Consolidated Kansas

[Hawkeye95]

Hahahaha! I have seriously debated putting an ad on craigslist for a big mean ole roo!!! But I am scared for my own life too!!

I am scared of mean roos, I got flogged a lot as a small child which is why I like my bantam cochin and orp boys, they are so sweet.

LOL Well, I don't blame you!! We had this mean little bantam rooster that flogged us constantly and he was tiny! He made me bleed a lot. I'm sick of mean roos... but maybe you could have him out there for a week, teach her a lesson and then eat him! hehehehe!!!

 

[Deerfield Acres]

AAAAAAAAaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So CUTE!!!!!! Love the pics!

Yesterday I let the pekins out and got tickled at how much they were enjoying me spraying them with the water hose. Here are some pics DH took. Then a crowd gathered and everyone wanted sprayed.Click to enlarge.

 

[cherwill]

I'm loving all the great pictures! Keep 'em coming. We all need something to smile about.

Guess what I got today in the nesting boxes? Yep, two more tiny blue-green eggs, one slightly more brownish than the other. She's just trying to drive me crazy, right?

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Love the kitties Sunflower!
We had a close call. I was out watering the birds and walked back up to the house. There was a flame about a foot high at the back door. DH had a plastic bucket with sand in it that he drops cigarette butts in so as not to catch our dried up yard on fire. Well instead he had our dried up house on fire. The bucket was melted and the siding was getting scorched and melting. Thank God the water hose was right there. I keep going out and feeling the wall to make sure it isn't warm on the inside. I doused it with water but it was a close call. Of course my first thought was,What if we had left and gone somewhere.
I told him to please let me increase my insurance and move some precious items out of the house then he could let another butt fire erupt! I could use a new house!

I have to joke about it or I would probably cry instead.

How lucky that you were home and noticed it quickly.

I just discovered one young black chick that died this afternoon. After this heat I will feel very lucky if it is the only one. I put mega bunches of frozen bottles out today. But there just isn't enough you can do in this heat.

I'm sorry you lost your little chick. This heat is just insane.

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LOL Well, I don't blame you!! We had this mean little bantam rooster that flogged us constantly and he was tiny! He made me bleed a lot. I'm sick of mean roos... but maybe you could have him out there for a week, teach her a lesson and then eat him! hehehehe!!!

I only had one mean roo, but that was enough. He left a hole in my knee.

 

[sharol]

It is hard to say. I think bumblefoot is way more common than any of us are told. People with many chickens don't check their feet unless they start limping or there is obvious swelling. I have 8 chickens with the tell-tale scabs on their feet right now. Only two are swollen and only one of those is limping (and then only a little). I have 11 chickens and didn't keep track well enough. If you had 100 chickens, you would spend all your time catching them to look at their feet.

There are good pictures at https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/bumblefoot-how-to-treat-your-chickens-with-surgery-graphic-pics in this forum along with surgery explanation if you haven't seen it. If you can post photos, we can take a look, but taking pictures of chicken feet is a challenge. They are really quick.

Hhhmmm..... do you think I could have a problem??? I suppose I should get a picture to show you what it looks like so you can tell me if it is something to worry about or not.

 

[Hawkeye95]

It is hard to say. I think bumblefoot is way more common than any of us are told. People with many chickens don't check their feet unless they start limping or there is obvious swelling. I have 8 chickens with the tell-tale scabs on their feet right now. Only two are swollen and only one of those is limping (and then only a little). I have 11 chickens and didn't keep track well enough. If you had 100 chickens, you would spend all your time catching them to look at their feet.

There are good pictures at https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/bumblefoot-how-to-treat-your-chickens-with-surgery-graphic-pics in this forum along with surgery explanation if you haven't seen it. If you can post photos, we can take a look, but taking pictures of chicken feet is a challenge. They are really quick.

I'll see if I can get pictures tomorrow. I don't see a black scab. Just round spots on the feet. Sigh. But there is not swelling.... I wonder if I should be concerned or if it's okay since it's not swelling up. That was a fantastic link to their surgery!! Nice!!

 

[JosieChick]

Yep Josie I would recommend you let your dogs know that the chickens are part of what you want them to protect. If it takes housing some young birds with them I'd do it. My guess is that Mollie is feeling like she shouldn't look at the birds because she has heard Lucie get scolded for chasing them and chewing etc etc. I'm not saying it will be instant success especially with Lucie but putting chickens with her that don't run and telling her No if she starts to grab them is the only way she will learn.
I know some dogs just have a chase instinct that once they get it, is impossible to get out. I think Lucie is young enough she can still learn.

