FLORIDA!!!!!ALWAYS SUNNY SIDE UP!!!

[TheJuan-n-Only]

Hey FLA peeps, I need some quick advice...pls help....pls see my questions in the attached post...thanks

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=461912

chicksint he sun...I think you have nestboxes on the run, not he coop...is that correct?

 

[chics in the sun]

Quote:
Yes, that is correct. I do have a picuture of them -

Nice an airy. Except I have an attached brooder type cage with a slightly smaller nest box, and at the moment they all believe that one is the prime nest box, so they bicker over it all day until all the eggs are layed. Sometimes they sit in there two at a time. My EE and Am will compromise and lay in the original boxes.

 

[featherbaby]

Quote:
Hey Wren! I have a very small flock of 23 Silkies. I have almost every color represented: Black, Blue, Splash, White, Buff, Lavender, Silver Partridge, Blue Partridge and one light Partridge. I get between 4 and 6 eggs a day usually and they are my precious pets. Most of them like to be petted and picked up, a few are not keen on it. I consider them my "therapy animals". I take care of my 85 year old mother (who has dementia and is wheelchair bound) 24/7. So when I get a few minutes break, or before she gets up in the morning, I can go out there and snuggle chickens and feel like all's right with the world. They're WAAAAY better than Prozac! Cost more though. HA!

Right now I'm having a dilemma with a Roo. Midnight is a solid black, Show Quality +++, Loud Crowing Boy! I know I should sell him so I don't get reported by a neighbor, but I've fallen in love with him. He LOVES being picked up and carried around on my arm. He'll jump into my arms when I open the cage, and immediately settles down on my arm like a baby. Body language couldn't be clearer....he loves me. So I bring him in each night, cover his cage on the kitchen floor, pick him up in the morning and he sits on my lap as I have coffee and computer time. He still crows when I put him in the outdoor pen, but by that time it's 9 or 10 AM....NOT 6:30 AM! Whew! Mixed emotions for sure!

Tell me about your flock?

 

[featherbaby]

Quote:
Welcome to the Addiction....er, I mean hobby. I'm excited for you to get started and respect that you are doing your homework first! I studied and planned for almost a year before I built my coop and got my first babies. Most people get that backwards and put a lot of pressure on themselves. You're doing it right! Keep us informed and ASK QUESTIONS....it's the only way to learn without having to make all the mistakes. We are glad to share our experience and resources with you.


By the way, ItsaZoo.....I love your name!!!!

 

[carolsaucier]

Question for everyone. My girls like an afternoon snack and seem bored with scratch. Girls are all 9 months old and are laying regularly. We let them out of 12 x 20 pen to roam in the evenings and they seem to like birdseed except for the sunflower. Is there a good "snack" that is healthy for them rather than scratch and bird seed?

 

[Sunny Side Up]

I've never heard of chickens being bored with scratch. Perhaps they're getting too much of it at once? Maybe you could try giving them just a little bit, enough that it's eaten within a minute or two. They should be more interested in all the natural goodies they can scratch up for themselves when they're let out of their pen. That should be good for them, and varied. What time do you let them out? If it's too near nightfall, they may already have full crops and won't want to gobble up too much more.

My chickens always act like they're starving, they rush to the fence and clamor at the gate any time I go near. But when I observe them from afar they really are content in their pens. The reason they make a fuss when I come near is because SOMEtimes I bring them a treat -- usually something leftover or un-eatable by the family, the bread crusts or the apple cores, etc. So I keep them guessing, and their interest is always high -- maybe THIS time will be the payoff!

I use scratch sparingly, and as a training tool. I keep some in a metal can and shake it before I toss it. The chickens have come to associate that sound with that treat, and will come running from all points of the yard when they hear it. It's really handy if I have birds who have gotten loose and need to be called back, I just shake the can and they come right back to me.

A lot of folks like to give their chickens special treats, and enjoy watching them eat it, and that's fine. It's also good to look for treats that will really enhance their health at the same time. They should be getting all the good nutrition they need from their feed, but a little extra grains, seeds, fruit, greens or vegs are nice too. Extra protein can be offered occasionally too, cooked egg, yogurt or cottage cheese, mealworms, crickets. Perhaps you should just give them less of it at once, and vary it more often. Have fun!

 

[wren]

Well if you want the ultimate snack, boil eggs and crumble them and give them to the chickens. They love them! But there are a lot of other snacks you could give. God I love this thread. Anyway, all the other snacks I would limit. I am surprised about the sunflower seeds...are they black oil sunflower seeds? My chickens love them. I bet they couldn't open the stripey ones. Um back to the list. Bread, any vegetables, any greens that people can eat, any grain with a limit on corn. Corn is sugary starchy and can make them fat and too hot. I would leave corn out free choice for my free run birds in the winter. This is good for active birds only when its freezing out.

