NY chicken lover!!!!

[wny egger]

My leghorn X wants everyone to know that she DOES feel like going broody. Argh!!

wow, if looks could kill..shes got your number it looks like ..lol

 

[wny egger]

Pasty butt can be cause by many things not just what they eat.

This is my advice and opinion on the subject. Temperature change and stress can cause pasty butt. However who really care what causes it? For me it's what to do about it. I don't know how to avoid it with shipped chicks so what can I do to fix it?

I have used warm water to clean as much as I can off of the butt. Sometime I don't get it all off but if the hole is not blocked I just watch and clean again so the chick can poop. Eventually it stops.

I think it's more common with shipped chicks than broody hen raised chicks.

I DO NOT feed anything other than chick starter/grower and water. Clean water. NO treats or special things. NO vitamins or supplements. They are babies. The basic feed has everything they need. If I use medicated feed I only feed it for the first few weeks. I don't keep pestering chicks. LET THEM SLEEP. Yes they're cute and I want to cuddle them but they are not the type of pet that benefits from petting and holding and chasing about the brooder.

ALL THESE TREATS AND JUNK ARE JUST ANOTHER WAY TO GET YOU TO SPEND MONEY! CHICKS/CHICKENS DON'T " NEED" THEM!

I wish you well,

Rancher

can I hear an amen ..I do the same ..except when I first get my babys I give them probiotics in the water , just to relax them a little when and they stop having the runny poop....pasty butt is just that ..the butt is pasted shut and once its cleaned off there shouldn't be any more trouble ..and if there is just clean it again..when I clean my brooder every couple days and change out the liter I check each bird..i only had 2 have it in this last bunch ..cleaned up and haven't had any more trouble with it ..

 

[rancher hicks]

So it's warm. DW is leaving on Wednesday for FL to see the son and his. Say a prayer for him. Going to Mississippi to take a class for advancement I think , but a class just the same. She hasn't told him about her condition yet.

The weather is making me nervous. Also pray for those in storm areas. Lord have mercy to have your entire home ripped away. I can't imagine the hurt.

My Lord, Featherz she looks like one tough and determine female. I'll bet her kids don't give her any trouble.

You should however mark you pictures somehow. I can see that one on a greeting card.
Anyone care to venture what it would say? Me? " I said you WILL have a happy birthday! "

As for pasty butt. I rarely get it unless they're shipped chicks but I will try the ACV. Just a few drops? I did give my older chicks Probiotic yesterday simply because they're out in the hoop coop and this weather is crazy. Plus it wan't completely cleaned before hand. I like that TSC sells the little packets. I'm sure they cost more but the convenience is worth it to me. I also use the Electrolytes for the bigger birds but only on occasionally. Those come in little packets for 1 gallon. It's nice since I can mix it in the milk jugs.

Anyone near by I still have some back issues of Back Yard Poultry and some Grit I'd like to give away. Last time I posted them to CL and someone came and picked them up. I know I should subscribe but sometimes I don't get to read them. Practical Poultry has a new Spring issue out but it's $8.25. I don't know if they're going to stop with the monthly issues.

GOOD GARDEN OF PEAS! You would think the magazine industry is not aware of the on line and Kindle crap going on. The price of magazines has gotten way out of hand. Yesterday DW bought two. $20 !! and that with out B&N discount. If I had false teeth I would have dropped them on the floor! Subscribing can help I suppose but many just carry the same thing.

Okay I'll shut up. Have a nice day.

Oh BTW, there is a house for sale that has come down to the $ 70's with 22 acres down the road. DW says there entrance from both end of the property. 6834 Fremont Rd.

 

[Glasshen]

Now that Tapistry is gone to live on the other side of town, it looks like Butter, a
BO is the low girl. Yesterday afternoon I heard sounds of a scuffle and there was Butter squatting with Flavian on top doing a good imitation of a rooster. Earl was drawn to the problem, so he sprinted over and started pecking Butter and pulling out head feathers. This is just wrong on so many levels. I don't like the pecking order. And I think Flavia is a pervert. And isn't Earl supposed to protect the girls?

 

[why do birds]

Guinea Pigs. I once had over 120 of them. I used to show them. Like chickens there was no money in it. Well with chickens there is some money, just not enough to make me rich.

I'm thinking that a good way to make $ with chickens is to make something with eggs. When we move to the farm, hopefully later this year, when our house is built, we should have a kitchen acceptable to NYS for catering. My (soon to be) DH bought me a nice kitchen aid mixer. We can turn those eggs into pierogi and kluski and thus $$$! If we can figure out how to grow a bull we can also have golumkie. Right now we can't even seem to get an egg. Hahahahaha! We are not good at farming. LOL!
I'm working on a hair gel suitable for birds. You know, like how the hair was greased back in the 50s? I need to find "bird compatible" base products (like bees wax, lanolin, petrolatum, etc. but acceptable for birds). This will be fun. These birds are so adorable.
I do think that Fredo was attempting a mating with the small black silkie. Does this mean that the silkie is a hen? Would a rooster try to mate another male bird at 4 months? This would be a good sign if it's a hen because we can then get more chicks, maybe?
We love our Fredo so much. He gets so excited for fettucine noodles.
Rancher, thanks for all the advice! You're awesome!

