Official Squatch Watchers

[CapricornFarm]

Give your hands a good massage and rest, Cappy. Hardware cloth is rough, especially on the palms. I cut it in sizes just right for a ferret cage so our rattie kids don't escape. It was miserable, but I was also cutting it in such a way that there were no poking wires.

No time to rest, i need to get stuff ready for the big swap. Leaving Friday night. Stay up all night, sell all Saturday. Drive back Saturday night.

 

[apryl29]

Crazy Chicken Lady Hack--
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Clean the waterers with a soft toilet brush! $1 at the store.

Great idea! I use an old washcloth, but it super sucks on my big waterer and I can't get in to the plug that the water comes out of. I was thinking of getting a baby bottle brush w/ the tiny brush end to clean in there.

Lol! I spent my morning zoned out looking at toy chickens. They are awesome though, anybody with kiddos or is in fact a kiddo inside take a peek.https://www.amazon.com/Standing-Chicken-Plush-Stuffed-Animal/dp/B00OOC24R2

My child has one of those! Hers is the brown one. She took it to the hospital w/ her when she had her surgery, BUT the chicken didn't go into surgery w/ her b/c it was too scared and needed to stay w/ me. (I swear that kid is either 5 or 25 depending on the day) Anyway, it's super cute and very fluffy & appears well made.

Lol, this is just for you, @Chickassan. Because I happen to know you are also--like me--a 12 year old boy trapped inside a woman's body. Enjoy.

It gets good at around 01.13 or so.

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I'm so not watching that at work..

I just scrub my waterers with leaves.

We don't have enough leaves for that, plus they'd all probably be covered in poop.

She seems to be doing ok. It's harder for me to monitor cause I'm not living where the chickens are.

I'm tempted to bring her and my Swedish Flower Sugar to the house. Sugar had always been low low low in the packing order but I think she's blind in one eye now.
Was going to start a thread on her.... the list goes on.
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Did get a delivery at the coop today. That should be the rest of the wood I need to finish it. (If Dad would stop kicking boards and finding reasons to replace them)

Dads... it's what they do.

I planned to call my coop the CALICO CHICKEN COOP, but it may end up as NEVER ENDING COOP BUILD.
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Today i put hardware cloth at the base of run#1. Hubby actually helped, and put trim around the door to keep the door from swinging in. I made sure there were enough screws on the back of the roof to keep coons from crawling in the eaves.
So tomorrow i want to put a hardware cloth skirt around the base of the coop. And work on run #2 some more. I may get the door built for the other half of the coop tonight.

Y'all are making me really think I need to do the hardware skirt thing... I need to get me a sugar daddy who will pay for all this stuff.

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So this picture is clearly from before I blew the walls off but it shows the area I need to cover.
The white line is the header and top of the wall. The blue is where the roof will be.
The yellow box is the area I’m trying to cover. So it’s a vertical space between the rafters. I’ll have to each space individually.
I guess I was questioning if it would be better to have the bent edges and staples on the inside or out. Or if I’m over thinking it all together and it makes no difference. LOL

I put wood over mine, didn't think about ventilation at the time, BUT what you could do is attach the hardware cloth to the 2x4's before you put up the walls & roof & that will give it some extra reinforcement and it'd be much easier to do before you add the walls than after. I'd consider painting the exposed 2x4's b/c of weather, at least on the side that faces out, again easier to do before you put up the walls.

I cut a whole roll of hardware cloth into foot wide sections today, what a chore!

I did that a while back. I used pruning sheers and it made it a bit easier than using wire cutters, though there were little nubs left behind. Mine hands were grateful b/c I'd used wire cutters before and my hands hurt for days.

GOOD
MORNING
SQUATCHY FRIENDS!

I’M BACK!
And I have power, a/c, internet... everything!!!!

Glad you're back up and running!

Morning all

Stacey so glad you're up and running again...



Can't believe you've had chickens for a year and a half and this is the first time you've experienced the joy of a cecal poo... Some foods are harder for a chicken to digest... they go into the caecal gland (or what ever it is) and ferment until the chicken is able to absorb its nutrients. every so often they expel what's in the gland. It is the nastiest possible poo and smells horrible.



