Colorado

[21hens-incharge]

LS,
I feel your pain on the egg eaters issue. I know who mine is and she is slated for the freezer. The mustard egg even got.... well not eaten but spread all over really well.
It is a shame when they start that behavior. They teach the others to do it too. Bonnie has taught the Belle that it is ok to do that. These are older hens and I had planned to keep Bonnie until I caught her in the act.
Really hard to break them from it.
Ice cream............ Personal favorite is Kroger Southern Crunch Butter Pecan. Best flavor in my humble opinion. Had some in the freezer.... Thinking I need to get some more.

HOT here at 94 and 1:15pm. NOT happy about it either.
Shade cloth is up and working in the runs as well as the solid tin section.
Roasted chicken anyone??? (thinking I should have plucked them BEFORE the cooking began) JK

Off to get some ice and maybe some ice cream too.

 

[uzisuzuki]

Ice cream. Man, this is the time of year I wish I wasn't lactose intolerant. Actually, I pretty much wish that all year round since all my favourite foods have dairy in it but it feel particularly worse during the summer.

So, I had been a little worried about the heat since it gets pretty oppressive at our house when there isn't a breeze but so far just putting the frozen water bottles and milk jugs near the dust bath areas and in the houses at night seems to be working fairly well. I am going to try to build that chicken pen AC unit out of a styrofoam cooler this month since things are steadily going to get hotter out here into August.

I did end up putting both flocks of birds in together yesterday due to a scare we had last Sunday as a really bad hail storm was starting. We were kind of rushing to get things covered/put away. As I was moving the last baby chicken into the coop (Mercury), the hail really started and my brother's dog rushed me from behind. The dog ended up running off with Mercury in her mouth for maybe only a minute, but it felt like years to me. I was sure that dog was going to eat another chick in front of me.



Luckily, she's fine. I don't know how since while I was running after the dog, I'm not exactly very good at moving faster than a shamble anymore, but I was glad she made it through that night and I didn't wake up to having one of my babies dead on my birthday. No injuries, nothing was broken, she lost a few wing feathers and was sore the next 2 days. She's back to being top female of their little flock. Since no one is going to start training the dog any time soon (I have a feeling I'll be the one who gives in and starts working with her since she's exactly like my bigger dogs was when he was a puppy), I decided to try putting all 10 chickens together. Takes away the opportunity of her rushing the cripple to get an easy meal again.



So far, things are going better than I anticipated after the first day. Memnoch does have a scab on his comb that I suspect is from Odysseus, but all the pullets were fine. I'm not sure if they are leaving the coop yet or not, but the hens are still going in there to use the nesting boxes. I'm hoping to get that dog house the 2 males are standing on in that photo soon so they all start sleeping in the coop, but for now I think it's good and gives them separate spaces while they all get used to each other.



I think if there's any troubles, little Sparta will put everyone in their place. She's been charging the dogs through the fencing after what happened with Mercury. She just needs a little feathered helmet and a xiphos and shield and she'll be ready to join a phalanx of 300 Spartans in battle. It's always the tiny ones that think they can take on the entire world by themselves.



Other than that, we discovered that one of the rabbits we bought at the TSC animal swap a few months ago had a litter of babies! There are 4 total - 2 black, 1 black with white spots, and 1 white with black spots. They are so adorable! Around the time we discovered these guys as newborns in a hutch, we found out that the other female we have had a litter about a month prior. 3 black and 1 white and black for her. She had dug a seriously deep burrow in their paddock to have them instead of using one of the hutches, so we never knew until they started to venture out of it.

Things have been busy! I hope everyone here is doing well and that you all have a happy 4th this weekend!

 

[suncatcher]

Here is hoping some thunderstorms cool us off this again this afternoon. Last nights rain made it cool enough this morning for a sweatshirt!!!! Hoping more of the same is on the way.....

Egg eaters are no fun, my daughter had a few, but somehow she got them to stop, she started feeding canned dog food every day for about a week, and that was that. I have heard it is a hard habit to break. Some people swear by putting in wood or ceramic eggs.

