Michigan

[kimmie6067]

Kimmie, here is a better pic with the pop door. you can also see it on the inside just under the bag of shavings in the first pic you re posted. The door is in hinges and I latch it closed.

Ok I can see it now. What an idea.

 

[vjwilmoth]

VJ- I have one lone roo millie, that would love to come home to your girls!! Let me know if you're interested (free)! He's a brave bird, always first to investigate and check things out! He's very handsome with awesome leg feathers!! Looks like he's about the same age as your girls. I will be taking him and the other bantams to chickenstock so let me know if you'll be there and your interested, I'll save him for you.

Silly - If my d'uccles would have ended up hens I would just for fun but my two baby d'uccles are both ROOS!

Those millies are so pretty though.

Out of my bantam crew I have:

2 d'uccle roos, I think my polish is a roo and I'm pretty sure all 5 of my silkies will be roos just because...why not?! Lol Basically Waffles will be the only girl. I'm going to have to decide what to do with one of my d'uccle roos. I'm going to keep one but I don't need two.

That being said does anyone here want/need a porcelain d'uccle roo? Right now he is 6 weeks old.


Question about Silkies... I think a lot of you guys have them. I've never had them before so I'm clueless and I know they say you have to wait for them to either crow or lay an egg. Haha So is that really true? My mom has 8 that are from the same order as mine and the same colors as mine so if each of us ends up unbalanced we are going to trade. But I hate that I may have to wait months! They are 5 weeks old now.

One thing I have noticed, not sure if it matters or not but my 2 roo d'uccles do the 'rooster dance'. That's what I call it. Hackles up, chests out and trying to be as tall as possible while they hop in a circle. My polish and one of my blue silkies get in on that too. Non of the others do. Do you think it's a possible roo indicator?

 

[vjwilmoth]

I have a question, I am getting four EE tomorrow can I put them in with my two week old chicks after a few days? These guys seem a little rough and I don't want them to hurt the little ones but I really don't want to put up another brooder. I guess I should have thought of that, I didn't know my girls were going to grow so big in two weeks and be all over the place.

Kimmie

I think most people would say no but I put day old chicks in with my 1 week olds and I also gave day old chicks to my oddly broody 4 week old d'uccle but I think she's an extreme exception to the rule. Anyway, I suppose you could try it and see what happens. The only issue I had was the week old chicks wanted to peck the day old chicks 'egg tooth' because it was something different. I would watch them and see what happens and if they aren't being nice then separate them.

 

[EeyoreD]

I'm sorry you have to deal with those coons. I honestly don't know if I could do it. I am definitely one of those people who projects human emotion on animals and I would probably be a sobbing basketcase the rest of the day after killing something. I wish I could though! My mom goes hunting and has no problem killing things. I can't even listen to her hunting stories because it makes me want to cry.

I think you might surprise yourself if you were in my situation. Basically when looking at the coons all I see is the 11 bodies of my beautiful chickens. I don't enjoy killing them but it doesn't bother me as much as you might think with that sort of motivation.

Eeyore- hit a coon anywhere in the bulbous area of the skull. The X as suggested earlier, or between the ear and eye on the side, in the ear, even in the back of the head where it connects to the spine is effective. I believe your second shot was good, when shot in the head the animal will have some amazing death throws because their muscles have become short circuited. Looks unnerving, but they aren't feeling anything and they are basically dead. Lead hollow points are good cause they will mushroom out (when they'll do the most effective damage). I'm glad your killing vs releasing to become someone else's problem.

Thank you for the tips. And I guess the bolded bit was really what I was hoping to hear. Looks awful though. And yeah, releasing didn't make any sense to me. They're either going to find their way back or go do it to someone else - except now they're smart enough to know and remember what a trap is.

 

[Olive Hill]

VJ - You can vent sex them.

 

[SillyChicken]

Silly - If my d'uccles would have ended up hens I would just for fun but my two baby d'uccles are both ROOS!

Those millies are so pretty though.

Out of my bantam crew I have:

2 d'uccle roos, I think my polish is a roo and I'm pretty sure all 5 of my silkies will be roos just because...why not?! Lol Basically Waffles will be the only girl. I'm going to have to decide what to do with one of my d'uccle roos. I'm going to keep one but I don't need two.

