NY chicken lover!!!!

[marinebarpop]

I just made a loaf of apple banana bread that I am donating to the chinese auction at the finger lakes feather club chicken show tomorrow.

EggCartons.com is supposed to show up. They usually donate a nest box & incubator to the auction. One year I won both! Plus they sell things there.

There are birds in the auctions as well, and individual sellers. We're havinng a Marans chicken egg show, entries are $5 each for 3 eggs in one group. I hear we will have at least 10 entries, maybe more if people hand deliver them to the show. Its a good eye opener for anyone wondering how a Marans egg should look like, etc.

Hope to meet some new faces as well as the old....

 

[Henicillin]

Just an update - the two chickens I have that ESCAPED from the fox (I lost two OE pullets, one 4 week old chick and my beautiful NN girl but two were attacked and lost only feathers) are doing fine. One was my young EE/AM rooster Q-tip - he is missing feathers but seems generally unharmed. Wasn't able to check all of him so hopefully I am correct. My HAC (HeartAttackChicken) is also doing well although she looks a lot thinner without all those feathers. I guess fat chickens do better against foxes since she is certainly no fighter.

Poor birds. The fox must not have been able to drag off the HAC because she's too big and heavy. I can't see any of my Brahmas fighting very hard either.

We need to go get more sandbags, as there are a couple of spots where dust bathing and general digging around are undermining the fence on the run. Even though the Peeps are pushing five weeks old, they're still small enough to jam themselves under the fence so they can mosey around in the yard eating without a care in the world. I had thought I had them all covered, but they were out this morning. The newest spot is behind the compost heap. It's now blocked off with a shovel, but we need a more permanent solution.

Our biggest problem is dogs, including the neighbor's German Shepherd, the year-old mixed-breed pup up the road, and our own. My birds can't be allowed out unsupervised, as they'd end up as Scooby Snacks. The neighbor's GSD actually tried to get one of the Peeps the other day. Alan called him off, at which point our own dog Gus took over. Fortunately, the chick made it back under the fence without losing more than a couple of tail feathers. We HAD a stockade fence between our property and theirs, but it was a crappy, cheap one that had rotted, so the last good windstorm took out several panels. Honestly, I want it back up, partly for privacy and partly to keep the birds from stressing out over the kids and dog.

 

[Henicillin]

The two reddish-brown Peeps are definitely Brahma crosses. I had thought so, as they both have little eagle-looking faces and black tips on their beaks, and are feathering in a reddish buff color. I spotted the feathered legs and feet today, which seals it for me. They're turning out to be quite pretty. I hope they're both pullets, although a Brahma/SS cross rooster might be gorgeous and worth keeping around. The Marans cross is turning out to be mostly black, which is interesting, as my Marans is a Cuckoo. The last one is a Dominique cross. It has a clearly defined white spot on its head, so I'm hoping that indicates "pullet" the way it generally does in the full-blooded Doms.

They'll be five weeks on Tuesday, and none of them have anything more than a token comb. It would be great if all four turned out to be pullets. Extremely unlikely, but great!

My fertility rate should be dropping like a stone shortly now that Captain Morgan is Last Roo Standing, and is the sole husband of a harem of twenty-one hens. He's quiet in the middle of the night, unlike his recently Crock-Potted brother. He's probably too exhausted to crow!

 

[ktblue3]

I can understand featherz frustration about the foxes. We had a problem 2 years ago. Kept loosing chickens one by one but was difficult to catch one in the act. My husband is the gentlest man ever but this brought out a side of him I rarely see. He would sit out on the deck, gun in lap, waiting. Managed to shoot one but problem kept happening. Then we discovered a den in front of the house under an old stump near the wooded area. Only a stone's throw from the house!!! We managed to trap one of the cubs and the mom which was quite difficult. Shot one of the cubs which did my husband in-but it was necessary as we couldn't catch him. Only 1 cub was left. We took the mom on a 30 min. ride to another town. That son of a gun managed to SOMEHOW find her way all the way back here. Probably driven by her maternal instinct. We finally got rid of them and bulldozed the area with the stump. Didn't have a problem for a long time after.....

 

[vmdanielsen]

We have a family of foxes near my horse pasture. Evey now and again she(mama?) comes over to check out the chickens, Doesn't come often. she doesn't like the electric fence. The problem I currently have is..red squirrels keep eating my vegetable seed. Okay i saw 4 of them They need to stop. I am ready to start shooting!!!

 

[featherz]

Poor birds. The fox must not have been able to drag off the HAC because she's too big and heavy. I can't see any of my Brahmas fighting very hard either.

Well, I managed to put two hot wires on one run today - not sure if it will do the trick as I have a less expensive charger, but it's a smallish run so I am hopeful. We're doing the other coop tomorrow!

 

[Lapeerian]

Well, I managed to put two hot wires on one run today - not sure if it will do the trick as I have a less expensive charger, but it's a smallish run so I am hopeful. We're doing the other coop tomorrow!

My current fence setup has an old metal fence post about 6" in the ground at the dripline of the barn in gravely soil (several feet of soil were stripped to level for the barn), less than ideal yet works most of the time. It isn't real hot farther away from the barn, but when the horses hear it snapping at a couple of the junctions, they know not to mess with it. In an ideal setup, you would have multiple ground rods driven many feet into the ground, but if your soil that soft, you should be ok with one ground rod each. Best way to test it would be buy a fence tester. They don't cost too much, my favorite is the one with multiple lights to show how hot it is. Or just grab hold of the fence, you should feel more than a tingle.