 

[21hens-incharge]

WOW Uzi,
I am glad the little gal made it. What a scare that must have been. Here is a

for the dog, and one for your brother for not training it

I would be beside myself with anger in that situation.
Also a little shock at the bunny find too. That is one cute little bunny.
Do you have a bunny nesting box? Bunnies do not retrieve the young if they are out of the nest. Rather neglectful mama's IMO.
The boxes are very easy to make. They have an opening for the mom to go in that when the mom leaves the nest the babies are kinda scraped off the if still nursing and land back in the nest.

Back when we had bunnies we used this kind of nest box but made the door shape an upside down triangle. It worked very well. (You will have to scroll a long way down to see it sorry)

http://www.fao.org/docrep/t1690e/t1690e08.htm

http://www.grit.com/animals/rabbit-nest-box-zkrz12zsie.aspx
This one has the opening like a triangle and makes sense on keeping the top open. My girls had theirs in the cold very early spring. (Took in rabbits for a friend and they had not told us the females had been bred.) Luckily I knew what the belly fluff pulling meant and got boxes made in time. We went from taking in 4 bunnies to 14 bunnies in 2 weeks. (I housed them individually since I did not need or want more.) We had 14 hutches in the back yard for 3 years until DH's friend expressed interest in having bunnies for his kids. I even took the swamp cooler off the house and put duct work on the hutches for them lol.
My entire freezer would be full of frozen 20oz soda bottles for the bunnies. It is a huge freezer too. OH and the water bottles that we paid good money for would freeze and shatter in the winter. I discovered in an emergency and thinking on my feet moment that the Pepsi bottles would accept the tips off of the broken bunny bottles. Worked like a champ.
Man I do not miss those chores at all. The bunnies we kept lived 11 years +. Clyde had a tooth issue and had to be trimmed every month and Bonnie had cataracts on both eyes. I could not send broken bunnies to those kids.

WOW that got long lol. Sorry for the long post and probably giving you info you already have. The pepsi bottle thing was discovered at 4 am in the middle of winter. I had 4 broken bottles and not enough spares on hand. Had to come up with a water source for them quick.

Just tossing out my experience for you. If it helps GREAT.

Babs

 

[COChix]

So, I had been a little worried about the heat since it gets pretty oppressive at our house when there isn't a breeze but so far just putting the frozen water bottles and milk jugs near the dust bath areas and in the houses at night seems to be working fairly well. I am going to try to build that chicken pen AC unit out of a styrofoam cooler this month since things are steadily going to get hotter out here into August.

So far, things are going better than I anticipated after the first day....

I think if there's any troubles, little Sparta will put everyone in their place. She's been charging the dogs through the fencing after what happened with Mercury. She just needs a little feathered helmet and a xiphos and shield and she'll be ready to join a phalanx of 300 Spartans in battle. It's always the tiny ones that think they can take on the entire world by themselves.

Other than that, we discovered that one of the rabbits we bought at the TSC animal swap a few months ago had a litter of babies! There are 4 total - 2 black, 1 black with white spots, and 1 white with black spots. They are so adorable! Around the time we discovered these guys as newborns in a hutch, we found out that the other female we have had a litter about a month prior. 3 black and 1 white and black for her. She had dug a seriously deep burrow in their paddock to have them instead of using one of the hutches, so we never knew until they started to venture out of it.

Things have been busy! I hope everyone here is doing well and that you all have a happy 4th this weekend!

Wow lots happening there for you. Someone needs to teach that dog some manners, not you. Glad she is ok.

Love, love, love that cute little Sparta, you know what they say about short people. (INSERT YOUR JOKES/SMART ***** COMMENTS HERE)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

 

[uzisuzuki]

WOW Uzi,
I am glad the little gal made it. What a scare that must have been. Here is a

for the dog, and one for your brother for not training it

I would be beside myself with anger in that situation.
Also a little shock at the bunny find too. That is one cute little bunny.
Do you have a bunny nesting box? Bunnies do not retrieve the young if they are out of the nest. Rather neglectful mama's IMO.
The boxes are very easy to make. They have an opening for the mom to go in that when the mom leaves the nest the babies are kinda scraped off the if still nursing and land back in the nest.

