First Run of Cornish Cross Meat Birds and Super Excited!

[LindaB220]

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New here, and new to raising these myself, 10 in the brooder on day 2.
Feed question, does it need to be the same exact time every day to stop feeding them? I work 12 hour rotating shifts so mine may vary by a few hours.
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Welcome to BYC. Great to have you. I'd keep plenty of food to get them through 12 hours. Maybe a double portion when you leave for work and a regul ar one when you get home.

 

[drumstick diva]

Hope I don't dream about "spraying" skunks all night long. I saw a momma(?) with a smaller one tagging behind, on Thursday -in full daylight, and am afraid it was headed for the jungle, I call the backyard. I had thoughts of spraying it with hose but, didn't know the distance it could spray.

 

[holm25]

Hope I don't dream about "spraying" skunks all night long.    I saw a momma(?) with a smaller one tagging behind, on Thursday -in full daylight, and am afraid it was headed for the  jungle, I call the backyard.     I had thoughts of spraying it with  hose but, didn't know the distance it could spray.

 

[LindaB220]

Bert has lost his ongoing fight with bumble foot. He lived only 11 months. I found him lying peacefully in the middle school pen. I do not think the middle schoolers are responsible for his death. He was a good rooster. Had he not contracted Bumblefoot who knows what might have been. I know my wife and I will miss him. It is a very hot humid day here today. I assume that was too much for him. Even in the shade it would be hard on him. Last night I noticed he was "panting" which worried me. The nice thing about Bert is he proved the detractors wrong, He lived long enough to breed and has many offspring. He was a normal 20 pound chicken. There will be no autopsy as the damage due to infection in his feet and legs was evident. He even had some spreading into his thigh. I wish he had made it a year. Maybe the next ones will. I even included his baby picture. I know many of you will be glad to not hear about Bert again. I can't say I will mourn him, he was a farm animal, but I will miss him.

, Noble bird. He will be remembered, Ralph.

 

[LindaB220]

It's raining hooray! It's been so hot and dry here. Miserable. Even the chickens are enjoying it.

Jeez, I am so tired of the rain. We've had storms for the past three weeks. Almost daily. Due the rest of the week.sigh. No garden this year for me I thin.

 

[Red Nugget]

I wonder if something else is getting your cats because owls cant carry something that big. And we used to feed dead squirrels to the owls and they literally turn them inside out and just leave the hide and whats left of a head.

we also have Bald Eagles I've seen 3 at one time.

 

[JessicaThistle]

Aren't my hens lucky to have such a good hubby?!?!

How hot is it where you live right now? Sheesh, here it's nipping at mid-90s. I'd be like, "get off my frickin head. It's hot!" Haha!

 

[Red Nugget]

Jeez, I am so tired of the rain. We've had storms for the past three weeks. Almost daily. Due the rest of the week.sigh. No garden this year for me I thin.

It's been 9 days of dry and tempered 90s to 100% heat indexes 107 to 112 and no rain. I live on what I call the sand lot. It is usually hard ground but lately . More like sugar sand at the beach. Poor chickens just pant all day. Have even been hand feeding them cool water because they have been just laying around and not foraging. I find them under the giant elephant ears most of the day lately. When it started raining they came out to enjoy it till the storm came. They are pretty smart. As soon as the wind picked up and they heard thunder they ran to their coop until it stopped then came right back out when it was over

 

[JessicaThistle]

Our weather has also been so incredibly hot. It shows no signs of slowing either with predictions of more temps over 100 in the coming days. This is crazy weird for us as we never have this high of temps this early in the year! My poor chickens are incredibly hot just panting like crazy under all of the shade things we have in the yard. Our neighbor so nicely paid a tree company a bundle to come and cut all of her trees that hung over the fence line and provided our chickens some shade. Now they have to rely on whatever it is we have out there for them. Oh well. Her trees. Her choice.

So, when the DOA was here, he told us that we need to either spread our chicken manure on our pasture or use to fertilize our garden, vegetation, etc around our property, sell it to gardeners and such and/or cover it in the rainy season to prevent runoff. So hubby went about to spread the manure in our garden and vegetation around the property. The offending neighbor asked us to please stop putting the manure in the bushes between our properties today. According to them it smelled so bad that it was making them sick. I shrugged my shoulders and told them, we are just doing what the DOA said to do. Don't know what to tell you. Besides, I don't smell anything. Evil laugh.

On another note, the neighbors on the other side of us with livestock said that he saw a fox in his yard a couple of mornings ago. Time to put a trap out. I am not losing chickens to it. This neighbor has also been harassed by offending neighbor. We filled him on on things we knew that she had done that he did not know about. He took it in stride but I'm pretty sure we have another ally. He also raised meatbirds a year or two ago and paid someone $5 each to process them. They do a CSA and paying that kind of money to process seriously makes it hard to make money. We offered up our processing table and plucker if they decided to do those again so they could process themselves.

 

[JRNash]

I have the same weather as Linda. Nothing but rain and heat! Got out early this morning and changed out all the bedding in the brooder.it was starting to get a little odour. Got everybody's fresh water and feed out then back in the house till the dew lifts