Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[OneMountainAcres]

Well, Ana's first chick hatched last night. Unfortunately, I only found out because when I was looking for eggs, I found the baby, cold and dead next to her. It must've gotten our from under her This is her first time actualy hatching eggs. Last time, I just grafted chicks to her and she did an amazing job raising them. She has 3 eggs left and one was peeping like crazy this morning. I'll be keeping a close eye on her.

 

[BullChick]

Well, Ana's first chick hatched last night. Unfortunately, I only found out because when I was looking for eggs, I found the baby, cold and dead next to her. It must've gotten our from under her This is her first time actualy hatching eggs. Last time, I just grafted chicks to her and she did an amazing job raising them. She has 3 eggs left and one was peeping like crazy this morning. I'll be keeping a close eye on her.

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

Quote:
enabler!.

I still have both hands!

The broodies are not blase about it, but I am allowed to reach in for the food and water now! I even held a chick!

Aw! Thats great! How many chicks do you have?

Well, Ana's first chick hatched last night. Unfortunately, I only found out because when I was looking for eggs, I found the baby, cold and dead next to her. It must've gotten our from under her

This is her first time actualy hatching eggs. Last time, I just grafted chicks to her and she did an amazing job raising them. She has 3 eggs left and one was peeping like crazy this morning. I'll be keeping a close eye on her.

That stinks, it so sad when the littles die.

 

[BullChick]

enabler!.  

Aw! Thats great! How many chicks do you have?
That stinks,  it so sad when the littles die. 

He isn't an enabler, he is a supporter. We should always support our friends!
I have nine chicks.

 

[dheltzel]

He isn't an enabler, he is a supporter. We should always support our friends!
I have nine chicks.

LOL!!

I have 9 hundred chicks, or at least it seems that way when I look at the feed bill. Used to feed a (literal) ton every 3 weeks. Last time it only lasted 2 weeks and panic was starting to set in. Sold off 68 adults last weekend and might do a bunch more soon to try to reign on the inventory a bit.

 

[BullChick]

Yes, feed bills are more important than the number of beaks and bills.

 

[LittleMissPurdy]

We are in a little residential neighborhood... large lots and adjacent to gamelands, but still a residential subdivision where kids and dogs are running around pretty freely 3 seasons out of the year. It's definitely not cool to have coyotes in the neighborhood. My neighbor across the street saw one run past her into my yard a few weeks ago. She has german shepherds so she first thought it was one of her dogs that got out somehow in the middle of the night (she was on her porch, smoking). When she realized what it was, she ran inside and sent me a message... hubs and I had just been getting ready to go to bed, so I sent him out to the back porch... he spotted him right away and shot him in the face with the pellet gun we keep at the back door. It wasn't going to really hurt him, but we hoped it would at least dissuade him from hanging around (and we won't keep anything more powerful than a pellet gun out/accessible because we have small children and neighborhood kids here all the time).

The pheasants should be able to fly a little once we get them moved over to the turkey pen, of course, they'll just fly up and hit the bird netting and crash back down... but it's more space than the tractor, and more secure once we finish the improvements we started. I still can't believe my chickens are flying up onto a 6 1/2 foot door. My older layers (BA mostly) definitely could not do that! I might have to re-think my run fencing for these birds!.

be careful out there...they can be so brazen!! The neighbor that had lost those birds, they have 3 Australian shepherds..those dogs do NOT back down from anything. They are allowed to roam their territory, sometimes they over shoot a bit

...not an issue, anyway, these coyotes would stay around the perimeter of the property..just out of good shooting range, and they DO use bigger bangers than a pellet gun. They have had issues with raccoons , in the middle of the day..yeah, not good. Had to put them down.
We must all be very mindful, careful...makes things even more interesting now that we all have animals(low on the food chain), in our yards..brings another element to the mix of already imposed upon nature..

