- Thread starter
- #41
MollySunshine
Chirping
Here is a picture of one of my little peeps. As you can see she is a gorgeous Partridge Silkie.
I will take more pics. of the littles and post. I take lots of photos but they hardly ever come out the way I want. The littles are 15 weeks now.
I began cleaning out the deep litter in my main hen coop last night. The leaves are beginning to fall so it's a perfect time. I pulled back the mulch etc. in one of my gardens and placed the litter underneath and pulled back over the covering. I am making some really good dirt n my coop again this season! I tried to post a video of the composted material last season but it just wouldn't. I will try again this week and if it won't I will at least post a picture. I found that leaves work the best because they break down readily. I packed several large bags full of leaves last fall to last me but it didn't. I found myself riding around town looking for bags of leaves that people left for the trash to haul out. I knocked on the doors and let them know I wasn't a crazy person, just a person in need of leaves for my coops
This year I will have family pack their leaves for me also.
Miss Precious' gashes on her head and neck are healing really well. I need to work on the integration with Lucy this weekend. I've said it before, this working for a living is really interfering with my extra correcular activities! There's always something to do on my little microfarm.
I've been reading a lot of posts lately regarding roosters and how we as owners shouldn't get too close to them. Sorry guys, I can't buy this. I have 14 roosters and not a bad one in the bunch. Is it pure luck....who knows. My boys look forward to seeing me. Especially, as I've mentined before, my Sir Romeo Luigi. This boy is really something else. He won't settle in his coop at night until I put him to roost. He will wait patiently in his run for me as I close up the other coops. He gets so excited when he sees me approaching his run. I lift him and hold him for a bit, tell him how handsome he is. Then he's ready to join the other boys in the coop to roost for the night. My neighbor who uses his roosters as poultry was over my place one day and he was amazed at the beautiful sounds my roosters make. They don't just crow folks. They purr etc. I finally discovered which sound is for danger. It was dusk one night and close to their time to roost when flying above were some bats. The roos tilted their heads looking upwards and made this loud pitch sound. So now I know what that sound means.
The one thing I have noticed that people have advised will occurr, is I do see the boys finally calming down with the hormones. I heard get them through the first year and they improve. Well, that didn't happen. Then I read after 2 years. They are approximately 1.5 years and I think they are finally stabilizing. I recently noticed the witching hour does not seem to be happening any longer. This is the time of day usually close to roosting time that the shot of testosterone and adreline kicks in. They could be foraging all day with each other then BAM! the witching hour hits and they begin to chase a chosen rooster. They haven't been doing this lately. Yaaay, is all I have to say.
Hopefully, this is the way their behavior continues. Drives me nuts!
Ok, one last story about my roo's then it's back to work for me. This weekend my neighbor 2 doors down, his pig got loose.....again. It's huge, 700 or so pounds. The girls were free ranging and it was getting close to the time to return to their coops when he decided to do this. The girls run into the woods. I see them getting themselves deeper and deeper in the woods. Now I'm worried! I go off chasing them to no avail. The more I chase, the deeper they go. So I head back to the house and hope for the best. I hear them making that where's my flock screech. I was never so happy to hear the boys screech that gosh awful screech they do! Bringing the girls back home. I do a head check before I close things up and all are safe and secure. I thanked the boys. Needless to say, the next day the pig got loose again. This time he got into my neighbors horse stalls. Scared the horses.....the pig is no more.....
I will take more pics. of the littles and post. I take lots of photos but they hardly ever come out the way I want. The littles are 15 weeks now.
I began cleaning out the deep litter in my main hen coop last night. The leaves are beginning to fall so it's a perfect time. I pulled back the mulch etc. in one of my gardens and placed the litter underneath and pulled back over the covering. I am making some really good dirt n my coop again this season! I tried to post a video of the composted material last season but it just wouldn't. I will try again this week and if it won't I will at least post a picture. I found that leaves work the best because they break down readily. I packed several large bags full of leaves last fall to last me but it didn't. I found myself riding around town looking for bags of leaves that people left for the trash to haul out. I knocked on the doors and let them know I wasn't a crazy person, just a person in need of leaves for my coops
This year I will have family pack their leaves for me also. Miss Precious' gashes on her head and neck are healing really well. I need to work on the integration with Lucy this weekend. I've said it before, this working for a living is really interfering with my extra correcular activities! There's always something to do on my little microfarm.
I've been reading a lot of posts lately regarding roosters and how we as owners shouldn't get too close to them. Sorry guys, I can't buy this. I have 14 roosters and not a bad one in the bunch. Is it pure luck....who knows. My boys look forward to seeing me. Especially, as I've mentined before, my Sir Romeo Luigi. This boy is really something else. He won't settle in his coop at night until I put him to roost. He will wait patiently in his run for me as I close up the other coops. He gets so excited when he sees me approaching his run. I lift him and hold him for a bit, tell him how handsome he is. Then he's ready to join the other boys in the coop to roost for the night. My neighbor who uses his roosters as poultry was over my place one day and he was amazed at the beautiful sounds my roosters make. They don't just crow folks. They purr etc. I finally discovered which sound is for danger. It was dusk one night and close to their time to roost when flying above were some bats. The roos tilted their heads looking upwards and made this loud pitch sound. So now I know what that sound means.
The one thing I have noticed that people have advised will occurr, is I do see the boys finally calming down with the hormones. I heard get them through the first year and they improve. Well, that didn't happen. Then I read after 2 years. They are approximately 1.5 years and I think they are finally stabilizing. I recently noticed the witching hour does not seem to be happening any longer. This is the time of day usually close to roosting time that the shot of testosterone and adreline kicks in. They could be foraging all day with each other then BAM! the witching hour hits and they begin to chase a chosen rooster. They haven't been doing this lately. Yaaay, is all I have to say.
Hopefully, this is the way their behavior continues. Drives me nuts! Ok, one last story about my roo's then it's back to work for me. This weekend my neighbor 2 doors down, his pig got loose.....again. It's huge, 700 or so pounds. The girls were free ranging and it was getting close to the time to return to their coops when he decided to do this. The girls run into the woods. I see them getting themselves deeper and deeper in the woods. Now I'm worried! I go off chasing them to no avail. The more I chase, the deeper they go. So I head back to the house and hope for the best. I hear them making that where's my flock screech. I was never so happy to hear the boys screech that gosh awful screech they do! Bringing the girls back home. I do a head check before I close things up and all are safe and secure. I thanked the boys. Needless to say, the next day the pig got loose again. This time he got into my neighbors horse stalls. Scared the horses.....the pig is no more.....
I placed Lucy in a crate and allowed Ellie May and the littles out. Overall, Ellie May was good. Then she began chasing them; Precious was beginning to really stress out so the before the end of the day I placed them back in their crate. This morning Lucy and Ellie May are in the littles crate, I kept Precious in hers and the other littles have the coop and run to themselves. The Porcelain U'ccle and Easter Egger discovered her cut and began pecking at it the other day so until it completely heals I won't allow her out unless I am there to monitor. Will it ever end! This should already be done by now! 
