Maine

[MEMama3]

Nice Blanche! I like the curtains, too. They go well with the color scheme. Too bad you couldn't find something similar to their couch print.

I know, right! Unfortunately their style went out in the 80s so it's hard to find, but I'm always checking yard sales and thrift stores.

 

[ashandvine]

Well we learned a sad lesson on the farm today. We had two lovely ladies - Pecky and Violet, Barred Rocks. I can't tell them apart, but the kids can. My 11 year old was catching the geese to put them in the electric pasture, and he got distracted. Seems Pecky or Violet was laying an egg in the wheat bin. He put the lid on it...and forgot about her. A few hours later, I went to check on everyone, and decided to offer some wheat to the rabbits. Sure enough. Poor hen was in there and had suffocated. I was so upset with him initially, but when I saw that he was beside himself over it, I let it go. It's one of those lessons you learn the hard way.

My son had a similar issue. He left the wire cover we fashioned to go over a water barrel in the coop off and we found that a young bird had tried to take a swim. Chickens can't swim.

Nice Blanche!

ditto

 

[thatsjustducky]

this one can lol

 

[VioletBlueIvy]

Thank you for the advice on the leghorns...I guess they were trying to sneak up on mumma this morning, she was chasing the @#$#$^T! cat out from under the car...the pit bull thought she was in danger and started going after the cat...cat chased chickens, chickens spooked pit bull...I wish I was there to see the whole event unfold!  All is well, no injuries, and we are laughing about it as we speak!

I had a whole hullabaloo like that yesterday. I had the girls free ranging while I worked in the garden. My idiot neighbor came home saying "hi lindesy" (my name is Jessica and I've lived here 5 years) then he went and let his dogs out off leash. I flew from the garden to gather the girls. Thankfully they are well trained and knew what to do. Unfortunately, my cat thought this frantic moment was a great time to catch herself a chicken snack. When the cat sprang for a chicken, the neighbors dog came for the cat. Did I mention that the cat was in the pen at this point? I had 6 chickens, 1 cat and the neighbors dog in my 6'x10' hoop run. I yanked the dog out and shooed the cat. When I delivered the dog to the neighbor with a poorly disguised ****** look he says "sorry about that Lindsey."

LOL!

 

[superchemicalgirl]

You could use this fabric...
http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/1202772

OR just upload a picture of their couch fabric to that website. Unsure how expensive it is, but we're talking AUTHENTIC here.

 

[yankeehill]

this one can lol

Oh that's funny!

 

[yankeehill]

It's a sad, hard lesson. I learned that one the hard way with a guinea pig, about the same age. We would put them in wire cages during the day, and bring them in at night. I can't recall if we kept my male, Ernie in an aquarium, or used it to transport them to the wire cage...either way, I set Ernie on top of the wire cage in the aquarium and he succumbed to the heat. I was devastated.

Hope

 

[MEMama3]

You could use this fabric...
http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/1202772

OR just upload a picture of their couch fabric to that website. Unsure how expensive it is, but we're talking AUTHENTIC here.

that is pure awesomeness!

 

[Staledemon]

Hello. I am wondering, does anyone know where I can get some Jersey Giant eggs or chicks? They seem to be pretty non-existent around here.

 

[CoopChick719]

This is interesting to me. I had decided all my rooster's behaviors were embedded in his genetic material. We were so amazed with our very first flock that the lone rooster knew what noises to make for ground predators, aerial predators, food, etc., and that the girls all automatically knew what these meant. It is not at all like a human baby learning a language from it's parents, as they are all babies together (assuming you get a bunch of day-olds) and somehow have this common language in their genes.

Of the 5 roosters we have kept for any period of time, 3 make a nest and call the girls over. With our first rooster, this also amazed me, because he made the nest and kept pushing the leghorn into it. It was our first egg, and I wondered how he knew she was about to lay. That is what has kept me fascinated with these birds. It also had me wondering what other animals had these "flock behaviors" that I knew nothing about previously. Just from brief conversations with our friend who raises cows, they have their own set of interesting behaviors. (Bees, too!)

And while I feel like I have so much to learn and understand about chickens, I am surprised that many people don't realize you can have eggs without a rooster, that roosters don't lay eggs, that different breeds lay different colors, and you can't hatch eggs if you don't have a rooster. And many children don't even know that eggs come from chickens!

My Silkie roo used to make nests for the girls too. He was such a good boy!

Yes, this!! I swear I get asked on a weekly basis about do they lay eggs with out a rooster, and then is it ok to eat the eggs if there is a rooster?? We sell extra eggs cheap ( just enough to pay for the feed) and a woman my husband words with asked if he could not include the blue eggs for her because she thought they were "weird". I told him to tell her to....well, I won't say it here, but to put it m ore politely, if she doesn't like all of the eggs that she is getting for a super deal, buy them at the grocery store!!

LOL! I had someone ask me about the blue/green eggs, if they taste different! Nope, but they taste better than the ones you buy in the store!!

I had a whole hullabaloo like that yesterday. I had the girls free ranging while I worked in the garden. My idiot neighbor came home saying "hi lindesy" (my name is Jessica and I've lived here 5 years) then he went and let his dogs out off leash. I flew from the garden to gather the girls. Thankfully they are well trained and knew what to do. Unfortunately, my cat thought this frantic moment was a great time to catch herself a chicken snack. When the cat sprang for a chicken, the neighbors dog came for the cat. Did I mention that the cat was in the pen at this point? I had 6 chickens, 1 cat and the neighbors dog in my 6'x10' hoop run. I yanked the dog out and shooed the cat. When I delivered the dog to the neighbor with a poorly disguised ****** look he says "sorry about that Lindsey."

I would have said, IT'S JESSICA, YOU DINGDONG!!!

Well we learned a sad lesson on the farm today. We had two lovely ladies - Pecky and Violet, Barred Rocks. I can't tell them apart, but the kids can. My 11 year old was catching the geese to put them in the electric pasture, and he got distracted. Seems Pecky or Violet was laying an egg in the wheat bin. He put the lid on it...and forgot about her. A few hours later, I went to check on everyone, and decided to offer some wheat to the rabbits. Sure enough. Poor hen was in there and had suffocated. I was so upset with him initially, but when I saw that he was beside himself over it, I let it go. It's one of those lessons you learn the hard way.

Yankeehill, I'm so sorry for your troubles!

Hugs to you & your son.

So I had some good deep litter cooking in the coop until I asked my son to fill & hang the waterer. I told him while he was filling the 5 gallon waterer, with the hose, he only needed 2 gallons then proceeded to explain about hanging the waterer on the chain. He gave me a dirty look then pointed the hose at me. I decided to check the coop before I left for my Dad's. The waterer was hanging cock-eyed with a little less than a half gallon left in it. I brought it back out to him and said here ya go put some more water in it..

He said he thought the chickens wouldn't be able to reach it if he hung it level. That's why he tilted it

I have no idea how much water was in it. I tried turn the wet litter into the dry litter and using a big box fan...WOOOODOGGY the next morning was NOT good!!

I made him help me shovel out the coop. I shoveled--he schlepped buckets to the compost pile.