Michigan

[swampducks]

Mine are going to be free ranging under supervision. No free-free ranging till the new fence is up. Got a fox out there that got 3 chickens and my only duckling last year. Never again!

They will probably be flighty together LOL. But, they are beautiful birds. I have blue splash Andalusions. They do better free ranging but mine are in a pen.
For the winter mine have been in with my crazy Lakenvelders. I call that pen the Crazy Pen. Go in and they start flying all over the place like you have a hatchet in your hand. Crazy birds.

 

[sj3364]

I bumped into my neighbor at the store yesterday and said, " I know this is a weird question, but would you like some chicken poop?" He laughed and said sure! I knew he would. He has a pretty big garden and he would throw sunflower heads over the fence for the chickies. So there goes the poop pile!

I really do need to get a friend for Cadbury. The three mean girls all hang out together and she is off by herself. I kinda think a bantam might be a good fit. She's an EE but is quite a bit smaller than the others and very mild mannered. Do you all think I can bring in just one chick that's a couple months old and pair her up with my little lonely girl? I worry about adding just one chick but with Cadbury on her own, I think there's a good chance they will pair right up. Is that just wishful thinking?

 

[RIRJen]

Quote:

We could set one up but I'm not sure that it would go over very well. I don't think many people are going to sit for hours staring at a bird's butt waiting for an egg to drop.

*whispers* I've been making plans/arrangements for a place for Waffles my Belgian office Hare who wears a dark blue sport coat and carries a pocket watch.


I AM NOT CRAZY! Don't look at me like that.

Seriously though. There's a story behind all this. We're *hoping* to build me a new office outside the house this year. I told DH that I was going to get a hare for my office because I like to have a pet around when I'm working. He asked what kind of hare and I said "A Belgian Hare, of course! My favorite kind. I even have a source all lined up." and he immediately responded "So you'll name it Waffles?" Belgian Waffles.... LOL! That man...

So then the next morning he texts me about 10 am and asked how my day was, I texted back that it'd be better if I were in my new office with Waffles my Belgian Office Hare who wears a dark blue sport coat and carries a pocket watch. (a la Alice in Wonderland, because I LOVE it) and he texts back, "Then he could tell you the time." So I said, "Exactly!" to which he then responds, "It'd just be a Hare slow." Again...

Anywhooo... so I'm totally working on it. *Squeeee!*

HAHAHAHAHAHA! You just let me know I had two litters born...a litter of 7 and a litter of 5 So darn cute and naked lol
BTW....I love the name...might have to steal that lol

Oh come on Jen. You could feed it and the baby at the same time LOL I'll bring it to you.

I'm a little worried...because you know where I live...am I going to come home to a small flock of bottle babies and a note saying "Have fun see you in a few weeks!"

Reminds me of the time my Grandma said our family had to bring the turkey over for Thanksgiving...BIG mistake! (she has a fenced in backyard) So we made a big banner that read "We brought the turkey, you cook the dinner!" and left a 40lb Royal Palm tom in her backyard HAHAHAHAHA! He was delicious

Jen's hares are gorgeous

Thank you! I love my hares!

 

[RIRJen]

A bit bummed...for some reason my eggs are no good.

They were due to hatch today and there's nothing alive...looks like they stopped developing 3/4 of the way through incubation. I'm wondering if it was because there was one day when I accidently forgot to check the humidity and it dropped quite a bit because the resouvoir (sp?) was out of water

So no chickies for me this time...bummer.
On a good note the hen who is sitting is still sitting and gives me dirty looks if I even look like I'm going to look at her lol I candled her eggs as quickly as I could and pulled out about half that weren't any good. I've got pullets laying tiny little eggs so I don't expect those to be fertile, or if they are for them to hatch.

 

[Juise]

What a miserable evening! And the day started off so nicely. I did finish digging out the coop so that it is ready to fill with sand, which about killed me. Is it too early to complain about the heat?

It sure was hot diggin in that coop, I very early decided to ditch the mask in favor of the histoplasmosis!

I thought about starting to move sand in, but I was so whipped I couldn't stand the thought, and decided instead that if I wanted to paint inside the coop, it would be easiest now, what with the bottoms of the walls being uncovered from me digging down. That started off well, I found earlier this week a really nice quart of a muted rust red exterior paint at habitat for humanity, and I got started on the first wall. The kids played very happily all day in their mud pie kitchen, but at the first sign of weakness, they were on me.

My hands were so sore and numb from spending several days shoveling that I had barely finished trimming the top of the first wall when I dropped the entire quart of paint!

