Meyer Hatchery Chicken pics anyone??

[NanaLynn]

I think you were channeling me when you wrote that! I have not tried fermenting for all the same reasons! I'm glad you wrote that, they say confession is good for the soul ...

Ha ha. That is so me too! I'd love to ferment, but there is so many things going on here. Maybe one day in the future. Good job to those of you who do take the time to do it!

 

[NanaLynn]

Wow, you're quite a friend to lug water for her chickens.  I'm so not ready for snow yet.  I was going to put some plastic around the little run to keep it dry and free of wind since I only had 13 girls last year and now I have 20 they need more room.  My DH doesn't think that will hold up so we are going to put some temporary plywood up.  If it's anything like last year they will certainly need it.  

sorry I don't ferment. I was just thinking about it tonight and I think one reasons I don't is because of the cold. And I'm afraid it will mold and I won't know it and I'll accidentally kill them.  And, I'm just to lazy     I'm still sprouting everyday though.. Lentils, !   

Speaking of sprouting.... do I have to use a glass jar to sprout..... anyone try plastic or won't that work??

Lentils! Thanks for reminding me. I need to get some started too once the sink is back in. I think it needs to be glass but maybe clear plastic would work. I have the glass canning jars with plastic lids. Canning jars are pretty cheap too. I like eating the lentil sprouts too. Oh and you can buy a huge bag of oat seeds to sprout for the chickens too at TSC. I did that last year. They have it for deer forage with the deer corn.

 

[daniellea2912]

I've noticed my girls just seem miserable while molting. Their combs and waddles are a little pale. I haven't noticed they are eating less, but then again I did just add the little ones to the group. I've switched everyone over to grower/finisher to hopefully help with integrating and the extra protein. This is my first hard molt experience too.

I believe it's normal for birds to lose a little weight during the molt. It's a pretty rough process. They also tend to be a bit more mopey in my experience. As long as they are healthy otherwise, eating and drinking, etc., they should be fine.

Speaking of molting. My chickens that are molting do look a little thinner too, but I have not weighed them. @Daniellea92 I imagine if the thin chickens appetite is getting better that she should gain more weight soon unless there is something else going on. I hope she improves.



I discovered that my chickens love rose petals. Guess they must taste good.

Thank you all for the info

Beardie continues to act better and better but hasnt put any weight back in which worries me, shes down to just a little over 3 lbs and she was regularly over 5 (granted she was a bit chubby at that point) I brought her inside for a little over 24 hours to monitor her crop and make sure she was still eating/drinking/pottying... Her crop didn't fully flatten after the first night so I put her on soft foods and watched her until the next morning. The crop was pretty hard so I put her on soft food, massaged it every hour or so and watched her. She had a good appetite and passed quite a bit of poop with mostly undigested grass in it (some of the stool was just chunks of grass). I let her out after the next morning bc her crop was nearly flat and much softer and she was starting to get stressed from being stuck inside. The last 2 days she has been acting great, shes always out foraging in the pasture, flapping her wings and preening, and is much more into eating treats, etc but she still hasn't put on any weight. Actually shes down a little under an ounce more

I'm hoping the next weigh in she will finally start putting some weight back on. I've started her on some probiotics and nutridrench everyday.

 

[NotableNancy]

Lentils! Thanks for reminding me. I need to get some started too once the sink is back in. I think it needs to be glass but maybe clear plastic would work. I have the glass canning jars with plastic lids. Canning jars are pretty cheap too. I like eating the lentil sprouts too. Oh and you can buy a huge bag of oat seeds to sprout for the chickens too at TSC. I did that last year. They have it for deer forage with the deer corn.

I saw canning jars at the feed store so I will get a few of those and of course the thrift shop is always good for a few assorted jars. I'll look for oat seeds. I need some more variety. Thx

Thank you all for the info

Beardie continues to act better and better but hasnt put any weight back in which worries me, shes down to just a little over 3 lbs and she was regularly over 5 (granted she was a bit chubby at that point) I brought her inside for a little over 24 hours to monitor her crop and make sure she was still eating/drinking/pottying... Her crop didn't fully flatten after the first night so I put her on soft foods and watched her until the next morning. The crop was pretty hard so I put her on soft food, massaged it every hour or so and watched her. She had a good appetite and passed quite a bit of poop with mostly undigested grass in it (some of the stool was just chunks of grass). I let her out after the next morning bc her crop was nearly flat and much softer and she was starting to get stressed from being stuck inside. The last 2 days she has been acting great, shes always out foraging in the pasture, flapping her wings and preening, and is much more into eating treats, etc but she still hasn't put on any weight. Actually shes down a little under an ounce more

I'm hoping the next weigh in she will finally start putting some weight back on. I've started her on some probiotics and nutridrench everyday.

