Illinois...

[chickendreams24]

Does anyone know much about sexing silkies? I was thinking male for a while, but the comb's still pretty small & it doesn't act male. About 9.5 weeks old

It doesn't have the long, back-brushed crest like most male silkies, but it's also not perfectly round like a females. I tried getting a close up of the comb. It's not wide like a males, but in one pic I was able to see a slight bump. Any guesses?
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PS- DD got her top braces today.
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Side standing photo of the splash please but I'm guessing pullet right now. That pic would help. Silkies can be pretty hard to get a good read on until 12 weeks, sometimes older.

Where did you and junibutt get the wonderful Orp hatching eggs?

Everything here has been pretty good no problems really. Processed some quail last night. Have approximately 20 quail eggs in lockdown right now. Can't wait to see some babies. These will be the first chicks from our larger quail as we breed for them to be bigger and bigger some of the eggs are huge and I expect some very healthy chicks.

Have a black oegb split to self blue hen that we suspect has a jaw injury. Possibly broken. She is eating and drinking normally although not as much as I would like. As long as she can eat and drink and be a chicken she doesn't seem to be in too much pain and her jaw doesn't lock we won't cull. Thankfully we have never had an oegb pullet or hen that was standoffish and she's sweet and easy to handle. No idea how she could have been injured but none of our other OEGB have a jaw like hers and I've never seen it before.

Her sister went broody and was missing for several days she is now locked in the back side of the coop.

We had a young possum get in the little run and scared the heck out of the cockerals in there. Poor guys. We were unable to catch the little thing but will move it to a local park after we spoke to a rescue center and that is what they suggested. It didn't go after any if the birds I think it was after water last week when it was so hot. It's tiny just left its mother according to it's size. About 6-8 inches long. Adorable!

The chicks in the little coop are doing great being treated for a mild bout of probable cocci right now but everyone is in good spirits and responding well. No losses.

The older juveniles in the back side are doing great!

The fight against the rats is going well we have been catching one to two young ones a day. There is one massive adult that we've seen that is very bold. It ran across my feet almost, a couple nights ago during chores. Surprised the heck outta me and I jumped. I'm not afraid of them it just startled me. It's also smart darned thing I wish it would just go in the trap.

The kindergarten class chicks are still in the large stock tank in the porch and I'm hoping they can be moved out soon just not sure where yet. A couple of our Orps are broody and I'm wondering if they might consider adopting them. Idk.

So the good fight continues. We are having some problems with egg eaters and have decided to mark and probably cull the worst offenders. I find this distasteful but necessary. We have identified a couple of the culprits we believe. But I do think it originally started with the rats and maybe the guineas. If the guineas are involved DH2B might get to try his guinea after all since I believe it's probable that all four of our guineas are females we haven't bred or eaten any.

My little paint silkie has gone broody and we have been letting her set on the guinea eggs but tonight we will collect all of them and candle them for development. If any have it we will place them under broodies the rest will be hard boiled mashed up and fed to the flock.

We are also discussing culling some of our lazy birds that do nothing but stay in the coop and eat feed all day. They've become heavy and we don't want to propagate laziness in the flock, plus we very rarely see any of them lay. Surprisingly this is not the Orps but a few miscellaneous birds of different breed only one Orp is a culprit and I've never seen her lay. We may try the food coloring method to see if she actually laying. I fear she is laying internally. If that's the case we will put her down before she begins to suffer as I sometimes see her very upright.

More later went to the strawberry farm yesterday. We hope they still have them this weekend so we can get more for jams pies eating and strawberry shortcake.

 

[beckyrasdf]

Hi there!
We live in the western suburbs (St Charles) and are looking for some help. We have 3-4 Australorp chicks that we want to process this summer (a broody Orpington hatched them for us and we'll keep 1-2 for eggs). We have never processed a chicken before, but would like to learn how. Is there anyone or any place in the Chicagoland area that helps with this? I'm not even sure it's legal to do that in our backyard so I'm wondering if we'd need to transport them

 

[megpie021]

@jnckids Most of those a pretty cute. I dont get the like of naked necks though. That one some how escapes me!

@chickendreams24 I was just at the vet with the dogs for some routine care, and they have a thing up about how possums are awesome! I am not joking. It talks about how they eat so many insects and how 95 percent of the population are naturally immune to rabies.... It was weird. We once had a rescue group bring one into the pet store I worked at back in Snohomish WA. It was surprisingly soft.

