Thanks to everyone on the input on the puppy. I'm not sure what we are going to do. I miss having a dog, but I enjoy watching the deer and turkeys play in the field. But the guineas seem to be doing a great job of keeping them chased off. But, I do have a chicken cat.
Sharol, so jealous of the beautiful Marans egg. The "Marans" that we bought earlier this summer have never laid that dark of an egg. One hen laid a couple of nice darkish eggs, but then she died, another hen is laying a medium dark egg, and the other hen has yet to lay an egg. I wonder now if the one hen isn't actually a Cochin. How to know what breed I have?
I've got a lot of chickens that roost in the nest boxes, such a mess. A couple of the Zimmerman BOs can now get up on the roosts and one of them cackles as if to say, "look at me, I made it!"
We've got some of the brooder babies with swollen eyes. No runny noses, just puffy eyes and lethargic. Any ideas?
The wild turkey came into the shop, where we keep the feed, and ate some scratch out of my hand. Then she proceeded to just eat her fill out of the grain tub. How is the easiest way to tell the sex of a turkey? We're looking at the feathers (mohawk, kinda) on top of the head to be female.
Danz, getting attached to animals is just your nature, I know. Losing a bird is hard, especially one that you have put extra effort into, and she obviously enjoyed your company.
I hope that we have the chicken houses snug enough. I've left the heat lamps in the brooder pen and we don't chase the guineas out of the chicken house so they can add some body heat. The peafowl have a warm house if they choose to stay inside. We have one male turkey that sleeps on top of the peafowl pen and the wild turkey still goes to the trees. The ducks are on the creek and they seem content. Keeping water to them is the biggest problem. We have an extension cord for the heat lamps so can't use the heated dog bowls. One of the frost free hydrants we just put in is broke and the other one is bent, but hopefully will hang in there until we can replace the other one. Always something.
Sounds like everyone has their birds ready for this cold. I'm not. Have I told you all that I hate cold?
OQB, the eye thing is a disease, you need to start them on an antibiotic PDQ, they can lose their eyesight pretty quick with that stuff & it is fatal. I personally use Tylan for it, the powder form you mix in water. It's pricy & you have to order it, but it only takes 1/4 of a teaspoon of the powder per gallon of water. Mix it with warm water first because it won't mix otherwise.
That's cute your Orps are proud for getting up on the roost. My young ones all but one have learned to get up on their roost in the growout pen, I wish that one would hurry up & learn how too so she wouldn't have to sit alone on the floor. She is the one I'm the most concerned about with this blast of cold coming because she has been sick & just finally is better. I'm still thinking of trying to put her in with my Cream Legbar chicks in the large brooder in the garage. At least she could be warmer in there till this is over.
I guess you have to weigh which is best for you with the dog. Do you want to take your chances on having your chickens wiped out by predators or do you want to have all the wildlife in your yard. I personally don't miss the deer because they brought with them lots & lots of deer ticks. We had read that if you got rid of the deer you would get rid of the deer ticks. We didn't have nearly as many of them this last year with the dogs keeping the deer out. We were just overrun with them before that. We still get to see the wild turkeys, just not in our yard now. I'm not sure with the wild turkeys, but with the RPs I've had I was able to tell sex of them by the snood & wattles. The males have a much longer snood hanging down by their nose & bigger wattles & they gobble & the females don't.
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We converted the horse stall into a chicken coop so it certainly is different that what most people have. I put bricks and concrete slaps around the bottom to keep shavings in and the north side has concrete floor so that helps. 