 

[Lynzi777]

Why Do: If you're planning on selling some baked good from the eggs you get from your birds, I sure hope you add some better laying breeds. Silkies are not the best egg layers. You may not see an egg from your little Silkie hen until the end of this year. I had to wait a year to get an egg from my lavender hen! That was annoying!

 

[WillowWispFarm]

Morning everyone, sorry I wasn't on yesterday I was not feeling good at all, but after some good sleep I feel a lot better. This morning has been interesting. my first 12 chicks are getting older and bigger everyday and they keep trying to fly and land on the edge of the brooder, well they were making lots of noise this morning which woke me up, I checked on them and there water was dumped, so I went to go get more water. When i came back, there was a chick in my bed! lol, and as soon as I went to put the water in another one flew out onto the floor. So looks like I'm building a taler brooder, with a lid today!

That pic of the chicken is cute in an evil way, she dosn't look to happy one bit lol. As for the pasty but thing, So far since I took care of the ones I got no one else has gotten it, it seems like they get it before I take them home, which I think it's a good sign.
Well time to get my butt in gear, hope everyone has a good day

 

[Sweetpea3829]

Well, the shaking head issue my TSC Silver Sebrights were having seems to be fading. I did lose one chick, though. She was weak from the start, however. Poor little thing...she passed away in my hands. Hard seeing them jerk and twitch.

And then of course, last night, we lost our male hamster to a prolapse...1:30 in the morning, I was shutting everything down for the night and noticed him half in his feeding bowl just lying there. Took a closer look and there was blood all over the cage. He'll need to be replaced.

The pasty butt issues here seem to be clearing up. I had given them some greek yogurt and cleaned them all up real well. So far, nobody's butt has crusted shut again.

Got my first pip on the eggs in the incubator. I think its a speckled sussex egg, but I'm not sure because Meyer didn't label their eggs. Hatching day is tomorrow. Fingers crossed those eggs with the crazy air cells do alright. Mostly, I really want the two BCM eggs in there to hatch well...they are do for Thursday.

Quick Question...do any of you keep silkies in with your regular-sized birds? My neighbor had some silkies and I wanted to buy a couple from him and he didn't think they'd do well with my established flock. He thought they'd probably pick on the silkies too much. I am creating a smaller pen inside of my main coop...a grow-out pen, if you will. I figured I could probably just keep the silkie in there (plus another one, as I wouldn't want it to be lonely), but that grow-out pen will be small and I'd prefer to keep all of the adults together in the main coop.

If you keep your silkies in with your regular flock, do you have problems with the larger chickens picking on their feathers?

 

[why do birds]

Why Do: If you're planning on selling some baked good from the eggs you get from your birds, I sure hope you add some better laying breeds. Silkies are not the best egg layers. You may not see an egg from your little Silkie hen until the end of this year. I had to wait a year to get an egg from my lavender hen! That was annoying

Lynzii, we are hoping to have many more birds once we move. The first hatch was an experiment to see if we actually would like birds.

Turns out we love them. So far, no one is allergic to the birds so they are a great fit for our family. I really think the olive egger eggs are beautiful. It would be nice to sell them at our farm store once we have it up and running.

It's definitely a fixer upper and will take us some time to get it converted into a store. It will be easier once we move there. It's very hard to get much work done when we don't live there.

We should be building soon. And we are hoping to have more work done on the other structures this year.

As for time frames, we aren't in a rush, this is a fun retirement project. We also have other businesses that we both run, in addition to his FT+ job. Summer 2015 would be a wonderful time to have the store up and running. Do you like pierogi?

 

[Lynzi777]

Lynzii, we are hoping to have many more birds once we move.  The first hatch was an experiment to see if we actually would like birds.  Turns out we love them.  So far, no one is allergic to the birds so they are a great fit for our family.  I really think the olive egger eggs are beautiful.  It would be nice to sell them at our farm store once we have it up and running.  It's definitely a fixer upper and will take us some time to get it converted into a store.  It will be easier once we move there.  It's very hard to get much work done when we don't live there.  We should be building soon.   And we are hoping to have more work done on the other structures this year.  As for time frames, we aren't in a rush, this is a fun retirement project.  We also have other businesses that we both run, in addition to his FT+ job.  Summer 2015 would be a wonderful time to have the store up and running.  Do you like pierogi? 

I love Pierogis. My mom spends a couple days a year making batches of 500 or so for the family. Of course everyone wants them and no matter how many she makes there is never enough to go around ;-)