Michigan

[FlyingFChick]

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Congratulations!!

Glad things went well!! Annie is such a great play! Enjoy sleeping in too

Cassie asked me to ask you how the girls are adjusting to their new home. I finally bought the pinless peepers for the feather pickers that we have! The hubby and I put them on yesterday. We will see how that goes!!

 

[RIRJen]

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Ohhhhhh....I so miss performing! Sounds like it was lots of fun! Congrats on having a sold out crowd!

 

[wyliefarms]

So I didn't get to sleep in as long as I wanted too! Woke up to the dog barking. I looked outside to several hot air ballons flying over. One landed in our back yard! Helped with taking it down and now time to get rolling! We have 2 hours til we have to be at the theatre

 

[keyt1969]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I can't say it is or isn't another chicken picking on her, but that wouldn't explain why she ends up laying down like she's playing dead would it?


In reply to working in retail. I've done it most of my life. I've worked everywhere from Meijer to Walmart and other smaller places. The worst was Walmart. One of my disabilities is something called RSD, Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, aka bad nerves in my legs. Before I was diagnosed, they were talking about amputating my right leg to just above the knee. I was weeks away when I was diagnosed with RSD. Anyway, I had to either use a wheelchair or a removable cast which was heavy and painful. I took the job at Walmart because they advertise as being good to the disabled. HA! To make a very long story short, the store director was verbally abusive (corporate knew it too but he never got fired) to those who weren't fast enough. I asked to use my wheelchair and he said no because it was electric (I have arthritis in my hands so I can't use a regular one), but I've been to other Walmarts where people had bigger chairs than mine that were electric! Ugh, it was awful. Anyway, I guess "someone" intervened and made my car break down so I couldn't get to work and I had to quit.

Well, off to play with the ducks in the leaves while it's still nice out!

 

[Olive Hill]

Celia -- If they haven't already those Brahma girls may start laying for you soon. We collected a small, light brown pullet egg along with the normal eggs from the coop today. The Brahma ladies are the only ones we have about that age so it must be from them.

 

[FlyingFChick]

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Jared, are you talking about Miller Processing? I just read that they are closing on Dec 3rd. I would also like to know where else to have them processed. We were going to start with meat birds next year! Dang it!!!

 

[Olive Hill]

Jared, I haven't heard anything but if they do and you need to switch you could try Bellinger's. They're not too far. If you're only growing them out for yourself you might also ask around in your area, there could be a non-USDA processor that's "under the radar" so to speak that would do a good job for you.

 

[Huston's Happy Hens]

We've got some pullets that are 10 wks old - what is the consensus of what temps they can tolerate at night? We've got them in an A-Frame w/a heat lamp now - it's 63 in there and some of them have their beaks open indicating they are too hot - I'm tempted to turn the lamp off....thoughts?

 

[Huston's Happy Hens]

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LOL Ya, that's what I was thinking! They can pay me to look at status updates...oh wait, I don't want to make minimum wage.

I shop there for groceries but I don't really care for the way they treat thier employees. Josh's dept. manager backed him up and got into with the Store manager about freedom of speach (he's a veteran) and was pretty steamed about them attacking Josh about something he said in his personal life. Oh well!

Olive, I'm sorry!

Nope, no eggs yet. I'm cutting out all goodies for now and going straight laying feed. No scratch, no pumpkins, no stale bread. (not that they got a whole lot of it) I might hook up a light source this weekend and see if that maybe helps get them going. I hate putting a light in the coop because you don't want to draw attention to your animals now adays with the way the economy is it's like putting a blue light special light ontop of your coop for potential thiefs. These girls do need to start laying so I can get some hatching eggs this spring!

RIR, I spoke w/the folks at Purina in late summer because of low production and they recommend 16 hours of light. We are following that suggestion and production is up - Good luck!

 

[Olive Hill]

Huston's Happy Hens :

We've got some pullets that are 10 wks old - what is the consensus of what temps they can tolerate at night? We've got them in an A-Frame w/a heat lamp now - it's 63 in there and some of them have their beaks open indicating they are too hot - I'm tempted to turn the lamp off....thoughts?

At 10 wks they should be pretty well feathered. Once feathered they can warm themselves. Turn it off and watch, if they act fine, great. If not, it's likely the shock of a big change rather than them actually being too cold/unable to warm themselves. Raise the lamp up until it's down to the low 50s in there tonight, tomorrow during the day turn it off. Wean them down to the 40s tomorrow night, turn it off the following day, so on, until you get them to the normal nightly temps with no lamp.​