Sdwd

Let me be clear, I have not found any signs of worms in my chickens. I just want to "prevent" any. I give vitamins on ocassion maybe once or twice a month just to be safe. I feed them scratch and layer or Dumor grower. Which doesn not say that it contains medicine.

I've used all brands of layer I can get here, dumor, blue seal and agway all are 16% protien and from what I can tell aren't really that different.

I give them the occasional tomato and watermelon rinds and some bread but not much else.

I would prefer not to give my chickens anything that would cause me to have to toss out eggs. I figure if can 't eat it how can they?

Back to my search i guess.

Did I mention BO has two chicks now?

Sold some eggs today at church to a friend who's mother is afraid to eat store bought eggs.
 
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I don't know, but I bet we could ask William, and he would know. I will send him a PM.


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YAAAAAYYY! 2 chicks .... Is she still sitting on the 3rd egg?

I have had several newbies buy eggs, too. The scare from Iowa has many concerned.
 
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I don't know, but I bet we could ask William, and he would know. I will send him a PM.


Quote:
YAAAAAYYY! 2 chicks .... Is she still sitting on the 3rd egg?

I have had several newbies buy eggs, too. The scare from Iowa has many concerned.

She has two more to go and they should hatch tomorrow. It's been too cold to go out so last I checked she is still on the other two. I just hope they're pullets.
trilyn and I are making plans to blow the circuts come January with our incubators. We hope to get some BR's, BO's , Dels of course, RIR single and rose combs and a few frizzle crosses with my lavender americana roo.
DW found a small, very small dark brown egg in the yard that I think may have come from my CM/frenchy cross. Frenchy is a bantam friz supposed to be red but has either blue or black in there too. I'll try to post pics.

ta, ta for now
Rancher
 
Hello! I have returned from the land of Las Vegas, unharmed and in one piece. Mostly. ha.

Came home to all the animals in good shape. A relief, considering this is the longest i have been gone in years......Chickens had plenty of food left and the petsitter had refilled water as needed. Dogs were happy, cat who needs meds twice a day seems fine and dandy, bunnies are fine, ducks are fine....

Only problem was that she refilled the feeder in the brooder hutch with pine pelletes instead of chick feed. Whoops. My fault, as i had said i was going to leave the feed in a bin under the hutch. But ended up leaving it in a bin 5 feet across from the hutch with a big ol sign that said 'chick feed'. But there was indeed a bin on pine pellets (unmarked) under the hutch. So understandable mistake, no harm no fowl. All chicks seem fine and were very happy to get actual chick feed today! LOL. I will have to check the 'report cards' for each visit to see which one she filled the feeder on. I think it was just yesterday......Time to label the pellets bin and move it away!

Came back to Tennessee to find actual fall weather incoming. It is nice and cool tonight. Glorious. A few pages back someone mentioned storing food in old cat litter bins for winter......I recently made my own feeders. I think they hold about 50lbs each. 5 gallon buckets on hog pans.....nice part is, I made 3.....so i have out 150lbs of food at a time. Which means I no longer have to haul feed down to the chickens EVERY MORNING. I think i will enjoy this even more when it is 20 degrees out and windy and all i have to do is flip up the lid to check the level and then go back into the nice warm house
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Well I'm glad everything went well with the animals.
It was me who uses the recycled cat litter jugs. I use them because I can't lift anything heavier. I figure it keeps it fresh throughout the winter. Instead of leaving it in the bags. I preferr the paper bags as I can recycle them to mulch the garden.
 
Welcome home Nella! Glad to hear that you made it in one piece and none the worse for wear. Did ya hit any good jackpots? Any plans for building the ultimate Taj Mahal chicken coop??
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Tim, I use those jugs too. They're the best at keeping unwanted critters out of their food too.
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And like you, I can't effectively lift the 50 pound bags of feed. Besides, who wants to have to go slogging back and forth with a one gallon bucket to fill the bin in the scratch yard from the bag in the toy shed? What a pain in the tooshy!
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OK Beth! Are ya ready? Got a good cup of something by your side? Get settled girl! Here comes the Hawk Story!!!
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Last Wednesday (?) I think it was Wednesday....anyway, one day last week, while I was laying down with a romping headache, Denny was out in the yard with the flock, doing a bit of target practice with the small bow, while Chief and the girls went scratching and picking about. This is supposed to be the quiet part of our day: When Denny is pretty much done working for the day, and spends some time with the flock as well as the dog. Jasper dearly loves to chase down the arrow and return it to Denny when he misses the target (and that happens more often than the man will ever admit openly to!
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) Jasper had just handed back the latest shot to Denny when...............

