Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

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barbiegirl said:
Hercules is a funny looking breed of dog :lau I am glad he will have a good home.
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He was strange looking. I think one of the hens "trimmed" his puff when they were sparring...
barbiegirl said:
I just wanted to show off my silkie baby that we hatched over the summer from my silkies. Isn't he handsome? His name is Cannonball.
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Very handsome!
stake said:
Anne: I'd guess that chickens will not be a problem...they are very hip right now....maybe offer to sell the chooks with the house....or the potential buyer will know if they are interested in byc they are good to go with the neighbors.....my two cents....
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We shall see! I will keep you all updated, whether you like it or not! :lol:
 
Egg production is starting up! I got 10 out of 15 eggs today!
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Hopefully everyone's egg production starts picking up
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SilkieSensation said:
I found 5 chicken & 1 turkey egg today. Pretty sure they are stashing them somewhere since they are free ranging. I keep patrolling the yard in Easter Egg Hunt Mode.
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Yep, my egg production has doubled in a week....1/2 are laying under a pallet I leaned against the fence....

In other news, the snow has started to fall...according to the news we are going to be cold through the end of March...interesting way to usher spring in......
 
stake said:
SilkieSensation said:
I found 5 chicken
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Yep, my egg production has doubled in a week....1/2 are laying under a pallet I leaned against the fence....

In other news, the snow has started to fall...according to the news we are going to be cold through the end of March...interesting way to usher spring in......
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I woke up to little ice balls pinging off my metal roof at 6am.
 
I know this should technically be in the Feeding and Watering your flock forum but I am looking for local advice. I used to feed my chickens the layer feed from Countryside organics, that was before I got so many lol. It costs $70ish dollars to ship 100 lbs of feed! I have been just buying the HomeFresh brand pellets from the feed store but they don't want anything to do with it. I would love to find someplace local or semi local that makes their own feed. Can someone point me in the right direction? I am in kittanning but willing to travel a bit to buy in bulk
 
stake said:
Yep, my egg production has doubled in a week....1/2 are laying under a pallet I leaned against the fence....

In other news, the snow has started to fall...according to the news we are going to be cold through the end of March...interesting way to usher spring in......
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My 6yo nearly started crying when she saw the snow this morning... she was shocked and said "What!?!, it can't snow in SPRING!" so I told her "well, technically Spring hasn't quite started yet", and then she says (exasperated) "It has for MEEE!!!!"

It's Spring for the chickens as well... Romeo has started crowing incessantly, the other day he literally crowed for 5 minutes straight and it went on and on all day long. Will he settle back down? Or is crowing for 10 hours a day going to continue from now on? It doesn't bother me at all, I really enjoy it actually... but I worry our neighbors might get annoyed (I'd certainly get annoyed if a neighbor's dog barked as frequently as Romeo has been crowing these days).

We've been getting 4 eggs a day from our 4 layers for a week or so now. Hubbs took a half dozen eggs to work for one of his co-workers to taste the difference between a fresh egg and a grocery store egg. He came home saying we need more layers, lol. I wonder what the chances are of a RIR or Black australorp going broody this Spring... we don't want to hatch eggs and brood more chicks, I'd rather let a hen do it for us.

I really want to get our rabbits out of the basement/garage before we go back home for Easter, but the extended forecast is showing overnight temps in the 20s through the rest of the month. These bunnies have been in the cool basement all winter but haven't dealt with freezing temps so I worry about just putting them out there.

As for gardening... I'm way behind. I started some early seeds (cabbage, kale, peppers) in containers outside a while ago - winter sowing style. I've been meaning to check on them and see if anything is happening out there - they could have fried on that warm day we had last week (should have taken off or vented the lid). My typical seed starting routine is not even started yet, I still need to clean out and bring in my seed starting shelves from the front porch. Going to Lowes on Sunday for bamboo stakes (trying the teepee trellis for peas this year) and the lumber for my new garden beds in the side yard. This year I'm aiming for productive but pretty front beds and saving the bulk of production for the new side beds. I need to get carrots started out there soon so I better get those beds built and filled!

I had hoped to get the shelf in and seeds started yesterday, but I spent the day researching pasty butt and cleaning chick butts.
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Five of my 25 meaties developed pasty butt on their 3rd/4th day here. I separated them and have them upstairs in a mini box type brooder. I added some probiotics to their feed and have been checking butts and cleaning vents as necessary. I had a really hard time at the first cleaning though... There was a lot of dry poop that just wouldn't soften or come loose from their fuzz and I opted to leave it instead of stressing them more and pulling out more fuzz. Here's a strange thing, of all of the 25 chicks, the only ones who got pasty butt were the heritage (Delaware and Dark Cornish), all of the Cornish Roasters are just fine. They are acting just fine and 3 of the 5 have had clear vents since last night, but 2 are still getting poo stuck to their vents this morning - I've been checking frequently and wiping with a wet paper towel (usually) before it dries so it isn't so difficult to clean.

I really want to get the pasty butt chicks back downstairs though because our dog won't stop mothering them, lol. She is so concerned and needs to poke each one with her nose 4, 567 times a day to make sure they are okay. It stresses the chicks out though and she keeps pushing the box away from the heat lamp (because she's short and pushes against the box with her chest to look in) and splashes water out of their water dish every time she moves the box. It's funny to see her with the chicks actually, she's a Welsh Corgi which were apparently originally used as a herding dog for fowl and even livestock before they became better known as British royalty dogs. My family never believed she could herd anything because she's so short, but she's tried to herd people many times and she's really taken to these chicks. It almost makes me want to train her properly for herding our birds - we could actually let them free-range if the dog could keep them corralled in our yard and help protect them from stray dogs/cats or other random day-time predators. But I wouldn't know where to start especially because she isn't even trained very well as a pet, lol. We've always had her on a line to go outside because she likes to explore and doesn't listen well to come back when called. She's also 9 years old and way past the prime for proper training. I wish we could just fence in the yard and let her roam with her birds
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but we rent so putting up fences is not really doable either.
 

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