San Diego Chicken meetup and Chat thread

[chef glenn]

Hi Everyone.

I will be bringing some Palomar Mountain Homemade goat cheeses.
Of course I will bring some of my Home Roasted Coffee beans, I believe I
will then have a few different Ethiopians and a Brazil Daterra to try.
Now if someone would volunteer to remind me before this comes up.

Janel, if you read this, the "Feather Footed Craig's List Five" I picked
up yesterday are doing great!
Laurel , the 2 Serama chicks have been "adopted" by our little black Serama hen.
Snuggling under heat lamp, quite a site.

Glenn

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Uh oh! I'm in trouble I LOVE goat cheese!!!

 

[luvanimals2]

Quote:
Don't worry Cari, I will get you out of trouble.

I LOVE cheese. Does not matter what kind. Usually the stinkier the better.

Nancy

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

LoL me too... What are you bringing Nancy?

 

[luvanimals2]

Quote:
I am still trying to figure it out. I want to bring a main dish but I am afraid what the 2 hour drive will do to it. I am thinking about Homemade Egg Rolls. I will bring Dessert for sure. I will report back when I know for sure.

Nancy

 

[SunnyCalifornia]

Hi Again!
Sorry for not posting, Christmas is consuming me right now! Thank you for the PM reminder about the meeting.

I am going to tentatively plan to meet up on Jan 22, is there a location yet? I think I missed that if it was posted. I remember hearing Ramona, but I missed the exact location. When I can confirm, I will sign up to bring something that is needed.

So.. My house is being overrun with chickens right now, I have 5 chicks indoors, 3 are in a XL cage in the bathtub. They are in the bathtub, because of all the shavings they kick out of their cage. I clogged two vaccuums the other day, trying to clean up shavings off the carpet, so in the bathtub they went. A broom and a dustpan is much cheaper to replace. My other two indoor chicks are my baby (1 month old) OEG's, I expect they will be inside until spring. Boy are they tiny!! Until they figure out how to fly out of their box, I'm okay with them.

So here's my dilemma; In my outside chicken vault (maximum security coop), I have three 10 month old hens (big girls); a B-Orp, & 2 Australorps. In my bathtub, I have 1 Delaware, 1 SLW, and 1 little B-Orp, all 3.5 months old. They are pretty big, but not the same size as my older ones. Anyhow, my little B-Orp is totally terrorized by one of my older Australorps. She gets chased, and pecked when they all go out free ranging together. Anytime she sees a big black hen, whether its the nice one, or the bully, she freaks, and I feel so bad for her! She hasn't gotten too beat up, because we're always outside with our chickens when they are loose. I don't let them out to forage unless they have a dog and a human to watch over them. We have some enormous hawks, and not a lot of cover in my back yard. I'm a little overprotective too...

So I need some advice - I need to do something with my 3.5 month olds. The cage in the tub is just not adequate, and with all the rain, they aren't getting their outside time, and they are not happy. They have plenty of feathers to be okay outside, although I would probably need to acclimate them a little bit for nighttime temps. In time, I will need to build a separate coop for my OEG, should I just build a third right now for my younger hens? Or should I just keep the little B-Orp separate, and integrate the others? Another option, is to build a couple minimum security "play pens" for daytime outings, and just bring them in at night, again, keeping them separate from the older girls. I had someone tell me I needed a rooster to keep my older hens in line...

. Honestly, is that the solution? What do you think is the best option, or do you know of some other options that I haven't thought of yet?

Thanks everyone for your input.

I appreciate your experience.

 

[flower]

So on the main So CA thread I posted about bringing Turken chicks from Kev our esteemed local Turken breeder if there is an interest in Turkens either LF or Bantam

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

SunnyCali-

The meet-up is here; http://www.co.san-diego.ca.us/parks/picnic/collier.html and we have an indoor back up in case of weather.


I would start by putting them in outside runs during the day, and bringing them in at night so they have a chance to acclimate. Make sure they are always in view of whatever chickens you want to integrate them with. If the OEG is by herself I would put them in with the OEG but make sure they aren't picking too much. There will always be some pecking to establish ranks, but no one should be beat-up on. Make sure they are in view of the big hens so integrating will be easier. Then when they are the same size, one night go stick them in the 'big coop" on a roost. They should be fine. A rooster will keep his hens in line, but that has nothing to do with new chickens, they always have to establish a pecking order.

I always keep a baby grow out coop/ run next to the big ones just for this purpose.

 

[LALASD4]

I put my one month olds with my big ones with no problem. Some big ones will always peck at the little ones, but it is not like they chase them and jump on top of them.

This is how I do it every time. Put the small ones out but seperate them with chicken wire for a few weeks, make sure they can see each other all the time and there should not be a problem after the chicken wire is remove in a few weeks, size don't matter that much, my 2 months olds are eating right next to my big roosters.

As for the cold, I don't use heat at all so they are used to the cold climate in the garage already.


Quote:

 

[Phage]

This sounds like so much fun, - we missed the last one.

Does anyone plan on bringing hatching eggs? Also does anyone have any double yolkers (long story).

Would anyone be interested in Catdance/Kelar silkie chicks, or 1-7 day old BLRW chicks from Bishopchickens - assuming the arrive in time.

Also have a pretty tame opal (male) and a white (likely male) peacocks/peachicks from this year.