Minnesota!

[cottonlouie]

4 bovans out foraging while 5 Asian Blue (7 weeks old) roost next to an egger, 2 barred rocks, and ?. We just put up the fence because we were only getting 3 eggs a day on average and 8 should be laying. It's possible the stress of moving here is preventing them from laying, but more likely the fact we don't enclose them so they are off in the woods laying.... We just want to know for sure. The bovans stay out late....they are young. The old hens and babies go to bed early. The babies are only 7 wks but moved to the big girls' coop in stages and last night they spent the night. All went well, I know, because I sat in there observing until 9:00 when all were situated. They fussed, but I was real happy it was just a little fussing and not a war.

 

[scandiafowl]

Sorry, it's my iphone..

Jeffrey, our rooster, courtesy of Cyrus83, has settled in so well with his new harem.
He has taken a gentle and firm command and started crowing today! ( although at the end it sounded more like an inner tube losing air).

 

[scandiafowl]

Dumb question of the Day

Are squirrels any danger to chickens?

 

[duluthralphie]

Dumb question of the Day

Are squirrels any danger to chickens?

Only if the chicken is allergic to the fur..... You can tell because they sneeze, their noses run and they carry a small box of Kleenex with them... Otherwise no danger that I know of, the dang squirrels here eat out of the chickens feeders.

 

[nordicacres]

Dumb question of the Day

Are squirrels any danger to chickens?

You know, I thought about this. Then I realized that I have never seen a squirrel on our property. Seems odd, lol.

 

[Rhetts]

I realized when Minnie mentioned not having too many snakes around her place that the entire year I have lived here I have not seen a single snake. Interesting. Is that why my ground squirrel population is so high? My BIL lives 3 miles away and they have garter and something they call milk snakes all over their property. Makes me go 'hmmmmm'

 

[Bogtown Chick]

I wormed every body but the silkie tonight. She's my only bird not on summer break and not broody. Getting her miniature huevos. Safegaurd paste. Went well.

Also visited a greenhouse for a few more flowers to fill in some spots. I like this time of year as it's priced down. I found 3 different kind of basil there so I made a basil bowl for my deck. I can't wait for tomatoes to be ready now!

Also got some ornamental grasses. I just love those and the chickens like them for cover. They were about 20 dollars cheaper than Home Depot. Jeesh. Shopping local can be good sometimes...

@The BlanchRanch I've got some thoughts that your hens reproductive pathway may be infected. It happens in high production (hatchery stock). The vent loses tonality- if you will- poo can back up- and then the Fallopian tube gets infected, scars, then no eggs... Maybe the shell maker has issues as well. This is a total shot in the dark. But you could try the duramycin if you get out of the inner city that is.

. I think Ralphie said there's a runnings up in Ramsey....

 

[Minniechickmama]

Sorry Ralph. I forgot to mention. I do have a dish of oyster shell and I mix it with their food. I also get food that says it makes harder shells. I add vitamins to the water as well. The rest seem very healthy besides dumplings weepy eye and I think that is getting better now.

I read this and thought I should mention, you need to be careful as well with how much calcium you're giving them. Read your feed label and see what it recommends. If you are giving free choice, then you should probably back off from mixing oyster with the feed too. Too much can start causing some issue with eggs. Some feeds even say to not give additional oyster shell or calcium, so do look closely. Normally, their bodies will tell them they need things like more calcium or grit, so let them do what comes natural to them. But of course, like Bogtown said, the hatchery birds that are bred for higher laying rate tend to have more reproductive issues that say breeder stock, we may not get as many eggs, but we see far fewer breakdowns in hens ability to lay and they ours don't up and quit laying quite as soon.

The sulpha drug that Ralphie mentioned is called sulphamethoxine. It comes in a powder and needs to be mixed with water. I don't recall if the dosage for poultry is on the package or not, I don't use it for poultry, but have used it for rabbits with sneezing during hot weather. I am not a big proponent of using many antibiotics, and when I do, I want to know what the problem is for sure and that I am using the proper treatment. Just giving antibiotics can actually backfire by causing resistence and then when you do find the actual cause, you have negatively affected the ability to treat it. There are a number of reasons a hen would lay shell-less eggs, it could be illness, it could be diet, it could just be that the heat has her tossed for a loop. Providing a good diet, using probiotics and vitamins and electrolytes should only help, as well as using apple cider vinegar in the water (the natural stuff with mother). One more thing, if you change up too many things all at once, it will be harder to pin-point what the cause is. It is like a puzzle and you have to look at all the pieces and how they fit to get the whole picture.

Good luck with her, I know it is frustrating not knowing for sure what is going on when things like this happen.

 

[scandiafowl]

Only if the chicken is allergic to the fur.....  You can tell because they sneeze, their noses run and they carry a small box of Kleenex with them... Otherwise no danger that I know of, the dang squirrels here eat out of the chickens feeders.

Well, yeah, because anyone who thinks chicken droppings are contentious to manage has evidently never encountered chicken snot.

 

[duluthralphie]

Well, yeah, because anyone who thinks chicken droppings are contentious to manage has evidently never encountered chicken snot.

Yeah!!! I hate when they trip on the snot dripping from their noses too. When it gets tangled in their feet and you have to clean them..YUCK!



I have traps set which are a pain and take me an extra hour each night. They have to be set "AFTER" the chickens decide to head to bed, which is beyond my bedtime, almost.

Then the chicken /turkey killing critter lacks the common courtesy to show up. So annoying.

Minnie makes a good point about not trying too many things at once. If you do and it happens again, and it will, you have no idea how to treat it. I am very reluctant to use antibiotics, I want my eggs and meat drug free. (it is the reason I raise and buy from local producers so much of our food).

The other thing with antibiotics whichever kind you use is making sure you use the treatment long enough. Bacteria can mutate and will, using it just enough to get the animal well can be dangerous to the bird and all of us. Make sure you continue the treatment with antibiotics beyond a period of the bird just looking better. We do not need some superbug in chickens like we have made in humans through poor antibiotic use.


I am hoping to get a picture of Bert with his two look alike kids on fathers Day. I moved them yesterday, the kids, so I could start starving them a little. They look so much like CX's and I want to keep them from getting CX's diseases. I think I lucked out. It appears I have a hen and rooster toad.

I am not a proponent of mating brothers and sisters, hopefully they are only half brother/sister. I would prefer to line breed but that is not an option here. Bert will not live to see another breeding season. And breeding the Male to his mother(s) will get me the wrong genes for what I want. I hope I can keep the two of them alive to breed.

The babies are not going to be happy today, We have to go to my son's in Shakopee and they will have to stay in the tractor all day. I had a young eagle surveying the place yesterday , which means leaving them run free today is not an option. Eagle season cannot open soon enough for me....




We have a baby turkey that wants to die. We will find it laying upside down and it will look dead. When we touch it, it springs to life. Then we hold and cuddle it talk to it for a while and put it down and it is good for another 12-24 hours, then we find it playing dead again. When it is "alive" it eats and drinks and acts normal. We have found it "dead" enough times we have taken it out of the brooder in the basement and moved it and a friend (for company) to the living room where we can watch it closer. We pick it up and cuddle it and it seems to like that. It will fall asleep when you "pet its chest.

When I was letting it crawl on my shoulder yesterday, I was thinking this one is going to be hard to butcher. Any of you ever have a bird that seems to want to die unless you remind it to live?