Thanks lady! I like him...he's changed quite a bit now and is totally sunbleached, but I know what he throws and will be doing a bit more testing with him. Oh....and the latest...I have molting going on everywhere it seems. Just in the last week or so its gone crazy.Morning all
Late start here today, didn't sleep worth a hoot last night.
LOVE that Birchen boy Vicki!!! I'm like Donna, quit showing those pics!!
So far this morning, I have one pip in the bator, and of course, it's one of my eggs.Still haven't got that sinking feeling yet in my gut, so will hold out hope for the Wheatens are few more days, or until they start stinking.
Sue, I had someone in my coop eating eggs too. I found with mine it was because one of the girls' eggs kept breaking when she laid it. That seemed to attract all of them over to a feeding frenzy! Put some padding in the bottom of the nest box, and the eggs quit cracking when she laid. I also try to feed mine some hard boiled eggs, at least once a month, and that seems to help with the taste for eggs, and they don't recognize them as eggs. I call them the "Legal Eggs", legal for the chooks to eat! You might try putting the golf balls in the nest boxes the next time they are all out. Put a lot of them in there, and maybe some even on the floor. Maybe if they peck enough and get nothing, after awhile they will see it's all in vain? Just a thought, and good luck! You might also try my hay bale trick too. They'll be so busy tearing that thing to shreds, they may not worry about the eggs? Can't hurt...
Thanks lady. I'm hoping to make more progress this year with things I'm not happy with in all my pens, but sometimes ya can't help but just enjoy what ya already have. hahaSue - that stinks!
My one coop of young girls started eating eggs when they first started laying.
AND I did the mustard egg trick.
Only took one egg and everyone was reformed!!
Vicki - that boy is totally gorgeous - I can only hope that one of my guys turn out that nice!
Pink - congrats on your chick!!! Hoping he's a boy!!
I can only go by the two breeds I have here; Marans and Silkies. All of my birds start panting at about 85*. Make sure they have shade, fresh, cool water at all times, and a dry spot to dust bathe in. I see you are in OK, so you know what humidity is! My birds all head for a dry dust bath when it gets very humid, perhaps it dries the humidity off of them? If I put out a mist of water for them, they all avoid it like the plague, and of course that makes the area more humid. Seems mine can handle the heat far better than the humidity. If push comes to shove, and it gets really hot, put a fan in their coop for them. Last summer was wicked hot and humid here, and all of my birds made it through.
Good deal! Of course that means more pics, ya know? Seems like a lot of Cuckoos come and go by your place!
hahah....a rest stop on the cuckoo stagecoach perhaps haha Cuckoos can be useful since they are a silver base for some of the things I'm working on, that's why the young ones I was willing to take the chance on. I'll get some pics here in the next couple of days as they settle in. So far I have the hens in a pen under the shade of a tree by the barn so that the freerangers can get used to them. I think they will fit in just fine.Good deal! Of course that means more pics, ya know? Seems like a lot of Cuckoos come and go by your place!
Any chance it is the wild birds? I had eggs actually disappearing last spring and I was sure it was the hens. Set up trail cameras to catch the culprit and much to my surprise caught pics of a scrub jay. They would get into the nests, stab their beaks into the eggs and if the shells were strong enough, they would tuck their heads and fly off with the egg. If the egg broke, they would leave it in the nest and I would catch hens in their cleaning it up.......... Hung shower curtain pieces cut into slats in front of all the nest boxes and in front of the auto door on the coop and solved the problem. This spring I had a few hens laying in the hay bales in the straw barn and the starlings will go in and peck/break the eggs. (the hens have trained them with the announcement of the egg song when done laying!) Hung a few of the fake bobble head owls around but has not solved the problem. Luckily most of the girls go back to the coop to lay.
What is the mustard egg trick ?Sue - that stinks!
My one coop of young girls started eating eggs when they first started laying.
AND I did the mustard egg trick.
Only took one egg and everyone was reformed!!
