Minnesota!

[Cearbhael]

This is the front. The window will be replaced with a vent, although we installed a new ceiling.

Well that looks almost exactly like our 1890's coop but our door is more to the right and we have a window to the left of the door and the upper part is to the "attic". We need to put a vented cover over our's as well.

 

[Cearbhael]

One of my almost three week old chicks jumped/flew out of the brooder this morning. It took my poor 80 year mother almost two hours to catch him.
It's time to live outside.

What is hardware cloth?

Why did your poor 80 year old mother have to spend 2 hours catching him? Hmmm?

 

[Cearbhael]

Welcome "CottonLouie"  it  looks like cotton coming off the popple trees right now.  I'm sure you have some near you.

I think CottonLouie lives near Cotton, and being from "da Range" myself, cottonwoods don't grow that far north. They do have lots of pines, poplars, & birch. Now in Foley which is near St Cloud and in "hardwood Forest" areas, we have lots of Cottonwood.

 

[cottonlouie]

"think CottonLouie lives near Cotton,"

Yup.

 

[Cearbhael]

Duh, ok, I am officially "Thick"! Never thought to connect "cotton" with poplars. Maybe too focused on the name of the town and all the cotton from our local "Cottonwoods"

 

[Cyrus83]

I still have 3 drifter African geese living in my backyard. Do they taste good?

 

[Cearbhael]

Both our cats are being blantant tramps right now.  I think the young tom killed the kittens and is breeding the female again.  I most definitely need to get him in to the vet next week!  I would like to have another cat or two to go after mice out here, but that is it!  She just had the litter 3 weeks ago, so I doubt they are still alive if he is already after her.

Which is why "normally" mom kitties chase male cats away and hide the babies. Toms will "Always" kill the litters to ensure "their" genes are in the next batch. How they know a litter isn't theirs is beyond me, but our girl kittie sent her brother packing just in case.

 

[Minniechickmama]

Which is why "normally" mom kitties chase male cats away and hide the babies. Toms will "Always" kill the litters to ensure "their" genes are in the next batch. How they know a litter isn't theirs is beyond me, but our girl kittie sent her brother packing just in case.

That is the question, isn't it? I think he was the father of the litter, so why he would have killed them, I don't know. And she never chased him off at all. She had a terrible case of tapeworm just before having them and I had treated her just 3 days before they were born. Who knows? If I suddenly see kittens climbing around in the next week, I will know they are alive, and if I don't, we will likely find them when we clean out the granary

 

[Rhetts]

I still have 3 drifter African geese living in my backyard. Do they taste good?

I can't say how the geese taste yet. We will do ours up in a couple weeks. Any good cooking tips? How did you end up with africans running in your backyard?

 

[Minniechickmama]

Ralphie-Does that happen a lot when people want eggs and then never show? And 10 dozen eggs is such a large amount to ask for and then not get them. What a crapper.

Minnie-How is your weasel hunt going? Too bad on your kittens. I just realized about 2 weeks ago that is what happened to the cat here that had her first batch of kitties. Too bad. Those darn tom cats!!

I must be having bad luck this go around with this batch of chickens. All of them are scared of the dark, feather picking to the point of bleeding on the polish and now eye injuries. I had never had any one with an eye injury now I have had 3 in one month. Why are they picking so much on each other? It is super frustrating. And I have to kick them out of the coop all the time to go outside. Oh and a brahma has a leg injury. I wonder if it hurt itself jumping down from the roost and slipped on the floor. They sound like thunder when they hit the ground. I was thinking maybe the roosts are too high for them. I don't know. I am getting super frustrated though. I have looked that brahma over and over and cannot see or feel any injury but it won't use one leg. But I am not sure I would be able to feel anything unless it were majorly broken anyway. I told DH that it needs to be put down. I don't know how to help it and it is not healing up yet (its been about 5 days I think) or should I wait a little longer? *sigh* I don't know.

Well, we are in for a cold night tonight. I hope the seeds that I planted in the garden don't freeze. It is supposed to rain all day too. Is that a good or bad thing I am not sure.

Haven't caught the blasted thing yet. I am keeping things mowed down and hopefully it won't want to return to the open pasture. I am rebaiting anyway to see if I do catch something when I put out the next batch of youngsters.

Sorry to hear of you bad streak. If you having that much problem with pecking, there is something they don't have that they need. Take a look at your feed and see if they might need more protein. That would be the first thing I would think would cause it. If that doesn't work, then look at the vitamins in it. There has to be something they are lacking in.
And you Brahma, isolate her for a couple of weeks. If she pulled something, it takes a while to recover, and the bigger the bird, the longer it will take. Put it in a kennel or small pen where its movement is somewhat limited, and don't use a roost for it. If you have big birds like the Brahma, then I wouldn't set that roost any higher than a foot and a half to two feet. If they don't injure themselves with a higher roost, they may end up with foot problems eventually from it.

Good luck.