Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

Pikeman I have tons of chickens in a much to small coop. They free range all day and go to bed in the coop at night. It is just wall to wall chickens. As far as how much room they need inside I would base it on roost space. As long as they can all find a place to roost you will be ok. They stay inside on snowy or bitter cold days and I haven't had any casualties from that. Most chickens prefer to spend their time outside except at night. Mine even run around in the rain soaking wet a lot of times rather than getting under cover. I think space is more of a requirement if they are penned up in a small area. JMO
I took a pic of Chopper taking his bath this morning. Just happened to catch it as he threw water over his head. You can see by the churning water he was really throwing it around.

 

[JosieChick]

Danz-Thanks, I will check in at the co op to see if they can order for me. I feel you on the rain, I wish it would stop so I could get working on fencing, we have a bunch of pens that need to go up and new coops to build for breeders and I haven't gotten any of it done, instead I have been slopping back and forth in the muck to check on everyone. For some reason the geese seem to think it would be fun to go up near the road so I keep having to get geared up to chase them back into the backyard. There are 6 acres of pasture back there, you would think they could find something to do that wasn't right next to the road.

Tweety- You are right, pooping in the tub is much worse than the carpet!! I don't really know why, maybe because its harder to just pick up in the bath....

Stay dry everyone!

 

[Ivywoods]

DANZ-Oh my! I hope you can get the pheasants and peafowl separated SOON! Our peacocks beheaded our pheasants when we had them together. I think it happened because of the breeding season. It happened several times. The first time we just thought it was an isolated incident, but whne it happened again we figured it out, but then that was the end of our red golden pheasants.

 

[chicken danz]

I know several people that run goldens with their peacocks but they do separate them for breeding season. I would be out building a pea pen right now if I had a boat to get there! We are so close to the creek water just keeps running through our place. The peas are only yearlings so they aren't sexually mature yet. Thank heavens.
Josie I have the same problem with my ducks when it rains. They spend more time running in the road than they do in the yard when it rains. They get in the ditches to play and of course the ditch across the road must be nicer than my ditch. I'm surprised I haven't gotten one run over yet. I have chased until I'm blue in the face. Right now I just don't have time to run herd on them. I hate to pen them up but I am thinking I may have to. I sure wish I had the finances to fence the yard. That would solve SO MANY problems.

 

[chicken danz]

DANZ-Oh my! I hope you can get the pheasants and peafowl separated SOON! Our peacocks beheaded our pheasants when we had them together. I think it happened because of the breeding season. It happened several times. The first time we just thought it was an isolated incident, but whne it happened again we figured it out, but then that was the end of our red golden pheasants.

Do you think they will be in breeding mode at this young? Just checking since I've never had peas before.

 

[Ivywoods]

Do you think they will be in breeding mode at this young? Just checking since I've never had peas before.

I really don't know. I can't remember exacly how old the ones were that we had the problem with. I'm thinking they were only one or two years old. I think the problem actually occurred when the rooster pheasant would get on the hen pheasant. That is when the peacock would go after the rooster. And let me tell you, they knock the heads clean off! I remember I was mortified when I found them. Someone told me the peacocks would protect the hen pheasants. I don't know if that is a wives tale or not, but that may have been what the peacock was trying to do.

 

[Trish44]

IVY, that's so great that you were able to help that little girl & add some joy to her life, what a great story! Congrats on your turkeys too. I would like to have some Royal Palms too at some point when I have a pen for them, I think they're so pretty.

Danz, that duck of yours is something, quite a character.

tweety, I thought you were pretty brave too having all of those little ducks on white carpet, cute though.

