Colorado

[gardendufus]

I took down the roosts temporarily until I see a good pattern of laying in the nesting boxes, which, by the way, my Blue Andalusian did earlier in the day. I've noticed they kick out alot of the pine shavings too. When I checked this evening to see how everyone was arranged, they were all either in a nesting box or on top of one.

I hate people that yell 'DON'T DO THAT' at me. So, I'll just say, put your roosts back up. Your birds will figure out where to lay, and if you let them sleep in the nest boxes that may become a habit, and you will end up with poopy eggs all the time.

Yes they do throw a lot of the litter out. But then they throw EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL THE TIME. Their favorite pastime is rearranging whatever is on the ground/floor. Ya never know, there might be a treat hidden down there.

 

[Minchi]

I have a more colorful way to say how I feel but it would not be appropriate for civilized conversation. I really wish I had my girls to hold and comfort me right now. Today has left me a rather depressed and feeling very helpless...... Sorry I needed to vent and pout a little, without making my family feel bad they can't help.

 

[P-Funk]

I have a more colorful way to say how I feel but it would not be appropriate for civilized conversation. I really wish I had my girls to hold and comfort me right now. Today has left me a rather depressed and feeling very helpless...... Sorry I needed to vent and pout a little, without making my family feel bad they can't help.

Just feel good you don't wake up at 4am 7 days a week. There, better? Here's a special smiley just for you

 

[Newchiknmomma]

Hi. I don't post much and haven't been here for some time, but we are having a problem with our girls that perhaps someone here might know the answer to. We started out with five chicks last Feb of 2012 and those hens started laying in July of 12. We got a 4 x 10 a frame coop for them and have a run that is 60 feet by 40 feet approximately. This year we got five more chicks and they are just starting to lay eggs now. We had some trouble integrating the flock but now there is only one of the older birds that still is causing trouble. She is a production red..cross between RIR and NHR. She will peck at the younger birds when they go up to roost for the night, etc. We feed them Non Gmo layer food, green grass, cabbages, flock blocks, crushed egg shells, oyster shell and yogurt and mealworms occasionally. They have access to the layer food and oyster shell all the time. We have been making sure they have fresh water all the time except at night when they are shut up in the roost. We are experiencing broken eggs and have suspected the production red of breaking eggs and have isolated her today to see if the problem improves. I let them out at 5:30 this am and found one broken egg that was very soft shelled. I have seen this before and wonder if it is one of the young ones. They are about 21 weeks old now.

I'm going to Big R today and going to try some wormer on them. They are outside all day long. It has been hot out but they have two shade trees in the run where they hang out. Any ideas would be most helpful. They all look healthy, are talking a lot, and foraging. No one looks droopy. Yesterday, I monitored the coop every hour throughout the day and there was only one broken egg in one of the nest boxes. The production red is the suspect. I am not sure who is laying the soft shelled one since it happened some time before 5:30 this morning. There are two nest boxes at either end of the coop, and the older birds lay there consistently. The younger birds are laying in the roost area as well and we have found a couple under the trees and in the grass. All the eggs have great shells except for the few soft shelled ones.
These are two of our younger birds...Epi and Cozy.

 

[Pozees]

Yes they do throw a lot of the litter out. But then they throw EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL THE TIME. Their favorite pastime is rearranging whatever is on the ground/floor. Ya never know, there might be a treat hidden down there.

This is precisely why deep litter works. I just added some fresh shavings to my layer coop this morning; one of the oldest hens marched up the ramp and hopped on a perch to oversee, and the moment I was done she was stirring the fresh in with the old shavings in one of the nest boxes.

 

[Pozees]

Just feel good you don't wake up at 4am 7 days a week. There, better? Here's a special smiley just for you

LOL you crack me up. I got to sleep in this morning - all the way until 4:30!

 

[Pozees]

Hi. I don't post much and haven't been here for some time, but we are having a problem with our girls that perhaps someone here might know the answer to. We started out with five chicks last Feb of 2012 and those hens started laying in July of 12. We got a 4 x 10 a frame coop for them and have a run that is 60 feet by 40 feet approximately. This year we got five more chicks and they are just starting to lay eggs now. We had some trouble integrating the flock but now there is only one of the older birds that still is causing trouble. She is a production red..cross between RIR and NHR. She will peck at the younger birds when they go up to roost for the night, etc. We feed them Non Gmo layer food, green grass, cabbages, flock blocks, crushed egg shells, oyster shell and yogurt and mealworms occasionally. They have access to the layer food and oyster shell all the time. We have been making sure they have fresh water all the time except at night when they are shut up in the roost. We are experiencing broken eggs and have suspected the production red of breaking eggs and have isolated her today to see if the problem improves. I let them out at 5:30 this am and found one broken egg that was very soft shelled. I have seen this before and wonder if it is one of the young ones. They are about 21 weeks old now.

