"gambling" with fate to defend my eggs' life (he/she make it!!!!)

[mulia24]

i'll be waiting to see the feeder mounted on the board to make it not a good perch. i can't help to described it myself.

wew, i can't put a feeder at backyard full of feed, i always give 1 day feed per day, because i found out there are many mouse at my backyard at night, my coop is full of rat's poo. i'm frustrated about this.

investigating your finger. that's good they don't have strong enough to peck your hand too hard

. i don't know if other like to do so, i like to give my girls and roo feed by putting it on my hand so they're pecking feed from my hand, that i do when i have a spare time.

and nipple, i never see nipple in my country but i've seen many in BYC. is that durable or long lasting? i think everytime the bird peck on it, the lifetime will be reduced because the rubber will *loose* and with the weather (hot and cold) and the water making it *rusting*. nipple won't last long.

i'm getting much trouble to keep my chicks waterer keep clean. mine is simple, just put a bowl and put a brick at middle, but they still make it too dirty.

 

[tomato lady]

To water my chickens I just have a big rubber (?) pan that I got from the feed store. The chickens do walk in it and get it dirty so it needs changing often.

To change it I open the big door (for people to enter) and throw out the dirty water, rinse the pan, and fill it with clean water. When I open the big door all the chickens try to escape. The other day my granddaughter, who is 10 years old, came up to help keep the chickens in while I changed their water. She was outside jumping all over trying to keep chickens in, and I was throwing the dirty water out.
Then, oops!

She moved right to where I was throwing the water. All that dirty water landed on her head.

She screamed very loud. I started laughting and that made her really mad. There is an expression in the U.S. "Mad as a wet hen". It means someone is very mad. I started thinking about her being mad as a wet hen and I laughed even more.

She went in and took a shower and was mad at me the rest of the day.

Being a grandmother isn't always easy.

 

[wegotchickens]

My daughter would NEVER help me again if that happened to her!

Mulia, I love it when I have time to hand-feed my birds. I did it last night and came back to the house with a smile on my face. One greedy girl pecks very hard and makes me cringe. But the others aren't bad at all!
My roo got jealous and bit me. I picked him him up, hugged him, and explained that if he did it again he'd have to go into the bachelor pen. And then I held him where he could get a good look at the bachelor pen. He was a very well-behaved roo after that!

One poor girl was getting no food, so I set her on a shelf and gave her a handful of feed just for her. She was so happy that she followed me as I did all the rest of my chores. She got another treat before getting penned for the night.


I think the nipple watering system will last for a couple of years. I've read reviews and posts from people on BYC who use them. We'd install them now, but my husband wants to see how cold it gets inside the new shed first. So far it stays fairly warm at night! But winter hasn't really started yet.

 

[mulia24]

@ tomatolady : unfortunately i don't have ability (perhaps time) to change their water many times a day and with those mosquitoes chase after me everytime i go to backyard (tropic country many mosquitoes) that torture me when i play with them.

oh, what? that surely dirty and really annoying to have all dirt on our cloth, and mixing it with laugh will cause an explosion of anger

so, mad can be similar as angry? mad=crazy=angry? i'm still not sure to use those word.

mad as a wet hen, i'm surely need to remember this expression.

oh i almost forget, you can try this trick to make sure no one escape from the coop when you want to change water or check for egg. i'm sure your coop possess chicken wire/netting on its side? then, you can throw treat (like corn,cracked corn or whatever they love at most,oh worm

) to the side/place inside coop that far enough from door, then when the flock were *directed* to the treat, simply walk in and do whatever you want, as long as the treat still remaining at the floor, they won't chase you, even they'll neglect your existence. i do this whenever i want to change water and fix/maintenance/check the coop for any damage.

