Kentucky people

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
Crazy birds

Have you talked to mario49? Haven't seen him on here lately, was wondering how his quail were doing?

 

[kycowgirlchick]

I finally got to see Mario49's quail last weekend when our chickies were hatching. They seem to be doing their quail thing.

I think he is back at the school track thing. Him and his mom are always doing something with school. I think he is also on the debate team? I will tell him you were asking about him.

 

[estpr13]

Mojo Chick'n :

I hope it'll kill that stupid wild honeysuckle, too - that stuff is pretty when it flowers, but it's killing my trees. It chokes the entire tree out.
meri

My chickens eat the leaves of honeysuckle during the winter because it is about the only thing green they can find. Seems to not bother them. I even tear the vines down so that they can eat the leaves.

Ok, guys, here's a rough (very rough) sketch of the waterfowl pen - any suggestions?

It would be good to to have water in the pool.

I'm up to 5 or 6 eggs per day out of 7 hens. Every now and then I get a bantam size egg from someone. Pretty interesting since I don't have any bantams.

"Lunch" is in the refridgerator. He was the smallest of the 4 meat roos that I have and also the first to crow and was starting to act mean towards the smaller chicks.

"Dinner" will be the next roo to go in about two weeks. They are starting to go through the feed right now. The Big roos weigh about 5 ½ pounds, but the hens all weigh only 2 ½ pounds. "Lunch only weighed 4 ½ pounds and looked different from the others.

Today one of my Buff Jerseys pecked open one of the feed bags and the others helped as well. ( Not a true buff or Jersey but an F-3 with both buff and Jersey traits) He's a pretty good little roo. Cannot wait to have him breed some other f-3 hens.

Next week I will be intergrating 9 seven week olds in with the 11 and 14 weeks olds. They have enough space but I think I should get another feeder.

I'm working nights and cannot sleep so that is why I am rambling. Hope everyone enjoys the nice weather. I'm going back to bed.

Mojo you were right it is summer.​

 

[KateOfSteel]

HEY!!!

I'm so excited I could pee. I just placed my very first chick order.

I'm getting them from Ideal, and they are shipping on the 23rd.

I was going to order 4 chickens, then I kind of accidentally ordered 10. My bad. The good news is that my coop is still in the planning stages, and it can easily be doubled in size.

Originally I was just getting 4 Black Australorps pullets. I still am, but in addition I'm getting 2 Partridge Cochin pullets and 3 Golden Laced Polish birds of unknown gender. I figured out of three, at least one should be a girl. And also, I'm getting a Mystery Pullet. (yay mystery pullet!!!)

Sooo... basically I'm just vibrating with excitement, and can't wait for them to get here! I also got some of the bright green watering crystal stuff because I really want a 100% survival rate.

My plan right now is to keep them on a towel in the guest bathtub under a 250W red bulb and gradually lower the temperature until I move them outside. We're having a pretty mild winter except for the week of ice storms though, so I figure they should be ready to meet the world by the end of march.

Let the happy chicken dance commence!

(10 happy chickens)

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

Quote:
My chickens eat the leaves of honeysuckle during the winter because it is about the only thing green they can find. Seems to not bother them. I even tear the vines down so that they can eat the leaves.

Ok, guys, here's a rough (very rough) sketch of the waterfowl pen - any suggestions?

It would be good to to have water in the pool.

Ya Think?

I'm up to 5 or 6 eggs per day out of 7 hens. Every now and then I get a bantam size egg from someone. Pretty interesting since I don't have any bantams.

"Lunch" is in the refridgerator. He was the smallest of the 4 meat roos that I have and also the first to crow and was starting to act mean towards the smaller chicks.

"Dinner" will be the next roo to go in about two weeks. They are starting to go through the feed right now. The Big roos weigh about 5 ½ pounds, but the hens all weigh only 2 ½ pounds. "Lunch only weighed 4 ½ pounds and looked different from the others.

Today one of my Buff Jerseys pecked open one of the feed bags and the others helped as well. ( Not a true buff or Jersey but an F-3 with both buff and Jersey traits) He's a pretty good little roo. Cannot wait to have him breed some other f-3 hens.

Next week I will be intergrating 9 seven week olds in with the 11 and 14 weeks olds. They have enough space but I think I should get another feeder.

I'm working nights and cannot sleep so that is why I am rambling. Hope everyone enjoys the nice weather. I'm going back to bed.

Mojo you were right it is summer.​

It's gonna get nasty end of the week, but I doubt it'll last very long.

I haven't grown out any of my mixes yet to butcher. Every time they get to a certain size (not big enough to eat) and get aggressive, I been selling them at the auction

. I think it was the RIR in them that made them so aggressive, cause the Brahmas aren't that bad, and the dellie - well, he doesn't like other roos, so I guess it might be partly him. He's fine with humans, just doesn't like any other roo anywhere near his girls, so maybe the cockerels out of him would be a problem, too. I have yet to raise enough of them to tell. I have some of his babies in the house, and a bunch gonna hatch out this month, so I'll try to keep a few more of those to see how they do.

It is getting a bit overcast and windy out there, now. I was out hacking berry canes (old dead ones, the new ones are just coming in) so I can put up fence soon (I hope). I also cut down two big wild rose bushes (those things are horrible, too!!).

As soon as I would clear an area, though, George and his girls would come in and scratch up the ground for me, looking for bugs

. It was funny watching them follow me, waiting til I cleared a space, then running in to be the first to look for bugs.