I was not happy, and the kids heard my unhappiness and came running, of course.

I tried to get them to leave the coop and stay away from the puddle of spilled paint, and my 4 year old noticed the little pile of eggs I had taken out of the coop to finish digging, but had not brought inside. I asked her to leave them be for now, so of course she immediately picked one up and promptly dropped it.

I picked it up to take care of before the chickens realized what delicious treats they were missing out on by letting me take their eggs, and when I arrived back from the compost tumbler, it was to see that my 1 1/2 year old had taken up the spare paint brush I had out and the lid of the paint and was happily painting the roost, poop and all.

She was covered, including the brand spankin new shirt she was wearing for the first time, and was just going for the taste test when I flipped out and dragged her inside to get as much paint out as I could.

By then I was terrifically stressed out, so I washed them up, and plunked them down for a movie, (a rarity in this house,) and I stepped out for 10 minutes of filtered air and Sherlock Holmes. Some days it is really hard to quit! After collecting myself, I did go back out and finished painting at least the wall I started, using the paint straight off the ground.

Bah! Then I covered over the rest of the spilled paint with dirt, cleaned up, and called it quits for the day.

By the way, if anyone at all has made it this far down this post, I have left the coop door wide open. Their run is locked, and the entire run is covered in hardware cloth, with a hardware cloth apron all the way around both coop and run. Is there any reason I should not leave the coop door open all night? I wanted to let as many paint fumes clear out as I could.

Also, is it too early to take the covers down and open up the large Summer vents in the coop?

 

[taprock]

Guess what came in the mail today!

Keep us updated! I am so envious!

A bit bummed...for some reason my eggs are no good.

They were due to hatch today and there's nothing alive...looks like they stopped developing 3/4 of the way through incubation.

A dumb question but how can you tell from candling, is it just movement or air space?

Well DH did my bumblefoot surgery for me. He cut out 5 kernels that ranged from huge to small. The hen - Bertie - is in a cage in the front room. My son fixed her scrambled egg. The only thing I noticed is she keeps setting her foot down and then picking it back up. I think because there is so much gauze wrapped around it. The only antibiotic medicine I have is oxytetracycline hydrochloride 343. Would this do anything for her?

 

[RBahmer]

Quote:

I'm a little worried...because you know where I live...am I going to come home to a small flock of bottle babies and a note saying "Have fun see you in a few weeks!"

Reminds me of the time my Grandma said our family had to bring the turkey over for Thanksgiving...BIG mistake! (she has a fenced in backyard) So we made a big banner that read "We brought the turkey, you cook the dinner!" and left a 40lb Royal Palm tom in her backyard HAHAHAHAHA! He was delicious

Funny story Jen. But I must say, hmmm that is an idea LOL. I could just slip them in the garage as long as COW wasn't in there. They would just be a small snack for him

 

[Bianca67]

I would take 3.

Is that what they were? I was afraid to ask...

$5 a piece for the chicken ornements that CR makes. I want some, but he says it might be cheaper on the shipping if there was more than just me who wants them. I just want 5 of them, and am willing to get more for who ever wants and bring them to chicken stock.

 

[b737drvr]

Juise...I could just see my kids doing the exact same thing. As soon as you get one mess cleaned up, another one is waiting for you, and in the end, the project you started out on, just turns into a mess as well! I think I told you before, I have 5 yr old twins and an 18 mo. old. They are always right in the way trying to see what daddy is doing. I was working on the tractor in the barn this morning...we have huge mud puddles by the entry to the barn that we had told the twins to stay away from, so of course they were getting into some other mischief and Ian (the baby) fell into the mud puddle. Mommy loves it when I bring the kids in wet and covered in mud!


I did get the radiator fan replaced on the tractor and it is back in one piece, hopefully I will be able to start working on some other projects now that I had been holding out for until the tractor was put back together. Got the apple trees sprayed as well, so hopefully we won't have severe bug problems this year like we did last year. Hoping to go visit Yorkchick tomorrow and Raz on Friday and get some good ideas for my coop. Celebrated the nice warm weather with steaks on the grill and dinner in the screened in porch. A wonderful day! G'nite!

 

[fuzzybutt love]

taprock Well DH did my bumblefoot surgery for me. He cut out 5 kernels that ranged from huge to small.
Holy Crap! that's quite a bit! Glad it went well. I have to do it on 2 of mine really soon Chickens are my job, unless there's dinner involved, so.....
(If you put the triple antibiotic ointment in the wound, i think that was supposed to be sufficient)