Minnesota!

[FoxyChicken]

Ralphie it sounds to me like that turkey has got you trained to cuddle it whenever it wants!

 

[FoxyChicken]

@Scott16475 BAs are awesome broodies! My two are the only ones in my flock who ever go broody, and I finally let the most determined one hatch some eggs this spring. She was a perfect mom!

 

[duluthralphie]

I have a broody right now, she is a BA. She is a very determined broody. I look in on her everyday and she gives me the evil eye until I leave her. I have not seen her get off the nest. I have no idea how she eats and poops.

If every chicken I had was like her I would have 200 chicks running around here. She really wants to be a Mommy.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Good advice on antibiotic use everybody. And also to anybody who decides not to use them I have total respect as these chickens with their little issues were my parents' and grandparents' selection for Sunday dinners.

Ralphie those chickens in the traps after a hard couple hours of labor had me laughing last night... Omgosh! Lol. I can just picture it. And nothing to show for today. And you and your mother discussing what may or may not have been kicked in the ditch. Rofl

Ok my kitchen garden is essentially weed free and right be fore roost time Sylvia excavated herself a dusting bowl. I will not be able to leave 6 inches of weeds around each plant as this would allow for only 10 plants. : D. And drive me nuts. While Sylvia was in dirt heaven Dixie went around eating the tiny weeds I missed. She's a keeper despite her impractical fuzzy size and living most of her life in the broody twilight zone.

Ralphie I wish I could make out some turkey behavior there for you but I haven't a clue... These chickens are enough for me.

 

[Cluckies]

Really curious about Icelandic chickens. I'll be really interested in seeing what you think! I heard of them for the first time this past winter in Mother Earth News and I've been very curious about them ever since.

One of our Black Austrolorps went broody yesterday. I went out to the coop around noon yesterday to gather the eggs and Rebecca was in one of the nesting boxes so I let her be. Around 5:30 that evening I went back out and she was still in there. It wasn't until the family and I was out to dinner that I realized it was the same hen. When we got home around 7 she was still in there. My first thought was something had to be wrong with her but when I reached in to pick her up, she fluffed herself up to be as large as she could and started making a lot of noise and it was then I realized she was sitting on the eggs to hatch. No rooster so there's no chance of that happening. She was laying on more eggs today. I ignored her aggressiveness and picked her up, gathered the eggs, and moved her along.

This is my introduction to a broody hen and they can be aggressive. I also didn't think BA's got broody but clearly they must. How long does this last typically?

If you catch them early, you can break them of it hopefully. when Mine went broody for a day, I grabbed her out of the nesting box, closed them all off (it was late afternoon) wouldn't let her back in. free ranged her that evening with the others (locked her out of the coop). then put her on the roost that night. (left the cover over the nest boxes). next morning I let them out into the run, opened the nesting boxes back up and she was back to her old self, dirt bathing and what not. But I caught her in the first few hours.


My chicken hospital, just a large wire dog crate. I have a small pet carrier in there for a nesting box, also they like to sleep in there. I'll try and get a better photo in awhile.

 

[nordicacres]

Happy Father's Day!

 

[Rhetts]

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?

Last spring we ordered the barnyard combo from Mcmurray. They shipped 7 turkeys, 7 ducks, and 2 geese in one box. They put one gosling on the duck side and one on the turkey side. Why would you ship a gosling in with day old turkey poults is beyond me. And they flew from California to Minnesota. Amazing I didn't loose the whole bunch. Well, I opened the box and saw a poult stuffed in the box seam legs all stretched out. I left if for last because it was dead. When I finally got to it as I was taking it out I was saying how stiff with rigormortis it was. Wouldn't you know it started to barely move. IT"S ALIVE!!! I fed that turkey with a small syringe for quite some time. Unbelievably, it perked up and was able to stand. The next several weeks we spent saving it constantly from the water dish, from it laying on its back too weak to turn over, and from the other poults. It was a runt. As the other turkeys grew this one did not. It was by far at least one third as small as all the others. He was named Runty. Last fall, he started to grow. He managed to get to be close in size to the other turkey of the same breed. Surprisingly, Runty is still alive. They all made it through the winter braving (stupidly refusing to seek shelter) the severe wind chills. DH promised him on day one if he pulled through he would be spared from the butcher block.

 

[aussiegal318]

'Nother stupid question or two; my broody hen is in a wood wine box that has about 8" sides (she likes it) will the chicks be able to get out once hatched? Should I cut down a side once they have hatched? Right now I have her separated from the rest of the flock but doesn't have access to the outside. I could take the wire down that separates her or cut another pop door into her area, with not too much work I could fence a separate run for her & chicks(

). The issue becomes timing, We leave for the hospital at 4:30am tomorrow & won't be back until Tues earliest, last time he was in for a week so I'm not going to hold my breath for a Tuesday jail break. Best options?

 

[duluthralphie]

'Nother stupid question or two; my broody hen is in a wood wine box that has about 8" sides (she likes it) will the chicks be able to get out once hatched?

I doubt it. 8 inches is a high jump for the first few days.









Should I cut down a side once they have hatched?

I would, when do they hatch?



Right now I have her separated from the rest of the flock but doesn't have access to the outside. I could take the wire down that separates her or cut another pop door into her area, with not too much work I could fence a separate run for her & chicks(

). The issue becomes timing, We leave for the hospital at 4:30am tomorrow & won't be back until Tues earliest, last time he was in for a week so I'm not going to hold my breath for a Tuesday jail break. Best options?

Why not just let her in with the rest of the chickens when she hatches them? She will protect them. If you have a questionable rooster lock him up. BUT I doubt any rooster is dumb enough to mess with mother hen.

Good luck on the hospital visit. Do you have some that can check on your birds?

 

[duluthralphie]

I am disappointed in all of you!


I was just going through my important stuff here on BYC and I noticed it has been over 6 months since I received my last "violation notice" from BYC for my crude and barnyard language.

Why did none of you have a party for me? This was a major milestone in my life. I cannot remember any place else I have went for 6 months without uttering a nasty word.

Money in lieu of gifts would be acceptable at the party..... In case you remember to throw me one.