NY chicken lover!!!!

[armorfirelady]

When I went out tonight to do a last check I found an extra critter in the coop.......a toad. Scared me cuz he hopped when I shined the flashlight on him. I told him he was lucky it was after dark or he might of been a snack

 

[Breella]

bananna

 

[NookNook01]

bananna

Hammock... Ha

 

[Cass]

I had a freak out moment tonight.

I was late getting the coop locked up for the night. I went to do a head count and I was missing one of my girls. I was all nervous that I couldn't find her. All the talk about predators started to freak me out. What if something had gotten to her. I have been here in the house for 8 years and have never once seen a raccoon or opossum around here. The hawks are around, but don't see them too often. The only things that I have seen are the foxes from spring and the coyotes that are up on the hill across the road. They come close enough that you can hear that they are close, but I haven't ever seen them..anyway I looked all over and then I finally found her. Our run is attached to the side of our garage and she was tucked up in the corner of the window behind the pine tree. They hang up out on the sill sometimes during the day, but I can't believe that she didn't go in. She is usually one of the ones that goes in first. I haven't lost a chicken yet (knock on wood) and I don't look forward to if and when I do. I don't think that I have ever been so excited to see one of my girls, and I look forward to seeing them every time that I am with them. I'm just glad that she is safe and sound locked down nice and tight!

Did I mention that someone hit a BEAR just over the hill from my house. Yeah a bear. I had heard rumors that there were spotings over the years, but someone hit it Friday night. My hubby saw a picture of it on a friends phone. I guess there is something else that I have to worry about. I'm pretty sure that my coop isn't bear proof. I'm just hoping that my house is!

Bear's eyes don't glow in headlights like deer eyes do. So I am not surprised that a bear got hit. I am sure the car that hit it is in pretty bad shape too.

 

[miquwid]

These were all the big girls' eggs. I won't be hatching anymore Silkie eggs until my lavender pullet starts to lay. She was 20wks the week of Aug 14th. So I'm patiently waiting on her. ;-) I also have a frizzle from Ke5hde and will try to hatch eggs from her as soon as she starts to lay.

I'm hoping you get another one like your barred rock mix omg it was so cute.

I found a wonderful home for the kitten someone dropped off last week and today, the remainder of my turkeys sold. Everyone that called and the gentleman that bought them complained over the price but paid it anyway. lol. They were well worth it and probably more. They were gorgeous. So now to start preparing for winter. It's been down in the 40's for the last few nights. Today I'm going out and check those crab apples before the deer get to them.

Breella - those chicks are so very cute. Congrats!

Yeah Winter is coming, I getting everything ready myself and done I'm impatient on waiting for my garden to be done so I can put the chickens on so I can put up one more raised bed before it gets cold. I hate doing work out in the cold last winter I did a lot of building LOL.

The plan is to make sauce. I've got the jars in the washer now.

I think this will be a heavy snow winter.

Now please if there is anyone who wants more chickens let me know. I've got pullets too, not just roosters. I'll part with EE pullets if I have too.

I've already made lots of sauce and plan on another batch now that the rest of my tomatoes are almost done. UGH heavy snow running on these busy streets sucks when there is heavy snow people are just not nice to runners anymore. OMG I fall a lot on the ice and it is a sight to see when I hit the road.

Well hey, if I can't house my silkies nicely so they aren't covered in mud everyday, then I guess I shouldn't be raising silkies, right? ;-)

OMG my one silkie hangs out in the rain while the others are hiding in the coop and the other chickens are under the tarp and my white silkie dust bathes in the dirtiest dust/mud pile she can find. I can't keep them clean. LOL

All this talk of apple pie is making me hungry so I had a few(6) white chocolate chip/macadamia nut cookies. They didn't help, I still want apple pie. I suppose I'll beg the wife to make one next week.
We got the run all covered today. About 1/2 way into it we saw a hawk across the road and up the hill a ways. It was way up in the air but I'm sure it saw us. I'll definitely feel better when they get let out tomorrow.
I hope everyone get their birds sold before winter. I still have the 4 white frizzles that need to go and 1 young rooster that will probably end up as dinner at some point.
Another one of the wife's silkies looks like she's trying to go broody. I thought about breaking her but since I have 5 of her eggs in the incubator I might just wait and see if she commits to it. It's easier to let her raise the babies than for me to set up the brooder.

I'm going to make some apple butter and apple filling and can them so I have them all winter. MMMMmm the frizzles sound temping.

Here is the website I found when looking for recipes to can apples.
http://nchfp.uga.edu/
I wanted to can just apples plain so I can make pies using my grandmas recipe and make space in the freezer. I canned the ones that have been in the freezer and made apple butter to can as well. I've never made it before but it was pretty simple. Friends said its very good

My mom used to can pears as well.

Now that I made room in the freezer I can pick apples this fall

And the turkey carcass was so big I put half in the freezer for a rainy day. The girls loved the guys today but not the neck. Oh well lol

I just did up peach pie filling this weekend. Used the recipe at www.simplycanning.com. Also canned pears with simple light syrup. Did the peaches today, but they don't look quite right, probably because I had hubby working on them during football...

I love these sights I'm always looking for new recipes to try different things.

I had a freak out moment tonight.

