Illinois...

[chickendreams24]

We found a possum in the cooler coop last night when we locked up the flock gorging itself on the entire day's eggs! As the flock ran up and tried to grab bites of eggs. Thankfully while it was hissing it wasn't terribly aggressive and it didn't go after the birds. We did put it down. I don't like it but we had seen it the day before and we now believe it is what has been teaching the flock to eat eggs and possibly why our egg numbers have been fluctuating so much. Hopefully they stop now that it's gone or we're going to have to try something else. I'm worried it may have turned our flock into egg eaters.

the chickens will clean up any broken eggs.. did anyone actually see a  chicken break an egg? maybe the possum started with a few and as he got  bigger and used to the chickens he got braver... usually egg eating is a symptom of a need for additional protein , same with feather eaters.....but a habit is hard to break even with extra protein..

Mine will dive after any egg that hits the ground & splits open.  It's a big feeding frenzy!  But thankfully, they have never realized that the yummy eggs are what they're laying in the nest boxes.

I had a problem with an old hen that laid thin shelled or shell-less eggs.  It was a terrible situation when those would break in the nests.  I tried caging her & tricking her into eating more calcium laced treats, but each time the effects only lasted less than a day after she was released.  She preferred to live free & snack on a calcium poor diet from the yard. I had to put the old hen down in order to save the rest of the flock from bad habits.

So glad the possum only ate eggs & not chickens (or quail or guineas or....).

Well we upped our protein percent from 16 to 18 a couple months ago when we added four guineas so I don't think that's a problem. They've also been getting well smashed hard boiled eggs, boss, bird seed, home made suet blocks, squash and pumpkin, a little silver lettuce- of course not all at once it's been here and there and such but they're definitely not suffering from lack of protein or I can imagine they could be.

We have seen them peck eggs before yes. We do have some new layers so we've had a few soft shells that haven't helped. It does seem that they go for the eggs when we grab them as well.

While they were freaking out about the intruder about half the flock did not seem too terribly worried and some of them were actually sticking their heads in the nest box with the possum to try and eat the eggs it was breaking! It was nuts! Thankfully we have removable nest boxes so we trapped it in the nest box using another nest box to block the door and carried it outside. It was humanely and quickly dealt with. After all the predator losses we have had this past year I'm not taking any chances.

I am hoping that this is the creature that caused them to figure out egg eating and now that it won't be around breaking eggs anymore that they will stop. If it continues I will let everyone know.

While a few do rush and peck at whole eggs most seem to ignore them. We did have at least one broken egg in the nest boxes today BC I could see the yolk on the other eggs. We still had 13 eggs today and there were still two other eggs in that nest box. So they aren't eating all the eggs. I hope it's only those eggs that accidentally get broken/are soft shelled that they're eating.

I am glad to say that we will get some cockerals processed this weekend which will be nicer for us and the flock. Also less mouths to feed. Idk which we'll do probably whoever is the biggest or the most trouble. I will snap pictures of the birds before we do any. Or I will try. My phone is still on the fritz. Perhaps with dh2b's phone.

I am also glad to say that the three little Oegb that were having trouble integrating spent 2 or so weeks in the crate doing the look but don't touch method(or at least don't kill each other lol) they are now out and tomorrow will be a week- or is it Saturday? Anyway they are out and doing very well with the flock despite an abundance of cockerals on the big side with the flock after we had to rescue some from the bachelor side of the cooler coop. Still it is quite peaceful in spite of it. After the offenders on the bachelor side are put in freezer camp the others will go back to the bachelor side of the cooler.

More later everyone hope all is well. Goodnight.

 

[rfreedlund]

He came back. I don't think he was totally right. He wasn't very aggressive and I don't think he ate many (if any) eggs. I couldn't find evidence of it. It seemed mostly like he wanted to find a warm shelter and the chickens didn't seem overly concerned about it. I moved it to the opposite side of the 400 acres we live on. If he does somehow make it back, it will require more drastic measures.

 

[Molpet]

He came back. I don't think he was totally right. He wasn't very aggressive and I don't think he ate many (if any) eggs. I couldn't find evidence of it. It seemed mostly like he wanted to find a warm shelter and the chickens didn't seem overly concerned about it. I moved it to the opposite side of the 400 acres we live on. If he does somehow make it back, it will require more drastic measures.

