Colorado

[gardendufus]

Well, went to the fair yesterday. Forgot to check the fair thread before I left, so I missed the others who went BY 10 MINUTES. LOL. Got there at 8:45, hung around the entrance of the small animal building til 9:30, did the chickens in all of 10 or 15 minutes. What a waste of time almost. Just like the earlier show, very few LF, mostly bantys. Lotsa ducks and geese. I think I saw 1 turkey. Same building had an agriculture exhibit, probably spent more time there than with the chickens. Left the small animal building at 10:20, guess the others arrived about 10:30.

Wendell, absolutely NO dominiques in the show. Some barred rocks, lotsa RIR, a few others. All in all, not more than 20 LF, if that many. Once again, I vow to myself, I will never waste my time at the state fair again. (I say that every year).

Since my mom left, I've had some time to get back into watching the dynamics going on in the run between the old and new flocks. The Doms seem to be integrating fairly well, but the poor EEs are still the picked upon, ostracized ones. And they are such, may I say CHICKENS. They won't even stay in a sight line with my Wellies and my GLW who are bullying them quite a bit. Good thing they are girls, cuz they have NO ummmm .....courage. All 4 young ones are still sleeping on a small roost in a separate corner of the coop which I really want to remove to make more room for nest boxes. I'm giving them another month, then they are going to be forced to roost with the others. Will soon have 6 layers going and I need another nest box.

Saw one of the Doms hitting the oyster shell pretty heavy yesterday. I'd think this means eggs soon, but from what I can tell chickens will eat anything they find in their mouth, so I'm not so sure free choice oyster shell isn't just a snack to them.

 

[wsmith]

Sharon,
Well, It doesn't really surprise me about the show and no Dominiques. Oh well.

I have also noticed some slight changes in some of my Dom pullets. Reddening of the combs and wattles, rapid comb and wattel growth. Some, but not all. I suspect that within a month we will have eggs. The EEs that we kept are fraidy-cats as well, except for the dark brown one. She is a bully. But with them all in the large open area, there isn't much pecking. I haven't added oyster shell yet, probably next week.
Can't wait for the day we butcher the cockerels in pen 1. They are SO noisy! 5AM, every day for about 30 minute, nothing but crowing!

 

[Ashdoes]

Yay! My wonderful little Forte will be all fixed up by next week. I'm so happy it wasn't totaled, and I'll be done with this dang rental. They gave me a Traverse...and I hate it. It physically hurts to get in and out of it, and you can't see out the back very well either. My air bag rash is healing pretty well, very itchy and ugly, and a couple will scar. But again I'm thankful my kids weren't in the car and that I wasn't a couple more seconds into the intersection.
On to chickens...
My five older girls are so mean to the new Cochins. How long is that going to last? In a week the three other Cochins are going outside permanently, and then two weeks after that the Silkies are out. I'm worried I'll have three or four separate flocks, and I don't want that. The big girls sit in the doorway of the coop, so we keep finding the Cochins huddled right outside the barn door. Should we leave them all in the coop together for a day? Any tips would be great.
~Ashley

 

[wsmith]

Yay! My wonderful little Forte will be all fixed up by next week. I'm so happy it wasn't totaled, and I'll be done with this dang rental. They gave me a Traverse...and I hate it. It physically hurts to get in and out of it, and you can't see out the back very well either. My air bag rash is healing pretty well, very itchy and ugly, and a couple will scar. But again I'm thankful my kids weren't in the car and that I wasn't a couple more seconds into the intersection.
On to chickens...
My five older girls are so mean to the new Cochins. How long is that going to last? In a week the three other Cochins are going outside permanently, and then two weeks after that the Silkies are out. I'm worried I'll have three or four separate flocks, and I don't want that. The big girls sit in the doorway of the coop, so we keep finding the Cochins huddled right outside the barn door. Should we leave them all in the coop together for a day? Any tips would be great.
~Ashley

Glad you're feeling better and all is coming together.

Flock social dynamics can seem mean. They will have to be integrated into the pecking order, and that means they will get "picked on" Make sure there are some hiding places they can hide that the bigger, older hens can't get to. It takes time. How much space do you have for them?