@ wegotchickens: bachelor pen? what's that lor?

ups, mine different, i don't know why, all my roos afraid to me, they will keep a safe range when i'm inside my coop.

i just mumbling, who do you think you are? a movie star? a well known singer? but they just ignore whatever i said.

yes, in a flock, there's always at least a chicken that being a too junior or slow moving or afraid of other, so she will always be the pity chicken. always the lightest weight one in the flock. i always prioritizing the pity chicken in my flock to get better food/water access to make sure she's not being *tread* by other.

oh, perhaps i need to use the nipple system here, but no one sell it here.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
ah, my hen lay again yesterday after i move her again to the main coop, i'm too happy (can't described it in word) when i heard an egg song just a day after i move her again to main coop with my nice roo, i think she was laying a fertile egg since i see a hen being mated by my mean roo inside cage, but when i scramble my egg this morning, i'm shocked, the egg is infertile

i need to bury deep my dream to hatch village chicken soon...... i've tried to search for village chicken egg but no one sell them, they prefer to hatch it themselves since the price of the chicken is high enough. i'm disappointed, so the hen being mated by my mean roo is the other hen. today she lay again, i'm very happy she lay 2 eggs in 2 days, this is rare, i know that's not rare for your chicken but that's rare for me, my best lay record is 1 egg in 2 days. although infertile but i still happy.

i'm thinking to give the position of field marshal of my main coop to my mean roo from my nice roo(now) so i will put the nice roo inside a cage in which i'm placing mean roo now and move the mean roo to main coop, quite sad for me if the mean roo peck my hen feather off like past again but that's the only way to get the fertile egg since i can't find any village roo here for 3 months

.

and my pity black hen is now being tortured by the 2 senior hens since i move those 2 senior hens to main coop 2 days ago. i have no choice, if i don't move the 2 hens to main coop, the hens will on the loose since my dog break my small coop and force me to put 2 hens to main coop and the mean roo inside cage. i know this is pecking order but that's quite painful to see my black hen being run all over main coop and fly inside the hen house to avoid the attack from my senior girls. i just hope they'll be friend soon, glad to have my coop double space now so the black hen can run off from the senior better now than past time.

this is the pic of the egg i got yesterday.

i know perhaps some will say i don't care your chicken or your chicken egg, but i just want to share my happiness and my sadness since no one of my friend/family care about my chicken and the egg.

 

[wegotchickens]

Mulia, a bachelor pen is one with only roosters, no hens. My extra boys were being too rough on the hens, so they got penned together away from the hens. They are very skinny from pacing back and forth, trying to figure out how to get back to the girls

My pretty boy does NOT want to be in there with them! In fact, he was fighting with them all the time when the flock was all together, trying to protect the hens. Now he's very happy to be only man among all the women!

Hopefully your mean rooster won't be too rough on the hens this time. And if he is, maybe that will distract the mean hens away from the black hen!

I'm glad you are getting more eggs to eat now. And being unfertile could be a kind of blessing, since you need to focus on school before you can hatch more.

My chickens still give me 0 eggs each day. It's cold (34 in the morning, 66 in the afternoon) and the banties are lazy. The standard hens are molting so they have a good excuse. They look very scruffy and embarrassed. They hide if people come over. I think that's funny, that they know they don't look good. The banties hid when they were molting, too. But they are beautiful now. Beautiful and lazy.

I gave everyone treats again last night. Cracked corn to help keep them warm (takes longer to digest in the craw, which generates heat). Same girl came to be picked up and eat on the shelf. Another got jealous and wanted to be on the shelf.
Tonight I have trimmings from roast meat for them as a treat. They love that! I don't give it to them very often, but since it's cold and some are molting I think the extra fat & protein will be good for them. I'll melt the fat down and pour it over bread scraps.

When the chickens get meat scraps my cats get jealous. I don't have a dog, just 3 cats. They are scared to take food away from the chickens. In fact, I have seen my chickens take food away from the cats :lol Very upsetting for the cats.

BTW, I like seeing your pictures. I am jealous that you are getting eggs

 

[tomato lady]

Mulia, if the first egg after you moved your hen is not fertile I would not worry. Maybe that egg had already started to develop. Maybe after a couple of days she will be laying fertile eggs.

Yes, mad and angry mean the same thing.

English would be hard to learn as a seond language. We have so many words that can mean more than one thing. One example, if someone says, "She is hot." They could mean, "She is too warm." or "She is angry."

or "She is beautiful."

It would be very difficult for me to learn another language. I studied Spanish for two years in school (long time ago) and I don't remember anything I learned. Actually, I don't think I learned very much at the time.