Harder to dispatch when they are still at the cute stage.. I have one about that size, if not smaller, I haven't been able to catch yet.. SO far I haven't tried real hard LOL

 

[ChicagoClucker]

Ok I would have to compare bantam cochins to rabbits. They multiply like rabbits, are cute and adorable as rabbits, and poop as much as rabbits. Thank goodness I don't have rabbits too!
But I do believe I am going to set up another pen this spring, and I am going to separate the blues and blacks. I have 3 mottled blue and 2 solid pullets and 1 handsome blue mottled cockerel. I am so in love with my black smooth mottled boys, wish I had more room. At first, I was just going to set up another pen and have frizzled girls and my handsome smooth boy, but since I ended up with a enough blues, I think I am going to do that instead. Anyone interested in a cute frizzled girl and handsome smooth cockerel, the older girls comb has turned nice and red and should begin laying soon enough.



This little girl just finished her molt. She doubled the white in her tail.
And 1 of my handsome boys beneath her.

 

[chickendreams24]

Ok I would have to compare bantam cochins to rabbits. They multiply like rabbits, are cute and adorable as rabbits, and poop as much as rabbits. Thank goodness I don't have rabbits too! But I do believe I am going to set up another pen this spring, and I am going to separate the blues and blacks. I have 3 mottled blue and 2 solid pullets and 1 handsome blue mottled cockerel. I am so in love with my black smooth mottled boys, wish I had more room. At first, I was just going to set up another pen and have frizzled girls and my handsome smooth boy, but since I ended up with a enough blues, I think I am going to do that instead. Anyone interested in a cute frizzled girl and handsome smooth cockerel, the older girls comb has turned nice and red and should begin laying soon enough. This little girl just finished her molt. She doubled the white in her tail. And 1 of my handsome boys beneath her.

Man I love your bantam Cochins!!! Why do you raise the bantams instead of the large fowl? Jw I may need to renegotiate and add some of those lol. It's terrible that dh2b and I are already working out what we want to get this coming year and what we want to breed. I'm so excited I can hardly wait!!! We were supposed to be getting some large fowl Cochins and ducks as well as buckeye chickens and some others too. We're still looking for blue or splash orps and I may pull my hair out at this rate. lol Now we may be waiting on ducks they jury is still out. I really want to get some Cayuga ducks BC of their beautiful coloring and their sometimes black bloomed eggs. I think it would be funny to sell them lol we also had our eyes on Welsh Harlequin and one or two singles of other breeds as well. We may just stick with chickens, quail, and guineas for this coming year. We'll see. We sold our light Brahmas so we'll probably add a couple of those back and maybe another salmon favorelles pullet or two we really love them. Our pullet we have is the most docile submissive bird we have. I was worried about her for a while but she's doing a lot better now. We specifically keep the most docile chicken and people friendly birds we can and she out dociled them all lol. She's about at POL and starting to just a bit stand up for herself more. Other breeds we tried this year that we really liked besides the Brahmas and favorelles include a Delaware pullet. Although we had quite a small trial size with just one Delaware we originally thought we might sell her so she wasn't handled as much and she has turned out as calm as any of the orps I would say. Our cuckoo marans we got a trio were okay the boy wasn't anything special he was wrongly sexed. The two pullets we kept one and sold one. The one we kept while assertive fits nicely with the flock and isn't overly spastic. I have discovered that after our predator losses and rehoming birds most of our lf flock now consist of Orpingtons and EE lol More and more of our blue laced silver EE are laying and we are getting blue, blue greens, and even light olive eggs from them! I'm loving them they're so beautiful and docile. Been having some wonderful egg baskets I need to get some photos of sometime. Also all the flock of course. Just wanted to let everyone know that I haven't forgotten. Things are just busy and my phone is now not letting me take photos for my gallery at all. The only way I can take a photo is if I snap them specifically to send them to someone. I will have to try that way this weekend. We have our first big Christmas tomorrow since everything got scheduled or rescheduled for January. So busy day tomorrow. Hoping Sunday to process birds and clean the cooler coop. @Faraday40 No news yet on the little quail we haven't caught anyone doing the quail version of a crow. Hopefully I'll catch them this week so we can get a better idea of numbers. They're all doing great! Little piggies and ever so cute! This is bad though lol BC I've been researching all the color varieties of coturnix and I want a pair of buttons!! Lol dh2b is so totally gunna leave me lol. Loving the nipple waterer thanks again. Did I hear you say sometime that you use the horizontal ones for the adult birds BC they don't leak? We might need to look into those. I love this thing but it does drip occasionally. I still find it hilarious that dh2b set it up in a very well washed out Jim Beam bottle. Lol I call that great timing! The neighbor we had out to buy some pullets thought it was hilarious once he discovered we weren't giving the quail Jim Beam lol. What are the odds that the hatching eggs I got from you would hatch a mottled or possibly barred chick?? Idk it's not normally barred I need to try and snap a pic. The little black on that hatched(should have been split to lavender) almost looks mottled or barred on its chest but only the tips of those feathers. Very odd looking. I'm also thinking more of the blacks from your last hatch might be barred than we thought idk lol I can't tell if I'm imagining it or if they appear to be differently colored than just black. Red lights you know. Still at least the babies are warm and safe with everything strapped down in half a dozen or more places. Lol We did lose the little failure to thrive chick from my last hatch the chocolate cuckoo. I think it had something wrong we didn't know about but I think it may have been layed on by all the rest of the chicks not sure. The other one from you is doing great although feathering extremely slowly like the two single barred boys I have from Junibutt did. Anyway yeah I fought hard for that chick and it did eventually start growing but was nowhere near the size of its siblings although it wasn't thin. I guess we'll never know but my instinct tells me it wiggled under the pile of younger chicks and couldn't get out. It was quite the shock as it had been doing so well. No signs of illness or anything so not cocci. They have all been given the preventative treatment anyway. While I love the unusual looks of the guineas and their odd noises and that they protect our flock when locked in the coop in bad weather and all of their calls echo around gosh will it bring on a migraine. Lol you all should have heard them several weeks ago as we worked to tighten up the quail run. I thought dh2b would shoot them. Lol I even thought about it myself. Some noises are much better from a distance like a train whistle and a guinea call. They are comic birds. Although I must say I think my most comical birds are the orps and the Oegb with the addition of my very beloved Pebbles who knows if she jumps on mommy's arm when treats get doled out she gets extras. Spoiled bird. Lol she's looking so beautiful since her molt her tail feathers are still growing to length but she seems to have speckling on her head that she didn't before and more blue in her back and body. I swear her back almost looks like she's mottled with blue the way each father is tipped. That's about the last of the news today. The minimally crested silkie pullet continues her broody streak thankfully she has a nicer temperament when broody than her Mom(who dh2b makes me check under) lol. Thankfully the broody but hasn't caught yet but we did find our other original EE hen(Belle) sitting on a hidden nest this evening. She toyed with the idea this last spring perhaps she will commit in 2017. Can you all believe it's 2017 almost?! Whoa! Hope everyone is ready for the antibiotic change. Goodnight all sweet dreams.

