FoodKiller's chicken journal!

[dnenella]

congrats on the chickens you can also try cat food (dry) for extra protien (just remember you are what you eat) so the better quality food is better for them

 

[FoodKillah]

Thanks for the advice, but i dont think i would try giving them cat food, because not only i have bought so much of their regular food and i bought 2 kilos of sunflower seeds too besides the gabbage and watermellon i give them, but there is a cat with 5 kittens in the same yard too and that will attract the cats.

The yard is very big seperated in half and there are 2 houses in it. Each house has its not fenced yard. The fence is surrounding both houses and yards perimeter.

I used to scare the cat off my yard and now she lives in the other yard but its really up to her if she comes and messes with my hens (she havent, yet). Also if the hens get used to cat food and search for it in the cats yard, i dunno the results

I dont like cats

, i call them rodents

(i cannot get rid of them, they are my sisters cats)

 

[FoodKillah]

Day 8

I believe the rooster is not a rooster after all. I am not sure how to tell. Whatever it is, its growing extremely fast! I see the bird almost all day long, and i can notice the difference in its size everyday

The antisocial hen is the one that lays eggs, and now is pecking Afterpee too(the other hen)

The hens really enjoy gabbage, this morning i made a huge salad for them which was gone by the noon. It had half gabbage well cut, a tomato and a cucumber, they LOVED it.

Then i left them free range in the yard and i left, when i returned with my wife she found her flower seedlings that she takes care all day, half eaten by the hens. I think it was funny, she did not.

I did not find an egg in the bucket today, and i think it could be layed somewhere else in the yard.

 

[FoodKillah]

Everything goes well in my yard.

The young rooster is growing, the brownie hen still pecks everyone, Afterpee, one of the hens stopped pecking the young rooster and they actually slept together in some sort of hole the other night, it was very nice to see. That was before i made a temporary coop/house for them to sleep in, in the night. The hens sleep inside, but the young rooster now prefers to sleep alone, in a bucket where the hen lay the egg in the day.

One of the hens is not laying, i think she might be too old, but how would i know?

I stopped using the pet transport cage for the young rooster, because he didnt like it at all, he was trapped in there most of the day screaming FREEDOM

Their run is open all day long. I made something really quick, to provide them shade inside the run and they seem to appreciate it alot. The hens love to go there and stay for a while, but the rooster doesnt really need it, he has access to another run i made (i have 2 temporary runs) he can access it by jumping+sorta flying, where the hens would never bother spending so much energy for a jump like that just to go after the rooster. He can relax, dust bath, eat, drink and sleep in there whithout anyone pecking him, he has a temporary shade in there too.

I am actually updating my journal to note that i am building a compact, portable and awesome chicken run, or animal cage in general. I saw those old, a little rusty cloth drying racks thrown next to a close by garbage bin. The next day i saw them again. They were there for one month and i was looking at them as i passed by many times a day, then i thought i could use them in my garden and took them home.

The 2 cloth drying racks made a "cage" when i put them down. This is when i said YEAH this is propably what those racks were made to do, form a cage!
I went to the hardware store and bought me some long screws and there it was. Ready to PAINT

Today i started painting the run and it already looks good. I will hopefully finish painting it tomorrow if i have nothing else to do.

I will post some pictures of making it happen, in a couple of days, if i am proud of the final product

if not, i will pretend i went on vacation.

See you all

 

[CoopCrazy]

Sounds like you are really enjoying the birds .. I love the idea of your "found coop" cant wait to see pics....

 

[FoodKillah]

My last post was on 27 of July and i said i was going to send pictures of my -what i call now- cage.

1 and 1/2 month later, it is already build and works great as a temporary cage, i did not need so much time to build it, i just did not have time to make this post.

It can house 1 or 2 young chickens for a while to adapt to their surroundings and the rest of the flock to get used to them. I have also used it to see which chicken lays eggs and who does not. When it is not in use for any other purposes, i still use it to keep the feeder inside to avoid some of the evil sparrows of hell that eat my chicken food.
My other topic, on evil sparrows

I remind you fellow readers, as i said on the earlier post, i have build this cage from 2 cloth racks that i found thrown next to some garbage bins near by my house.

Here are the photos.





