Ribh's D'Coopage

[MaryJanet]

... I’m discovering that I may not be tough enough to have chickens... I just hate all the pecking and chasing! I think the perfect flock would be 3 to 5 chickens.. the BGs are still harassing the middles.. and the middles.. well, really just Lilly.. she is just awful to the babies .. AND to the the flowers.. the tiny little things that I put out in the yard in a little caged area... Lilly will poke at them through the wire ... OH, and I will NEVER let a mama have babies again!! Just when you think that nothing could be worse than these big meanies chasing and pecking all the littles.. mama turns on her babies .... it is simply heartbreaking! I mean, all this time mama kept them safe and warm and fed them.. now she is pecking them and chasing them away... it’s so sad! Some of the BGs will peck at them and they run to mama only to get the same from her ... I know it’s the way things are.. but I still don’t like it...
They are such lovely creatures.. why do they have to be so mean to each other!?

I would find that challenging too

 

[Ribh]

They're getting along much better now but still not roosting side by side. Sandy roosts alone, on the other side. But she's thriving and laying well. She eats like a horse! She's definitely at the bottom of the pecking order, though. The other two keep her in line.

Mary's new feathers are coming through nicely, and I'm pretty sure she hasn't shed as many this week. I've been giving her one ham slice a day as a protein treat. It puts her in a good mood and then she puts away some layers pellets.

This weekend my brother's going to help me enlarge the run. I hope the chooks will take care all the new weed shoots for me

Yep, RIRs & Australops are known for being bossy sorts. If they've got this far they will be fine. So glad it is working out & Sandy is eating well.

Super news about Mary's feathers! I noticed Namaste is actually getting her shimmer back & feathering out nicely. It's been a long hard haul for her . So nice to see her actually looking henish again!

I free ranged my original 5 on a weed infestation when they were first here. They did a wonderful job on it ~ with a little encouragement of some cracked corn scattered where I wanted them to really dig things up.

 

[rjohns39]

Evening folks

 

[MaryJanet]

Hi!

 

[MaryJanet]

I noticed Namaste is actually getting her shimmer back & feathering out nicely. It's been a long hard haul for her . So nice to see her actually looking henish again!

Oh good! It must be a relief to see her improving

I'm looking forward to Mary getting her joy back with her feathers. The molt has made her unhappy.

 

[rjohns39]

Hi!

 

[Kris5902]

Wow! Everyone is busy, busy! Spring and summer projects, and chickens being... well chickens I’m glad you’re not having the sandstone mailed in @Ribh , your post office is probably already challenged enough with the coming insects. When I got my meal worms mailed, mine was a little aghast... sure they do chicks, but “why is the box making that squirmy, scaly noise? It’s full of WHAT!?!” When I got our 4 100watt solar panels shipped in I had them mailed to my Aunt-in-Law’s place on Vancouver Island. Some things just won’t take a PO Box as a mailing address or even ship to our island’s postal code.

What kind of sandstone are you getting? Flags, blocks, random sizes? And what are you going to do with it? I did some dry stack retaining walls with our Island sandstone at out house in the city. It was hard work but the end result was worth it. I used large cement pavers for our patio though, a bit easier to work with but overall not as pretty! Going forward I’m going to use smaller stones/pavers in all my projects!

I’m glad to hear of the progress on the molting and integration fronts, as well as the predator migrations away from the feathered friends! Good morning/evening to everyone!

 

[Ribh]

Evening folks

Hey, Bob. Hope your day is going well.

 

[Ribh]

Oh good! It must be a relief to see her improving

I'm looking forward to Mary getting her joy back with her feathers. The molt has made her unhappy.

Sounds like she's turned the corner. I have Nugget back on the lay: BIG EGGS. & everyone seems to have settled down ~ @ least temporarily.

 

[Ribh]

Wow! Everyone is busy, busy! Spring and summer projects, and chickens being... well chickens I’m glad you’re not having the sandstone mailed in @Ribh , your post office is probably already challenged enough with the coming insects. When I got my meal worms mailed, mine was a little aghast... sure they do chicks, but “why is the box making that squirmy, scaly noise? It’s full of WHAT!?!” When I got our 4 100watt solar panels shipped in I had them mailed to my Aunt-in-Law’s place on Vancouver Island. Some things just won’t take a PO Box as a mailing address or even ship to our island’s postal code.

What kind of sandstone are you getting? Flags, blocks, random sizes? And what are you going to do with it? I did some dry stack retaining walls with our Island sandstone at out house in the city. It was hard work but the end result was worth it. I used large cement pavers for our patio though, a bit easier to work with but overall not as pretty! Going forward I’m going to use smaller stones/pavers in all my projects!

I’m glad to hear of the progress on the molting and integration fronts, as well as the predator migrations away from the feathered friends! Good morning/evening to everyone!

Yeah, the lady who actually delivers our mail looked slightly horrified when we told her she'd be delivering bees shortly but she is a farm girl. She was nearly as excited about my chooks as I was & hopped out of the van to come see. My neighbours think I'm slightly mad. The Lefties were gobsmacked when I said some of my girls were quite expensive acquisitions: Lavender for one but the Campines are heritage breeds & endangered, & most of the others are heritage breeds. Even in depth information on Campines is rather hard to come by. It's not that I'm snobbish about my birds but when I did my initial research everyone seemed to agree heritage breeds live longer, lay longer, are hardier & less prone to laying issues so being a cheapskate I thought it was worthwhile to pay a little more upfront for a better long term return.

We are getting 500mmX500X30 [11/2X11/2'X2" roughly] sandstone pavers. Neither John nor I like lawn [too much Work!] but we are exSydneysiders ~ land of Sandstone extraordinaire~ so we have opted to pave all our open areas rather than grass them. It will help unify the different areas of our garden & reduce the dirt we're presently tracking all through the house. John apprenticed as a Brickie many moons ago so though he can't do the physical work he can direct our son. I asked for a bit extra for seating around the firepit & maybe to play with water features seeing we are now building all these ponds. My parents place in Sydney was sitting on miles of sandstone so all their retaining walls & garden beds were drystone walls.

Couriers are a pain! We ordered ~ and PAID FOR~ our pre fab coop before the company informed us they didn't deliver to the islands & we needed a Brisbane address. In the end we had it dropped @ one of the boys & hoped for the best & got the island courier to pick it up from there but we paid twice over for cartage & waited over 6 weeks for delivery. Yet I can get hemp & lovely big, sturdy storage bins delivered @ no cost by the company that sells them. I was very tempted to buy one of their coops ~ expensive but they looked wonderful & they would have delivered the thing to my doorstep & even put it together for me~ until I checked the reviews.