I was late getting the coop locked up for the night. I went to do a head count and I was missing one of my girls. I was all nervous that I couldn't find her. All the talk about predators started to freak me out. What if something had gotten to her. I have been here in the house for 8 years and have never once seen a raccoon or opossum around here. The hawks are around, but don't see them too often. The only things that I have seen are the foxes from spring and the coyotes that are up on the hill across the road. They come close enough that you can hear that they are close, but I haven't ever seen them..anyway I looked all over and then I finally found her. Our run is attached to the side of our garage and she was tucked up in the corner of the window behind the pine tree. They hang up out on the sill sometimes during the day, but I can't believe that she didn't go in. She is usually one of the ones that goes in first. I haven't lost a chicken yet (knock on wood) and I don't look forward to if and when I do. I don't think that I have ever been so excited to see one of my girls, and I look forward to seeing them every time that I am with them. I'm just glad that she is safe and sound locked down nice and tight!

Did I mention that someone hit a BEAR just over the hill from my house. Yeah a bear. I had heard rumors that there were spotings over the years, but someone hit it Friday night. My hubby saw a picture of it on a friends phone. I guess there is something else that I have to worry about. I'm pretty sure that my coop isn't bear proof. I'm just hoping that my house is!

Glad you found your girl! Oh my a bear ugh I don't want to see pictures of that accident. I don't think my house is completely bear proof I'm pretty sure they can break through glass.

When I went out tonight to do a last check I found an extra critter in the coop.......a toad. Scared me cuz he hopped when I shined the flashlight on him. I told him he was lucky it was after dark or he might of been a snack

A tortured snack LOL!! My son is all about it but for some reason I can watch once they find something I'm gone LOL.

 

[Gramma Chick]

I had a freak out moment tonight.

I was late getting the coop locked up for the night. I went to do a head count and I was missing one of my girls. I was all nervous that I couldn't find her. All the talk about predators started to freak me out. What if something had gotten to her. I have been here in the house for 8 years and have never once seen a raccoon or opossum around here. The hawks are around, but don't see them too often. The only things that I have seen are the foxes from spring and the coyotes that are up on the hill across the road. They come close enough that you can hear that they are close, but I haven't ever seen them..anyway I looked all over and then I finally found her. Our run is attached to the side of our garage and she was tucked up in the corner of the window behind the pine tree. They hang up out on the sill sometimes during the day, but I can't believe that she didn't go in. She is usually one of the ones that goes in first. I haven't lost a chicken yet (knock on wood) and I don't look forward to if and when I do. I don't think that I have ever been so excited to see one of my girls, and I look forward to seeing them every time that I am with them. I'm just glad that she is safe and sound locked down nice and tight!

Did I mention that someone hit a BEAR just over the hill from my house. Yeah a bear. I had heard rumors that there were spotings over the years, but someone hit it Friday night. My hubby saw a picture of it on a friends phone. I guess there is something else that I have to worry about. I'm pretty sure that my coop isn't bear proof. I'm just hoping that my house is!

Glad you found her ...she was already comfy ...& didnt want to move ..
Maybe you dont have to worry about the bear now...if someone hit it ..

 

[miquwid]

That's my rigged up run for my birds since free ranging is off limits now that these cats are out of control. My neighbor who has been a pain in my butt, now is pleading with me if I trap her cat to not take it to the shelter she likes them to free range (her words). She even got me some chicken/homesteading magazines. I was polite and said okay. Animal control was in to try and capture much of the cats. But what ever they don't get and I do will go to the shelter. I'll try to be nice to my neighbor and check the cats to make sure they are not hers but, I keep my three cats inside and my three dogs fenced in so none bother anyone. I took the last dog that was on my property to the shelter and he was put down. I feel bad but I walked the whole neighborhood and no one claimed him and he wasn't going to be a menace to my animals so off he went. I can only be so nice I paid the money to properly fence my animals, sorry if you can't do the same.



My roo Rajesh keeping an eye out for his girls, he's really coming into his own.



Dinner with my cucumber and tomato, the meat and potatoes are local. Very yummy!

So my not so rigged up run is almost complete all framed up. Instead of a hoop shape I made a triangle type shape I though it would look artsy. The coop is 12Lx8Wx6H the run will is 12Lx6Wx6H (approx) and that is for 11 chickens and I will be adding 3 more when they are old enough. Just have to add the door and of course the wire. Since they are so bit I made it so they can detach from each other so I can still move them around on my own.






And that is the baby in Sick Bay she's healing beautifully though. She will be put back into the small coop. Especially since the three youngins will be going into the big coop soon.


Alright I'm tired off to bed. Hope you enjoyed the pics.

 

[Gramma Chick]

miquwid Quote: She looks good

 

[Gramma Chick]

Quote: Are these americanas somewhat .. hard to tell the sex ?
I was going by the comb size ...& the tails looked kind of rooish ..it appears I have more hens than I thought .
2 of the 4 teen roos were sex crazy yesterday ..the 6.Ladies arent ready yet ..maybe I will separate them so the girls can have some peace

 

[Breella]

Derpy did not survive the night. Last night I had some trouble getting it to eat, but I figured that it had eaten from the crumble bowl. I had seen it eating from the bowl several times yesterday and it had been doing good. :-/ I knew it was a gamble when I decided to intervene.

As for the other seven,



Pearl took the three Barred Rock chicks very well. How many chicks do you think that a very small Bantam Silkie could keep warm in the weather we are having? Is three a good number? I have four more chicks but I'm scared that it'll be too much for her.