Danz- I don't think Molly is scared of being scolded, she has always behaved that way around the chickens long before we got the pup. She just walks really slowly through the birds with her head down and doesn't stare them down. She can walk through a whole crowd of birds and not disturb them at all. The puppy comes around and everyone is crying warnings and running. I tried raising the pup in with the chickens but she started carrying them around and I only allowed her direct contact with them supervised after that and most of the mistakes she makes are early in the morning when one flies over the fence by accident so I can't catch her. I guess I will pen her for a few weeks and keep a small group with her in a cage she can't get into and start letting her have direct contact with them while I spy on her with a remote collar to correct any naughty behavior. I hope she straightens out but if not I will look for a good goat or cow farm that needs a dog and start over with another pup. She is very bonded to our horses, even eating hay with them and moving with the herd as they graze so she has good instinct to protect and stay with animals that she look over, just not great with the birds yet.

Hawkeye- I know! Naughty little roos! I am scared of a big one flogging me!

Karen- Love those birds, the ducks look so pretty out on their pond. I am so envious of that lovely pond! Love those pretty Alohas!

 

[cherwill]

Three times now I've heard Rose make the strangest sound. The EEs all get very vocal whenever I come outside, but I've never heard anything like this before. Not from a chicken anyway, but I think I've heard it from a little dog! It sounds like a loud YIP or YAP or something that shouldn't come out of a chicken. She only does it once when she does it. What on earth is that all about???

 

[HEChicken]

Cherwill, sorry, that isn't ringing any bells with me. Is there any way you can get a short video of her doing it?

Karen - wonderful pics. I am loving Ricky especially - he looks perfect for the project to my very amateur eye. The little Aloha hen you gave me is so pretty its hard to imagine she was a reject for the project!

Danz, neat pics of the ducks. I haven't tried spraying my muscovies down. They do like to sit in the water bowls (but then the chickens like to stand in them) but from what I've read, Muscovies aren't as interested in swimming as other ducks as their feather fray too easily. So they like water and enjoy playing in it but I haven't provided them with a source for swimming in. I get a kick out of them with treats though. They will take a treat, like an apple core or a piece of lettuce, walk it over to the water bowl, throw it in and then swish it around for awhile before eating it. I've seen them do it so many times that its not an accident and I love that they are able to make a plan and execute it.

Karen, you mentioned clearing your pond of algae. Do you mind if I ask how you did that? DH and I walked down to ours last night and although we enjoyed the fish, frogs, mud skippers etc that we saw there, we didn't like seeing so much algae. I commented it looked like I could take a rake and just rake it out of there and he agreed that would work but if you have a better idea, I'd love to hear it.

Danz & Josie, thanks for the advice. My chickens are actually very relaxed around dogs because at the old place they free-ranged our backyard and the two pet dogs were out with them a lot of time so they are used to dogs and don't run/scatter.

It was interesting tonight. DH and I went to music theater so I asked 16YO DD to keep an eye on the animals. She says 7 guineas flew out and Tory didn't show the slightest interest in them. Tory looked at them, so knew they were there, but just kept walking over to DD instead of heading towards them. That feels very promising. I don't know if she differentiates between chickens and guineas and will never bother the guineas or if she is just figuring out what is okay here and what is not.

I do agree with you about the intelligence. We have to spell certain words out around her because she clearly understands them. For example, the word "tether". I would tell DH "I'll go ahead and put Tory on the tether for the night" and then call Tory over and she would try to obey but stay just out of my reach, ducking and weaving to avoid me grabbing her collar. She always gave in eventually but I realized she was hearing me tell him my plans and knew what I was up to long before I called her over.

The lagoon thing didn't work out. I asked DD to put all three dogs in there early evening. She reports that she went out later to check on them and Tory was out. She put her back in and fed them. Then we got home from music theater a little while ago and Tory came around the garage as we pulled in the driveway. Ironically, the two dogs who don't need to be penned are staying in. I can't imagine she's going over a 4' high fence (it is 2x4 welded wire fencing), so I think she is somehow getting out through the gate. It is a chain link gate latched with a chain and its possible DD set the chain loose enough she can push out there. When I got home she came over to me and stood leaning against me just a little to be petted. Sigh. How can I give up a dog that is bonding to me? I guess I will start working with her in the chicken yard. But maybe wait until it cools down a little. I stay outside and do my chores but am not really looking for excuses to spend additional time outside right now.

