Colorado

[Hummingbird Hollow]

just an update from my little patch of lnd here along fountain creek. I was picking spinach and swiss chard this afternoon. Basically the damaged leaves from the hail last week and placing them in a pile. The chickens noticed what I was doing and came over for a taste. I now know what to do with the hail damaged leaves. Don't compost them just get them close to a chicken and watch it disappear. It was a feeding frenzy. leaves and stems were going everywhere. Every once in a while one of the new smaller hens would make a mad dash out of the center of the group with a leaf in her mouth and about 5 would follow. trying to get her to drop it. I really need to take some videos when I try the chickens out on new things. I do have an overabundance of spinach and swiss chard. 3 rows of chard 4 feet long and 2 rows of spinach the same length. Does anyone need some? My wife planted way to much. It sure is good though. The chooks think so too.

It is always something new with them. Its a good thing there is a fence around the garden bed at the moment.

I had a similar response from my chickens with kale, and the greens from my turnips and beets. It seems chickens have better sense about eating their nutrient packed leafy vegetables thatn we do. I'd happily take your excess spinach and swiss chard, since my garden is almost worthless this summer so far. However, I will tell you that last summer when I had more greens than even my chickens could handle I just chopped it and stuffed it in big zip lock bags and tossed it in the chest freezer. I could take out a handful and add it to the warm mash I fed my girls on cold winter mornings (OK, I baby my chickens in the winter). It is my theory that one of the reasons our fresh chicken eggs taste so much better than store purchased eggs is because they have varried diets. Those frozen greens gave them variety during the long winter when there wasn't much to forrage.

 

[Chick_In_The_Burbs]

The four new chicks. Everybody else quit. (for more photos go to our FB page.....) We still have three that could hatch over the weekend.

Congratz Wendell! What was your final pullet/cockerel count? Update here, my 6 Cornish Roasters are growing fast. In self defense against the reek and mess I am now putting them outside during the day. They will probably be staying out 100% starting Monday. They actually kinda freak me out with how big they already are compared to the others in the brooder and they grow SLOWER than the Cornish Xs. They have rubbed the feathers off of their chests with their love for the feeder. I think I will try something different for a meatie next time. I don't mind if it takes a bit longer for them to develop so long as I can harvest before the crowing starts. Anyone have recommendations?

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

Ok chicken friends... what do I need if I want to adopt a 2 month old turkey?
I have a huge dog house in my chicken run. Will that be suitable
for her? Will she roost with the chickens? Will she eat chicken food?
Advise please! Wendy

Wendy, I am far from an expert on turkeys since my first experience consists of 4, 11-week old poults that I purchased from the feed store at about 4 weeks of age. What I've learned has been from this limited experience, plus lots of questions to the turkey thread of the BYC forum. Turkey poults are somewhat more fragile than chickens of a similar age. I asked about a week back whether my 10 week old poults could stand ovenight lows of 45 degrees (oh the joy of living at 8,000 ft) and was told that I should probably keep the heat lamp in the tractor until they were 12 weeks old to be safe. So, I don't know what the overnight lows are where you are, but it seems that "start at 95 degrees the first week and decrease 5 degrees a week) thing needs to be kept more closely with turkeys than with 2 month old chicks.

I have my turkeys in a tractor I made for Freedom Ranger chickens last summer. Since the turkeys refuse to go up the ramp into back of the attached mini-van/mobile coop, I put a big wire dog crate inside the tractor for added predator protection during the night. Since it was pretty cold those first weeks I could also drape the crate with blankets to protect against drafts. It also gave me a safe place to hang the heat lamp. In the begining (7; weeks of age) the turkeys were pretty good about going into the crate when I turned on the lamp to be secured for the night), Starting at about 9 weeks they prefer to roost on top of the crate and hiss at me when I go down to shoo them off the top and into the crate. They like to roost up high.

Now, it is possible that your lone turkey will prefer the company of chickens and therefore go into the coop with them at night, but I'd bet it would try to roost on top of the coop and may not be warm enough up there by itself.

Also, I'd do some research into blackhead. It is a disease that turkeys can get from chickens. It won't hurt the chickens but will kill the turkeys. I'm not an expert and it seems that it is one of those things that you have to worry about only in certain parts of the country.

I've been advised to feed turkey grower food rather than chicken food. Turkey food is higher in protien. Hope this is helpful.

Let us know what you decide.

 

[WendyGeisler]

Quote:

Quote: Wow, thank you for your advise!!! I am in this phase of wanting some new chickens and I saw this lone turkey listing on CL and am seriously considering it. We have a chicken playground we built in the center of our run. I imagine, the turkey would enjoy sitting up there during the warm summer nights. The run is covered with bird netting. But I am thinking about winter time. Would she be cold by herself? Would she want to go into the coop, or would our dog house work out ok?

 

[cjmorrow]

Welcome to the Colorado thread. What kinds of chickens to you have?

I have I Buff Orp., 2 White plymouth rocks. They are about 4 months old. Last week chicken math caught up with me and I picked up 3 silver Ameraucana chicks. Somebody special ordered them at the feed store in La Junta and never picked them up. They hatched on June 12. We live in town and are supposed to have 9 hens and no rooster.

 

[krcchickens]

Hi guys I haven't posted on here for awhile but I have on th FB Colorado chickens. Anywho I got my first egg yesterday from my 18 week BO. I'm in the process of building a new coop. The other one I have is to small. It's a slow process because I'm trying to collect as many material for free as possible. Plus we're learning to frame as we go. Last time we had my dad to help put a coop together that had been given to me. One of my girls got attacked by 2 dogs a few weeks ago but survived and is doing really well. I guess that's about all that's new but hadn't posted her for a bit and wanted to say hi.

 

[krcchickens]

H

I had a similar reaction.  We all got to know one another here, based purely on our common interest in raising chickens/poultry/etc. and the fact we live in CO.  I am sorry to hear we have not been welcoming enough.  It is unintentional.  For many of us this is a busy time of year, and we are not visiting the thread as often as we do in the winter months, so we post a quick update and dash off to the next chore, to work, or to bed.  I know my life is insanely busy right now.    It just is what it is.  I don't know of a single subscriber or visitor to this thread that thinks of himself or herself as part of any "in" crowd.  We are the weirdos who have live chickens and other assorted critters.  We are the only ones who understand that about one another.  I am unspeakably grateful for all of you.

a ha my husbands family think I'm s super weirdo because of my love for my chickens. My MIL says I love them more then the kids

 

[wsmith]

Congratz Wendell! What was your final pullet/cockerel count?

Right now it looks like 2/2. the problem now is that this is the first hatch of what will become a new line, and we have two variances in color....two are black and pale yellow, nearly white, and two are black and a silvery white. Going by beak and leg color, we have 2 /2. When we get the next batched hatched we should start to see a better trend.

 

[wsmith]

I have I Buff Orp., 2 White plymouth rocks. They are about 4 months old. Last week chicken math caught up with me and I picked up 3 silver Ameraucana chicks. Somebody special ordered them at the feed store in La Junta and never picked them up. They hatched on June 12. We live in town and are supposed to have 9 hens and no rooster.

Cool. There's someone else down that way that frequents the thread, but I have a terrible time with names, let alone BYC handles. LOL

 

[wsmith]

H
a ha my husbands family think I'm s super weirdo because of my love for my chickens. My MIL says I love them more then the kids

I use the chickens as a way to relax and deal with the trials of life. When I am getting stressed out, I go spend some time with the chickens. With different pens with different ages and stages of development, I can get humor from the juveniles or calmness from the hens. It's all good!