Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[BirdbyGavin1103]

I feel bad for one of our lil ladies...
Here's a pic of an average size egg from the girls:


And here's the reason I feel bad for the one girl:

 

[beaglady]

At spoutwood farm for the harvest fest ^^ still wearing the chainmail! But with a flannel over shirt lol also have my gsd with me, she has an orange neckbandana ^^

How did I miss you? I was in Glimmer. (I'm Brushwood Farm) I remember seeing a black GSD with the bandanna walk by. sniff!

I had a fun day down there though.

 

[LizardCat]

This is a bit early, but I'm wondering what everyone's personal philosophy on winter lighting is. Do you do it or not and why?

Been thinking about this one myself. My coop is south-facing with skylights and a large window, so I'm hoping to make the most of the natural lighting. It's also right next to the shed. Our next big project is to trench from the house to the shed (Only maybe 30 feet) for some buried cable, and then through the shed to the Coop.

I'm kinda wary of having heatlamps in the coop itself; keep hearing the horror stories about fires. I **KNOW** I wouldn't trust hanging my existing heat lamp, but I was thinking maybe I'd screw a ceramic fixture and tin reflector to one of the rafters. Higher perhaps than the roost bars so the girls can't poop on it and cause a fire.

 

[LizardCat]

Hey folks:

I have a new addition to my crew...complements of MotherHen....I don't think his pic does him justice...A Marraduna Basque boy...hope I can get him out of the grow out pen before it gets too chilly and in with the rest of the flock...and the big girls/boy won't kick his tucas too bad ....a big thanks MH........

Is that cattle panel in the bottom of the run? What's it there for? To discourage diggers?

 

[stake]

Is that cattle panel in the bottom of the run? What's it there for? To discourage diggers?

LC:

Its standard 2" by 4" from Home Depot....because I'm lazy, I got the outdoor/black tie wraps and tied it in as flooring....and yes it stops the diggers.. for my big run, I used landscape ties around the base as well as 6x6 pieces on the ends....

 

[Reyvaughn]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers. My mom told me this morning that pap just walked into a tree the other day... Just walked into it. He's been having issues with his sight for a couple years, but we wonder now how bad the spinal cancer is - maybe he has no control of his movements at times? Or maybe it's in his brain? I don't know. I do know he's in a lot of pain. He has been for awhile and yes, LittleMissPurdy, I believe working through it is his way of dealing with it. He didn't even want to bother with treatment at first, now he does.

I am worried about Dewey, my husband, now. He's been complaining for some time about different things and I kept telling him to go to the doctor. He doesn't want to or like to. He's 46, nearly 47yrs old and all he does is works. His life isn't complete with a job. He just got a better job but he's in his probationary period. Once he's signed on as a full hire and we get medical insurance again, he's going to a doctor.



In lighter news, the turkey trio from Aunt Kat!
They are wandering around in my 12x24 shed that holds my 2'x7' bantam Cochin breeding pens. They are in 'quarantine' yet. I swept and vacuumed my shed floor while they were running around. I don't know if it's because I am new to them, but they are not very outgoing. And they have no idea what mealworms are. If they do, they must not like them. They did like digging through my swept up pile though. I had to re-sweep it 3x before I shoveled it into the wheel barrel. At one point the tom decided to get the 'bird's eye view' from atop my pens.




This back corner will have 3 - 4'x5' built in pens. You can't see it, but to the right is my 4'x6' brooder with my lone Bourbon Red poult I hatched out last week.
ETA: The turkey on the left has me wondering if she is a she. I think she is. The snood is bigger then the other girls, but they are the same size (much smaller than the tom). For some reason she was quite red in this pic - not so in the others.


The tom looking handsome.


One of the hens preening.


"Oh, look! She put this here for us!"



And my original batch of turkeys.

The two BBBs by the feed bin are my deformed babies. I am going to attempt to get them an appointment for processing next week. I tried to splint their legs and I wrapped them with pipe insulation for some extra support after splinting did not work. The one's right leg is turned almost backwards. Poor babies. I kept them off a high protein diet so that wouldn't happen. It did anyways. So, this week and next week I am shoveling the protein to them to get them to at least 10-12lbs dressed weight.

I hatched the Red and Slate in late May-early June. The BBBs I bought from a local Agway. Mr. Red and the Slate hen will be in a pen together next year. I think the Bourbon in the brooder is another tom. I am seriously hoping not. I thought about keeping a BBB hen to see if Mr. Red and her would naturally mate and give me big, meaty and tasty birds next year for the holidays. I am not so sure I want to bother. Another project I don't want to deal with.

 

[chiques chicks]

Took my turkeys some time to understand mealworms. Of my four bourbons, three are toms. Two will be holiday meals. I really wish I had two hens, but it is what it is. Never was around turkeys before. I'm surprised how mellow and slow they are.