Awwww, poor thing. But I would think if you see her foraging, preening etc she would be on her way to feeling better. Does she eat chicken feed too? Every morning I feed my girls feed moistened with water (not fermented just wet) and put probiotics in there and whatever else I really want to make sure they need. They really inhale it... I feed them by hand so its my time to check them out and see if all are looking well and eating. Maybe try that? You'll be able to see how much she is actually eating for at least once during the day.

 

[NotableNancy]

So 2 new things today one good one bad...

My son came in from taking the trash out at about 6:30 and said boy your chickens are really yelling a lot. At dusk??? They never do that. I threw my boots on and ran out and there was a huge standard poodle running around the coop/run. It was up to my waist! Biggest one I ever saw. Circling and barking at them like crazy. I could see a few chickens huddled in a corner looking dead, some were flying around inside the coop and others were flying around the run bouncing off the wires and feathers flying. The dog couldn't get in but they didn't know that! Poor things. My house backs up to the woods with hiking trails and I could hear a guy screaming for the dog but it wasn't listening at all. I tried to catch it but couldn't. After another minute or 2 it ran off into the woods. Sadly, that's why I can't free range them unless I'm not out there. We can't really afford to fence it in because it would have to be a really pretty fence (we would have to look at so much of it) and that would be super expensive so it's no fence and I have to put up with these invasions once in a while.

So the good thing is... I was talking to my new neighbor, first long conversation since they moved in besides introductions and small talk, and she asked if we can have chickens in our neighborhood!!!! I'm so psyched!! We are not friends with any of our immediate neighbors (friendly of course... but not friends) so no one knows we have them. Kinda want to keep it that way. She said her husband wants bees and chickens!!! I brought her over and showed her my set up and gave her a doz. eggs. I would love to have more chicken people around. Strength in numbers??
Her husband will be coming over for sure to check it out and hopefully they dive in in the near future. Will be nice to have someone else to talk chicken too. My friends and family just don't 'get it' LOL.

 

[trsturself]

So 2 new things today one good one bad...

My son came in from taking the trash out at about 6:30 and said boy your chickens are really yelling a lot. At dusk??? They never do that. I threw my boots on and ran out and there was a huge standard poodle running around the coop/run. It was up to my waist! Biggest one I ever saw. Circling and barking at them like crazy. I could see a few chickens huddled in a corner looking dead, some were flying around inside the coop and others were flying around the run bouncing off the wires and feathers flying. The dog couldn't get in but they didn't know that! Poor things. My house backs up to the woods with hiking trails and I could hear a guy screaming for the dog but it wasn't listening at all. I tried to catch it but couldn't. After another minute or 2 it ran off into the woods. Sadly, that's why I can't free range them unless I'm not out there. We can't really afford to fence it in because it would have to be a really pretty fence (we would have to look at so much of it) and that would be super expensive so it's no fence and I have to put up with these invasions once in a while.

So the good thing is... I was talking to my new neighbor, first long conversation since they moved in besides introductions and small talk, and she asked if we can have chickens in our neighborhood!!!! I'm so psyched!! We are not friends with any of our immediate neighbors (friendly of course... but not friends) so no one knows we have them. Kinda want to keep it that way. She said her husband wants bees and chickens!!! I brought her over and showed her my set up and gave her a doz. eggs. I would love to have more chicken people around. Strength in numbers??
Her husband will be coming over for sure to check it out and hopefully they dive in in the near future. Will be nice to have someone else to talk chicken too. My friends and family just don't 'get it' LOL.

That's too bad you have to deal with people not being responsible with their dogs. I'm glad our free range area is still fenced from dogs. But we have hawks so I still don't get to free range much.