 

[Faraday40]

Although I've been complaining about the low # of eggs this month, I can't believe the one I found today!

It was so big I had to measure it!
About 9.5cm long (about 3.75 in)

To get an idea of scale, those are my fingers. I am an adult woman - and not a small one.
The egg is HUGE.
\

4.15 oz

or 117.9 grams



If a 2.5 oz egg is considered Jumbo, what should THIS size be called?

Now I just can't figure out who it came from. The hen that usually lays the biggest eggs lays a peachy-white egg. This one is way too dark to be hers. It's a med brown like an orp at the beginning of her egg cycle. My orp hens have pale combs & are molting. I can't imagine this coming out of an orp pullet. (also no blood streaks on it) That only leaves my RIR or Bielefelder pullets. Both have been laying since Aug/Sept - unlike the orps who have just started or soon will.

 

[ChicagoClucker]

Although I've been complaining about the low # of eggs this month, I can't believe the one I found today!

It was so big I had to measure it!
About 9.5cm long (about 3.75 in)

To get an idea of scale, those are my fingers. I am an adult woman - and not a small one.
The egg is HUGE.
\

4.15 oz

or 117.9 grams



If a 2.5 oz egg is considered Jumbo, what should THIS size be called?

Now I just can't figure out who it came from. The hen that usually lays the biggest eggs lays a peachy-white egg. This one is way too dark to be hers. It's a med brown like an orp at the beginning of her egg cycle. My orp hens have pale combs & are molting. I can't imagine this coming out of an orp pullet. (also no blood streaks on it) That only leaves my RIR or Bielefelder pullets. Both have been laying since Aug/Sept - unlike the orps who have just started or soon will.

WOW, feel sorry for that poor girl. I have to say that egg production has picked up over here since the weather has warmed up. I went from maybe 3 eggs a week to 5-6 every other day. Feeling grateful. I am sure it won't last, but will take it while I can.

 

[Faraday40]

Had the egg for lunch. It was a double yolker! (Discovered that a runny, over-easy egg takes great over left-over mashed potatoes or on top of potato-leek soup with chives & cheddar cheese)

I've been getting 2-3 eggs per day. It's enough for baking & an occasional breakfast, but we have to conserve the eggs. Looking forward to spring when we can have egg sandwiches & bake frequently .... and also have extra eggs to sell! (Of course, we'll probably be hatching them too.)

@ChicagoClucker Do you currently keep your bantams with the big chickens or do they have their own space? How do they do with LF birds?
I only have 2 bantams, so they live with the flock. Although smaller, they can & will squawk a lot when they feel offended. They're near the bottom of the pecking order but I haven't seen bullying or missing feathers. I had to place a step by the waterer for them.