That being said does anyone here want/need a porcelain d'uccle roo? Right now he is 6 weeks old.


Question about Silkies... I think a lot of you guys have them. I've never had them before so I'm clueless and I know they say you have to wait for them to either crow or lay an egg. Haha So is that really true? My mom has 8 that are from the same order as mine and the same colors as mine so if each of us ends up unbalanced we are going to trade. But I hate that I may have to wait months! They are 5 weeks old now.

One thing I have noticed, not sure if it matters or not but my 2 roo d'uccles do the 'rooster dance'. That's what I call it. Hackles up, chests out and trying to be as tall as possible while they hop in a circle. My polish and one of my blue silkies get in on that too. Non of the others do. Do you think it's a possible roo indicator?

I've got my first silkie chicks, they're starting to "mature"... one in particular has a wider comb, and has done the "oh lookie here girls" clucking... so It's safe to say the biggest, biggest boned and wider combed bird is male... the rest, I'm sure one is a hen because there is hardly any comb (and came running when the other male clucked), the rest are somewhere in between.

VJ- thats a bummer about your ratio. I ended up with 2 hens of the 6 bantams.

I hunt as well, and I don't have a problem killing things, yet I still feel some remorse for the animals death. But, I'm realistic and some of it's necessary, to either fill my freezer, to help with proper wildlife conservation, or to protect my investments and the animals that depend on me for protection. Once you do it once or twice, you can learn to separate yourself from it.

 

[Totalcolour]

Well after catching 2 coons in 2 days the trap was empty this morning. Which makes me kind of glad. I know it needs to be done and I'll continue doing it but I have to say that going out and dealing with that business is not my ideal way to start the day.

But my flock is safe so far, electric fence gets completed today, too.

I think you will really like having an electric fence. We have a 6 strand (4 bottom two top) on our fence, and we even have the rabbitry wired! We haven't had ANY ground predation in the 4 years we've had it. Unfortunately, it doesn't help with the crows and hawks.

 

[vjwilmoth]

VJ - You can vent sex them.

I can vent sex them at 5 weeks accurately? Oooooh! I'm gonna go squeeze(gently) some silkies butts RIGHT NOW!

Raz...wanna join me? Bahahaha!

 

[vjwilmoth]

I've got my first silkie chicks, they're starting to "mature"... one in particular has a wider comb, and has done the "oh lookie here girls" clucking... so It's safe to say the biggest, biggest boned and wider combed bird is male... the rest, I'm sure one is a hen because there is hardly any comb (and came running when the other male clucked), the rest are somewhere in between.

VJ- thats a bummer about your ratio. I ended up with 2 hens of the 6 bantams.

I hunt as well, and I don't have a problem killing things, yet I still feel some remorse for the animals death. But, I'm realistic and some of it's necessary, to either fill my freezer, to help with proper wildlife conservation, or to protect my investments and the animals that depend on me for protection. Once you do it once or twice, you can learn to separate yourself from it.

Silly - Out of 5 of mine only one has a completely flat comb area. But I do realize with them being hatchery chicks and also maturing at different rates I would imagine that may not mean much.

On hunting. It may sound strange but I like to force myself to do things I'm afraid of and hunting is one of them. I think at some point I'll ask my mom to let me go with her and see if I can actually do it. I used to help my g'pa process hogs, deer, chickens, etc and that didn't bother me at all but I have never actually killed anything. One time I watched him shoot a cow he was going to butcher and I cried for a long time. My heart is too soft I think. So why did God give me boys?

 

[EeyoreD]

I hunt as well, and I don't have a problem killing things, yet I still feel some remorse for the animals death. But, I'm realistic and some of it's necessary, to either fill my freezer, to help with proper wildlife conservation, or to protect my investments and the animals that depend on me for protection. Once you do it once or twice, you can learn to separate yourself from it.

Right. My biggest issue here was I just seemed like I was torturing the things. The killing was less of an issue than that part of it, for me. I've hunted as well but for some reason it was easier to determine if you had the shot that would drop the animal (and if you didn't, or you weren't sure, you didn't take the shot). I'll probably never be one of those people that plugs chipmunks or whatever in the backyard just for fun. But if there's a reason to shoot something (food, protection of things I'm supposed to be protecting, etc) then I'm fine with it. I just don't like it if I can't kill it clean.