Minnesota!

[Cluckies]

@Cluckies , I love the block work on your run. I"ve never seen that....it is in lieu of digging a couple feet down with fencing to keep something from digging in? Really looks good.

@NikonD2xer , I know, right? IT is as if the skunks are coming out of the woodwork. Not sure why you were hesitant to shoot in your doorway.....a friend distressed her partner when she heard a noise in the cupboard under the kitchen sink. Opened the door, saw a muskrat, shut the door, got a gun, opened and fired. Killed the thing, but her partner was pretty upset about the holes....and the fact that the gasline was right there,....

So now we joke when we see Joan - we say, remember, no shooting in the house! Joan says it was the logical thing to do, if she had opened the cupboard door to chase it out of the house it would have been everywhere, and she couldn't just leave it in there. To this day she says she would do it again!

anyway, no sign of the fox that took grace. I've kept the flock locked up in the run ( its plenty big). A good section of it is overrun with goldenrod and some other weed - so thick the hens can't get through it. So I was weed pulling to provide more space and that's a chore with chickens at your feet and on your boots, trying to get the worms etc that you are up rooting. Makes you afraid to shift your feet or take a step!

@lalaland Yep, to keep something from digging under. Thanks!

I agree, trying to dig the trench for the run or do anything with them around is ridiculous! I'm always afraid i'm going to cut off a head or foot, or drop a block on one, slow going!

 

[Cluckies]

Anyone know whats up with this?

Couple years ago, I had a welsummer who had patches of feathers missing on her chest, sides, etc. Not molting. Bare patches of skin. If you looked real close, you could see a few feather shafts(the quill part) bare of the feathering stuff - at the edges of the bare patches. center was just skin, all feathers gone. I decided that this must be feather mites. Couldn't see anything, but...something was chewing on the feathers. I thought it was weird that it was patchy, and that she was the only one in the flock affected. Nevertheless, I did a sulphur dip bath for the flock, followed by another one a few weeks later. It seemed as if it stopped the problem. Fall came, she molted, came back fine.

Two years later, this summer....problem reappears. Same hen, or at least another welsummer.

Again, no other chickens showing this.

Also this spring, Seaquist started sporting two slashes at either side of her neck. feathers cut off at base.



I've heard mice will nibble? I considered whether this was beard/muff nibbling (my ee's apparently have been shaving from the looks of it), but Seaquist roosts in a different room.

Might be feather picking, do you see the other girls stripping her feathers? I have some running around with back feathers missing, one almost bald, some with just stripped feathers, terrible habit... I'm hoping the bigger run will help with this though. or pulling them out?

 

[scandiafowl]

I know you all will be insanely jealous, but I get to accompany my daughter to the One Direction concert tonight.

Still working on how to smuggle a flask in..

 

[The BlanchRanch]

I know you all will be insanely jealous, but I get to accompany my daughter to the One Direction concert tonight.

Still working on how to smuggle a flask in..

I just looked the band up. I really don't think a flask will be enough to do the trick.

 

[scandiafowl]

I just looked the band up. I really don't think a flask will be enough to do the trick.

My consolation is that I won't be the only parent suffering...

 

[holm25]

Only 70 posts over 3 days!!! Had our youth group canping trip and there was no signal!!!! Hope u all had a good weekend


Wednesday is fair day for me and I have gotten scared and nervous about being ready. Hoping my first time is a good one!!

 

[The BlanchRanch]

Only 70 posts over 3 days!!! Had our youth group canping trip and there was no signal!!!! Hope u all had a good weekend


Wednesday is fair day for me and I have gotten scared and nervous about being ready. Hoping my first time is a good one!!

See you at the State Fair!!

 

[lalaland]

Might be feather picking, do you see the other girls stripping her feathers? I have some running around with back feathers missing, one almost bald, some with just stripped feathers, terrible habit... I'm hoping the bigger run will help with this though. or pulling them out?

thats the weird thing. Seaquist, while very small, is not the least bit docile. When she wants on the nest, she jumps on top of whomever is sitting in it, on their shoulders, and leans over and pecks at their wattles while screeching at them. Here she is this morning, making sophia vacate the prized oil pan nest. see how small she is compared to the sulmtaler hen?



The chickens that roost with her in the half of the coop that she has claimed as her own, can't go in to roost til it is close to dark. She chases them all off the roosts and makes them leave. It isn't till it is dark enough that she is roosting that they will dare come in and try to roost.

So I have a hard time thinking she is allowing anyone to eat her feathers. But.....could be!

 

[Cluckies]

thats the weird thing. Seaquist, while very small, is not the least bit docile. When she wants on the nest, she jumps on top of whomever is sitting in it, on their shoulders, and leans over and pecks at their wattles while screeching at them. Here she is this morning, making sophia vacate the prized oil pan nest. see how small she is compared to the sulmtaler hen?



The chickens that roost with her in the half of the coop that she has claimed as her own, can't go in to roost til it is close to dark. She chases them all off the roosts and makes them leave. It isn't till it is dark enough that she is roosting that they will dare come in and try to roost.

So I have a hard time thinking she is allowing anyone to eat her feathers. But.....could be!

It may not be picking, mine actually only pick around the back area, right above the tail, but i've seen rooster get picked like that. I wonder if she goes through a mini molt? Mine is right now, she only lost feather there on each side of her neck and her bottom just below her vent. Maybe it could be that? do you see feathers around the run? When mine are picking, no feathers, they eat them. Molt? yes, feathers all over the place.

 

[The BlanchRanch]

Well this is really odd! It has been 5 hours since I was here last on a Sunday afternoon. So I figured I would have a page of reading. But no!!

I cleaned my coop yesterday and I have only gotten about three eggs since. Searched my yard and found no more. I guess my production has dropped a lot as well now.

Well you folks did get me curious about brines so I have started experimenting. So I put some tilapia in a brine for about 5 hours then I topped it with olive oil some nice spicy mexican seasonings (cumin chili powder and such) and poured some nice pale ale beer (then promptly took care of the rest) in the dish and broiled it.




It turned out really good with much less fish taste than frozen tilapia seems to have, but I think I should have washed off the brine because it was on the salty side. Next time.

Now I just started a chicken in a brine with extra brown sugar according to Ralphie's instructions. I may not have used as much brown sugar as his story seemed to imply. But it was definitely more than the 1/4 cup that I saw most folks use. I will smoke it lightly when I grill it tomorrow. I will add onion and garlic powders as well as salt and pepper with a little cayenne.
Speaking of which. Isn't Ralphie due back? Kind of quite without him.