Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[LittleMissPurdy]

Our chicken "pasture" is a large area that was severely over grown and was basically the previous owners dumping ground for everything. It also happens to be where the water runs off from the wooded "mountain-side". Slowly we have been cleaning up the area. The chickens have killed most of the vegetation. We had a huge pile of sticks/brush that my dad decide to burn today.

Herein lies the problem. He burned my chickens favorite daytime roost

. I don't know why he decided that needed burned! They are always hanging out there!

I've seen the chicken gym/ladder ideas but they had more cover then those offer. I'm wracking my brain for ideas to recreate their dead bush roost.

Any ideas?!

pallets leaning together to make a tepee / 'A' frame?...can be covered with "cover", dead fall stuff. can even leave a "set-up" uncovered for roosting?....some very quick ideas cause I am going to bed.


****@LearninMyFlock saurkraut update....I have 1 jar that has let a bit of juice out. Had DH tighten it up, but now after about a week, it has let out a tad more...that ring can't get any tighter...not sure what is left to do here for this particular jar???

If you have any suggestions, I would be greatly appreciative.

I was wondering if I could take the kraut out of that jar & put it into another?..or at least change the ring??...it is a wide mouth jar..love'em & hate'em at the same time.
I have baby hands, no strength & it is hard for me to get them real tight...I did have DH tighten all of them cause he has gorilla strength hands...hahaha, so I am at a loss here.
Thank you for any reply!

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

We went. Had not planned on it but was fun. I like looking at the animals. It was a lot bigger than I expected.

I am glad you had fun ya it's a large fair, people come out of state to go have fun.

 

[LearninMyFlock]

****@LearninMyFlock
 saurkraut update....I have 1 jar that has let a bit of juice out. Had DH tighten it up, but now after about a week, it has let out a tad more...that ring can't get any tighter...not sure what is left to do here for this particular jar???

If you have any suggestions, I would be greatly appreciative.

I was wondering if I could take the kraut out of that jar & put it into another?..or at least change the ring??...it is a wide mouth jar..love'em & hate'em at the same time.
I have baby hands, no strength & it is hard for me to get them real tight...I did have DH tighten all of them cause he has gorilla strength hands...hahaha, so I am at a loss here.
Thank you  for any reply!
[/quote] they just do juice out sometimes I think. That's why cardboard. I just can't remember if mine always did that or not. If the lid is right it's probably fine. And they are definitely doing there thing. Congrats! You will have some sauerkraut and not just canned cabbage I'd just let it in that same jar if It was mine.

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

I am not the first person to go for this but if I were you I would try a different lid seal.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Thanks, Anne and MotorcycleChick.

I just got an email saying that the sad chick is now a dead chick.

I asked them to put Corid in all the water for the whole flock (2 tsp of the 9.6% liquid solution per gallon). I also asked them to put the chick in a plastic bag in the freezer so I can send her for necropsy when I get back next week.

I also asked them to lay off all treats except a little cracked corn for now. I had given a variety of treats (cracked corn, BOSS, dry mealworms, lettuce, dates, yogurt, garden weeds like grass, dandelion, bindweed) and asked them to give a bit to the birds twice a day since they are used to free ranging during the day but they are mostly cooped up for the 2 weeks I'm gone and I didn't want them to get too bored and start picking on each other. I usually give them some treats each day even though they do free range, just because they run up and beg when they see me coming, so the treats themselves aren't new (except the dates--I only gave out a couple of those before I left, and some of the hens seem to like them). But maybe they were too enthusiastic with the treats and the chickens could be getting sour crop? I did ask them to give plenty of grit each day, though, since the hens weren't free ranging.

I just don't know. I feel so awful, and worried about the others, and I wish I were there to manage it.

I'm sorry to hear this

 

[OneMountainAcres]

So, yesterday afternoon, I got to meet up with @dheltzel and as always with him, bring home some chicks! My coop now has 5 silkied lavender ameraucanas, 5 more Reese legbar pullets, and a quad of welbars, all around 6-8 weeks old. They're all a bit confused but by yesterday evening, they seemed to be relaxing in their new environment. He also brought my a trio of newly hatched welbars for Daffodil to raise. She only been broody about 2 weeks but besides being slightly confused by their sudden arrival, she seems to be accepting them. I'm watching them very close though being that she's a production girl, I'm not sure what kind of brooding instincts she actualy has. Only time will tell. And last but not least, he brought me one of his extra lavender ameraucana cockerels from the John Blehm line. He is quite the handsome boy! He's all set up in his quarentine pen and though he's really rather nervous still, I'm sure he'll relax. I'll get pictures when I can! And Thank you again @dheltzel!