Forgive me for not posting this earlier, i wanted to, but i did not have spare time to do this.

I will keep this post just for showing the cage, i will make another post in a while to update my journal with more photos and details, this time of my flock.

 

[FoodKillah]

This is an update of my journal and my chicken adventures of the last 1+1/2 month.

I had 2 brown chickens and 1 white cockerel when i started this hobby, after a while when i got used to them and saw their way of living and behavior, i needed more!

I went back to that crappy chicken farm that mistreats chickens more than i do by overcrouding them in small cages and they still had this kind of brown chickens in the same cage. I saved 2 more of them by adopting them, this time i chose them and tried to get the ones with more feathers on their necks (they still missed some feathers) i realized its a cause of pecking each other and not a decease.

They had new kinds of chickens in the other cages (overcrouded ofcourse) and i saw those silkies that looked amazing, my wife fell in love with a particular looking silkie that was a cockerel, well it costed like 3 of the brown egg layers, but how could i say no? I bought him... poor silkie... why did i buy you...

When we returned in our house, i placed all 3 of my new friends in the cage for a while, but i decided i should release them all to free range with the rest of the chickens, because i thought that the brown ones would like to say hello to their lost sisters

they did greet each other and my first bought showed the yard to their newly arrived sisters, the aggressive one i had, did not miss a chance to show that she owns the yard and started eating leaves of my trees hysterically, that was the first time she did it, and relaxed after a while beeing sure they got her point. What a chicken world!

The poor silkie.... this guy was a fully raised cockerel, still small in size tho. He was attacked by my young white cockerel many times, i had to lock the attacker in the cage -jailed him- for a while, i went to the toilet and heard the silkie screaming for help...what the hell happent i thought and i run and find out that dinosaur the hysterical grabbed the silkie and had started to... try to kill him?? He lost many feathers and he was BLEEDING above and under his head, not too much, but he did.

Believe me he did not look cute anymore after this fight, not close. I replaced the white cockerel with the silkie in the cage, and i let him there overnight to be safe. I could not wait to finish my job -nightshift- and get back in the morning to see if he is ok. He was.. ok. I mean he was alive. I found the dinosaur pecking the fence of the cage still trying to kill him

When my wife woke up i said, "GET DRESSED, NOW" she said "why?goodmorning?" i go "it will be a good morning when we take YOUR silkie back to the crazy peoples farm, at least he was safe on that cage with the other silkies" there was no second option.

A crazy gipsy lady in the farm did not even ask why i return him and grabbed him by his legs, he did not notice the difference and THREW him in the cage..

i bet he was so happy he returned there. Then i had to get other stuff because i dont believe they would want to give my money back. I bought 2 huge bags of chicken food and a black-golden young hen. So pretty! Not the same kind as the brown ones i have, not a freaky looking beast.

When we returned home this time i release her to free range with the flock that was not peaceful and the cockerel typically tried to attack her but he changed his mind when he saw how pretty and young like him, she was.
They are a couple now!

:yiipchick they are always together and follow each other around, avoiding the dinosaur, my cockerels life got a new meaning, i saw him trying to...make love to her that was funny. The brown ones did not really mind of her being around, they are propably glad the young cockerel stopped following them.

In the night, 3 brown ones stay in the coop seen in the photos below, but one of them likes to sleep with the young couple. Weird.

Since my flock number grew, i rebuilded the chicken corner and gave them double space (i never lock them in tho) and made this dog-style house or coop with a tiny door, they go in there and lay the eggs, i threw the egg laying bucket away. They seem to like that small house.

So again, now i have 4 brown egg layer hens, 1 black-golden hen, and 1 white cockerel. Now the names...
The names i gave them, the first 2 brown ones are called: Afterpee and Dinosaur, the 2 new brown ones are called: Wuss and *my mother in law name*

, the white cockerel is called: Chicky and the black-golden one is called:Baker because my wife believes she looks like a friend of ours that he works as a baker

poor guy.. (no remorse for my mothers in law name, tho)

I used to get 3 eggs everyday, untill today, i got 4 today!! I say to my wife wth are we supposed to do with 4 eggs a day? She told me we will give them to our relatives, haha, funny, i will eat them ofcourse(i hope). I am very happy about that, i hope they continue to lay 4 eggs a day.

