Illinois...

[Faraday40]

So what was your funniest or best chicken story

My chickens certainly enjoyed the cicadas this year. I had a brood of blood thirsty, piranha-like, day-old chicks who took down cicadas in seconds. It was so entertaining that we actually collected cicadas from the trees to drop down for the chickens.

Not this year, but we did have problems teaching the Leghorns where to lay their eggs.
Each day, Tillie would fly out of the chicken yard and lay her egg "somewhere" in the screened room. It was our daily egg hunt. Sometimes on a shelf, sometimes in the far corner, sometimes in a box, etc. I had to lock Tillie in the coop every day for a week. She only came out after she laid her egg. (The other chickens were NOT happy about being locked out!)

Here's when we caught Tillie depositing her egg in a box of newspapers.

Millie had a similar problem. She would lay her eggs in the garage. I started putting her in our empty quail cage/rabbit hutch as soon as I saw her trying to sneak into the garage. After just a few days, she began pacing in front of the cage trying to get inside. I just left the cage door open & every day I'd find her egg. The habit eventually broke when she was forced to stay inside the coop during the winter.

 

[SnootyHen]

I want goats and highlander cattle. I too need to move if that's ever going to happen. As for chicken restrictions... well I've broken the limits already and added some ducks, turkey and quail (no turkey or quail at the moment though). My neighbors are all laid back and don't complain. In fact, they occasionally benefit from extra eggs. The only PITA neighbor is two doors away, which is far enough to not notice I even have poultry.

My town allows 4 hens and a 24 sqft coop. Oops!! I haven't had any neighbor issues luckily because I don't even have enough eggs to give away.

 

[BReeder!]

My town allows 4 hens and a 24 sqft coop. Oops!! I haven't had any neighbor issues luckily because I don't even have enough eggs to give away.

My town allows 6 and coop dimensions are not clear. I believe it's 4 sqft per bird. I have 10 chickens and 4 ducks right now. At one time we had 4 turkeys and over 50 quail too.

 

[BReeder!]

Btw, @Faraday40 does your son still have quail?

 

[Faraday40]

Btw, @Faraday40 does your son still have quail?

Both Yes and No. We hatched quail over the summer with some success. Many, many males. The orig. plan was to downsize to 1 male and 3 females for the winter. When they stopped laying in September, we ate some of the males. I didn't see much benefit keeping quail around through the winter since DS is mostly interested in the eggs - not the actual quail. We gave away the rest to another 4H family. (They have a combo of fancy colors, but reg sized quail, not jumbo.) If we want to try again in spring, we'll either hatch eggs from them or order some jumbo coturnix quail eggs.

Story: One baby quail was doing great with its chicken mama and siblings when in the plastic tote brooder, but kept wandering off when outside in the temp chick tractor. I had to keep it in the brooder by itself during the day which made me feel sad. The next day, I ended up giving it to a girl whose family bought some orp chicks from me. She was going to keep it until it was big enough to NOT fit through the 1" holes. Again another male! I let her keep it. "Cutie" is about the calmest quail I've ever seen. Cutie visits his chicken sisters outside but became another spoiled house pet.

Story 2: You know of my turkey adventure this year, but I also hatched ducklings. They are very cute, so I had to get rid of them right away. One duckling came from a random egg a neighbor found in her yard. I didn't think anything would hatch, but it didn't smell bad and had no cracks, so I threw it in the incubator. I told her it looked like a duck egg and probably would not hatch. I also let her know that I am NOT a duck person. She would have to figure out what to do with whatever hatched from HER egg. A week later I was very surprised to see veins. She made a brooder and her kids had a duck for the summer. Their dog "mothered" the duckling and the kids had a great time. Her cousin from Michigan agreed to adopt the duck. They go up a few times a year and the duck still remembers them. Such a silly bird. He loves to be hugged.

 

[SnootyHen]

All this crappy rainy sleety nast is making my coop and run a mess!! I'm so frustrated because there is obviously still a leak in my coop and every time I think I have it sealed, it only lasts a little while and then leaks again. It's like I need to just get them all out and seal it all somehow but I don't have anywhere to put 12 chickens in the winter to do that for as long as it would take and I don't even know where to start.

And the roof of the run has always leaked. I know why but that's definitely a spring problem to fix. It's actually a little better now because I have the plastic sheeting over it, but as soon as I pull that off, I am going to have to replace half of the run roof. But that's more just a mess issue and less of a danger to the chickens. With the coop, on a day like today where it's already so cold, the last thing they need is water leaking in.

If I had someone to help me, maybe it wouldn't be so bad but every time this happens, I feel like I am just putting a bandaid on the problem knowing it's not going to help for long. I was really lucky a friend helped build it over the summer but I can't ask him to help now because he's already got a stressful job, a side job and kids. And working on this kind of project in this kind of weather is probably not tops on anyone's list.

Sorry, venting. I'm just hoping we get some dry weather soon so I can spend more time out there trying to see if there's something I can do to get through...

 

[cavemanrich]

Mine have to walk through snow. They roost in a separate area and walk through a little snow to get to a covered part of the run. They dont like it though lol.

Always looking for solutions, so here is one to try. Will keep feet somewhat more comfortable. They may not even want to leave the snow,,

My town allows 4 hens and a 24 sqft coop.

Maybe you need a different Sheriff next election. Problem solved.
No need to move

 

[cavemanrich]

Faraday40

Do you think the egg was from wild mallards. They look very similar to rouen ducks

 

[Faraday40]

Faraday40

Do you think the egg was from wild mallards. They look very similar to rouen ducks

View attachment 2471941

Yes, it ended up being a male mallard. Now living the good life at a farm with other ducks, chickens, and peacocks. I doubt he'll leave since he was raised by people and well fed.

 

[SnootyHen]

I locked the chickens out in the run since it's finally NOT raining, sleeting or snowing and I flex sealed the leak. Now to hope it dries before they all freak out from being forced to stay in the run all day. I have my 2 younger boys rotating chicken entertainment duty because the oldest shoveled the driveway this morning. Never a dull day! I just hope this stuff works as well as the commercials say. I have used the flex tape and it's great (but stupid expensive) so I am hoping this does the trick on my newest leaks.