I have to go into my coop to throw food down for the chickens. I made wood walls because it gets cold here in the winter. We just had a storm with lots of rain and wind. I have a bucket of corn just inside the coop door and I do throw that around to distract them so I can move around without chickens in my way. I have one chicken that jumps up on top of my nest boxes and "talks" to me the whole time I am in there. It doesn't matter what treats I bring, she still just wants to talk to me. She is almost 25 weeks old and I don't think she has ever laid an egg. Maybe she thinks if she talks to me she won't have to give me any eggs.

I am trying to get a breeding pen built because I am going to get three Black Marans, 2 hens and a roo. They should lay dark eggs. I want to hatch some in the spring.

I think if there was any way to send you hatching eggs, you would get so many eggs from BYC that you would be overrun with chickens in no time.

 

[mulia24]

@ wegotchickens : wew, so all roos are being collected and put together inside a room? won't they all fighting each other? i've my roo killed in action when i put him together with my mean roo.

i've moved him yesterday to main coop and isolate the nice roo, it seems that he is now become junior so he didn't peck the girl anymore but he courageously mate any girls inside my coop

but if i see any feather's pulled out by him, i won't hesitate to give him a painful lesson, or worse i'll use *the colonel* recipe

and now my black hen is still suffer from my 2 girls

a blessing? yes indeed i'll focus to school but i can't resist the temptation to hatch any babies whenever i browse BYC

real bad addiction.

honestly, i never see any chicken molting and i don't know why.

wew, my chickens tried to steal my dog's food when they're free ranged and that result in chasing all over my backyard by the dog, and now with them cooped, the muscovy take the role to steal my dog's food and same, they got chased but they're better escape artist than my chicken

o ow, i'm going to make you more jealous

, she lay 3 eggs in 4 days, i think she got nutrient high enough now. but really i need protein now to grow her feather, and unfortunately i can't get any cheap.

@ tomatolady : i hope so, with the aggressive-to-mate roo now in the main coop, i think i can expect the fertile egg soon.

but well, as wegotchickens said, i'd still have to think my school task, getting me confused to choose which way.

well, i've much bad experience when using english by try to make conversation using it, when i'm trying to test my english skill at a tourist resort near my hometown, i can't find any english native speaker there. and i still remember when posting at BYC, i said my chicken furs, and i got some laugh at me.

so, they don't get a wide area of sunlight? or they only get it through window? well, perhaps my girls have to thanked being live here with no winter and snow at all year. that's not fair, she can't bribing using word, she need to produce egg

em, breeding pen, to make sure that the babies will only possess a pure heritage breed from parents? i think i will need it when i can get egg from outside of my country.

that's all i'm thinking, how to obtain egg from outside..... i'm too jealous to watch everyone have different kind of chicken when i have only 1 kind.

 

[tomato lady]

Mulia, I am the one who feels jealous today. I want your warm weather. It has rained here for days and now it is colder too. I am trying to get my chicken yard fence up and I have had to work in the cold rain and wind. I put my posts in with cement, but the ground is so wet the posts still aren't strong enough to support the heavy fencing I got. I worked so hard to dig holes for my posts (18 inches deep -- should have gone 24 inched deep.) and haul those heavy bags of cement up there ........... and my coat was wet, and my hands were cold, and rain water was dripping off my head into my eyes. All this trouble and I am going to have to figure out a way to support my fence till spring when the ground dries out.

Once I get my post strong enough, then I have these large rolls of 5' high chain link fencing that are extremely heavy that I have to put up. I have to put up 110 ft. of it.

I also have the breeding pens to finish and I am not sure it is safe to use my electric saw out in the rain. Yes, breeding pens are to isolate a breed of hens with the same breed of rooster to get pure chicks. I have never done this before, but my granddaughter wants us to try it.

Yesterday on BYC someone posted a place to get free pumpkins and squash for farm animals. My chickens love pumpkin so I decided to go get some. I took my granddaughter and drove the truck. It was quite a ways and we got a little lost, but we finally found this place. Of course, with the days of rain, there was lots of mud.

The man who was giving them away said, "Take them all" so Jenna and I loaded the truck over half full with heavy pumpkins and squash IN THE COLD RAIN. We stopped at a friend's place on the way home and gave them a bunch of pumpkins for their chickens, ducks and geese.