We may all have to have boats soon if it keeps raining like they say it's going to for days. I wish it could spread out a little instead of raining all at once. It will do this & then when we need it later on there won't be any at all. I sure hope this summer isn't as bad as last year. My DH just went out the front door & said we have a whole front porch full of chickens trying to get out of the rain. I guess they reached the point of saturation. They usually go out in it without a second thought, but maybe they just had enough of it. I didn't even let them out yesterday & then today they just took off out of the run when I opened the door rain or no rain. Everything is just a mess here, nasty & muddy & our driveway is a lake. It's so soggy that I have to be careful walking down to the dog run or I'll slide down the hill in the mud.

Oh, for those of you that know about my chicks coming in April, I finally told my DH I couldn't go with him for his marathon in April because I can't leave my little chicks the next day. I had been waiting for a good opportunity to tell him & figured I had better before it got any later. Needless to say he's not very happy with me, he says this is why he doesn't like having all of these birds & animals because we can't go anywhere. Well I'm not giving up something that gives me joy just because he wants to run marathons, sorry but it's not going to happen. The Dr. has told him he's not going to be running many more anyway due to arthritis. I think he's going to find that this one is going to be the hardest one yet because of how his knee is getting. So far one knee is worse than the other. He's just beginning to see what I go through every day.

 

[cherwill]

Trish, my husband sort of feels the same way. He kind of wants to do what I want -- move somewhere we can have not just chickens, but goats and a cow; whatever we want. But he also doesn't want to get in a position where we can't go anywhere. I get it, but I also think there's something to be said for having what brings you joy every day, not just once in a while.

Chopper looks to be in heaven there in the tub! Too cute.

I took some more pics of my new girls last night. We've had them since March 1 and they weren't in the store the week before, so I guess they're about 4 weeks old? They're shaggy looking because they're half feathers and half fuzz.





Then this morning I walked into the living room and found this:



It doesn't begin to do justice to how crazed she actually looked!

 

[tweetysvoice]

Then this morning I walked into the living room and found this:



It doesn't begin to do justice to how crazed she actually looked!

That is too cute! Absolutely adorable! I can see the wild crazy look in her eye! LOL

 

[rvroman]

Hello all,

As much as I appreciate this rain, I have so much to do this week! I am on spring break so this is really my one shot at getting my garden up to date and my chicken coop built within a reasonable amount of time. Right now I am building what I can in my living room and I suppose I will be assembling it all outside. I have my base on its stilts, waiting to be sunk into the ground, I also have my back wall and front wall framed out. When my husband gets home he is going to teach me how to frame the windows and door. I also have my nesting box drawn out on all my wood, now all i have to do is cut and assemble that. My garden is just pitiful right now. THIS was supposed to be the week. I have 4 4x4 boxes built and 2 3x3 boxes built. Only 2 of the big boxes even have dirt in them. I am trying the square foot gardening approach this year. I have all these awesome little plants growing in my spare shower turned grow house, waiting to go out the garden. I love the rain, and am really glad it decided to rain on my freshly seeded barespots in the yard, but sheesh I've already lost 2 days!

I really love how great this online community is, it amazes me that something like fowl can bring people together! I really do love that. After all the reading I have been doing, I know that I have some really fun situations to look forward to with my boys, they are 15 mo apart a 2 and 3!

Trish44, are you the Ameraucana breeder I have been emailing? Just a thought that kind of popped into my head.

I am so impatient, I keep going down to see if my girls have any more feathers that might clue me into what kind of chicks I got, so far we have a few wingtip feathers and a few tail feathers coming in. My DH named my 2 unnamed girls, the bantam is now Hellen Keller and my 2nd largest is Susan B. Anthony (can anyone guess what his favorite subject is in school). After telling my parents all about my babies, they had to rush out and get their very own, lol. They live in Richardson Tx with a fraction of a yard because they also have a pool. My mom had always wanted "like 2 or 3" laying hens, now they have EIGHT!!! So my 2 plus my moms 2 is now 4 and 8...CHICKEN MATH!!!

Oh and my dog, Casey, is they biggest mamma hen!!! Its too cute.

Well I suppose that is enough rambling for now...