NY chicken lover!!!!

[Cass]

Morning...
Chilly out there today. Only about 10 and it's windy of course. :-( I wanted to get the rest of the shed cleaned out and get that rabbit hutch outta there so I can empty it and put it to use if I come across another pair of mini satins I'm getting into. Guess I'll have to see if it warms up any or the wind dies down at least.

Hawks are everywhere! I must see at least 5 a day leave a branch and fly right in front of my house. I actually had a dream the other night that I saw one leave a branch from my woods and dive down across the street to one of my my neighbors chickens. It's started picking on it like it knew it was too large to take off with so it just sat there and fought it. I ran outside to try to scare it away and it left. Well then it came back I saw it swoop up one of my ducks (only it didn't look like one of my real ducks, it was white which was weird) Well I screamed at it in mid air with my duck and it dropped her and I caught her. It was the craziest dream. This morning I go out there and there's this huge hawk perched up in a tree at the edge of my property. Flew away when I reached the shed. That thing was huge!!!

Might not have been a hawk. Might have been a Turkey Vulture. Turkey Vulture are the largest bird around here. (except an adult bald eagle, but we don't have many of THOSE around this state)

Fun facts: It vomits stomach acids to defend itself. (EWWW.) Is 27 inches tall (that's over 2 feet) and has a wing span of 69 inches.(that's almost 6 feet.) Now THAT is one large bird both on the ground and in the air. If a hawk attacked something and left the rest of the carcass around the vultures would soon appear. Let's hope it was a Turkey Vulture. They rarely attack live animals....prefer them previously dead.

 

[Lynzi777]

Might not have been a hawk.  Might have been a Turkey Vulture.  Turkey Vulture are the  largest bird around here.  (except an adult bald eagle, but we don't have many of THOSE around this state)

Fun facts:  It vomits stomach acids to defend itself.  (EWWW.)  Is 27 inches tall (that's over 2 feet) and has a wing span of 69 inches.(that's almost 6 feet.)  Now THAT is one large bird both on the ground and in the air.   If a hawk attacked something and left the rest of the carcass around the vultures would soon appear. Let's hope it was a Turkey Vulture.  They rarely attack live animals....prefer them previously dead.

No, I know what those look like. This was some kind of hawk, it's wings were white underneath when it took off.


Now how about this one. What kind of bird makes a "sonic" sounding chirp like 3-4 chirps in a row? Sounded like a kids toy gun. Just had one flying over my head while I'm up at te rabbit cages.

 

[Metella]

grouse ?

 

[Lynzi777]

No, I looked that up, sounds more like a thumping. This bird was flying pretty high and also diving down and then flying back up at times. It was pretty weird. The call it was making was just unreal. I wanted to record it but my ducks insisted on following me everywhere this morning and all you would have heard was them!

The bird was all black and was a decent size, like that of a crow or little larger.

 

[JLaw]

After caring for the chickens today and scoring another brown egg, I noticed that so far, only one out of eleven EE chicks is displaying any sign of roosterhood. One barred chick has a reddening comb and little wattles coming in. Everyone else is still showing no development. Wouldn't it be crazy if out of 11 chicks only one is a rooster? And the color of rooster I wanted to keep to boot?

That would be great if you only got one rooster. The silkies I hatched for son are like 75% doing the mini rooster jump flogging at less than a month old. Like 25% are smaller than the rest I know of at least 2-3 roosters unless they are some crazy fast growing hens.

 

[why do birds]

Rancher, Your thumb is GREEN!!! What a lovely garden! I'm not too good with plants. I should try harder. You're very skilled! That's a great idea about using those milk jugs as mini greenhouses. So far the fruit trees on our property are all doing great and little trees that we planted on the property we live at are doing ok, well one died but the rest are doing good. I tried squash, they drowned, then tomato plants and they died, I need to grow really sturdy stuff.

Just curious, have you ever tried rose cuttings in potatoes? Apparently this is a way to propagate more rose bushes from a single rose cutting.

