Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[chiques chicks]

My yard is covered in the young pokeweed. My chickens ate some and last night (2 days after eating it) I found one of my breeder GLW dead. She was fine that morning, sitting in the corner sunning her self. I don't know if the pokeweed killed her or what. I am so upset. My kids are older, teenagers, and don't go around picking berries and eating them. I don't know what to do with all the pokeweed

Poke is a perennial. Only way to get rid of it is to dig the roots, and they are huge. Must get them all.

Roundup will work to some extent when under two feet high.

The shots under six inches are said to be edible, but I've never eaten it.

My chickens avoid it and the berries, but wild birds eat the berries and spread the seeds.

I don't know how much it takes to be poisonous as opposed to sick, but I was taught from a young age not to eat it. I also cut off a lot of plants with a machete or sickle.

 

[dheltzel]

Very happy with this week's hatch

6 of 7 Welsummers hatched and the chicks are big (as were the eggs) considering these are first eggs from pullets.
3 of 5 of the newer (to me) type of Ameracaunas. The males look wheaten, the females have too much black to be pure, but I was hoping. Anyway, the chicks are wierd - 2 bright yellow, the other a caramel color, and all with bright orange legs, not looking Amercauna-ish at all! Still nice, just not what I was hoping for.
Only 1 Rhodebar, but it's female, after many weeks of males only. This is only the 6th female I've hatched this year, so I'm very happy to have her.

19 more little chickys!

 

[chippysmom327]

Very happy with this week's hatch  e
6 of 7 Welsummers hatched and the chicks are big (as were the eggs) considering these are first eggs from pullets.
3 of 5 of the newer (to me) type of Ameracaunas. The males look wheaten, the females have too much black to be pure, but I was hoping. Anyway, the chicks are wierd - 2 bright yellow, the other a caramel color, and all with bright orange legs, not looking Amercauna-ish at all! Still nice, just not what I was hoping for.
Only 1 Rhodebar, but it's female, after many weeks of males only. This is only the 6th female I've hatched this year, so I'm very happy to have her.

19 more little chickys!

Congrats!

 

[hoganTEF]

Hi! I am in West Chester - your store is pretty convenient to me - I am always up and down Rt 3. I will surely stop in sometime soon to check it out...

 

[stake]

Hi! I am in West Chester - your store is pretty convenient to me - I am always up and down Rt 3. I will surely stop in sometime soon to check it out...

Howdy Hogan:

Another Chester Co. chicken person...What are you raising?

 

[msladyhawke]

JM:

The store is on RT 352 south of RT3.....heading south its on the right hand side of the road a few miles down.....

Interesting. I will have to check it out some weekend.

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

Not only does pecking order change as they grow it can change on a day to day basis sometimes!!  Though there eventually gets to be a 'normal' is can take a long time to get there and even small things can cause a total reshuffle... adding or removing even one bird, changing roost set up, adding or changing feeder locations, changing nest boxes, etc. Birds in the 'lower' level of the pecking order are almost always striving to improve at least one spot, so you will most often see the conflicts arise between members who are at about the same level.  You will also see the 'upper level' birds reminding the rest of the flock just who is really boss... 
 I like to see 'higher level' birds who enforce their position with a simple peck or a stance to make lower birds give ground but not pursue or beat them up.  If a higher level bird starts becoming a bully I will keep a close eye to see if intervention is needed.  It very rarely is, but sometimes hens or roosters can develop a mean streak that just causes a constant upset within the flock.  Those birds I will remove if interventions don't improve things... I don't like to interfere much, but I won't have one aggressive bully keeping the whole flock upset either.  In nature an animal like that would probably be run out of a flock to fend for themselves, or the flock would split between followers of the bully and a second group who chose to not put up with it... but in our back yards we remove that option, so I can only do what I hope is best for the group as a whole.  
Flock dynamics are ever changing.... I think they do it just to keep us silly humans guessing!

Thanks Fisherlady! That's a LOT if information!

Hi! we hail from Media, PA just outside Philadelphia.  We are new to chickens but just bought a feed and seed store with a great amount of people interested in starting up!  We had our first "chicken chat" at the store - Tobin's Feed and Seed, also in Media last week.

We are looking forward to starting a group and offering more chats fairly often.  Anyone in PA close enough to may want to come over and add your expertise?

Thanks so much!   Cathy Norrbom

Welcome! I'll have to visit if I am in the area someday!

My yard is covered in the young pokeweed. My chickens ate some and last night (2 days after eating it) I found one of my breeder GLW dead. She was fine that morning, sitting in the corner sunning her self. I don't know if the pokeweed killed her or what. I am so upset. My kids are older, teenagers, and don't go around picking berries and eating them. I don't know what to do with all the pokeweed


Hi and welcome from the Poconos! Good luck with your new store and  chicken chat!

From " Reader's Digest North American Wildlife" ( a must for anyone interested in wild plants, animals and habitats, SO full of information!) : Pokeweed Phytolacca americana

Pokeweeds (Phytolacca)

"Useful but dangerous" best characterizes these weedy plants. In pioneer days the purple berries of North America's only species were used for ink, and so the plant came to be known as Inkweed. Young shoots and leafy tips are edible if boiled in at least two changes of water, but children have died from eating the berries. The seeds and roots are also quite poisonous, and so are the mature stems and leaves.

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

@barbiegirl Sorry for your loss, I hope it wasn't the Pokeweed.

 

[chippysmom327]

Check out what my chick was doing a few minutes ago for a good laugh:

Was sitting on the couch and heard what sounded like distress cries coming from the brooder. I went downstairs and saw the tiniest, youngest chick making the noise in the video. My mom said she heard him doing it Monday but assumed it was the 8 week old in the brooder, not the literally turned-two-weeks-old-that-day chick.

 

[Teila]

Check out what my chick was doing a few minutes ago for a good laugh:

Was sitting on the couch and heard what sounded like distress cries coming from the brooder. I went downstairs and saw the tiniest, youngest chick making the noise in the video. My mom said she heard him doing it Monday but assumed it was the 8 week old in the brooder, not the literally turned-two-weeks-old-that-day chick.

Oh wow! That is so super-cute and funny at the same time!