Colorado

[21hens-incharge]

Wow that is some progress on reducing the roosters.

She is a pretty hen. If only I could have been patient and waited for more chickens. * sigh *

I am sure someone will be contacting you for her.

I am fixing to make a small coop out of the leftover pieces from the huge coop for the Polish. Is there anything that I should know about housing them for the winter? Not sure if they are "special needs" chickens.

 

[COChix]

KLBCOS, Victoria is still laying doubles. Crazy chicken. Grandma has not laid a second egg but there are others laying now. Getting about 4 cute little brown eggs a day from them. I did loose one older hen yesterday. I am thinking it was a combination of things with her. She never laid well so it could have been internal laying or age and heat. It is ok I am surprised they have lived this long so I expect to find them dropping over now. My garden is doing well. The tomatoes are well over 4 foot tall and have loads of tomatoes set on. Flowers are blooming all over the yard. aaaaahhhh summertime . Not looking forward to winter just yet! Babs

Babs, congrats on your pullet eggs, how old are yours again? I hear ya on birds passing, we had two pass this past 6 months. Seemed like flukes at the time, but looking back and seeing pictures, they didn't look quite right. Meaning, since they were hatchery stock, we had a runt and another Delaware that was just shaped funny if that makes sense, comparing them to the others now (plus, I have more chicken experience). They obviously had internal issues that we were unaware of..but know I know better what to look for as far as what a "normal" chicken confirmation should typically look like, depending on the breed of course. Maybe I am just rambling on that subject now. I am living vicariously through you this year with your tomatoes, we did not put in a garden given the fact that we were having to pull up stakes. So I miss having fresh veggies from our garden everyday.

So, today is the 1 year anniversary of my car accident & looking at the pictures of me 2 days after it happened (I wasn't coherent for a bit after I got to ICU) is pretty strange. But! Mercury laid her second egg & let me pick her up! Today's turning into a red letter day.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Wow, what a great gift that you were blessed with on your anniversary. Nothing like Mother Nature's gentle reminder that life is good, it is the simple things that matter and to keep moving forward. Trust me, I am three and four years out from my neck surgeries and it has been a journey to health again. It takes times, your body has to relearn how to just function, that definitely does a number on anxiety and depression. Keep strong and positive you are doing great. I totally used our flock for therapy after the multiple surgeries and being healthy enough to care for them. I wouldn't change it for the world!

Hope everyones chicks and kitties that were sick are doing better! Fourteen roosters/cockerals gone today, yay!!! Five four month old packing peanuts went into the freezer, and we, by we I mean my son in law, culled eight Bantam Cochins roosters. They were all colorful boys, but who needs that many roosters!!! Is going to be a lot quieter around here now! Feed should last longer too! I have decided to sell some of my Gold Laced barnie laying hens to make room for more OE egg layers, please PM me for more info.

Wow, you were productive, bet that feels great getting those roo's taken care of. Also I do believe based on your picture of your Barnie that our supposed "Dark Cornish (the broody) is a hatchery Barnie. She is shorter and more stocky than your girl and I believe her head and comb is wonky compared to yours. Based on the feather pattern, lacing and coloring, I can see that now. Yours is beautiful and so is our girls as far as her feathers and such. We just returned from a family overnight stay up Left Hand Canyon, we were watching a house for a friend. They live on top of a ridge that overlooks Boulder and views all the way east to DIA and such. We saw a flock of wild turkeys last night passing through the 40 acre property, they come right by the house. They have had visits from Mr. Bear so they have a hot wire around the immediate house. The dogs enjoyed the nice cool air and we enjoyed the star gazing and spying on all of you . We have been making strategic changes/moves with our young cockerels from our hatch. We have 7 total, we have had to shuffle some around and all but one are now in the enclosed run and small coop, where they will be fattened and processed before we move. We moved the little Alpha roo from the hatch out with his dad and they are the rooster duo for now. We had to put him out of the run as he was ruthlessly targeting one particular flock mate and I didn't want it to end traumatically. We took him out and tossed three more into the run at the same time and it was an instant dynamic shift and there is less fighting over all between them. The young pullets are now starting to follow Rocco and the hens around more, whereas before they segregated themselves with the three cockerels we had left with the flock, while we assured their gender.. The little alpha is sort of an outcast but is just allowed to hang around but more away from everyone, which is what we wanted, yea! Funny to watch the adult hens putting him in check now, he isn't so full of himself anymore. He reminds me of Kernal Sanders(spelling?) with his comb being the top hat and his puffy cheeks and muff. Hope everyone is having a good weekend and staying cool! Been brutally hot in North Boulder the last couple days,we hit 95 and 99 respectively, yuck!

 

[21hens-incharge]

Thanks COchix,

I am happy to have the few veggies I managed to get planted this year. The spring was so very wet. The tomatoes on the plants are HUGE. The Early Girl tomato looks more like a beefsteak lol.

The chickens that are laying are the ones that were hatched the last week of February. I saw one of the Partridge rocks in the nest box while I was cleaning as well as an Iowa Blue. The Iowas are younger by a couple weeks so I was surprised.

Sure would have been nice if you had found out earlier that you did not need to move til after summer. You could have done a garden then.

 

[COChix]

Thanks COchix,

I am happy to have the few veggies I managed to get planted this year. The spring was so very wet. The tomatoes on the plants are HUGE. The Early Girl tomato looks more like a beefsteak lol.

The chickens that are laying are the ones that were hatched the last week of February. I saw one of the Partridge rocks in the nest box while I was cleaning as well as an Iowa Blue. The Iowas are younger by a couple weeks so I was surprised.

Sure would have been nice if you had found out earlier that you did not need to move til after summer. You could have done a garden then.

I will be hoping we get some eggs before winter and our move but I am not too hopeful given the fact they were hatched late April and we will be pulling up stakes closer to their POL and into a new environment. Moving all of them should be interesting to say the least......

Yea, go figure on the garden issue, but given how busy we are with trying to pull up and pack and help clear out a spot for us to land, we probably don't have time. It all worked out this way for a reason.....

 

[21hens-incharge]

I think yours will be laying before winter at least. Have you found a landing zone yet?

Moving is just awful no matter what time of year.

 

[KLBCOS]

HELP!

I have a sitting hen that has been doing fine and I just checked on her. She is is pretty much unresponsive. Eyes closed. Barely moves. I've put her in a cool bath in case it's heat. What can I do...

 

[21hens-incharge]

How is she doing???

Any movement? Did you bring her indoors where it is cooler?

 

[KLBCOS]

Her comb is pinker. I have her indoors. Wrapped in a cool washcloth that I recool every 20 minutes or so. Putting a few drops of electrolyte mix in her beak every 15 minutes or so. She responds when I put her in cool water but I want to totally stress her out by putting her in the cool water too often. Any thoughts anyone?

 

[21hens-incharge]

Is she opening her eyes at all?
Does she try to drink?

I am thinking she is dehydrated and overheated with the weather. Is she your only broody hen right now? If not how are the others doing?

I would keep doing the cool cloth but not the dipping. If you do dip her only do it once an hour or so and only if that is the only way she is perking up.

Do you have a fan running in the coop?

You may want to add one if you have other broody hens.
Also make sure any broody hens are having water offered at the nest every couple hours at least.

 

[KLBCOS]

She is not really opening her eyes unless I dip her. I have on the cool cloth if I dip her now, I only dip her feet. I gave her some Gatorade and she drank that down better than water or a salt, sugar mix. She's the only broodie. All the others are fine.fresh air, plenty of water etc,