"Louisiana "La-yers" Peeps"

[DHinton]

hi all!

i did put a tiny coop together. the cats discovered it prior to my getting the run set up. soooooooooooooooooo, i may end up building another coop and letting the cats keep their playhouse. will kitties sitting in the coop prior to chickens, had any adverse germ effects? they pretty much just sat on the ground (didn't climb in it at all) and smelled the walls, because cats like to sit in "boxes".

i guess i'm looking for a maran for chocolate eggs.. ameracauna or easter egger for blue or green eggs... and whatever chicken does well down here that does pink eggs?

:)

 

[Garilyn Bardash]

I'd like to be in your thoughts the next few days--I have finally found someone with a lavender orpington rooster to replace mine that is of age--he's almost a year. He will be shipped to me from Tennessee on Thursday using Express. I'm praying he's at Anacoco PO Saturday morning and I don't have to go on the hunt and drive somewhere to save him from sitting all day on Sunday. I NEED THIS ROO!

I have people constantly seeing my pullets and asking for chicks... Hoping for the best.

Oh no! What happened to your roo? Did he die from being sick too, so sorry to hear this! hope this new one will be all that you hope he is! hugs! Garilyn

 

[Garilyn Bardash]

hi all!

i did put a tiny coop together. the cats discovered it prior to my getting the run set up. soooooooooooooooooo, i may end up building another coop and letting the cats keep their playhouse. will kitties sitting in the coop prior to chickens, had any adverse germ effects? they pretty much just sat on the ground (didn't climb in it at all) and smelled the walls, because cats like to sit in "boxes".

i guess i'm looking for a maran for chocolate eggs.. ameracauna or easter egger for blue or green eggs... and whatever chicken does well down here that does pink eggs?

:)

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/345226/what-breeds-lay-pink-eggs good luck with your new flock! looks like a pink egg is just a special surprise and not necessarily from a certain breed, check out this link to another thread, might be helpful! Garilyn

 

[1MrsMagoo]

No, that's not me.

Okay...thanks just checking. A couple of my friends have been talking up the benefits of Muscovy ducks and my husband decided we need some. I saw the hatching eggs and thought, well, if it is our kuntrygirl I'll buy them. Otherwise, I'll just pick up a few ducklings locally in a couple months.

 

[TerriLaChicks]

hi all!

i did put a tiny coop together. the cats discovered it prior to my getting the run set up. soooooooooooooooooo, i may end up building another coop and letting the cats keep their playhouse. will kitties sitting in the coop prior to chickens, had any adverse germ effects? they pretty much just sat on the ground (didn't climb in it at all) and smelled the walls, because cats like to sit in "boxes".

i guess i'm looking for a maran for chocolate eggs.. ameracauna or easter egger for blue or green eggs... and whatever chicken does well down here that does pink eggs?

:)

I see our 'barn cats' in the coop & run all the time -- they & the chickens ignore each other. I feed them twice a day & they have never bothered the chickens, and I don't know of any germs/diseases they would share amongst themselves.

 

[TerriLaChicks]

Garilyn, how is your husband doing?

 

[1MrsMagoo]

hi all!

i did put a tiny coop together. the cats discovered it prior to my getting the run set up. soooooooooooooooooo, i may end up building another coop and letting the cats keep their playhouse. will kitties sitting in the coop prior to chickens, had any adverse germ effects? they pretty much just sat on the ground (didn't climb in it at all) and smelled the walls, because cats like to sit in "boxes".

i guess i'm looking for a maran for chocolate eggs.. ameracauna or easter egger for blue or green eggs... and whatever chicken does well down here that does pink eggs?

:)

If you are looking to a good color variety I would suggest: Easter Eggers (any chicken mixed with Araucana or Ameraucana), the two aforementioned pure bred birds, Olive Egger (a brown egg laying breed like Marans crossed with a blue egg layer), and perhaps a Marans for the dark chocolatey eggs.

For reference as to what you "might" get out of an Easter Egger chicken:

Out of my Olive and Easter Eggers, I have one hen that lays a lavender colored egg, one that has a peach hue to it, and one that is the color of cardboard, and of course blue, green, and olive green. The lavender hued one is in the center, olive top left and cardboard brown right of center on the bottom row. The really blue eggs and a couple of the smaller light greens are from my Ameraucanas.