As a general rule of thumb, inside to keep birds in/outside to keep things out. And don't use staples, use screws with washers. Coons can exert enough force to pull the staples.

I didn't realize that's what it was. Mine have had wet poop, but I didn't realize that was cecal.

Update on my hen with horrifying egg. (Good news).
DH took her to the vet while I was at work on Tuesday. He took the nasty blob with him to show the vet plus some pictures of the egg. Annnnddddd the vet said she had never seen anything quite like it before
The whole staff wanted to see it after they put the blob under the microscope.
Good news though they gave Buttercup a very thorough exam. Checked every inch of her from comb to toes, even down her throat and up the hoo-haa. They also had her walk around the room to check her movement, checked her poop, took her temp and heart rate. She seems perfectly healthy! They think the egg was basically a glitch. They had a longer way of explaining it that DH did his best to relay to me....but basically, as long as she doesn’t develop additional symptoms, they think it will be just a one time thing).

She has laid 2 eggs since the incident. It is the first time in a month or two that she laid two days in a row, and I think maybe the increased laying is a good sign? And the eggs themselves look alright. The first one had a small meat spot and some shell issues, but yesterday’s looked pretty good!


Thank you squatchers for the love and support!

Great news!!!!!

 

[ronott1]

GOOD
MORNING
SQUATCHY FRIENDS!

I’M BACK!
And I have power, a/c, internet... everything!!!!

 

[FlyingNunFarm]

@staceyj
Having power is always great! It's amazing all the little things that use it and you don't even realize.

@apryl29
Genius!!! Put up the HW cloth first!

 

[Anansi]

All the little things and the heaters in the winter. You also find out who the pansies are. They gripe about seeing the power on on the other side of town and think they should have had power first because they're in the wealthier area. I called bs, and reminded people that soldiers in the field sleep in tents, and get to stay warm with kerosene heaters if they're lucky. I had that pleasure for a month, but at least I had a cot. M16s make comfortable companions in a sleeping bag, they stay safe and if you put your uniform under you, you don't have to crawl in to clothes that are 10 degrees at 5 am. At least here we now have a generator, 23 years after moving here. We can no longer use the propane burner because of the animals and I get such a bad migraine I can't be around it for a long time. I ended up with hypothermia and over at my mom's a few years back because of it, and it took forever to warm up and start feeling better. That was with a hot shower, a warm drink and an electric blanket. I finally had to take a hot bath to get my core temp back to normal. With the generator we can keep a couple of areas warm and run the tank heaters. The other animals can get moved to the warmer rooms. We also have plenty of blankets and aside from the occasional ice storms, hurricane strength winds and idiot drivers, we don't have much to worry about for power outages.

 

[CapricornFarm]

Trying to get ready for Gilmanor swap in Glen Allen VA. I fear i am going to be extremely busy until Sunday at least because i have so much to accomplish. So if you don't hear from me, no worries.

 

[Anansi]

Here's to hoping your bird count dramatically drops and you recoup a decent amount of expenditures they have required. Have an enjoyable time, and we'll see you when you get a chance to check in.

 

[CapricornFarm]

Here's to hoping your bird count dramatically drops and you recoup a decent amount of expenditures they have required. Have an enjoyable time, and we'll see you when you get a chance to check in.

Thanks! I wish you guys could all go there.

 

[ronott1]

Trying to get ready for Gilmanor swap in Glen Allen VA. I fear i am going to be extremely busy until Sunday at least because i have so much to accomplish. So if you don't hear from me, no worries.

 

[Chickassan]

Good afternoon! @staceyj Yay you're alive and have all your comforts back! @pitbullmomma What in the heck did I just watch? I'm still sick, and for whatever reason I bought a Roxy chicken "the speckled one" and baby chick i'm still a child and I wanted a stuffed chicken. I'm about to start throwing rocks at hubs, he is extra annoying at the moment.