 

[Ashdoes]

There are all kinds of nooks for the little ones to be in, where the big girls don't bug them. I think the run is 30ft by 30ft. Plus they have the barn stall as well, where the coop is. I'm noticing more that the big girls leave them alone, till they think they have something. Then they charge them, and the Cochins take off. I just hope once they're all the same size they get along better. My goal for next year is for them all to free range our backyard, which is almost an acre, when they're full grown. But I'd like them to be a single flock.

 

[wsmith]

There are all kinds of nooks for the little ones to be in, where the big girls don't bug them. I think the run is 30ft by 30ft. Plus they have the barn stall as well, where the coop is. I'm noticing more that the big girls leave them alone, till they think they have something. Then they charge them, and the Cochins take off. I just hope once they're all the same size they get along better. My goal for next year is for them all to free range our backyard, which is almost an acre, when they're full grown. But I'd like them to be a single flock.

Sounds like its working as it should. As the younger ones grow and get bigger, the older ones will "respect" them more.

 

[Ashdoes]

 Sounds like its working as it should. As the younger ones grow and get bigger, the older ones will "respect" them more.

Thank you. We were kind of thinking that, but when you see a bigger one pluck feathers out of a smaller ones head, you start to question making them stay with each other. Luckily the smaller ones are smart enough to keep their distance, most of the time.
~Ashley

 

[Rock Home Isle]

My son had a Baseball Tourney on Sunday in Longmont. When we came home, I went out in the backyard to check on the girls...only two came running to greet me. Not a problem, if they are resting in the shade they can be a little bit lazy to come when I call them. So I went and checked under the coop...nobody. So I checked on both sides of the house....empty.

By now I'm a bit concerned...because I don't have a big backyard...there are not lots of places for them to hide.

I start heading into the house so that I can go out the front door and begin talking to my neighbors...maybe something happened during the day while we were at the ball fields. Just as I'm heading up the stairs into the house, I happen to take one more look into the backyard. I see a little head looking at me from behind the power box by the garden. As soon as the head sees me looking, it ducks back behind the power box.

I walk over to the power box and look behind it...there are the remainder of my flock, all nestled together...hiding.

Those little Terd-Balls.

 

[wsmith]

My son had a Baseball Tourney on Sunday in Longmont. When we came home, I went out in the backyard to check on the girls...only two came running to greet me. Not a problem, if they are resting in the shade they can be a little bit lazy to come when I call them. So I went and checked under the coop...nobody. So I checked on both sides of the house....empty.

By now I'm a bit concerned...because I don't have a big backyard...there are not lots of places for them to hide.

I start heading into the house so that I can go out the front door and begin talking to my neighbors...maybe something happened during the day while we were at the ball fields. Just as I'm heading up the stairs into the house, I happen to take one more look into the backyard. I see a little head looking at me from behind the power box by the garden. As soon as the head sees me looking, it ducks back behind the power box.

I walk over to the power box and look behind it...there are the remainder of my flock, all nestled together...hiding.

Those little Terd-Balls.

Funny!

 

[mynamesjenelle]

Well, went to the fair yesterday.  Forgot to check the fair thread before I left, so I missed the others who went BY 10 MINUTES.  LOL.  Got there at 8:45, hung around the entrance of the small animal building til 9:30, did the chickens in all of 10 or 15 minutes.  What a waste of time almost.  Just like the earlier show, very few LF, mostly bantys.  Lotsa ducks and geese.  I think I saw 1 turkey.  Same building had an agriculture exhibit, probably spent more time there than with the chickens.   Left the small animal building at 10:20, guess the others arrived about 10:30.

Wendell, absolutely NO dominiques in the show.  Some barred rocks, lotsa RIR, a few others.  All in all, not more than 20 LF, if that many.  Once again, I vow to myself, I will never waste my time at the state fair again.  (I say that every year).

I was pretty disappointed too

Took some pictures of what was there, but what was there wasn't much. I saw a few bantam dominiques though, and SO many bantams and game birds. Noisy little things. I threatened to bring home a new bird but I didn't even see one I wanted. Maybe that nice Welsummer, but she disappeared after judging. There were probably five times as many rabbits as there were chickens. I agree about the fair too - the El Paso County fair in Calhan was much nicer IMO. More birds, less food stands and people hawking things I don't need. I'll probably go back to that one, but not the state fair. It was kind of sad in the building. There were so many empty cages you can tell it used to be a big event, but so many empty rows maybe people don't do it anymore. It would be pretty easy to get a ribbon though I guess.