Online Large Fowl Chat Thread

[mrheinz77]

Ugh. Cow calving, eggs hatching, and what am I doing after 10 pm? Fixing fence. 3 heifers thought it would be fun to walk through a fence so I could fix it instead of watching the miracle of birth. Like I said, UGH.

 

[Soggy Bottom Farm]

I am looking for duck eggs of almost any kind if any buddy has any and wants to trade for any of my cochin bantam eggs or either naked neck turkens or blrw.

 

[CapricornFarm]

I totally know what you are talking about with fixing fences . My goats stomp the heck out of it and it ends up about 2 feet high. Ugh is right. Some of the worst offenders are going to auction soon. I am so happy the pen I had roosters in is empty, and tomorrow I am moving the speckled Sussex out of the chicken tractor into that big pen. They will love it. Then the silver laced Wyandottes will have more room as well. I put the silkie momma in the broody pen with her one chick. I wish I could give her another but she is not sitting so I don't know if she would take it. Tonight I snuck the new rooster in with the Barred Rock hens. I hope they like him. He is a better looking roo, and lighter too. Maybe he will be better on the feather wear and tear. When I put the new guy with the Delawares, the hens didn't like him . He got hen pecked and I ended up selling all of them since I am trying to cut back. I have lots of cleaning coop work to do, a little remodeling , and more building. If you can believe it, I have 4 empty coops and an empty pen right now! But it will not last. Two bators chugging away 24/7, babies hatching and I still want more. Am I nuts or what?

 

[mrheinz77]

While I was fixing fence I had an Iowa Blue hatch. I have a bunch more starting.

Cross your fingers that my hatching problemd are over. I have hatching now: Silver Spangled App (something or another), Ia Blue, BBS Jersey Giants, Sultan, sand Polish. Next group into the hatcher are : Black Split Orp, Delaware, and Speckled Sussex. Its a bood thing because I have 90 some in the HovaBator with 7 dozen needing to go in and 5 moire dozen coming this week. I think I'm addicted. When I candked those in the Bator, all looked good. About 5 were to early to tell or the eggs were too dark. I'm gonna be a busy guy. .

 

[Chicken Coach]

Hi guys,i went to my friends Johns to get some more stone and he gave me his buff Cochin. He has had the same blood lines for 38 years.The is 80 years old I've known him for over 30 years it was a honer for me to take them.He still has over 200 chickens and needs to cut back --don't we all--- now i need to build more pens.

 

[CapricornFarm]

Cool, I bet his birds are very consistent. I am in the middle of another grow out pen project. By the time I got home from the swap, watered all the goats and chickens and then fed them, I was too hot and tired to work on my project . Maybe tomorrow . Have a great night, Deb

 

[CapricornFarm]

We went to the flea market at Crump today. It was depressing to see all the chickens cramped up in dirty cages without water or food. Many of the people that sell there buy cheap birds at auction to resell. I didn't even see any that I wanted . We did get some nice produce and cheap prices on hardware. I bought 2 pairs of hinges and a snap for one of my cages. After we got back, it clouded up and poured rain. DH wanted some of his dress clothes ironed. So I did that for a while. Finally it cleared up enough to feed the animals. So next on the list was fence repair, especially since Thelma and Louise were loose again. Ugh, those 2 are miserable goats. I put an extra fence post in where they had been escaping and wired the fence on really tight... That had better work or BBQ might be in order! Just kidding, I never eat anything I have named. But it is aggravating to find them loose almost every time I go back there. While I was there, I piled up more dead branches. It is very wild and tangled back there. You never know what you will find. So anyway, after I made supper, I worked on more fence repair , and attached wire to another side of the new grow out pen. But that side still needs a door and I am out of 2x4's. So I put chicken wire on half of the roof, and started hammering it on with poultry staples. Finally it was just too dark. I had to put up the few chickens I let out today. DH said he heard the hawk again. I only let out the light Sussex and the giant cochin pullets since I was right there with them and had a hammer in my hand. But the teenagers near the garage go out every day. They have a yard enclosed by a fence , but no roof. I put them back in the brooder they have outgrown so they are safe at night. I did get the speckled Sussex out of the chicken tractor today. They are in the completed grow out pen. They were having a great time, flapping and digging and throwing themselves on the ground! I just love to watch chickens!
The barn cat has been making herself scarce since i caught one of the kittens and it yelled. Finally saw her and one kitten in one of the brushpiles on Huckleberry Hill. Hope to catch all of them so they can go see the vet , but that mama is not friendly and the kittens are very fast!
Must get some eggs packed, need to ship some off tomorrow . What have you guys been up to?

 

[mrheinz77]

I got very little accomplished. I didn't get to bed until after midnight last night so I woke up late for milking. I worked on my incubator some. Still not figuring the darn thing out. I ended up goung to school today b/c they cleaned my classroom today trying to get rid of its mold problem. I had to move stuff in from the hall b/c the custodians said they are behind b/c of spending too much time on my room. (My head started filling up as soon as I walked in there). The Hovabator ended up getting overloaded, so some eggs went in the hatcher. I had room in there cuz chicks hatched today.

I was finally able to milk but had to move the fresh cow from the dry cow lot and put her calf in a hut. Fed the heifers and birds, turned egg and now headed to bed. Ugh, I'm exhausted.

Does anybody have Langshan? My lone Langshan chick died today.

it hatched with a messed up leg.

Good night all
Jim

 

[Chicken Coach]

Today was a good day. Yesterday I bought treated 2x4s and with my wife and Daughter we built a 8x8 divided pen and got most of done.My wife makes goat milk soap and see bought some plastic produce crates from a pig farmer who feeds produce to his pigs. She will use them to store and dry her soap.The trouble is they smell like muddy pigs, o well that's whats the power washer is for.

 

[quibs]

When is someone going to post some sultan eggs?! haha