Back when we had bunnies we used this kind of nest box but made the door shape an upside down triangle. It worked very well. (You will have to scroll a long way down to see it sorry)

http://www.fao.org/docrep/t1690e/t1690e08.htm

http://www.grit.com/animals/rabbit-nest-box-zkrz12zsie.aspx
This one has the opening like a triangle and makes sense on keeping the top open. My girls had theirs in the cold very early spring. (Took in rabbits for a friend and they had not told us the females had been bred.) Luckily I knew what the belly fluff pulling meant and got boxes made in time. We went from taking in 4 bunnies to 14 bunnies in 2 weeks. (I housed them individually since I did not need or want more.) We had 14 hutches in the back yard for 3 years until DH's friend expressed interest in having bunnies for his kids. I even took the swamp cooler off the house and put duct work on the hutches for them lol.
My entire freezer would be full of frozen 20oz soda bottles for the bunnies. It is a huge freezer too. OH and the water bottles that we paid good money for would freeze and shatter in the winter. I discovered in an emergency and thinking on my feet moment that the Pepsi bottles would accept the tips off of the broken bunny bottles. Worked like a champ.
Man I do not miss those chores at all. The bunnies we kept lived 11 years +. Clyde had a tooth issue and had to be trimmed every month and Bonnie had cataracts on both eyes. I could not send broken bunnies to those kids.

WOW that got long lol. Sorry for the long post and probably giving you info you already have. The pepsi bottle thing was discovered at 4 am in the middle of winter. I had 4 broken bottles and not enough spares on hand. Had to come up with a water source for them quick.

Just tossing out my experience for you. If it helps GREAT.

Babs

I was extremely angry at the time. She was fine so that made moving on easier. If she'd died, I may not have been as forgiving as quickly (especially since that was my birthday). I'll give the brain trauma this - it's made it a lot easier for me to let things go and not to hold onto grudges. If this had happened before my TBI, I probably would have taken a hammer to his brand new hi def big TV as a response.

We do have hutches for them but I guess the bigger mom didn't like them! LOL It's been funny to watch them since we haven't had rabbits since I was maybe 15 or so. When 1 of the babies screams about being picked up, all 4 adults run toward the screams to try and help. We were told the 2 we rescued were both female. That turned out to be so wrong and that's the male that sired all the babies so far. I think my dad may have gotten a new project building hutches when he's not blacksmithing knives. XD

 

[COChix]

I was extremely angry at the time. She was fine so that made moving on easier. If she'd died, I may not have been as forgiving as quickly (especially since that was my birthday). I'll give the brain trauma this - it's made it a lot easier for me to let things go and not to hold onto grudges. If this had happened before my TBI, I probably would have taken a hammer to his brand new hi def big TV as a response.

Well, way to see the silver lining on that situation. Many people work their whole lives to move past hostilities and grudges, awe you are wise grasshopper!

 

[21hens-incharge]

Wow lots happening there for you. Someone needs to teach that dog some manners, not you. Glad she is ok.

Love, love, love that cute little Sparta, you know what they say about short people. (INSERT YOUR JOKES/SMART ***** COMMENTS HERE)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Dynomite comes in small packages? It's always the little ones you have to watch out for?

LOL


and yes a very Happy Birthday Uzi!!

 

[COChix]

Good things come in small packages (ok LS keep it clean!) things like TNT and diamonds!

 

[COChix]

​

Hmmm for ice cream here in Denver, there's a place called Liks. They have a Jack Daniels Chocolate Chip that is incredible. At another place called Sweet Action, they have a Stranahan's Whiskey Brickle, which is good, but just doesn't do it like the one from Liks. So come to Denver!

Inquiring minds want to know how that new Wellie of yours is doing now? Pics?

PS - I will be in the area soon enough. Maybe an ice cream social at a park for this board would be fun as a meet and greet. Everyone bring a gallon on their fav (all lactose free alternatives are welcome) and we will pig out and talk chicken :cd