 

[ChicagoClucker]

I need some HELP! Well when I took down the old run, I figured I would rake and bag up the grass clippings the next day. Well it rained that night, so figured I would wait til it dried out. Well it has rained just about every other day since last weekend. It started to smell, like wet grass clippings do, so I bought some lime and spread that. Helped some but still smelled so I borrowed a tiller and tilled it. Well, I have been adding grass clipping and leaves in fall for over a year now. The chickens didn't do their job of turning it by scratching through it because there were still a layer of leaves from last fall and of stinky grass clippings. Since the lime didn't work, is there anything else I can use to get rid of the stink? My husband said just give the lime time to work, but I don't think my neighbor would appreciate that. I need ideas

 

[Molpet]

I need some HELP! Well when I took down the old run, I figured I would rake and bag up the grass clippings the next day. Well it rained that night, so figured I would wait til it dried out. Well it has rained just about every other day since last weekend. It started to smell, like wet grass clippings do, so I bought some lime and spread that. Helped some but still smelled so I borrowed a tiller and tilled it. Well, I have been adding grass clipping and leaves in fall for over a year now. The chickens didn't do their job of turning it by scratching through it because there were still a layer of leaves from last fall and of stinky grass clippings. Since the lime didn't work, is there anything else I can use to get rid of the stink? My husband said just give the lime time to work, but I don't think my neighbor would appreciate that. I need ideas

did you use DE in the deep litter? it sure wasn't composting like it should.. might have been too dry too .. outside of the lime and time...
well for ammonia smells sweet PZ, 4 cups for a 10x10 area https://www.farmandfleet.com/products/602269-sweet-pdz-horse-stall-refresher.html

 

[Faraday40]

I like the sweet pdz product & use it with sand to fill my dropping trays in winter. A quick sift with a kitty litter scooper each morning & my roosting area stays clean all winter. Sometime I keep it there in summer, but a plastic tarp (usually a feed bag) is a very convenient way to roll up & transport droppings directly into compost.

I'm lucky & usually don't get an ammonia smell. In times when others are flooding and our run is very wet, I may get a little smell. Sprinkling Sweet PDZ takes care of it immediately. I don't use much at all. (It took me 2 yrs to go through my 1st bag.)

For others who use it, is there any harm to soil / compost/ gardening that I should consider?

 

[ChicagoClucker]

Thank you both! I am going to have to try the Sweet PZ in the the new run and coops. It was like the leaves and grass were just compacted into layers. I assumed tossing in treats to the guys would have helped turn it, but you know what they say about assuming. It only smelled a bit, so we decided to till it, that's when a years worth of layered grass clipping and leaves that didn't have oxygen hit us in the face. It wasn't ammonia smell, just nasty wet grass clipping smell. But I do have to say that the smell is totally gone as of this morning. I believe the oxygen and rain did the trick, thank goodness. Now everything can break down the proper way. Thanks for the help!!!!

 

[Faraday40]

I'm a lazy gardener & like to lay grass clipping on my walkways & between rows of plants. Between the smothering grass & light foot traffic, I don't have to weed those areas. The grass also keeps the ground moist. Not sure if it's the "right way," but my dad did it, so I now I do it. I know what you mean about the smell of the hot, smokey, wet, old grass. (Sometimes it piles up before I can spread it out, but more often I'm always wanting more grass clippings.)

 

[Faraday40]

BTW- The kids' fav chick "Grumpy" is still alive. It had its eyes closed & stopped eating/drinking. Yesterday it drank & ate a little, so by last night, it perked up. It's walking, peeping, eating, drinking, but probably still weaker than it should be. I honestly thought it would have perished by now, but DD's not giving up on it.

 

[cavemanrich]

I never throw away any of my grass clippings. I spread it in the chicken run area. I also spread it between my flowers to keep the weeds from growing and it also keep the ground from drying out. The key to not having a smell develop is to spread it thin. I usually keep it to 4 inches or less. (If left in a pile, the next day you cant quite put your hand into it. Hot in temperature and the smell accompanied.) It dries and works out well. Gives chickens plenty of recreation choices to scratch thru it. Also keeps the ground from becoming muddy for chickens dirty feet shows.

Here is something I found growing in my run are. Yes, I know it is a mushroom, but not familiar with type. Most likely not the eatable variety even for animals, and likely poisonous. Didn't want chickens sampling it, so I removed and threw into trash.

Of course I washed my hands after handling it.