As to your coop, the cats will not have hurt it by simply going in and sniffing around. As long as it is VERY secure and nothing will be able to get the birds once they are shut in, you are good to go with some larger juveniles, or adult birds.

Good luck.

 

[kuntrygirl]

No, that's not me.

Okay...thanks just checking. A couple of my friends have been talking up the benefits of Muscovy ducks and my husband decided we need some. I saw the hatching eggs and thought, well, if it is our kuntrygirl I'll buy them. Otherwise, I'll just pick up a few ducklings locally in a couple months.

If you would have asked me about 2 years ago when the girls hatched out about 150 Muscovy babies for the year, I would have gladly GIVEN you duckling AND eggs.

 

[DHinton]

If you are looking to a good color variety I would suggest: Easter Eggers (any chicken mixed with Araucana or Ameraucana), the two aforementioned pure bred birds, Olive Egger (a brown egg laying breed like Marans crossed with a blue egg layer), and perhaps a Marans for the dark chocolatey eggs.

For reference as to what you "might" get out of an Easter Egger chicken:

Out of my Olive and Easter Eggers, I have one hen that lays a lavender colored egg, one that has a peach hue to it, and one that is the color of cardboard, and of course blue, green, and olive green. The lavender hued one is in the center, olive top left and cardboard brown right of center on the bottom row. The really blue eggs and a couple of the smaller light greens are from my Ameraucanas.



As to your coop, the cats will not have hurt it by simply going in and sniffing around. As long as it is VERY secure and nothing will be able to get the birds once they are shut in, you are good to go with some larger juveniles, or adult birds.

Good luck.

this will show my ignorance -- say i have one chicken... is it going to lay (basically) the same colour eggs every time? or if it's a breed that CAN do greenish-bluish range of colours, will her eggs be any of those colours and the next one a different, etc?

 

[kuntrygirl]

hi all!

i did put a tiny coop together.  the cats discovered it prior to my getting the run set up.  soooooooooooooooooo, i may end up building another coop and letting the cats keep their playhouse.  will kitties sitting in the coop prior to chickens, had any adverse germ effects?  they pretty much just sat on the ground (didn't climb in it at all) and smelled the walls, because cats like to sit in "boxes".

i guess i'm looking for a maran for chocolate eggs.. ameracauna or easter egger for blue or green eggs... and whatever chicken does well down here that does pink eggs?

:)

Feral cat's poop can pass on (if ingested) what is called Toxoplasmosis (a parasitic disease) to some animals. This can be passed on to ducks, turkeys, chickens and even rabbits. Ducks contract this disease more common than chickens do. I'm sure your chicks will be ok but just in case something happens, you may want to know this info. I have feral cats and I have never experienced any problems with my chickens as far as the symptoms for this disease. So, if they are just sitting in the coop, your chickens will be ok.

Toxoplasma is rarely considered when trying to diagnose poultry problems with ataxia and incoordination. Turkeys, and waterfowl in particular, are typically asymptomatic and infections usually go unnoticed. Chickens can also be infected but suffer a greater number of symptoms, along with a higher rate of mortality.

The first sign of Toxoplasmosis is usually a young duckling flipping over onto its back with the inability to right itself. Sometimes a young duckling will simply be uncoordinated, flip over on its back occasionally, and then over time, learn how to right itself on a regular basis until he finally grows out of this awkward stage.

Symptoms for Toxoplasmosis also include congestion, weight loss, paleness and shrinking of the comb (in chickens), drop in egg production, whitish droppings, diarrhea, incoordination and ataxia, trembling, and blindness.

Although systemic in nature, the disease does most of its damage in the young and weak within the central nervous system.

Toxoplasmosis is the primary reason why obstetricians recommend that pregnant women dont keep cats or clean out the litter box if they already have a cat.)

In an open yard where there are free-ranging adult ducks, there may be little problem. And even if the ducks pick it up and are pretty healthy otherwise, theyre usually asymptomatic. But if the younger ducks or ducklings have any contact with the same yard or the droppings of cats, even through the travel of rodents, they become at risk.

The treatment calls for a drug called pyrimethamine at the rate of 0.5mg/kg PO (oral) per day given in two equal doses every 12 hours for 7 10 days, with sulfadiazine at the rate of 30 mg/kg also given orally with the daily dose split in two equal doses every 12 hours, for the same time period.