So let's see, bread, hard boiled eggs crumbled, vegetables, greens (that are people food too), grains (oats, wheat, corn), you can give cooked meat but I find it gross and disturbing. It's kind of fun to give them a whole cabbage. They take bits of it and whittle it down. If you peel potatoes you can give those but they are not terribly popular.

Mealworms, crickets, earthworms they love them.

Fruit. Chickens like it but it gives them diarrhea. Limit it. I don't give fruit.

I used to hang a treat bell for them. Kind of fun. People who show birds give dried cat food as a treat. Just a little handful. It can help put a good finish on birds.

 

[wren]

Quote:
Hey Wren! I have a very small flock of 23 Silkies. I have almost every color represented: Black, Blue, Splash, White, Buff, Lavender, Silver Partridge, Blue Partridge and one light Partridge.

Right now I'm having a dilemma with a Roo. Midnight is a solid black, Show Quality +++, Loud Crowing Boy! I know I should sell him so I don't get reported by a neighbor, but I've fallen in love with him. I bring him in each night, cover his cage on the kitchen floor, pick him up in the morning and he sits on my lap as I have coffee and computer time. He still crows when I put him in the outdoor pen, but by that time it's 9 or 10 AM....NOT 6:30 AM! Whew! Mixed emotions for sure!

Tell me about your flock?

Well being the bad mommie I am, I left my baby Emma behind in Iowa to get married to my wonderful husband who lives in Jacksonville. She is like your Midnight. She jumps up into my arms and I would chore with one hand while I held her. When I get a place where I can have chickens I would gladly house Midnight for you. I pinkie swear. Emma is show quality too. She is an Ameraucana. I've never had a silkie but they are very soft.

In Iowa I still have birds that my sister is taking care of for me. Right now I only have Emma, Cuddles (maran ameraucana cross whoops), and 12 brown red modern game bantams. That of course is nothing compared to what I used to have. I had several breeding flocks. Blue, silver-blue, brown-red and birchen Moderns, Dutch, Marans, Buckeyes, Ameraucanas and a flock of free range Guineas. My sister has LF Cornish, Dominiques, and Moderns. We would raise oh 300 chicks or so. Please dont be turned off here. I was on a farm and had chickens in four different buildings. So plenty of room. Then I would sell the good ones, keep the best, and the rest where sold for 50 cents. My sister and I also took birds to be processed occasionally (but I don't like to). I left equipment, buildings, a large new incubator, show carriers and portable cages behind. Aargh.

I don't suppose that I will be able to find anyone that will rent to me and we will have to move. I pine for Emma. I love cuddling with her. Before Emma I had a chicken named Goldie that cuddled with me a little, but mostly she liked to supervise me cleaning and then criticize me if I did a poor job. She seriously would look over everything then chatter at feeders that were not full enough, a dirty wall or corner. She spent her last night with me in my bed. She couldn't maintain her own body heat. Sad. She passed quietly though.

Emma is my baby cuddler now and she doesn't care about how clean the pens are she must be held. Wish I had her here. Pure black just like Midnight. Chickens are way better than prozac. I love my husband more though, and he says she can't live here. We would be busted for sure. Sigh.

Your Midnight is in love with you! I have no doubt. I hope the neighbors never report you. Gosh what a wonderful harem he has! Lucky boy! Thanks for writing! Can hold him sometime?

Thanks for writing!

All my best,

Karen

 

[carolsaucier]

My 11 girls get all the veggie scraps that 2 of us can make and occasionaly bread scraps (we are not big on bread). They are given play and run time about 4:30 each afternoon and at that time will follow me to shed for a cup of scratch..............which they eat and play with for about 3 minutes. Then its run and play time. They will eat all wild birdseed on ground under feeder except black sunflower seeds which they leave for the squirrels. It is fun to watch the girls, the wild birds, 2 squirrels eat together with Nagger cat watching.

Their favorite foods are tomatoes, red crepe myrtle and red canna lillies. My neighbor (who shares ownership) had to fence her canna lillies to protect them. Girls hate broccoli, green onions and not very fond of brussels sprouts.

My girls play time runs from 4:30 until dark when they put themselves to bed in their coop. We close and lock them in coop and close gate on their run to prevent visit from much too friendly coons.

 

[Cindilou]

Hello!
I'm in Florida, too. Largo, in Pinellas County.

Cindi