I'm going to Big R today and going to try some wormer on them. They are outside all day long. It has been hot out but they have two shade trees in the run where they hang out. Any ideas would be most helpful. They all look healthy, are talking a lot, and foraging. No one looks droopy. Yesterday, I monitored the coop every hour throughout the day and there was only one broken egg in one of the nest boxes. The production red is the suspect. I am not sure who is laying the soft shelled one since it happened some time before 5:30 this morning. There are two nest boxes at either end of the coop, and the older birds lay there consistently. The younger birds are laying in the roost area as well and we have found a couple under the trees and in the grass. All the eggs have great shells except for the few soft shelled ones.
These are two of our younger birds...Epi and Cozy.

Sounds to me as if you are doing all the right things, so I would only suggest one possible addition. I started giving the birds a shallow "pool" this year, it's just a plastic feeder tub I fill with 3-4" of water, and they LOVE it. They drink from it when it's freshly filled, stand in it during the hotter parts of the day, and sometimes just stand and stare at their reflections in the water, which I confess to finding very amusing.

I agree with worming, and you can also worm naturally, although perhaps with less certain results, by adding ground raw pumpkin seed to yogurt or wet food. Here is why I'm on board with worming: I was researching some odd symptoms one of my pullets had, and came across a thread written ~4 years ago by someone who thought her birds had MG - Mycoplasma Gallisepticum - and was going to have to destroy her whole flock. On the off chance she was wrong, she sent two birds to be necropsied by the state vet, and the results showed no MG, instead the birds were loaded with parasites. Our birds are very good at hiding problems from us. Like almost all animals, it is a matter of survival. Fellow flock members will kill a weakened bird to keep it from attracting predators, which of course it will. I gave pumpkin seed in this morning's feed, and plan to visit Big R for chemical wormer later this weekend once I decide what I want to use. When I had dogs I always used Ivomec, worked great and never had worm problems, and right now I am inclined to use it on the birds, but want to do a bit more research.

 

[Pozees]

I have a more colorful way to say how I feel but it would not be appropriate for civilized conversation. I really wish I had my girls to hold and comfort me right now. Today has left me a rather depressed and feeling very helpless...... Sorry I needed to vent and pout a little, without making my family feel bad they can't help.

Vent away, happy to "listen" and give cyber-hugs Life has been very challenging for everyone this year, it seems - I don't know anyone who's had a good or easy year. Weird, huh?

 

[Newchiknmomma]

Sounds to me as if you are doing all the right things, so I would only suggest one possible addition. I started giving the birds a shallow "pool" this year, it's just a plastic feeder tub I fill with 3-4" of water, and they LOVE it. They drink from it when it's freshly filled, stand in it during the hotter parts of the day, and sometimes just stand and stare at their reflections in the water, which I confess to finding very amusing.

I agree with worming, and you can also worm naturally, although perhaps with less certain results, by adding ground raw pumpkin seed to yogurt or wet food. Here is why I'm on board with worming: I was researching some odd symptoms one of my pullets had, and came across a thread written ~4 years ago by someone who thought her birds had MG - Mycoplasma Gallisepticum - and was going to have to destroy her whole flock. On the off chance she was wrong, she sent two birds to be necropsied by the state vet, and the results showed no MG, instead the birds were loaded with parasites. Our birds are very good at hiding problems from us. Like almost all animals, it is a matter of survival. Fellow flock members will kill a weakened bird to keep it from attracting predators, which of course it will. I gave pumpkin seed in this morning's feed, and plan to visit Big R for chemical wormer later this weekend once I decide what I want to use. When I had dogs I always used Ivomec, worked great and never had worm problems, and right now I am inclined to use it on the birds, but want to do a bit more research.

Thanks Pozees....will try the ground pumpkin sees and ACV in the water as well. The tub idea sounds interesting...will try that also. Good ideas!!

 

[wsmith]

That also looks like it took a lot of work to set up your get up, BTW, Wendell

! We have to party sometime.

Let's do it!

An we left about 1/2 of the gear and stuff at home..........Too much work for a one day event. It it were 2-3 days, then we would have had at least another LARGE marquis tent, plus 10 set of field defenses.