First Run of Cornish Cross Meat Birds and Super Excited!

[JessicaThistle]

Thank you Turkeytruff!

Poor Bert!! When I thought I'd integrate my silkies into the main coop that happened to one of them too. I found one head first as far as she could get in there under the ramp to the henhouse. I thought she was dead at first but when I picked her up she really snuggled to me and talked about it. It was then that I decided the silkies would have their own coop. Sunny is a good match for them too, as weird as it seems.

 

[LindaB220]

This is a joke, right? 4' of frost is insane. I had 2" on my ramp and worked 2hrs to get half of it melted. Then we decided that I would go down carefully and SIL would help me with the feeding and hot water. Worked like a charm
Snowing tonight ,3" or so

 

[holm25]

We ordered 2 Royal Palm, 2 Narragansett, 2 Blue Slate and 2 Bourbon Red. Hopefully most will be hens. Any toms will more than likely be butchered.

 

[LindaB220]

Big day here!


Ole found the hole between the two halves of my coop partitions. It is way up on the peak of the roof, 1 guinea fowl found his way through about 2 months ago. I am shocked Ole found it. When I went to check on Ed and Ole tonight Ole was sitting on a "bench" with one guinea, Ole had no injuries and did not seem to be suffering so I let Ed in with the guineas too.


And more importantly, Bert is spending his first night with the other chickens. When I went to lock the coop, Bert was inside eating layer mash next to Ernie. They were not fighting so I left Bert in there to try out a real roost tonight.

I am a little nervous about this. The lowest roost is 2 ft or so off the ground, which is a long ways up for Bert. The other thing is the availability of food, Bert may not be able to control is urge to eat, and have to move into an area without free will feed. 

Easy fix Ralph. Put a cement block pr two under the area of the lower roost. Stepping stones.

 

[duluthralphie]

This is a joke, right? 4' of frost is insane. I had 2" on my ramp and worked 2hrs to get half of it melted. Then we decided that I would go down carefully and SIL would help me with the feeding and hot water. Worked like a charm
Snowing tonight ,3" or so

Nope no joke, happens every winter. 4 feet of frost is common here.

The only thing that keeps the frost away is lots of early snow, then the frost will only go down a ft or two. By lots of snow I mean 3-4 ft covering the ground.

It is not all bad it keeps the Alligators away.


I am making Bert his own coop area and giving him a large dog kennel ( 96 ft circumference) until I can get him a pen in the spring. I am going to have the white rock and a couple Dixie rainbows move in with him, then in a month or so try to hatch the eggs.

 

[mountain mom]

Man, did I miss some good stuff!

Jessica, your story is absolutely hilarious! I would likely have peed my pants I was laughing so hard if it was in my house!
Yay for the first pullet egg! Any more?!

Pearl moved right in seamlessly with the other ladies. She follows their lead, doesn't over eat (but she is a giant!), and can make it to the first roosting bar that is about a foot and a half off the ground.
Ralph, I wonder, do you have any other white chickens?! I bet if you don't, that is why they are picking on him.
Dixie is our white Rainbow, but she grew up with all the other chickens, so they didn't know any better. I do think, that is why Pearl fit in so easily. Or else she may be missing hiney feathers too.

I bet you will love all your turkeys, and all of your new crosses available, Holm!!!

Lisa- Glad you are still here!

 

[JessicaThistle]

There was one perfect egg in the new nesting boxes in my pullet pen today! It is a bit bigger than my silkie eggs but just perfect and gives me hope that egg numbers will seriously increase.

On the home front, we have our parts coming in this Thursday for our first chicken tractor! It took us a bit of time to design a plan and find trailers for this use as well as order parts. Just so you know in advance, my husband and I don't just throw something together. It takes careful planning, designing and preparation to be just right! We often change up plans along the way too.

Finally, we will start chicken tractor build number 1!!! I am so excited to get this done so that we can bring our first batch of chickens home!

 

[LindaB220]

Quote:
Perfect solution. Don't overfeed him. He will be happy. Put one in first for a few days. Then another. In case, they gang up on him. I was expecting 4" snow. But mostly rain, a little sleet and about 10 min of heavy snow. Now sticking. At least the ice on the ramp is gone. Hopefully this is the swan song of winter. Hope, hope. ha. Woohoo, I spoke too soon. Snow is back and coming down like crazy. Expecting 4" and it's sticking. Yea!!! I would do a snow angel, but I couldn't get up again. Ha. First good snow in over 5-6 yrs.

 

[holm25]

This thread is dead!! Where is everyone!!!

 

[holm25]

L&M Fleet should have some chicks in soon!! Hoping I can get Crazy Miss Daisy some babies!!