I fenced my new vegetable garden from the sides so the chickens cannot get in there, but i still have an issue with sparrows eating my vegetables and chicken food. A big issue

Sparrows are a nightmare! Dont miss my topic on them if you are agree

Some random photos of my flock nowdays.


Here is my white cockerel, notice how he grew up from my first post

This is the black-golden hen, The Baker!

This is my wifes dwarf bunny, she is 5 years old

Afterpee is the one in front and the Dinosaur again at the back.
Here is my dinosaur! Very aggressive hen, she lays HUGE eggs that look retarded but are almost twice the size of the others.

Here is my dinosaur! Very aggressive hen, she lays HUGE eggs that look retarded but are almost twice the size of the others.

The white cockerel again, chicky

A far view from my chicken corner in the yard, i made that wall to break the wind some more. Wind braking fence is also around my yard.

The chicken house that eggs are layed.

The best couple ever.

The Dinosaur again.

Goodies

Chicky and The Baker

The Dinosaur pecking the camera

Part of my flock sharing some shade
______________________

That was the update of my journal 9/11/2010

 

[FoodKillah]

I had to build another coop for my chickens, asap. I did not have a way to transfer the materials i needed so i thought i should build another temporary run that had a roof to keep my chickens inside this time, and hopefully the sparrows away. I attached the wooden dog-style house i had in my chicken corner, next to the run, to be able to collect the eggs from the outside.

So, after 2 months, no more all day free range for them chickens

(i hate i had to do this)

Yesterday i made another temporary chicken run, using any kind of material i could find laying around. The chickens was getting used to it for the first day, but today, the dinosaur(hens name) started pecking my rooster and the baker(the black-gold hen), after each attack at the rooster, he was getting mad and was pecking his loved one(the baker) for revenge, so weird, because they "love" each other.

the baker had nobody to help her from getting abused, i had to do something, and i separated the loved couple from the brown chickens. I keep the couple in the jail thing that i made from old cloth racks shown above and everything seems peacefully now.

At the corner of my yard where i used to keep my chickens, i took apart everything to make space and be able to build the coop of my dreams when i find a way to transfer the materials, i made the new coop near my house and i also brought the jail next to it.

About the sparrows, what i saw today in my yard looked like a miracle. some kind of eagle sitting on my fence, brown, he was checking out the yard and when he took off his wings made a brutal noise that scares you. The sparrows that was before eating the remains of chick food at the old chicken corner were nowhere to be seen, i hope that eagle thing comes back and stays in my yard or at least i hope he spares me a visit everyday.

I will try to post photos of my shameful new temporary coop, tomorrow.

 

[FoodKillah]

Winter or winder?

My house is between 2 mountains and extreme wind is very usual now in the winter, i mean super extreme wind that sometimes you have to hold on things if you want to stay in the ground. The wind blew and broke 17 1inch metal bars that was holding the wind breaker net to the north, i had to remove all the windbreaker net all around the yard before a complete disaster.

The chickens free range in the day and i lock them up in the evening in the good days, the egg production dropped but at least they still lay some eggs for my baby to eat.

About that chicken coop of my dreams, the chicken run is almost ready, i only need a door, its HUGE. My hands are full of wounds from installing that chicken net, like i was in a war, but i dont care, i see blood in my tools when i install the net and think "again? where is the wound this time?"

i am the rambo of chicken net. Too bad my money is very limited and i realize that i cannot build that brick coop right now...

I still care for my chickens like the first days i got them, i love them. The rooster is getting so big, he is the man of the flock now, and he proves it every 10 minutes to some random chicken that happens to be in his way, he is a sex machine you know. He also bites me when i try to collect the eggs and he is around them, then i give him a lesson that it seems he will never learn because next time he attacks me again. I guess its his job (and mine to give him lessons)

I might post pictures someday soon.

Thats it for now, bye bye journal.

 

[BigDaddy'sGurl]

"The rooster is getting so big, he is the man of the flock now, and he proves it every 10 minutes to some random chicken that happens to be in his way, he is a sex machine you know. "


That made me laugh! I love reading your journal! You are so descriptive and clever. The dinosaur, the baker, lol...

Keep us updated! Chickens are wonderful, aren't they?