I just want it to be warm and sunny for 1 week so I can get things done. But, I have lived here all my life and I know it is not going to get warmer till late in the spring. It will only get colder and stay wet. I bought a pair of barn boots and I am going to have to get out my heavy coat and work gloves.

Of course, if I could get a little help from the men in my family it would help. However, they say they are my chickens and I have to do the work. They don't want to work outside in the cold and rain either. They are building onto the house so we have more room because my daughter and her DH and two children live with us. I love having them here. My granddaughter is 10 and does lots of things with me. I am teaching her how wto be a strong woman.

Now that I have ranted about the weather, the good part is that I am 66 years old and I still healthy and strong enought to do all these things. I am teaching my granddaughter how to be independent and strong. And, I love my chickens.

 

[mulia24]

well, whe the cement dry, the fence will be so strong and of course water-proof. not so good as warm, here often get hot weather, not because of the ambient weather but because of traffic, cars didn't get inspected good here, with that police of department of transportation can be bribed easily, all car turn out that black gas and heat all the way and keep making global warming more rapid.

i even think perhaps 1 day my chicken need to use gas masker to avoid that CO2

i also feel i need to feel snow sometimes, and i hate to never have a chance feel having snow at my country. all i get are hot/dry and rain.

and why don't you have your granddaughter or your son/daughter help you to build them? i just don't understand why did you keep force yourself did it?

by the way, when is spring, winter, autumn and/or fall seasons? i never get that kind of seasons here.

ups, electric saw, never use it in wet or humid place where short circuit can happen to any electric device and cause injury to you. you're so lucky, electric saw is real expensive here, i never have a chance to use it, i only use hand saw to do every construction to my chicken coop or fixing thing.

once again i'm jealous, you'll never find anything free of charge in this country. no one going to give anything free here, even stinky fish/orange.

and you can have snow, electric saw and free pumpkin there.

wow, 66 and you still do that all thing? you should have retired of that work, the men in your family quite cruel to left you done it all yourself.

they're your chicken of course but they also *take advantage* from that chicken also i think, they must have ever eat the meat or the egg even for once and the only way to pay it well is by helping you to set the coop and all.

yes, it's good to have a girl strong and independent, not like my GF, quite disappointing, spoiled girl.

well, i'm sharing my pics again.

boiling fish (protein)

boiling mung bean (protein), rice, quaker oat, and egg with its shell (protein+calcium)

well, quite expensive for me

blending all of them (oat,mung bean, rice, egg+shell, fish)

ready to serve (left dog food, right chicken)

and with that so many quite nutritious than what i eat, they still didn't produce egg more that usual.

really disappointed. fish is quite expensive but fortunately i get an opportunity to buy cheap fish once, i buy 1 and half kilograms for about US$0.5 . and that's enough to feed them for 1 week.

they're spoiled for 1 week.

and i need to hit my dog everyday since he's destroying my coop that i've built with so expensive cost (well for indonesia standard), hard work, mosquito bites and sweat.

he keep destroying every side of my coop and i'll make sure to give him real good punishment everytime he do it.

 

[tomato lady]

Mulia,

I do all the chicken work because the men in my life choose not to help. My son-in-law would help if I asked him, but he works about 12 hours a day and is tired when he gets home. I have done other things. I ran all the electrical wires for lights and heat in the new part of our house (3 big rooms and a bathroom.) It all works too. Don't feel bad for me. I choose to do these things and stay active. If I didn't stay active I might only be able to sit in my rocking chair by now. That sure wouldn't be any fun.

Yesterday I discovered that one of my 3 month old Buff Orpingtons was not doing well. She is not using one of her legs. When I checked her over, I discovered that her top beak has grown longer than it should and hooks down on the end. I think she has not been able to eat much and got very weak. She was in with 22 other chickens and somehow she got her leg hurt. As I type this she is sitting in my lap eating strawberry yogart and peeping softly at me. So cute. But, my DH would not be happy about a chicken in the house so we try to keep her quiet. I think I will file her beak a little shorter so she can eat easier. My granddaughter is fixing her a scrambled egg with cheese.

I am sure she would love some of that chicken feed you make. I think your chickens are lucky. They need to reward you for all the good care and start laying eggs!