I hope your neighbor dives in. I wish we had a neighbor that has chickens. We gave our one neighbor a dozen eggs shortly after moving in for catching and holding onto our goats for us when they got out. I think I could sell a ton more if they would start laying again!

Complaining on here worked. I collected 3 eggs from the 50+ chickens today. One was from one of our bantam cochins and the other 2 were on my friend's side. I'm leaning more towards something stealing the eggs or egg eaters now. If I wait until the evening to collect we get nothing but the 2 days we've checked in the afternoon there's been at least something. I'm going to the feed store tomorrow to get some fake eggs. If those disappear then we'll know for sure we need to do some reinforcing of the coop.

 

[christine9]

Hoping we all start seeing more eggs soon!!

I'm going to try a no-crow colar. I've been on the fence about it for a while, but with the time change coming, I'm dreading Peppy getting my neighbors up at 4am. I've been researching the velcro DIY ones and will be giving that a shot. I'm a little nervous for a few reasons. Peppy is not crazy about held anymore, although still friendly. I may just nab him after dark and wear protective gear just in case. The other thing is that people have been reporting sudden death when using these collars. I'm guessing from over tightening the collars. Oh boy! We'll see how it goes. Any experience/advice is welcomed

 

[trsturself]

Hoping we all start seeing more eggs soon!!

I'm going to try a no-crow colar. I've been on the fence about it for a while, but with the time change coming, I'm dreading Peppy getting my neighbors up at 4am. I've been researching the velcro DIY ones and will be giving that a shot. I'm a little nervous for a few reasons. Peppy is not crazy about held anymore, although still friendly. I may just nab him after dark and wear protective gear just in case. The other thing is that people have been reporting sudden death when using these collars. I'm guessing from over tightening the collars. Oh boy! We'll see how it goes. Any experience/advice is welcomed

I'm lucky that my roosters stay pretty quiet until the coop door opens. I don't open it until 7:30. Our neighbors (at least the ones we talk to) have mentioned more than once that they like the roosters and they get up at 5:30 so no problem there.

Hope you have success with it. Let us know how it goes for future reference.

 

[COChix]

So 2 new things today one good one bad...Will be nice to have someone else to talk chicken too.  My friends and family just don't 'get it'  LOL. 

This made me chuckle, I wish I had a friend close by that talked chicken as well. I am sure my dear bf gets sick of my chicken talk, but it is one of my main tasks/chores is feeding, cleaning, collecting eggs, etc. so what does he expect right?! I am glad I have BYC for my chicken outlet.

 

[NotableNancy]

I think you were channeling me when you wrote that! I have not tried fermenting for all the same reasons! I'm glad you wrote that, they say confession is good for the soul ...

That's too bad you have to deal with people not being responsible with their dogs. I'm glad our free range area is still fenced from dogs. But we have hawks so I still don't get to free range much.

I hope your neighbor dives in. I wish we had a neighbor that has chickens. We gave our one neighbor a dozen eggs shortly after moving in for catching and holding onto our goats for us when they got out. I think I could sell a ton more if they would start laying again!

Complaining on here worked. I collected 3 eggs from the 50+ chickens today. One was from one of our bantam cochins and the other 2 were on my friend's side. I'm leaning more towards something stealing the eggs or egg eaters now. If I wait until the evening to collect we get nothing but the 2 days we've checked in the afternoon there's been at least something. I'm going to the feed store tomorrow to get some fake eggs. If those disappear then we'll know for sure we need to do some reinforcing of the coop.

Are you able to check even more often on weekends... sounds like an egg stealer or egg eater for sure. Hope you figure it out soon.... eggs from 50 hens sure would be nice!!

Hoping we all start seeing more eggs soon!!

I'm going to try a no-crow colar. I've been on the fence about it for a while, but with the time change coming, I'm dreading Peppy getting my neighbors up at 4am. I've been researching the velcro DIY ones and will be giving that a shot. I'm a little nervous for a few reasons. Peppy is not crazy about held anymore, although still friendly. I may just nab him after dark and wear protective gear just in case. The other thing is that people have been reporting sudden death when using these collars. I'm guessing from over tightening the collars. Oh boy! We'll see how it goes. Any experience/advice is welcomed

No experience here but very curious to hear how it goes.