NY chicken lover!!!!

[ChickPrincess]

Never in my life did I think I would be shooting to kill, but man, those squirrels eating my organic chicken feed made me pretty mad. i told them to get lost several times but they didn't listen! Tried an air gun but it wasn't powerful enough( the CO2 cartrige leaked I think) and the pellet gun had an excellent sight, but was hard to reload in the field.(heavy, one pellet at a time, took WAY to much time) Then my husaband gave me his father's old .22. Perfect!!(think dead squirrels with minimal shots) Tried to get more ammo, but since Newtown, gun shops have been sold out. If I can't get more, you husband is welcome to come target practice here!!

Don't even get me started. Did you know the U.S. government is buying up hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammo? I think they figure if they can't take away our guns, they'll take away our ammo.

I suppose you could treat them with Duramycin or one of the "mycins" and dust them real good with DE. I'd keep an eye on them. If you want to take it a step farther you could vaseline all the legs and feet too.

By all means keep them dry.

I just read the VetRX label and it treats scaly leg. After what I witnessed a couple weeks ago, I swear by this stuff!

 

[Lapeerian]

I go out to close up the birds for the night and the barred rocks are in my coop. One of them is getting named Houdini if they stay around. Sigh I guess everybody's getting treated for scaly leg mites. I'm beginning to think I know how they ended up out there. They just escaped their run and never looked back.

Sounds like they should both be named "trouble" lol.

Cleaned the horse stalls out today, put in the fresh sawdust and the chickens think it is a treat to eat. Dopes. Obviously the two GLW boys got in a tuffle again, the lower ranked boy is rather battered looking but nothing too serious. And the Australorp hen was limping, but cant see anything wrong with her from watching. Will try to catch her tomorrow. And noticed blood all along the top rails of the horse stalls, which is where the EE roo tends to hang out. Couple areas had lots of blood dripped down the gate rails. Got close enough to Harry to see what appears to be his middle toe had a nail ripped off or partially so. He stops and stands with the damaged foot held up, so the opposite leg is covered with blood. Couldn't catch him if I wanted to.
And in the house.... the chicks are test flying in the tank. I had the lid up for a bit watching them earlier, one of the red pullets attempted a flyout till I quickly shut the top. They are feathering out nicely, slowly raising the heat lamp, but the bitter cold wind today says they will be spending more time under a lamp when moved to the garage.

 

[Breella]

Listen I can only follow so many threads. I only follow a few and ain't you lucky yours is one.

Your situation is not as unique as you think. My brother dropped of a hen his friend found in his back yard. He lived in the city. I promptly posted it on CL and gave it and the egg it laid in the box away.

Hicks, I think you quoted my post but were replying to Pyxis about the barred rocks that they found. I'm just looking for thoughts on the gender of the three I bought that day we met at Country Max. Thought I bought 5 of them, turns out two of them are EE's! They grew face puffs!

 

[miquwid]

Question: I'd like to feed my flock non GMO feeds. What is everyone else feeding? What's a good mix that doesn't involve corn?

Nature Berry Farms Near Rochester NY in Macedon. Check local farms I did some research and there are a few in NY that are organic use GMO items. I understand cross contamination but if we practice this we can soon reclaim things back!!

Are we still doing photo Friday? If not, too bad, I'm posting anyway

Taking a break from coop building at the moment because my darn drill died, but I wanted to show you guys my lovely assistant who volunteered to help test it.

Looks like your helper has an opinion.

Here are some pics of the cheeps outside today, if photo Friday after all...

Beautiful!

 

[JLaw]

It's a sad sad day. TSC is done with chicks up the road today. BUT!!!! I bought the last 11 woot. They was assorted bantam's. I have a few that are white and the others kinda chipmunk markings. One white has a little feather on foot. All are pink skinned four toes will post pics later.

Jlaw

 

[Tough Old Bird]

Today was a marathon work day on the coop, despite the @#$%*! winter-like weather. Hubby and I got up more than 3/4 of the siding. Hooray! I think I will be hammering nails in my dreams tonight.

Tomorrow, after we finish the siding and if it's warm enough, I'll start staining; hubby plans to shingle the storage roof. I'm glad, because I prefer to stay grounded, though I did help with the coop roof. We need to get the windows put in, too.

More discussion on the "to ceiling or not to ceiling" the coop conundrum today. Another idea has us considering a partial ceiling, but leaving some space open to the rafters. Hmmm.... still a little time to ponder and brainstorm.

Here's how we left the project tonight......

By the way -- on the subject of ventilation -- we will have two large windows (you can see the south-facing one)...also, we have a roof vent cut into the coop roof under the shingle line, as well as vented soffit all along the coop's lower roof line.


TOB

 

[Tough Old Bird]

I can't stand to hear this poor lonely chick cheeping its head off. Its not only sad but frustrating as I have tried everything to quiet her and nothing works. She wont eat wont drink I don't even think she sleeps! I wish I had time to get her friends today. There never seems to be enough time for anything.

Sure hope things work out soon. I guess it's the flock instinct and she's needing company.


I was sorry to hear of a few people losing some chicks in the past day or so...Cooped up Chick and others....so sad, even if you know it happens fairly often.

TOB

 

[JLaw]

Well I went to take pics of the chicks and like 4 out of 11 had poopy butt so I had to take care of that but after that I got some pics here ya go.

anyone want to guess what assorted bantams I got? breed/sex? noticed the brownish ones some have a dark out line head others have almost no lines on head and color is fussed not chissled like the dark lined ones. one white has a darker face. I know probably no way to tell but still fun to guess lol.



And a pic of the wife with her little grey bantam she picked out but didn't want.....


more of the little buggers. got the feeder and water things half off since they was done with chicks.

 

[McBride55]

Wooohoooo!! I got 7 golden comet chicks today at country max. They are resting nicely in their new brooder box with fresh food and nice cool water.

 

[Cass]

Today was a marathon work day on the coop, despite the @#$%*! winter-like weather. Hubby and I got up more than 3/4 of the siding. Hooray! I think I will be hammering nails in my dreams tonight.

Tomorrow, after we finish the siding and if it's warm enough, I'll start staining; hubby plans to shingle the storage roof. I'm glad, because I prefer to stay grounded, though I did help with the coop roof. We need to get the windows put in, too.

More discussion on the "to ceiling or not to ceiling" the coop conundrum today. Another idea has us considering a partial ceiling, but leaving some space open to the rafters. Hmmm.... still a little time to ponder and brainstorm.

Here's how we left the project tonight......

By the way -- on the subject of ventilation -- we will have two large windows (you can see the south-facing one)...also, we have a roof vent cut into the coop roof under the shingle line, as well as vented soffit all along the coop's lower roof line.


TOB

You knew I'd have an opinion....and here it is. First, your coop is beautiful. Second partially closing off the rafters might yield chickens laying eggs in the unenclosed area. Chickens are birds and they can fly. Don't let people tell you they can't, cuz I have seen them do it. My largest birds hop on the top nest box, onto the roosts they are SUPPOSED to use and then hop into the rafters. The smaller birds just fly up there. Then my egg counts dropped and I caught one bird up in the eves pecking at something, which dripped down through the soffit vents. They were laying their eggs in the eves and then EATTING THEM....darn birds. Chicken wired off the eves area to preserve the ventilation we paid so dearly for and the egg counts went up. Now they are hiding them some place else in the coop. Let the Easter Egg hunt begin. Again.