NY chicken lover!!!!

[Devona]

Sorry to hear about your coop issues, sweet pea. I'm sure you'll figure out how to fix it once the weather warms up. Maybe your u welcome guest has been forced to find dryer quarters so he moved out. That might be one silver lining on your flooded-coop-cloud. Tomorrow is my older son's birthday. He'll be twelve. TWELVE!!!! Where does the time go? I can feel new gray hairs sprouting already. It was a lovely day today. Too bad I spent most of it being lazy in bed. I could've put my chicks outside for an hour or so to scratch around. Oh, well. According to Punxsutawney Phil and staten island chuck, warmer days are a-coming soon.

 

[Devona]

Those are pretty chickens, phoredaburds. Too bad I shouldn't have more birds.

 

[rancher hicks]

Do they lay large white eggs? Looking for a white egg layer that will lay year round. The Anconas and TSC Brown Leghorn stop laying in August and won't start back up until late spring. Been considering Dorkings since BeerCan mentioned them.
Will be getting Ameraucanas from Chris in Lafayette. Found someone in the Wyandottes Facebook group from NE PA, about 2.5 HR from me. She is willing to try shipping me some GLW eggs for the hatch a long. Hoping to hatch some now, then again after Chickenstock!

I like to keep a mixed flock that way someone is laying. Usually though the Delawares lay best. The C.Rocks were just coming in at the beginning of winter and started. The marans let up for too long and I've some eggs in the bator but I'm not hopeful. Though the EE's in the same coop are coming along.

I could use a couple of Amers to add to the flock.

I know I said I'd be giving up the chickens but I can't as long as Frenchy is alive. I can't give her away, it would kill her for sure. I do wish I could have someone here to take care of them while I'm away though.

 

[rancher hicks]

Guess who's coop flooded again?! YAAAAAY ME!!!

We went out to pull out shavings and lay down new bedding. The big bird side managed to stay dry, at least on top. But I still wanted to pull shavings out and lay down fresh.

What did we see? A pond around the coop. The french drain is full and still, there's water. So we dug a channel but there's just so much of it.

Needless to say...we have some serious work to do on this coop come spring.

At least we are getting good numbers of eggs again. And I haven't seen signs of Rosco in the coop in quite some time. Saw his tracks outside during last week's storm, but no digging, tunneling, and no other tracks.

Unfortunately, I have no idea the genetic makeup of my eggs now...lol. I only have two roosters but have always kept the silkie rooster with the bantams. Well now he's in with the big birds, and the bantams are in with the big rooster. So who knows what'll hatch when I finally set eggs.

Oh and Sickie Chick is still doing her thing. Her feet don't look much better. Frostbite seems like a likely culprit. The one curled toe is probably going to fall off at some point. I hate to cull her, because she's a nice bird but...

Your French drain has to have somewhere to empty to. We have one in the basement and it drains into a well with a sump pump.

I still suggest adding more rather than taking out the wet. It's just going to fill with water again. If you can keep the humidity low they should be okay.

Unless you can get that French drain to drain the water away from the coop.

 

[Sweetpea3829]

Rancher...amazingly, the top layer of shavings is still pretty dry. So I totally concur with you. Unfortunately, the shavings are getting a little too deep in there, lol. I need to take some out.

We've had water down there before...but NEVER in the coop. Got a real good look at all of Rosco's entrance holes because yup...that's where the water was entering the coop.

Hubby dug a channel to redirect as much water as he could. It's still pretty soggy, but at least the doors are not partially submerged. Hopefully tonight isn't too cold, or I probably won't be able to get into the coop...lol.

We have a LOT of work to do down there.

 

[Gramma Chick]

Quote:

Oh and Sickie Chick is still doing her thing. Her feet don't look much better. Frostbite seems like a likely culprit. The one curled toe is probably going to fall off at some point. I hate to cull her, because she's a nice bird but...

Chickens can live without a toe ...she may start laying after she heals

 

[rancher hicks]

Rancher...amazingly, the top layer of shavings is still pretty dry. So I totally concur with you. Unfortunately, the shavings are getting a little too deep in there, lol. I need to take some out.

