***OKIES in the BYC III ***

[artsyrobin]

Lots of run maintenance to do today, due to too many flies. Considering putting my 8 week old BRs in with the bigger girls. I'm not sure, but I thought it might be a good idea to try to get them together before the older ones start laying. I've been paying close attention to the integration thread that's been going. Any of you ever have trouble getting little ones in with the big ones? Times like this, I wish free ranging was an option for my girls.

generally i won't put them together till they are close to the same size, you could section off an area with the big ones and see how they do

 

[dunnmom]

@artsyrobin They did okay tonight. We put the little chicks directly in the run close to sunset, with a place to seek shelter and their own food and water. As expected, a few of the bigger chickens took after them to show them who was boss. My hubs intervened and poked the aggressors with his finger. They didn't try anything else after that, except chasing the chicks back to their corner when they got too close. The bigger chickens guarded their food and water in one corner like big fluffy sentinels. The little ones stayed in their corner chirping their heads off, terrified of the bigger ones (except the runt who got a bit cocky now and then). After they all fell asleep, hubs put them all to bed, the chicks in their own bed, of course. I'm getting up extra early to observe and give treats if all is still good. As long as there's no overt bullying, bloodshed, or feather picking, we're going to try to leave them to their pecking order business.

 

[artsyrobin]

@artsyrobin They did okay tonight. We put the little chicks directly in the run close to sunset, with a place to seek shelter and their own food and water. As expected, a few of the bigger chickens took after them to show them who was boss. My hubs intervened and poked the aggressors with his finger. They didn't try anything else after that, except chasing the chicks back to their corner when they got too close. The bigger chickens guarded their food and water in one corner like big fluffy sentinels. The little ones stayed in their corner chirping their heads off, terrified of the bigger ones (except the runt who got a bit cocky now and then). After they all fell asleep, hubs put them all to bed, the chicks in their own bed, of course. I'm getting up extra early to observe and give treats if all is still good. As long as there's no overt bullying, bloodshed, or feather picking, we're going to try to leave them to their pecking order business.

integration is the pits, i carry a spray bottle of water to spray aggressors in the face if they get too rough-

 

[Matt in Okla]

Saw this today

 

[NanaKat]

Saw this today

What a cute hatch!

 

[Ironsights]

No power for a couple days. Still waiting for the electric company crew to replace the downed lines in our yard and pasture. Lost one Cornish cross when moving birds before the storm. He wandered off and probably blew/flew to Texas.

hope it comes on soon. It's way too hot so I hope you have a place to go! too hot to be with out AC. Caught said the hospital she works at had a lightning strike which took out the power, the emergency generator and the cat scan and other things.

 

[BetsyOK]

Coral, hope you have power back now. Not a good time of year (if there is any) to lose power. We were lucky.

Cathiesue, I'm working on Vashi to try to get him to come next time. He's not actually a "chicken person" but is supportive of me when he can be.

 

[Poco Pollo]

Power is back in, but no Internet yet. Our ISP is in Taft, and they still don't have power.

 

[NanaKat]

@Kassaundra. Have you been curing your rabbit skins when you butcher?
I'm working on a deer hide...fur on...for my SIL. I found a great book on Amazon that has instructions for rabbit fur skins. Let me know if you are interested and I'll send you a copy of the instructions.

In the hobbies section, I posted pictures of the progress on the deer hide. Here is one photo of the hide after fleshing, salting, relaxing and degreasing. It is now in the pickle stage.

We are back to watering in the garden since the soil is dust dry from lack of rain.....my rain dance didn't work for us....

The blackberries have so far produced 5 gallons of juice and another 15 gallons of frozen berries. We may get one more picking from the looks of the vines. Without rain, they will begin to go dormant until fall.

 

[Tika75]

So Friday I get home from work and go outside. I look over and the dog that isn't even ours had broke into the small pen with my babies. She killed everyone of them too.

I kept hoping that maybe some got away since there weren't a lot of feathers and would show back up to roost, but no luck. I called and told my son's fiancé she had better come get her dog because it was going to be gone one way or another before it got dark. Of course you can through a lot of sailor talk in my conversation to her. My 14 year old is ticked off big time. He is in 4-H and they were his project. He was planning on taking them to the county fair in September too. I might try to buy some pullets that are 3-6 months old and then order babies next spring.