Bingo Pony update: Vet was out a couple weeks ago for spring shots. Lungs are clear, thinking COPD. What confuses me is how fast the onset was. Got a bottle of dexamethasone and banamine. Dex alleviates some of the heaving, but doesn't cure him. Neck is getting pretty tough from dex shots every 2 days. Gave him a shot of banamine Friday morning, improved his overall demeanor and was back to happy pony that night. Doesn't get excited about his grain anymore, sometimes only feed him once a day because he hadn't finished the previous feeding. Still going out and grazing some. Spending more time just resting in his stall. Was hoping to spend the summer with him, but the hot/humid weather takes a toll. The rapid breathing increases his heart rate and metabolism, so not putting weight on. He wants to graze with everyone else, but new pony would chase him. Spend time with him each night just brushing and petting. Sometimes little girl comes with me to brush him, thinks it is so fun to pet his nose and brush him. And then goes on to terrorize the rest of the barn, usually the sawdust pile.
On a happier note, went out and bought party supplies today for little girls birthday #2 in a month! Winnie the Pooh theme. Tomorrow, going to set up some more chicken wire on the steep bank, let the chicks take over that weed patch since we can't do anything with it and it looks terrible being next to the garage. Hope the rain holds off. If it rains, maybe a trip to Syracuse?

 

[featherz]

My current fence setup has an old metal fence post about 6" in the ground at the dripline of the barn in gravely soil (several feet of soil were stripped to level for the barn), less than ideal yet works most of the time. It isn't real hot farther away from the barn, but when the horses hear it snapping at a couple of the junctions, they know not to mess with it. In an ideal setup, you would have multiple ground rods driven many feet into the ground, but if your soil that soft, you should be ok with one ground rod each. Best way to test it would be buy a fence tester. They don't cost too much, my favorite is the one with multiple lights to show how hot it is. Or just grab hold of the fence, you should feel more than a tingle.

We did get the fence tester and it's showing what it should, so hopefully it's working. The ground rod went in easily, just a bit of a rubber mallet needed towards the end. It's really only 50 feet of wire on that run x 2 wires, but it's just a 20AC charger. Said 3K/4K volts on the charger, which according to the chart MAY not be enough to deter animals looking for food, however, this is on a hardware cloth fence (the top is just heavy flight netting so he could certainly go that way). We put one wire at 6" and one a foot or so above that for climbers. It's also got a fence skirt.

The other coop would have 48 linear feet of wire on the run plus we'll put wires around the back of the coop to prevent digging under the floor. it's a work in progress!

Didn't set the trap last night, letting it sit out in the rain to help wash human scent off it.

 

[vmdanielsen]

My current fence setup has an old metal fence post about 6" in the ground at the dripline of the barn in gravely soil (several feet of soil were stripped to level for the barn), less than ideal yet works most of the time. It isn't real hot farther away from the barn, but when the horses hear it snapping at a couple of the junctions, they know not to mess with it. In an ideal setup, you would have multiple ground rods driven many feet into the ground, but if your soil that soft, you should be ok with one ground rod each. Best way to test it would be buy a fence tester. They don't cost too much, my favorite is the one with multiple lights to show how hot it is. Or just grab hold of the fence, you should feel more than a tingle.

Bingo Pony update: Vet was out a couple weeks ago for spring shots. Lungs are clear, thinking COPD. What confuses me is how fast the onset was. Got a bottle of dexamethasone and banamine. Dex alleviates some of the heaving, but doesn't cure him. Neck is getting pretty tough from dex shots every 2 days. Gave him a shot of banamine Friday morning, improved his overall demeanor and was back to happy pony that night. Doesn't get excited about his grain anymore, sometimes only feed him once a day because he hadn't finished the previous feeding. Still going out and grazing some. Spending more time just resting in his stall. Was hoping to spend the summer with him, but the hot/humid weather takes a toll. The rapid breathing increases his heart rate and metabolism, so not putting weight on. He wants to graze with everyone else, but new pony would chase him. Spend time with him each night just brushing and petting. Sometimes little girl comes with me to brush him, thinks it is so fun to pet his nose and brush him. And then goes on to terrorize the rest of the barn, usually the sawdust pile.
On a happier note, went out and bought party supplies today for little girls birthday #2 in a month! Winnie the Pooh theme. Tomorrow, going to set up some more chicken wire on the steep bank, let the chicks take over that weed patch since we can't do anything with it and it looks terrible being next to the garage. Hope the rain holds off. If it rains, maybe a trip to Syracuse?

6 inches?! and your fence works?? Wow! We live on a gravel bed and in dry weather mine doesn't work so hot. You are lucky. But then, if I get zapped,it will knock me on my butt.

Sorry to hear of your old pony. With the COPD, maybe if you can get him past this terribly "pollony" spring it will clear up a bit. With this very weird spring, even my mare has has some allergies. I used to put my old pony on the lawn to eat the less course grass. It seemed to help for a while.....Good luck.

 

[pharmchickrnmom]

My new silkie coop from my daughter and her fiance. They made it for me for mothers day. Not bad at all for first timers. The tots are happy too.