We've had water down there before...but NEVER in the coop. Got a real good look at all of Rosco's entrance holes because yup...that's where the water was entering the coop.

Hubby dug a channel to redirect as much water as he could. It's still pretty soggy, but at least the doors are not partially submerged. Hopefully tonight isn't too cold, or I probably won't be able to get into the coop...lol.

We have a LOT of work to do down there.

If you can get some straw or hay that will help. Put the straw/hay down and then shavings on top of that. Not as permanent solution mind you but just til the spring when you can get in there and do a thorough job.

 

[Pyxis]

Hi all! Just popping in to say hi. I haven't been on in a bit (life has been crazy). I'm so far behind on this thread and I can't read the posts I missed to catch up so sorry if I missed anything.

I came back to quite a a surprise! An article I wrote has been featured on the home page carousel so I've had a lot of comments to read Hope everyone is doing well!

 

[Gramma Chick]

Hi all! Just popping in to say hi. I haven't been on in a bit (life has been crazy). I'm so far behind on this thread and I can't read the posts I missed to catch up so sorry if I missed anything.

I came back to quite a a surprise! An article I wrote has been featured on the home page carousel so I've had a lot of comments to read

Hope everyone is doing well!

Howdy Stranger ! What happened with your chickens ? have you moved them ?

 

[HISIRISHGEM]

@HISIRISHGEM Ive got a bunch of Appenzeller spitzhaubens. They lay white eggs. When descriptions of them say they're flighty & don't do well w confinement. However, I've found that they're very inquisitive birds, that after handling them a little when they are chicks, they are very social, sweet birds. Not lap chickens, but several try to stand on my feet when I'm out there feeding them. The birds I have confined to breeding pens don't seem to care, tho when given lots of space, they are very happy as well. They're super cute and efficient as far as feed conversion, considered large fowl, but on the small side of LF. I will be setting some of their eggs next week. LMK if ur interested in chicks.

Oh wow. Yes, we'd love a couple of them. Where abouts are you? My parents live in the Auburn area. How much would they be?

@HISIRISHGEM most white egg layers are known to be 'flighty' crazy, not mean but jump and fly and run for not much reason.
One you might want to look into is the Dorking.

Thank you! They look like beautiful birds. The egg is like a cream color. Now I have to find someone who would have them. Your all starting to entice me with more chickens. So far I'm looking for 4 Welsummer's, Maybe 2 Dorkings, 2 Buff Orps, 2 more EE'ers and a couple of the Appenzeller spitzhaubens. Which brings me to another question. I saw some cute little coops at Tractor Supply and the add-on runs that go with them. They are very cute but there weren't many reviews on them. The ones they did have reviews on said the coops didn't last long at all because they weren't well insulated for winter and broke down.

SO, If I need a 4-6 chicken coop, where could I get a quality economical (do those two words really go together) coop? We have our big coop right now, I just want to separate the news ones from the older ones and then I may have to separate someone in the original coop. Again, they're pecking feathers off the backs of each other. Not bad but two of my EE's (though they lay brown eggs) are getting nailed. They can't seem to heal up. Now most of them have little bits of feathers off from the roosts at night.

Any idea's on how to stop this? I've been using Blue Kote for weeks on all of them and the only ones without the feather issues are my Black Australorps who don't like getting into arguments. Even the little Golden Laced (who are at the very bottom are getting spots now. It's looking like it's a past time from boredom but They get scratch on the bottom, a cabbage tetherball, run time and even regular outdoor time now. Crazy birds. I'm trying to find the culprit but the one that seems to have the biggest attitude is the skinniest bird. I don't get it. She's our best layer. She started out first and lays everyday on time. Should I bring her in and separate her for a while. Feed her more and reintroduce her to the flock? The others seemed to be getting along and I'm not sure if it's the two EE'ers who are doing this to the others or if the others are getting bored.

are you coming to chickenstock in May? If so I will have some spitzhauben / white leghorn mixes. They lay white eggs and I get 5 most days out of 5 girls. Only 2 days a week do I only get 4. They are a bit small but the eggs are large .

I'm not sure, when and where will it be held? I'll check my husbands schedule. Can children come or is this more of an adult thing?