Ya know, looking at the area I cleared, I already want to expand on that waterfowl pen

- another 10 foot across wouldn't cost much more, would it?

meri

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

Quote:
Congrats

and welcome to the KY Thread!

You should test the heat lamp before you get them - you might not need that hot of a bulb inside the house. I tried the heat lamp bulb (250 watt), and ended up buying a 150 watt spotlight bulb instead - the 250 heat lamp bulb was too hot. If I had them outside, then I'd need the extra wattage, but inside the normal household heat makes up for some of it. But then, it depends on how close the lamp is to the babies, too.

I usually start out with 150 spotlight bulb, then switch to a regular 100 watt household bulb then go down to a 60 watt, or even, once they get old enough, to a compact flourescant just for light, and not heat.

Of course, that also depends on how warm it stays in your bathroom, too. One of our bathrooms is always warm, and the other one (my master bathroom, naturally) gets the cold winds directly on the outside wall, so it stays cooler.

I had considered brooding the ducklings in the master bathtub, but I have a cat, I'm sure she would love to "help" them out in there

.

Oh, and try getting some Puppy Training Pads - they are WONDERFUL for brooding chicks on. Less hassle than paper towels, and one step cleanup - just fold the dirty one up and toss in a clean one - takes all of a half a minute to change the brooder bedding. You can get a pack of 50 at Walmarts for about 13 bucks - they'll more than last you til you put them outside. (you can get smaller packages, too, I buy the 50 cause I always have chicks in here

.)

Oh, and great choices on birds - I love my Black Australorps, they are by far the funniest of the chickens I have - very personable and friendly.

meri

 

[KateOfSteel]

Yup, I picked them especially because they are supposed to be docile, hardy and good egg layers. And also because their feathers are gorgeous and I have a friend who makes custom corsets out of feathers (among other things).

Now I actually want to add 2 chickens to my order, but it would delay it til March. It would bring my chicken total up to 12, but my back yard is actually walled in, so hopefully I don't have to worry about the neighbors. I've literally never seen one, and the other will be happy if there are 'leftover' eggs. Frankly, with at least 9 decent layers, I think I'll be begging people to take the eggs. I already contacted a friend of mine who works with the Housing Authority to do electric work on the projects, and he says he is always aware of people that are in need of food and the basics of life, so if I want to donate eggs, he would be delighted to deliver them.

The two that I want are Silver Laced Wyandotte pullets. They are supposedly very docile, good egg layers and hardy in the winter. I really want them, but I don't really want to delay my order til March 4th. I've been thinking about getting chickens for a couple of years, and now that I finally placed my order, I want them to just arrive already! If it were you, what would you do? Is there anyplace around Louisville that I could just drive to and pick up some Silver Laced Wyandotte chicks? I'd like the birds to be all the same age roughly, but I wouldn't think a few days either way would matter.

Thoughts?

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

Quote:
Well, you could just tell them that the Black Australorps are really just two hens - their eyes are playing tricks on them

I have one silver laced wyandotte - she came to us as a pullet (almost point of lay) and she was such a freak at first that we named her Spazz

.
She was afraid of everyone and everything it took her a solid month to be brave enough to leave the coop to go out into the chicken run. The other chickens scared her, the people scared her, the coop doorway scared her, etc... she is ok now, although she does still tend to wander by herself sometimes.

She has, however, decided that she is in love with my husband, and everytime he is outside working or anything, she'll follow him all over the place. She is very pretty. I wanted a gold laced, but got her instead (no gold laced available at the time). I think the silver laced is prettier than the gold laced, now, after having had a gold laced cochin.

I'm not sure where you could find any up by Louisville. I'm down about 100 miles south of there, and I don't get up there very often - Bluedog420 might know some folks up that way - he's the resident chicken trader

meri

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

Quote:
Those turkens just look weird to me

you can have them.

I have two barred rocks, though, Miss Celie (who is VERY obstinate) and BC. BC is a pullet that I brooded for Cindy, then I got her back when Cindy decided to get rid of her chickens - she is spoiled rotten

BC is sort of intimidated by the chickens

(they mostly ignore her, but she scoots away anyway.) so she sleeps in the coop with the ducks - she likes the ducks quite a bit, actually

. Oh, btw - BC stood for Bad Chick, but now it stands for Baby Chicken (she is a sweety, the "bad" part was her attitude,

I think all barred rocks have that attitude - not "bad" just naughty - in a funny way.)

Miss Celie, after the flock began to free range, moved into the woods for three months - she decided she wanted nothing to do with the rooster any longer. She had been "flavor of the month" and had all her back feathers tore out. Poor girl had simply had it with men altogether. Once the feathers grew back (and it got VERY cold and nasty out) she decided to move back into the coop. Even now, though, if she doesn't feel it is time to go in for the night, she'll wait til I come out later to turn off lights, then go in - at her own good time

.

btw - she and the rooster made friends again - two of the chicks I have in the house are hers.

I haven't gotten that pic yet, was busy today, but I'll take the camera with me when I close up coops for the night and get one then.

 

[goodwilly05]

briarpatch
You did not tell me that little black chick you sold me was spoiled rotten! It would not stop following me and trying to fly up my pants. Now we have a "house chicken" before it is big enough to make it act like a chicken. It wants nothing to do with the others and got a few bad pecks, so It's on my shoulder now watching me type! I told you all I'm an nut for my animals.
George