 

[BullChick]

 

[dheltzel]

So, yesterday afternoon, I got to meet up with @dheltzel and as always with him, bring home some chicks! My coop now has 5 silkied lavender ameraucanas, 5 more Reese legbar pullets, and a quad of welbars, all around 6-8 weeks old. They're all a bit confused but by yesterday evening, they seemed to be relaxing in their new environment. He also brought my a trio of newly hatched welbars for Daffodil to raise. She only been broody about 2 weeks but besides being slightly confused by their sudden arrival, she seems to be accepting them. I'm watching them very close though being that she's a production girl, I'm not sure what kind of brooding instincts she actualy has. Only time will tell. And last but not least, he brought me one of his extra lavender ameraucana cockerels from the John Blehm line. He is quite the handsome boy! He's all set up in his quarentine pen and though he's really rather nervous still, I'm sure he'll relax. I'll get pictures when I can! And Thank you again @dheltzel !

It was fun meeting up with you. Bringing chickens to a reunion is a great conversation starter!
I'm hoping you get a lot of chicks from all of those, they will be a huge upgrade from the chicks that Rural King sells, for the customers that want something a little nicer than the run-of-the-mill hatchery chicks. I like having rare breeds (and working to make them less rare) and a lot of people feel the same, even a lot of brand new chicken keepers. The internet has been a real boon for backyard chicken keeping. People who would have considered it too hard or too complicated to keep chickens can read lots of info and watch lots of how-to videos and feel like they know enough to be successful. But in that information they get introduced to the new and rare breeds and it builds a market for them that has a very poor supply in many areas. We can help meet that need for special chicks, and fund our projects and costs along the way. Every year I make it a point to get new breeds to make available the following year. I think you are well positioned to sell a lot more chicks next year and make some local customers very happy along the way.

 

[chickachickayea]

Tiny has been in & out of the coop all morning and has been in for the past 10 minutes solid...
I'm watching from inside the house to see if/when she comes out. I'm like a crazy helicopter parent right now :cd
But am really trying to give her space, I don't want to bother her with her first egg lay!

 

[LittleMissPurdy]

****@LearninMyFlock
saurkraut update....I have 1 jar that has let a bit of juice out. Had DH tighten it up, but now after about a week, it has let out a tad more...that ring can't get any tighter...not sure what is left to do here for this particular jar???

If you have any suggestions, I would be greatly appreciative.

I was wondering if I could take the kraut out of that jar & put it into another?..or at least change the ring??...it is a wide mouth jar..love'em & hate'em at the same time.
I have baby hands, no strength & it is hard for me to get them real tight...I did have DH tighten all of them cause he has gorilla strength hands...hahaha, so I am at a loss here.
Thank you for any reply!

they just do juice out sometimes I think. That's why cardboard. I just can't remember if mine always did that or not. If the lid is right it's probably fine. And they are definitely doing there thing. Congrats! You will have some sauerkraut and not just canned cabbage I'd just let it in that same jar if It was mine.[/QUOTE]
thank you for such a quick response!
It is only the one jar, so feeling very good about the rest. The cellar has a nice mild kraut smell...hahahaha, i like it & really don't care what anyone else thinks! hahaha
Glad to know things are processing the way they should, the jars look good, making changes inside that can be seen...which is so cool.

I have jalapeno halves in the dehydrator right now...coming up with ideas on how to put them to good use too!
I saved the inurds/seeds. They are on the very bottom of the machine,(first time doing this), going to use those for the chickens. Give them something different in the cold winter days.
Just trying to do some different/fun thing this year with the items at hand, keeping it interesting is the objective!

I am not the first person to go for this but if I were you I would try a different lid seal.

Thank you

So, yesterday afternoon, I got to meet up with @dheltzel and as always with him, bring home some chicks! My coop now has 5 silkied lavender ameraucanas, 5 more Reese legbar pullets, and a quad of welbars, all around 6-8 weeks old. They're all a bit confused but by yesterday evening, they seemed to be relaxing in their new environment. He also brought my a trio of newly hatched welbars for Daffodil to raise. She only been broody about 2 weeks but besides being slightly confused by their sudden arrival, she seems to be accepting them. I'm watching them very close though being that she's a production girl, I'm not sure what kind of brooding instincts she actualy has. Only time will tell. And last but not least, he brought me one of his extra lavender ameraucana cockerels from the John Blehm line. He is quite the handsome boy! He's all set up in his quarentine pen and though he's really rather nervous still, I'm sure he'll relax. I'll get pictures when I can! And Thank you again @dheltzel !

awesome!!!
You MUST share pictures on here!!! I would love to see them...silkied lav.ameraucanas...can't wait to see what they look like...

It is so much fun to meet the great people on this thread!! I have had the opportunity to meet quite a few over time. So great to put faces to names.
Some have since left since i had left and returned...wish they would pop-back on...they were great assets to all of our chicken raising endeavors!!
It is obvious that meeting dheltzel would be extremely interesting & enlightening, his knowledge and willingness to share it is most commendable!..this includes his enabling

as you are quite aware!