My folks were good with plants, when my out of state house went into foreclosure there were several rose bushes that were award winning as the prior owner was a rose bush enthusiast. Mom took them home and they now grow in her garden, large beautiful roses! Her lilies come up nice too! So happy she was able to take them and make them grow! Would be nice to have more beautiful rose bushes of that quality!

I didn't know that a raised bed would make a difference. Is it just regular ground with boards and additional dirt or do you use a potting soil for the center and any type of floor?

 

[Cass]

Rancher, Your thumb is GREEN!!! What a lovely garden! I'm not too good with plants. I should try harder. You're very skilled! That's a great idea about using those milk jugs as mini greenhouses. So far the fruit trees on our property are all doing great and little trees that we planted on the property we live at are doing ok, well one died but the rest are doing good. I tried squash, they drowned, then tomato plants and they died, I need to grow really sturdy stuff.

Just curious, have you ever tried rose cuttings in potatoes? Apparently this is a way to propagate more rose bushes from a single rose cutting.

My folks were good with plants, when my out of state house went into foreclosure there were several rose bushes that were award winning as the prior owner was a rose bush enthusiast. Mom took them home and they now grow in her garden, large beautiful roses! Her lilies come up nice too! So happy she was able to take them and make them grow! Would be nice to have more beautiful rose bushes of that quality!

I didn't know that a raised bed would make a difference. Is it just regular ground with boards and additional dirt or do you use a potting soil for the center and any type of floor?

No floor. Can have it full of regular soil or enriched soil (that chicken poop compost) or compost bought by the truckload from the town. Which is what I did, cuz my soil is really bad and needed a lot of help. I am building up good soil on top of my poor soil; my thinking being eventually I will be able to spread a layer of good soil over the entire area and give up the boxes. Even if I give up the boxes (which are considerably larger than Ranchers) I will keep up the square foot gardening....google it. It's an easy way to grow a lot of food in a little space and almost eliminates weeding.

 

[rancher hicks]

Do you cut both ends off of cans

Yes. Just push it down about two inches. Or just so the water doesn't run out the sides. Then you just go around fill each can and you're done. No wasted water.

 

[rancher hicks]

That would be crazy cool ! odds are 40/60...with the chance of rooster being higher ..maybe too early to tell .what age are they ?

Barred and Cuckoo breeds can pretty much be sexed at birth. Though the accuracy depends on who doing the sexing. The odds are better with the barred or cuckoo.

 

[rancher hicks]

Rancher, Your thumb is GREEN!!! What a lovely garden! I'm not too good with plants. I should try harder. You're very skilled! That's a great idea about using those milk jugs as mini greenhouses. So far the fruit trees on our property are all doing great and little trees that we planted on the property we live at are doing ok, well one died but the rest are doing good. I tried squash, they drowned, then tomato plants and they died, I need to grow really sturdy stuff.

Just curious, have you ever tried rose cuttings in potatoes? Apparently this is a way to propagate more rose bushes from a single rose cutting.

My folks were good with plants, when my out of state house went into foreclosure there were several rose bushes that were award winning as the prior owner was a rose bush enthusiast. Mom took them home and they now grow in her garden, large beautiful roses! Her lilies come up nice too! So happy she was able to take them and make them grow! Would be nice to have more beautiful rose bushes of that quality!

I didn't know that a raised bed would make a difference. Is it just regular ground with boards and additional dirt or do you use a potting soil for the center and any type of floor?

I wouldn't go that far. My gooseberries, currants , rhubarb and raspberries didn't do so good last year. It got too wet. I'm not a quitter so I'll try again after amending the area some.

My beds had to be raised as there were huge chunks of tarvia and I couldn't dig them out. I filled them with straw, top soil, horse manure and store bought Garden soil. Cheap if I can get it. It doesn't matter since I mix my own. I also of course use coop cleanings.

My garlic is planted and covered with hay or staw. That I just mix in after it's done. Because raised beds don't get walked on the soil doesn't get packed down. Any weeds and plants come up easy.

Some years are better than others.