NY chicken lover!!!!

[Henicillin]

1367 unread replies? Egads!

All my turkeys survived Thanksgiving, the lucky things. They're big enough to butcher, but I worked (got paid very well to do it - I need it for my feed bills), my biggest boy is my breeding male and fair-bird-to-be, and the other two are his posse, so everyone gobbles and yelps on.

Alan's friend from El Salvador and his wife stopped by the other day. She hadn't been here before, and loved it. Alan handed her my avatar hen, and she cradled her in her arms and teared up. He said she kept saying, "it reminds me so much of home."

Say hello to my big guy. I love him. The Pencilled Palm male's tail can be seen off to the left, and the White Holland hen behind him is an absolute peach and would probably come in the house and sit on the couch if I'd let her.

 

[miquwid]

and oh yeah I meant far from scary as in he's a good guy I gotta stop using my phone LOL

 

[miquwid]

Welcome!

 

[Glasshen]

Heni, so glad to see your turkeys! And to have you post. Was beginning to worry, perhaps the ducks had returned to your store and things had gone poorly...or you had just gotten in line and all marched off together...

 

[Henicillin]

Heni, so glad to see your turkeys! And to have you post. Was beginning to worry, perhaps the ducks had returned to your store and things had gone poorly...or you had just gotten in line and all marched off together...

The front store night manager says that they have to pull up the internal security video of that for me, as apparently it's hilarious. One of the managers kept leading them out the door with food. They'd all follow him out, he'd go back in, and they'd all turn around and promptly follow him back in again. The staff finally had to lock the doors to keep them out.

 

[rancher hicks]

Lots of pics

I use card board squares do the staples don't pull through. This a a 2.mil 9x12 drop cloth.




All sections of the run are bolted together top and bottom.




Metal stringer supports make it easy to hang them.



This is how I put in supports for the metal and clear plastic panels. More pics to come later.

 

[Glasshen]

I think the creepy crawlies are under control. I have upended a few chickens and seen no evidence, and had put a round black rubber bowl of wood ashes and DE in the coop, which looks somewhat diminished. But today it is warm and sunny, and I found Mama and two of the youngest pullets dust bathing on the poopboard. I had gone in to scoop, so the poopboard was not yet clean, but it has sand, sweet PDZ and a little DE. So I scooped and added a little wood ashes and left them to it. Now I better make the rounds and get more ashes.

This morning I had a 7:00 appointment to get my snow tires put on and had to do my chores in the dark. It was nice to be out and about before Earl. He crowed while I was in the coop and everyone was still on their roosts. Very loud.

 

[Metella]

Rancher .... under the metal roof - when one of the curves leaves a space - that is big enough for a weasel ... do you do anything for that sneaky space ? That was my problem with the coop that burned down ... and I plan to build another permanent coop and will have the same problem.

I've never had a weasel here that I have spotted - but I know they can wipe me out in just one visit - so I want to be prepared !

 

[Lynzi777]

Morning! Oh wait it's passed noon...Afternoon!

Well I cracked open some more eggs this morning, the one duck I had didn't look fertile to me so I'm not sure the next few I get from her will be fertile.

Then again, she hasn't laid any since Thanksgiving so thats just weird that she started up and then stopped. I'm on the fence with my Orp and BR eggs. All three hens are laying but I'm having a hard time determining which egg is from Stella and which is from my BR. My Buff Orp lays the darkest of the brown eggs and I saved one of hers today. Hoping it's fertile but I doubt it. Right now I only have 2 eggs saved for the incubator. Want to try to get up to at least 10 before starting but I also don't want most of them to be Orp eggs. I want more from my silkie hen and KC duck than anything else. Just have to remind myself that the silkie egg I have so far was laid yesterday and keep track of how old the eggs are getting that I want to incubate.

 

[Lynzi777]

Oh and I meant to ask...has anyone ever heard or seen low flying helicopters over their house/neighborhood late at night with spot lights? We were getting ready for bed the other night when we heard this noise outside (thought it was just a plane at first). It wasn't going away but was getting louder. I finally looked at outside after seeing some flashing lights (weird cuz it's pitch black out here at night) looked up and saw this helicopter flying around the area with two huge spotlights shining down at the ground.

It was obviously searching for something but what? My husband was just talking to his bar manager that day and he told him that they actually have people that fly around in helicopters at night looking for hunters because apparently it's illegal to hunt at night? This was around 10:30pm. Was just kinda creepy cuz it was so close to our house. I tried seeing if there was anything in the news but found nothing.