My one orpington rooster has some injures. I'm aiming some sort of predator got in and he did his job protecting. It looks like he'll recover, thankfully. I can't isolate him since her cares about his girls so much.

 

[SilkieSensation]

Ok sorry it took so long. My phone and my kindle wouldn't sync. I finally have more pictures of my chicks and the bump on their head.


Hope they give you a better view. What is so confusing to me is that I do not have any crested birds, and I know my roo and my hens have no silky in them... so I have no idea where this came from. Like I said only three of them have it....

Definitely vaults for crests, but not sure where they came from...lol



Been really hectic around here the past week. JJ finally agreed to volunteer to be admitted to the psych ward to get his meds sorted out. He only agreed because I told him if he didn't he would be packing his crap & getting out of my house because I couldn't deal with him any more. The crap he was pulling sent me into 2 panic attacks in 2 days & I haven't had a panic attack in almost 2 years. I have been trying to get him into the hospital for over 6 months. He went in last Monday night. They told him the average stay is 7-10 days, so hopefully he will be out in the next day or 2. I'm getting overwhelmed here with 2 kids, 200+ birds & all the other critters to take care of, plus the house. I told him if he doesn't get out soon I would be joining him just so I can get a vacation.

 

[LizardCat]

LC:

Its standard 2" by 4" from Home Depot....because I'm lazy, I got the outdoor/black tie wraps and tied it in as flooring....and yes it stops the diggers.. for my big run, I used landscape ties around the base as well as 6x6 pieces on the ends....

We just finished up the walls of our run yesterday. I'm using reclaimed landscape timbers from a raised bed project that we never finshed.

We went with chicken wire since the object of the exercise was to keep the girls IN, not critters out. For the same reason, I haven't added any skirting around the edges. The girls alerted me to the presence of a large owl or other bird of prey last week; so we've still got to put some netting over the top.

You having problems out there with coons or possums? The only digging I've seen around our coop would be from the girls themselves. I'm starting to think I should be hiring them out as an excavation crew. They'd quite literally work for peanuts!

 

[AUNT KAT]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers. My mom told me this morning that pap just walked into a tree the other day... Just walked into it. He's been having issues with his sight for a couple years, but we wonder now how bad the spinal cancer is - maybe he has no control of his movements at times? Or maybe it's in his brain? I don't know. I do know he's in a lot of pain. He has been for awhile and yes, LittleMissPurdy, I believe working through it is his way of dealing with it. He didn't even want to bother with treatment at first, now he does.

I am worried about Dewey, my husband, now. He's been complaining for some time about different things and I kept telling him to go to the doctor. He doesn't want to or like to. He's 46, nearly 47yrs old and all he does is works. His life isn't complete with a job. He just got a better job but he's in his probationary period. Once he's signed on as a full hire and we get medical insurance again, he's going to a doctor.



In lighter news, the turkey trio from Aunt Kat!
They are wandering around in my 12x24 shed that holds my 2'x7' bantam Cochin breeding pens. They are in 'quarantine' yet. I swept and vacuumed my shed floor while they were running around. I don't know if it's because I am new to them, but they are not very outgoing. And they have no idea what mealworms are. If they do, they must not like them. They did like digging through my swept up pile though. I had to re-sweep it 3x before I shoveled it into the wheel barrel. At one point the tom decided to get the 'bird's eye view' from atop my pens.




This back corner will have 3 - 4'x5' built in pens. You can't see it, but to the right is my 4'x6' brooder with my lone Bourbon Red poult I hatched out last week.
ETA: The turkey on the left has me wondering if she is a she. I think she is. The snood is bigger then the other girls, but they are the same size (much smaller than the tom). For some reason she was quite red in this pic - not so in the others.


The tom looking handsome.


One of the hens preening.


"Oh, look! She put this here for us!"



And my original batch of turkeys.

The two BBBs by the feed bin are my deformed babies. I am going to attempt to get them an appointment for processing next week. I tried to splint their legs and I wrapped them with pipe insulation for some extra support after splinting did not work. The one's right leg is turned almost backwards. Poor babies. I kept them off a high protein diet so that wouldn't happen. It did anyways. So, this week and next week I am shoveling the protein to them to get them to at least 10-12lbs dressed weight.

I hatched the Red and Slate in late May-early June. The BBBs I bought from a local Agway. Mr. Red and the Slate hen will be in a pen together next year. I think the Bourbon in the brooder is another tom. I am seriously hoping not. I thought about keeping a BBB hen to see if Mr. Red and her would naturally mate and give me big, meaty and tasty birds next year for the holidays. I am not so sure I want to bother. Another project I don't want to deal with.

AWWWWW :') Hee! Love that they are in good hands. If she is not a she and she turns out to be a he, and you want to exchange, please let me know. I will ride up or something .