My parents arrive next weekend. Poor things. They will be leaving temps in the 40's for triple digits and there's nothing they can do to acclimatize in between times.

Danz, sorry for the scare about the drought. I had forgotten about the dust bowl but even in Australia we read some George Orwell books in English in high school so I knew a little about it. So sad about people tearing out the hedgerows. I love ours because it is so tall and casts a lot of shade since it is our west-side fence line. Two of my neighbors planted hedgerows on their property when they moved in 20 years ago so at least in our area it seems that people understand and value them. Trish voiced concerns (valid) about possums and raccoons dropping from the trees into the chicken yard. Hopefully that won't happen soon or often and I'll have to deal with that if it ever does. I would think it would likely be at night but if they are waiting in the yard when the auto door opens in the morning that could be bad. I've wondered if I shouldn't get one of those Duke DP Raccoon traps and set it just to see if any are out there but then I feel bad baiting and trapping an animal that ISN'T bothering my flock.

 

[HEChicken]

Oh, I also meant to say, Teresa, SO sorry about the Black Spanish - I can only imagine how disappointing that must feel.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Cherwill, sorry, that isn't ringing any bells with me. Is there any way you can get a short video of her doing it?

Karen - wonderful pics. I am loving Ricky especially - he looks perfect for the project to my very amateur eye. The little Aloha hen you gave me is so pretty its hard to imagine she was a reject for the project!

Ricky is actually #2 because of puffy cheeks, smallish wattles and white legs and he has more of an EE body type. Beckham is #1 because he is the right body shape, close enough on size, comb, wattles, leg color, well, the right everything except color. He carries heavy spotting because he was very, very spotted as a chick and has only lost the spots as he matured. Matching him with a Swedish should net some amazing results. If we put Ricky's size and color on Beckham, Beckham would be the perfect cockerel and thus, the name.

I cannot remember which Aloha you got, but probably size was the main issue. Color is one of the easier things to achieve. The challenge comes when you add all the other traits with the coloring. Having said that, I'm sure I didn't give you one of the worst birds because I was thinking that it would be good to have a hen elsewhere in case something happened to mine. At least that way I could buy some hatching eggs!

The Alohas are a bit different than the Swedish Flowers because we have some colorations that the Swedish Flowers do not. We are going for loud colors on both hens and roos. We have been successful in breeding bright yellows and oranges with white spots and we can get those results among the varied colors pretty consistently. We are still working on even brighter shades with larger white spots. The softer muted colors are also a bit different with ours having more variety in pastel yellows, peaches and soft grays that are sometimes spotted over a white bird. I like the Swedish a lot but am working on an American version that is a better dual purpose bird with more variety in the coloring. The Swedish Flower temperament is the pinnacle of success, to my mind. It is very openly curious about people and easy to fall in love with. I'm hoping to incorporate more of that temperament into my Alohas, who are already very personable birds. It's a really fascinating project. I got the lav orps in order to eventually achieve a white spotted lav or lav spotted white bird to add more color variety to the Alohas. I will keep them separate from the bright and loud colored spotted birds because I don't want to dilute the coloring on the loud colored birds. Added to pastel birds should yield some interesting results, I think.

Well, there you go. I'm busted. Now you know for sure I'm totally obsessed with these Alohas. My daughter says I live, eat, drink, sleep, walk, talk, blink, breathe and sneeze Alohas -- in a good way. I had to LOL at that. I do try to keep it under control but, oh well.

111 degrees was really hard on my little birds in the craftroom yesterday. They had begun to wilt so we had to swing into action cooling them down. Today, I'm going to put them in the house during the heat of the day because I seriously don't want to lose any of them to heat. One of my Wellies is still a little slow this a.m. so I'm just not going to take any chances. On top of all that, they got mites in the craftroom!!!!! So disgusting and how in the world did that happen? I've treated the wood that the brooder is made of several times and I sure didn't see this coming. I hate those things and this time I could definitely see them so I'm certain I have them. Well, had them. I powdered them all down, got rid of all the shavings, put in new shavings and powdered those, then sprayed down the wood with Poultry Protector again. I should be good for another 7 days and then I'm going to do it again.

Hope everyone's birds survive another day in the inferno!