How is your flock today?

[Annalyse]

O, Ok that's awesome! Yes that does happen and your not the first! LOL We adopted a little Roo about two weeks ago and Chewbacca, Chewy as we call him is a Brahma barn yard mix and he was to have been a hen also! LOL So the people we got him from wanted to rehome him over the stew pot.

Chewy is about three months old now and quite a friendly little guy. He isn't quite big enough to turn loose in with our older hens who already don't like him, so Chewy gets a little special treatment to keep him safe from our hens until he is bigger in size.

Mine is the king of the coop but if he wasnt there my Buff would be the "rooster". My only silkie gets picked on so occasionally she comes inside sometimes.

 

[416bigbore]

@Annalyse Chewy is new to our four hens so they don't quit know what to make of him just yet and he is only half their size. I do let him in the run with them during the day, but only supervised, those hens would eat him alive if I wasn't there to watch him.

Chewy comes in at night when it's going to be super cold at night, he has a large dog kennel and don't seem to mid the extra attention.

 

[Annalyse]

Yea my whole flock is spoiled bc there my babies

 

[416bigbore]

Spoiled isn't a bad thing, our flock has me jumping threw hoops also for them! Whatever it takes to keep them all healthy.

 

[416bigbore]

It's another rainy morning and I am getting ready to go out and make sure everyone has their life jackets on so they don't float away today!

 

[bikerchix]

5 inches of snow, which my chickens want NOTHING to do with. had to shovel a path to their heated water bowls and a small area for them to walk around in to get them out of their coops.

 

[416bigbore]

@bikerchix I just got back in from dealing with our flock, raining again this morning and had to make sure they all had their Life Preservers on so no one will float away today! LOL

 

[BlueBaby]

Hello @BlueBaby wow 28, all chickens in your flock? I had the opportunity to spend two winters in the Phoenix area and that was a new experience over the hash winters I am used too. I have to say it was a nice experience until mid summer hit and then it was time for this guy to jet! WOW that heat can be intense if you are not used to it.

So I am guessing you have AC in your Coop for the summer months?

Yes, I currently do have 28, but 10 of those are are still in the brooder and will be 4 week's old on next Monday. They are Aloha's, and I'll only be keeping the pullet's from that batch to be able to breed with the rooster in my avatar later on. On my older one's out in the coop, I was already able to get rid of the extra roo's that I didn't want to keep. I may have a few of those remaining one's sold, as I was asked yesterday if I had some extra's by a person that lost some of their flock to the heat this past summer.

No, I do not put heat nor AC in my coop, and my flock lives through the heat that we have here. They have lot's of ventilation, and a secure run that is attached to the coop. I did not pick the fluffier breed's that have ton's of feather's, nor the tight feathered breed's. Those type don't do very well in the heat. I had 5 hen's that went broody on me when the temp. was like 116-F. this past summer, and didn't loose even one of them, but I kept a close watch on them to make sure they got food and water. 3 of those broodies have been sold.

 

[Sally PB]

SWEET! a heated waterer bowl, how has it been working for you? I am not sure just yet if we will be needing to invest in one?

Day two of heated waterer. SWEET! describes it, for sure!

It was funny to watch the chickens check it out. I have four, three pullets and a cockerel. My alpha pullet came up to it slooowlllly. Peck peck. Look. Peck peck. Look. Oh, huh, there's shiny stuff inside. Peck... Hey! It's water! Look, everybody! It's water in here! Drink drink. Drink drink.

 

[416bigbore]

Hello, How is everyone and their flock today?

What a day yesterday, everyone was up to their eyeballs in mud and happy about it. LOL I question the intelligence of three of our four chickens, they will stand out in the drizzling rain all day with the ducks getting soaked and think nothing of it.

All in all everyone is doing fine will all the rain, the group was still able to produce six duck eggs and two chicken.

I don't really care for the extreme cold anymore then I care for having to deal with all the mud. All I can do is keep all their waterers rinsed out twice a day to assure they have clean drinking water and enough to rinse themselves off with. It looks like this will continue to be a vicious cycle until things can once and for all stay dry for more then a few days at a time. Our ground has a lot of Clay in the soil so it takes forever for any large amounts of moisture to soak in.

Some colder weather and snow on the ground might not be such a bad thing over all the mud as long as we don't end up with snow like the Northern States have been receiving, WOW!

We did have a little excitement yesterday evening before I put the ducks up for the night. The neighbor boy came over to see the goats and one of the other neighbors dog had followed him over on his bike.

I am not sure if the fairly large dog has ever seen ducks and or chickens before, but she sure took an interest in them and started trying to chase them back and forth along the fence. This was all fine until she touched their fence and the fun ended with a quick yelp and she was headed back for home.

The neighbor boy asked what happened? I said the dog got to close to the ducks fence and touched it. I explained, that he knows why I run an electric fence around all the animals to keep them safe, now that dog also knows Why! LOL