I do not trim our girls wing feathers, the first two birds I had, I did that...just haven't done it since. I KNOW they can fly and jump exceedingly high!..hahaha, when they get to play in the garden (off season), they show off a bit from time to time..and if I call them over to the 'chicken shed', they all want to be the first to get the corn, funny watching them jump, run and fly over each other to get there.

The pheasant enclosure I saw was not very high, but the birds could glide a here & there if they chose to...it's not like your raising them to be stocked on some preserve or hunting area..I would think a that would entail a different set-up all together,-disclosure- I am NOT expert on anything though..

I use canned chicken for enchiladas, chicken noodle soup, baby/toddler food, dog food (vet recommends chicken and rice for sick dogs) casseroles, and on a salad.
Wingstone had said about canning fried chicken. Never tried it though.

yeppers!!! It is already cooked, just like the 'store canned' stuff. Use it however you like!! OOoooo...fried chicken

looking for opinions, not sure if I am in the right place, my silkie has gone broody, again, what would u all recommend, barred rock or wyonette?

if you do NOT want broody..do NOT go wyandotte...from experience

...hahahha...they are great birds though....I have 3 marans, none have gone broody yet

I have 2 new barred rocks..will be interesting how they act..to brood or not to brood, that is the question

 

[BullChick]

Since the Marans were from me, I'm surprised they did not go broody. My very first Prudie was a hatchery barrred rock.

 

[LittleMissPurdy]

If you don't have a pressure canner you can can most things like that in boiling water for 3hrs instead. That's the method I've used. Learned from my mom and grandma.

that is so totally old school...I have had people tell me about doing it that way...I haven't had anyone teach me these things, most learnt on my own, I will give mom & dad a call from time to time about canning issues. I will look more into this method, see what I can discover. Thank you for the information.

Keep an Ameraucana.

says the queen of green eggs,... or is it blue?...

Yes, you do want a pressure canner!



As MotorcycleChick said, many, many uses for the canned chicken, and since it is already cooked it can be carried for snacking on hikes, picnics or other outdoor activities (we take it out on the boat for lunches) and it chunks and shreds easily for stir fry or tacos or salads. The flavor is great (especially if you mix light and dark meats like we do). And it keeps for ages without using freezer space.

geesh guys...I KNOW....

....hahaha....would like to do broth and such too....my freezers are sooooo full right now.

Ok...fired up the tablet camera to get the canned chicken picture to tease LMP but decided to do a quick walk around with it. Not the clarity/focus I get with the Nikon but a couple steps quicker for posting....

Rosie has her 3.5 week olds out and about....


Heckle with her 1 week olds....


Lacey is acting broody...AGAIN!

she forgot that she is a large fowl, not a silkie, this is her 3rd or 4th time this year already!

And a few of our 'teens'...

I do love seeing mommy's with their babies, you have very nice birds there Fisher, LOVE the pencil/partridge

...BUT, like you are having an issue with your going crazy multiple tiles...I have had to "time-out' some of them a couple times too this year...I mean good grief girls!!

..I do NOT have a rooster, so they could sit till they became door stops and it wouldn't matter...I am trying to build my egg supply (freezer), so I am not having to.. BUY,

I can hardly even type that word, eggs in the middle of winter.

 

[LittleMissPurdy]

We also started with potatoes and our first adventure with that was bad lol but we've learned. We had to teach ourselves also and learned a lot online. Most of our family thinks we're crazy doing all the extra work to can our own food now but it's so worth it. We use this site constantly to follow canning directions: http://www.pickyourown.org

oh yeah, I really like that site too!!

My FIL used to raise ring-necked pheasants up until a few years ago. Imagine 6,000+ of those guys flying all over the place whilst trying to catch them at 5 am come Fall/Winter...

(I actually do miss having them...)
They definitely like to have space and plenty of roost/hidey spots. The pen netting would be raised at least 10 ft high throughout the middle, and lower around the perimeter. Just watch for potentially getting snagged on the netting above. Had a lot of those, mostly because of bird glasses, but once in awhile would get a foot stuck and they'd be like a pheasant disco ball until we got them down

disco ball!!!