Good point. I do have a concrete floor for my coop so I don't have to worry about rotting. I went ahead and dumped a half a coffee can in there. It consisted of some cut up avocado peels, banana peels, coffee grounds, tea leaves and the stem of a living lettuce. Oh - and some cut up turkey I had been going to give them anyway. They looked at me like I was nuts and exited the coop. Several hours later, I had to go and do some work on the coop and, as they always do, they followed me in, discovered this "treasure" pile and went to town on it. Having the turkey mixed in helped to get their interest, but in a short time, you couldn't even tell where I had put the compost. I'm sure they didn't eat it all, but what didn't get eaten got scratched in, in the efforts to find things that were edible. So, I might try it again.
I've always left anything to do with onions out of the compost because I always heard they don't compost so well, since even the bacteria don't like their strong flavor too much, so I will probably continue to leave them out, since I know the chickens won't eat them. We also never have potato peels in our compost because I'm too lazy to peel my potatoes LOL. We just eat them skin on, and even when I'm making mashed potatoes, I leave the skin on. My family has grown to prefer them that way and this Thanksgiving when I was tasked with making mashed potatoes, my mother-in-law was a little uncertain about the idea, but afterwards told us how much she had enjoyed the mashed potatoes with the skins.
I"m gonna go back and read the last couple pages in a bit, but wanted to get up the pic of both baby chicks: She's still sitting on the other two eggs. Dunno if they are gonna hatch though or not. I love listening to mama talk to her babies! I was thinking about it - How smart chickens are that if at a day old they can understand a "language"!!!!!
I was thinnking that, I just wasnt sure. I have silver laced wyandottes so I see the difference I just wasnt sure if it may take awhile to grow in. Ok so she could still be a mix?Yeah, mine are just for fun right now, too! It's something I might get into later on down the road. But right now, I'm content with just breeding silkies. You said your Polish was 7 weeks, right? Well, they don't get in a crest until they are nearly mature. But I can already tell that the vault on the bird is a bit on the low side and the crest even at that age should be engulfing more of the head-- even with pin feathers. I'm guessing your bird might be a cross between a silver laced and a white crested... somehow you ended up with a mottled bird. Very interesting color, none the less! Actually, mottle is a color that is being worked on with Polish, but I don't know how far along in generation they are.
This is a Silver laced polish rooster: Silver laced Sebright
Anyway, the pattern for lacing is very distinct should look like this:
THIS is a mottled: (see the difference?) But this is a Houdan, not a Polish.
My opinion of your little Mohawk is that you have a very adorable little bird on your hands, but so far, looks to be a pet quality right now. But don't tell him that!!!
They are fun and if they are healthy have more meat than quail. Can't raise them with quail or chickens because of their red legs & bill, they will peck at the red non stop.Oh, I almost forgot to post a picture of the bird I've seen several times in the yard today. Again, I think this is a bird that was planted by the neighbors to be hunted and has taken cover on our place. I believe this is a chukar, which is a kind of bird I'd never heard of prior to discovering them in the yard this time last year.
Keep us posted on the compost project. We stopped putting some stuff in our compost but we use so many onions I couldn't throw the skin and peels in the trash. It eventually went away in there but we had a HUGE mound that would heat up like crazy and I just kept dumping into it and turning it. We do make mashed potatoes with the peels sometimes but I like them without too. We were having so much trouble with skunks here getting into the pallet compost pile and I wasn't good enough about our trash can composters so we sort of fell off the bandwagon.I"m gonna go back and read the last couple pages in a bit, but wanted to get up the pic of both baby chicks: She's still sitting on the other two eggs. Dunno if they are gonna hatch though or not. I love listening to mama talk to her babies! I was thinking about it - How smart chickens are that if at a day old they can understand a "language"!!!!!
Well I feel like a giant tool. I was gone on Wednesday all day and when I got home there was a post it on the door that read "Your horse is out." SO I freaked and ran out to the pasture and they were all there. I figured that maybe Sprinkles, the naughty pony, got out the gate and let himself back in because if I don't latch it just right he can squeeze out or in! When I was out walking Lucie one of the neighbors stopped by on her way to town to let me know my big walker was loose and that the guy across the street from her caught him and put him back in the pasture. Oops! How embarassing. She said he walked right out into the road when she stopped her car and stuck his head in her car for a pat. She thought he was just the sweetest thing but I was mortified that he was in the road and her car!!! So I thanked her profusely and baked some cookies and thanked the guy across the street for catching him and putting him back. Silly horse.