When it's time for treats, they get their personal invitations. Trouble looks up at me, waiting for eye contact, making her fussy little attention-seeking noises until I hold out my arm & say her name ( = her invitation to land on me & get hand fed). In a similar way, Cookie just gets underfoot making her noises. She never even bothers to go after scratch thrown to the ground. She simply stands on my feet and waits until I lower the treat cup for her to select a morsel. The LF have their ways too. Precious follows me around as I do the morning chores. The entire time it sounds like she's moaning & whining: "Treeeeeaats..Treeeeeeats!" Godiva runs up quickly to search for the treat cup. If it's not in my hands, she'll go about her business. However, if I'm throwing down bread or scratch, she begins a loud, rapid honking to grab my attention & insists that she gets her fair share (which of course to an orp means most of it!)

@chickendreams24
Grace's fav quail (Albert) began crowing a week ago. A white one has joined him. Definitely time for them to go outside! I saw the white male (now wearing a purple stripe) try to grab at the neck feathers of another white. The purple quail does have a large ball behind his vent. In general, the quail vents are larger (more plump than a hen's vent) but I can't tell if the remaining 2 whites are female or just immature. They'll be 6 weeks on Tues., so we're not too far away from eggs.

This is my waterer.


It hangs by a chain, so I can adjust the height. It's too heavy for me when full, so I only fill to 3-4 gal
In the winter, I have a bucket de-icer inside. Although the water stayed liquid during our 1st winter, the vertical nipples froze when in single digits. I had to chip away ice many mornings that year. For the 2nd winter I switched to the horiz nipples. The horiz nipples are inside, so they didn't lock up when below zero. (If a tiny bit of ice were present, the chickens just peck it away to get to the water.) Originally I thought the heater was expensive, but it was about the same cost as a pre-made heated chicken waterer. The fact that it has lasted multiple winters makes it affordable. I also like that it only turns on when below freezing. The water is never "warm" but cold & liquid. Because of minerals in our water, I added a filter to our kitchen sink. (Not for us, but to prevent mineral build up on the heater, so it will last longer. LOL ) Yes, our chickens must drink filtered water in the winter, but I doubt it beats you giving your quail Jim Beam.

 

[Faraday40]

Had the egg for lunch. It was a double yolker!


Quail update:
Here's the tiny runt quail (on left). It's still alive & finally caught up in size.


Quail sexing update:
Anyone with quail knowledge, please let me know how I'm doing.

1. Male (now crowing & tried to mate quail #2 below)



2. Female????


3. ???? This is the runt / "failure to thrive" quail. It has always been about a week behind developmentally. It's finally about the same size. My guess is female or just still slow to mature.



4. Male (It's DD's fav = 1st clue. Then it developed a male color pattern. About a week ago it began crowing. However, I do not see the huge swollen area behind the vent like in the A&M male.)


5&6 are Female - can tell by feather pattern

 

[ChicagoClucker]

Had the egg for lunch. It was a double yolker! (Discovered that a runny, over-easy egg takes great over left-over mashed potatoes or on top of potato-leek soup with chives & cheddar cheese)

I've been getting 2-3 eggs per day. It's enough for baking & an occasional breakfast, but we have to conserve the eggs. Looking forward to spring when we can have egg sandwiches & bake frequently .... and also have extra eggs to sell! (Of course, we'll probably be hatching them too.)

@ChicagoClucker Do you currently keep your bantams with the big chickens or do they have their own space? How do they do with LF birds?
I only have 2 bantams, so they live with the flock. Although smaller, they can & will squawk a lot when they feel offended. They're near the bottom of the pecking order but I haven't seen bullying or missing feathers. I had to place a step by the waterer for them.

Ok the potato-leek soup sounds sooooo good! I can't wait for spring either. I have had to buy eggs, which hurts, but the dog gets eggs everyday with her dinner, so there isn't a way around it.

I house my bantams separate from my LF now, but when my #s were lower, they were all in the large coop together. They all got along fine, the bantams did not have a problem getting their fair share of food or treats. And Mick was the king of the coop then, with all the ladies, LF and bantam girls. But when the black and SL cockerels became interested in the girls, I had to separate the bantams. Mick didn't want to give up any of his ladies, and the other boys were twice his size. The bantams are in my original ice box coop, the Mother Clucker Inn and the LF have the new large
coop.




And like you said, they are all different. There are the specific ones who like their treats given to them in there own way, LF or bantam.

Edited to add- Had to run up and get a yard and half of Velcro to make some no crow collars. Between the 2 LF roos and then all the bantam cockerels that are maturing, it is getting just too loud over here. LF boys were easy, and was able to get the 2 frizzled bantams but have 4 more bantams to catch. Uggg, pass the word please, I have bantam pairs available. Need to get rid of some of these boys.