice! I probably would've screamed, but the picture in my head is actually kind of cute. Animals can be funny things!

karl, I hope your cows aren't stuck out in the storms. Common sense would say to go in the barn, but at least they're not brooding mice - although I'm sure it would be great pest control as the mice would be crushed...

We're making huge changes to our yard with plans to build a shed AND a separate greenhouse. We are also enclosing the yard and installing raised-bed veggie gardens this year. The greenhouse I'm sure won't come along until next year. Of course the code enforcement officer wants to "check it out". He's the guy last year that said I needed to get rid of all my chickens. Conveniently, his son was "into" chickens and came over and picked out all of my best hens. I figured they'd be going to a good home since the kid really did seem to know a lot about the particular breeds that I had. Well, on the way out the code enforcement officer mentioned that I could keep all of the hens that I had left. So, I lost all of my best hens. To the code enforcement officer. My mom said it sounded like fowl play. Live and learn, I guess. Corrupt people.

Well, have a great day!

 

[karl E lutz]

Not gonna cut him he's my agrish gexter and a wee cute little rascal he be,If I"be in a braggin type mood that is!
Chicky last year we threw a handful of little pink hairless mice in the coop and they did not last airy a second.They did contribute to the egg production though.