- Dec 28, 2014
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Is there anyone around the Olney Il. Area that has young chickens for sale? I am looking for 6 hens.RIR,BLK AUSSIES,BPR would be great. Thanks for any help.
Illinois...
- Thread starter mothergoose
- Start date
- Oct 24, 2014
- 1,330
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LOL sorry for laughing but he sounds like a Marley story. I am so sorry to hear about your beautiful eggs and all the work that went into them. He must be awfully cute and lovable, if you still have him around after all of that. And I thought my dog was the only strange one that ate chicken poop!
We found the Marley movie kind of dull in comparison.
Our former purebred Dane was a bigger handful. She dug up an 7' tree we spent all day planting, because it "didn't belong." (Liked constancy) With an eye level over 3ft tall, she cleared any counter & table of food left unattended. She once stuck her snout in a beehive, leaned up against our newly painted fence, and rolled in the neighbor's freshly tarred driveway all on the same weekend. She was 150lbs of trouble. She did more living in her short 6 years than our Whippet did in all of his 14 years.
Our current boy's troubles are all food related. Even with things we don't consider food. (ie- He tried to eat a big pile of mulch we had delivered.) He's a mix & only weighs 100lbs. He can't really eat off the counters unless he stands on 2 legs. Of course if we leave a loaf of bread or cookies just sitting there while cooling, it's fair game. He has the jaw strength of our Great Dane (ie- grabs a log from the woodpile & uses it as a chew toy) and also the appetite of a Lab. Why would he want to eat eggshells? or chicken poop?
On the plus side, he's a big black dog who's incredibly gentle, loves kids, ignores the chickens, chases squirrels/rabbits, & a good protector. Below is a past pic of our daughter breaking in our new 6 mo old puppy. Eight years later, he's still always by her side.
Our former purebred Dane was a bigger handful. She dug up an 7' tree we spent all day planting, because it "didn't belong." (Liked constancy) With an eye level over 3ft tall, she cleared any counter & table of food left unattended. She once stuck her snout in a beehive, leaned up against our newly painted fence, and rolled in the neighbor's freshly tarred driveway all on the same weekend. She was 150lbs of trouble. She did more living in her short 6 years than our Whippet did in all of his 14 years.
Our current boy's troubles are all food related. Even with things we don't consider food. (ie- He tried to eat a big pile of mulch we had delivered.) He's a mix & only weighs 100lbs. He can't really eat off the counters unless he stands on 2 legs. Of course if we leave a loaf of bread or cookies just sitting there while cooling, it's fair game. He has the jaw strength of our Great Dane (ie- grabs a log from the woodpile & uses it as a chew toy) and also the appetite of a Lab. Why would he want to eat eggshells? or chicken poop?
On the plus side, he's a big black dog who's incredibly gentle, loves kids, ignores the chickens, chases squirrels/rabbits, & a good protector. Below is a past pic of our daughter breaking in our new 6 mo old puppy. Eight years later, he's still always by her side.
We found the Marley movie kind of dull in comparison.
Our former purebred Dane was a bigger handful. She dug up an 7' tree we spent all day planting, because it "didn't belong." (Liked constancy) With an eye level over 3ft tall, she cleared any counter & table of food left unattended. She once stuck her snout in a beehive, leaned up against our newly painted fence, and rolled in the neighbor's freshly tarred driveway all on the same weekend. She was 150lbs of trouble. She did more living in her short 6 years than our Whippet did in all of his 14 years.
Our current boy's troubles are all food related. Even with things we don't consider food. (ie- He tried to eat a big pile of mulch we had delivered.) He's a mix & only weighs 100lbs. He can't really eat off the counters unless he stands on 2 legs. Of course if we leave a loaf of bread or cookies just sitting there while cooling, it's fair game. He has the jaw strength of our Great Dane (ie- grabs a log from the woodpile & uses it as a chew toy) and also the appetite of a Lab. Why would he want to eat eggshells? or chicken poop?
On the plus side, he's a big black dog who's incredibly gentle, loves kids, ignores the chickens, chases squirrels/rabbits, & a good protector. Below is a past pic of our daughter breaking in our new 6 mo old puppy. Eight years later, he's still always by her side.
How are everyone in Illinois's hens doing at egg laying this winter? Ours, (2-1/2 and 3-1/2 years old) went on break in October and haven't resumed yet. I think they've forgotten how.
Pullets:
My pair of Orpington pullets, hatched April 2014, finally started laying last week. Another pullet (mutt) made us a nice olive green egg today. We have some EE hens & Legbar pullets, but haven't seen any blue or green eggs since mid Sept.
Hens:
Two of my hens were hatched July 2013, started laying Feb 2014, & never molted - ever! They still make us an egg every few days. (Those were daily layers in the spring/summer.) The others are either molting or taking a break after their molt. I wonder if some breeds just stop for the winter.
I was getting depressed in early Dec when the pullets hadn't started laying yet. My plan was relying on them to provide eggs while the hens molted. Now that they're working for us, we're getting 3-5 eggs per day from 12 chickens.
Since I provide artificial light and moderate heating to the coop my birds have not missed a step...
Mine have light that comes on at 6 a.m. and goes off at 7 p.m.
They wake up and come out of the coop at 7:15 or 7:30 a.m., go back in for the night at 4:30.
Well they don't really have to be active for the lights to work, just have their eyes open basically...
Right now my lights come on at 5am stay on until about 10am, then again on at about 3pm and off at 9pm...
Almost all my birds go to roost about 7pm, not sure when they really get going in the morning but the roosters start crowing about 4:30am so they are well aware the 'fake' sunrise is about to happen... They are residing full time in the coop this winter as I was unable to get the flight netting up over the pasture this year to contain the Sumatras, Peas and Guineas...
Coop never drops bellow 37°F as that is what furnace thermostat is set at, but on most days with the sun shinning it's in the 40°s in there, this last week it was actually in the 50°s in the coop mid day...
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