Colorado

[Chick_In_The_Burbs]

I lost two more of the olmecs last night and one more isn't doing so well.  I'm beginning to worry that perhaps maybe, olmecs won't do so well up here.  The colloncas appear to be doing fine and the little panope is zipping all over the place.

I'm going to buy some medicated feed, even though I absolutely hate doing that.... just to combat a possible infection.  I still have them all on kefir and today, I gave them kefir cheese and grains.

Fingers crossed the rest of them will pull through.  All of the ones from last shipment are doing wonderfully.  The Welsummers from Elizabeth, not so much.

Good luck Mayah, I hope your weak one pulls through.

On a different note, after Wendell's demonstration at chickenfest we decided to go for it and ordered 6 Cornish Roasters from McMurray. They grow a bit more slowly than the Cornish Xs so they don't generally get the leg problems. I debated doing a hatchery cockerel assortment but I didn't want to be able to tell them apart. Much easier for me that way.

How is everyone's weather? It is beautiful down here today.

 

[Pozees]

Pozee- I couldn't agree with you more!
My garden has had such a late start that I worry about what I can produce for us.
This morning we had a bear on our property. First time we ever left the trash can out, our own fault. It raded that and left us a lot of poop, but left everything else alone.
But I panicked and ran to check the bees and chickens. All were safe.
Yep this will be an interesting summer for wildlife, and for us too, with the potential for another fire and flooding so high

Eek! That is one critter we haven't seen here (yet) and I am glad!

My garden is finally getting started too, I put in tomato and pepper plants yesterday, not even going to try much from seed this year. I'm hoping to get the squash, eggplant and cucumber plants in this evening and tomorrow, and plant my two large pots with annuals. Don't know, I left myself a lot to do waiting for the late cold to be gone for sure. I wanted to get an old coop and run put back together for the Fayoumis too, but I am no good working outside in blazing sun once the temps get near 90. Plus it doesn't really do much good for plants to be put in midday, although that's what I wound up doing yesterday, luckily they all seem to have survived.

Fingers crossed no disaster befalls our gardens this year!

 

[Pozees]

If anyone in CS is looking for another layer, someone has posted on "Animals in need of free rehoming" that they have a red hen they would like to give away, she is picking on one of her coop-mates. Started laying in December.

 

[gardendufus]

For those new chicken owners, just beginning to put your chickens in the coop. Soon you will realize how tedious and restrictive it becomes being available every day to open the coop at dawn and close it at dusk. Then you will come here asking if any of us have an auto chicken door and how we like them. I'm gonna beat you to it.

I have the Pullet-Shut door. I love it but it was very pricey. Well worth the $$$ in the end, but still very pricey.

I have been following THIS thread for awhile. This door supposedly runs for 3 years on a 6V battery, and is getting good reviews from all the people participating in the thread. Has all the bells and whistles, opens and closes with a light sensor, so no need to be resetting it, but still allows you to override the programming and open or close manually. Original price was $179, but their website says they have a recent increase to $199. If I were in need of another auto door, I think I would try this one.

Here's the thread:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/740659/ador1-automatic-coop-door

and here's the site:
http://adorstore.com/

 

[gardendufus]

Coloradogal, if you are serious about wanting some medicated chick starter, and you haven't already bought it, I have lots left over from this year that I have no need for. Free to whoever asks for it, and I also deliver within reason.

 

[pichuris]

broody mama with her babies roosting. she still tries to cover them with her wings. edit: mama was a black star. the greys h have muffs so are most likely olive eggers. the black is most likely a marans cross hen. I placed 11 under her, only 3 survived the dog attack/ her weight. her other baby was from the prior hatch who decided she needed a mama. she took an almost 4 week old in with her 3.

the last hatch and yashars are still in the house. the hatch that was in the house when Shi many outside

I love it. What a good mama.

So I added an external nest box (it's a community box) to my coop earlier this spring....March, April?  It's a shame my memory is going.  But I only opened it up to the coop last week.  I left my floor level nest boxes which actually work great, but I want the floor space since I increased my coop size.  I couldn't decide on whether leaving them in would keep the girls laying in the old box or if taking them out would confuse them so much they would just lay on the floor without discovering the new box.  

Well, my EE and my Dominique found the new box on the first day and have been laying there ever since.  Today there were 5 eggs in it, so the others seem to like it too.  I think with only one laying in the other boxes, I can probably remove the old ones and the holdout hen will probably follow the others to MY preferred laying box.  WHEEEEEEEEEEEE

Thats what I call a smooth transition. For others who may not know if you put in fake eggs or real ones that can help too.

I can't wait to hear how hatch goes!  Sounds like broody is doing her job too, bless her heart

Awe thank you. I forgot to mention she is an OE. Another one of my hens went broody thank goodness. Another who is clucking like she is but she did that last year and never went full blown broody. Still waiting for my mean OE to go broody that girl can pack in a dozen eggs under her and hatch them all.

[quote

 

[mketchum826]

Just some photos I found my silkie playing in the sprinkler too!

 

[suncatcher]

Lots of reading to catch up on, took two days off to get some small projects done, and now four pages to read on this thread alone!!!!!

We have no leaves on our Aspens yet, strange weather for sure, we have no frost the last few mornings, but I am still not sure I will put any plants out til the middle of June. Hope those at lower altitude gardents prosper! I know mine won't! LOL

I see the shade cloth place also had a nice laying box on sale. Hmmmmm...... I wonder how much delivery/shipping would be???

Looking forward to more pictures of your Dapper Dan Silkie! lol

Surely it can't be time to expand the Silkie pen already! They are so little,and cute, I count my bantams as half a chicken! Sometimes you have to tweak (sp) the chicken math!

I hope the medicated feed helps, might be the jump start they need! Hope those with eggs have a great hatch!!!!! Too many pages to read to remember all that was talked about.

 

[ColoBecky]

One of my adult hens is being very aggressive with the new 8/9 week olds that moved to the coop today.

I think the general advice is to remove the aggressive one for a few days, and hopefully the dynamics of the pecking order will shift sufficiently that she will calm down when she returns.

So I moved Old Meanie to the garage today. But I'm wondering if anyone has actually been successful with having the hen behave better when she returns to the flock?

She is also broody, so maybe that makes her more aggressive than she normally would be?

 

[Pozees]

Oh wow, Sandy, no Aspen leaves yet? You must be c-c-c-cold up there! Our Aspens have leaves, although one looks like someone touched it with a blow torch, not sure if that is from the last night of freezing temps almost two weeks ago, or the hot winds blowing the last two days, ugh.

Got beds and pots prepped for planting tomorrow morning, and going to town to get some Black Eyed Susans and a few other plants Bob has located on a list of plants bees and hummingbirds like (especially bees). We have an area we planted with Catmint and Poppies that has only 2 Poppies that survived but many Catmint that have begun to spread, that is where the only bees we've seen so far this year have been congregating, so we want to add more bee-friendly plants there and elsewhere. Feels like we just went from winter to summer here.

On a sad note, I've lost two SS pullets this past week, and no idea why, they just stopped thriving. The second I found today still alive and tried to save her, but she was too far gone and died within a few hours of when I brought her in and gave her liquid vitamins and some water with a dropper. All the others in the pen look fine, robust in fact, and all those I moved out to the Big Girl coop are doing well. I knew a couple of weeks ago these two seemed to be falling behind a bit in growth but attributed it to the natural growth variances among birds. In hindsight, had they been saved and beautiful I may have used them in a breeding program and passed along genes not built for living, and that would not have been beneficial for the flock or my breeding program. Still sad to lose them though.