Minnesota!

[AmericanKraut]

Thank you.

Thinking of you, Triplell. Prayers coming and I'll message you with a lawyer that's sliding fee, just if you're interested.

 

[Rhetts]

Welcome DigMyChicks!!

Glad to have you! Tell us about your flock!

 

[rainin22]

Hi rainin22! I'm on my phone right now, so it's the mobile version of the forum but I *think* if you are on the full site there's images/photos on the right side of the thread to click through and there's some good coop shots in there! I've seen some beautiful ones posted

Oh!~! I totally missed that! Thanks =) Time to add some hours to my browsing haha.

 

[AmericanKraut]

Oh!~! I totally missed that! Thanks  =) Time to add some hours to my browsing haha.

Coop browsing is an addictive hobby! If they weren't so expensive and time consuming, I'm afraid I'd want to collect them, too!

 

[duluthralphie]

Hi! I'm from Appleton Minnesota

Welcome. And do you happen to have a well trained wrangling donkey?

AmericanKruat Welcome back

Rhett any news on the fur bearing critter front?

Holm and new on the badger front?

Rainin I would show you pictures of me coops, but they look like crap and I am a slob so they are messy..


I have been getting less and less eggs the last few days, I have had people wanting my blue, green or olive eggs, I normally get about half brown and the rest colored. I did not realize so many people want to hatch eggs, I advertise eggs on craigslist about once every 2 months. This last time I have been getting a ton of people wanting to know if my eggs are fertile.

They ask what color eggs I have, I tell them. They then ask what type of chickens I have, I tell them mutts, EE, and brown layers. I cannot keep up on eggs an then the chickens stop producing as much. There was a woman here yesterday getting eggs for her mother. She wanted 5 dozen, because she just got an incubator. As I was taking to her, the "turken" came walking out of the lean-to. She was walking with pride like she really accomplished something.

She was walking like a guy I worked with when I first got out of high school and worked on a gravel crusher. This one guy would go into the outhouse, for his daily constitution, and when he left he popped his chest out and strutted out like he had just completed a major accomplishment. The "Turken" did this, She was strutting away with pride. (Turken is not a breed, it is a chicken that was raised by Ethel)

I knew she was lying because I have been checking the lean-to every coupe days for eggs. It is their favorite non-chicken wrangler approved pace to lay eggs. I looked and new she was faking it. Then I saw something behind a roll of safety fence.
.


I moved the roll.




I saw the eggs. Then I saw the rest of the eggs...



IT became obvious why I was low on eggs....

I got 23 eggs from the nest and there was 1 broken one. How can they take 24 eggs from me in just a coupe days? I know I looked behind this on Monday!

 

[AmericanKraut]

DuluthRalphie! You always give me a smile!! Maybe Turken's nickname can be Gravel Crusher.

 

[Rhetts]

Ralphie-Do you let your girls out to roam right away? If you do, what if you waited until more of the eggs were laid so you would have less eggs being laid about the yard? I let my girls out early afternoon after a majority of the eggs have been laid. I am sure that some of the hens are laying somewhere in the yard but at least I have most of the eggs and some of the girls do come back in the coop to lay in the boxes. Just a thought.
Thanks for asking about the night time predator. My attempt to locate someone with a live trap has left me empty handed. I am probably going to buy one at L&M and set something up here in a day or two. I have not lost any birds since the drake the other night. I checked the snow yesterday for any prints around all the animals coops/houses and I did not see any. Keep my fingers crossed it found something easier to eat somewhere else. Oh, the kids and I saw an owl on a fence post on the back of the property. We were able to get VERY close and inspect him. After looking up owls in DD bird book we have a Great Gray Owl in my novice opinion.
Back to the hatchling offer to my BIL was the one to suggest incubating the eggs. I don't want to insult him by low balling him and he is the type to not say anything to anyone about not getting his fair share. I want to see what you thought was fair so that I am not being a meanie pants and offering too low a number.

Minnie did you figure out what was going on with the hatcher?

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Welcome back @AmericanKraut ! I hope you heal fast! Couching it with a brooder box sounds like my kind of therapy!

Welcome @DigMyChicks .

@Triplell You know your in my thoughts and prayers.

@Minniechickmama & @duluthralphie sorry about those lost hatches.

Uff-da....... I should be checking on Shannon's (my friends) incubator to see how it's coming with our little project. This is the week to see if we have duds or creamette-itos.

I'm thinking about the lack of eggs happening with my CLBs right now and the nutritional things that triplell and duluthralphie mentioned. But I'm chalking it up to settling into a new environment right now. Plus...everyone else is on a spring taper here.. So it could be they are on a mini break right now and when I have nobody laying in July & August maybe they'll help me fill egg cartons. If not...maybe I'll look at Gamebird feed. They do remind me of little grouse or pheasant hens in the woods there...

I had a huge double yolker for breakfast this morning. The buckeye laid it yesterday. The yolks were bright orange and large. (Poor girl --getting that one out) But she's a happy 8 lb hen...so maybe not too bad for her. For poops and giggles we weighed the Rooster, a New Hampshire and he is 9 lbs. LOL. Daisy is a big girl.

@rainin22 if you click on our profiles you'll see under our descriptions or what have you often "MY COOP" links. those are always fun to get a visual on set ups. I love the coop pages myself. Minnesota (Midwest-for my beloved Dakota folks and Badger-fans) coops tend to be some of the best out there IMHO. Ralphie is just humble about his fun & practical barnyard...you know his poultry has all the amenities and lots of love.

So you found the hidden clutch of eggs, Ralphie. OMGosh I can just picture Turken strutting her stuff out of the shed.

Are any of those eggs Ethel's? Or is she sneakier than Turken and friends? Chicken "Young and the Roostless" takes another turn in the plot....dunh, dunh, Dunh!!!

 

[rainin22]

Thanks!! Wow those eggs look so delicious. I cannot wait till my little ones start giving me some golden yellow egg yolks!

 

[duluthralphie]

I have no idea how many is fair to offer BIL, hence my smart aleck answer...

I have only lost a stubborn Guinea that refused to go into the coop at night to an owl... Unfortunately, after chasing it for over an hour, I gave up and told him, "go ahead and get yourself eaten, see what I care"...

and he did that night...


I have found live traps convenient, that way when I throw the trap in the pond the anima drowns fast!!

( that was a joke for you serious sorts)