All of a sudden, a small Cooper/Sharp Shinned Hawk came swooping down out of nowhere, made a strafing run at the flock and landed in the smaller pine tree behind the BBQ grill.
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Chief, in fine form, rounded up his girls and sent them packing in the direction of the coop for the most part. Of course there are always those girls that no matter how calm the roo remains, will run around in a blind panic! Chief apparently smacked a couple of the girls awake and everyone made it to cover safely.

Chief then stood his ground in the middle of the scratch yard and screamed a challenge at the hawk. (good lord how I WISH he wouldn't do that!
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) Denny in the mean time is taking aim on the hawk who has eyes only for that big brutal looking rooster that stands between him and his quarry. I think he was trying to calculate his odds of success in trying to swoop through the open coop door, grab a girl and still make it past one VERY ticked off rooster!

Well, he spent about 10 or 15 seconds too long in reaching his decision and Denny shot him with the arrow. It went clean through the hawk, out the other side and landed clear over on the neighbors pasture. The hawk came crashing to the ground, and to Denny's utter amazement, got up and started hobbling away as fast as his fat little feet would carry him! Believe it or not, the little toe rag not only made an escape this way, but got all the way over to the neighbors place. And I missed the whole blooming event!
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All because I had laid down for a headache!

A few days later, Pete, our next door neighbor stopped by for a visit and to give us an invitation to dinner for Sunday night [tonight] During the conversation, Pete mentioned a hawk that he discovered with two broken wings in the front corner of his garage/work shop. Denny, who should never ever try to play poker, tried to look all innocent [epic failure there!] and asked what became of the hawk. Pete said he was pretty sure the other neighbors 16 pound tom cat got him. He had seen the cat sitting on the top rung of the fence line just as he pulled in the driveway and the cat was sniffing all over the place. By the next morning the hawk was gone. Whew! Thank heavens for small favors! SSS = Shot, Shovel and Shut UP!
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The only thing that upsets me, other than the fact that this was the second attempt by that rotten bird in less than a week, was that I didn't get to see my magnificent boy doing what he was born to do.
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Protect our sweet little girls. And he does it with such flair and zeal! And I MISSED IT!!!
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I sure would have liked to see him screaming his challenge to that stupid hawk! The first time last week was impressive all in itself. According to Denny, this challenge was twice as intense as his first one.

How did I ever get so incredibly lucky to hatch Chief? Of all of the eggs that I had at my disposal, and I was offered 36, but declined due to lack of space in my incubator, his managed to be included in the set. Did I just get ridiculously lucky? Or was it fate? Karma, perhaps? To make up for my failure with Griffin? I have no idea. All I know is that I'm grateful that he's a part of our family. Such a magnificent rooster man!
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So, there you have it Beth. The Hawk Story! Was it worth the wait???
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PS: I do regret that the hawk wasn't killed outright with the one shot. Above all else, I hate to see any animal suffer, even if that animal is an enemy to my birds.
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Quote:
I don't know, but I bet we could ask William, and he would know. I will send him a PM.


Quote:
YAAAAAYYY! 2 chicks .... Is she still sitting on the 3rd egg?

I have had several newbies buy eggs, too. The scare from Iowa has many concerned.

She has two more to go and they should hatch tomorrow. It's been too cold to go out so last I checked she is still on the other two. I just hope they're pullets.
trilyn and I are making plans to blow the circuts come January with our incubators. We hope to get some BR's, BO's , Dels of course, RIR single and rose combs and a few frizzle crosses with my lavender americana roo.
DW found a small, very small dark brown egg in the yard that I think may have come from my CM/frenchy cross. Frenchy is a bantam friz supposed to be red but has either blue or black in there too. I'll try to post pics.

ta, ta for now
Rancher

Ya know, after this spring when we were so completely overrun with about 70 some birds, I swear I lost the hatching bug. But as soon as all the the chicks were gone and we were down to a much more manageable number for this property....and I found out my neighbors really do enjoy the birds.....the bug came back in full force!!
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Sooo, yeah I am more than excited to blow some circuits in January, I just hope people will send us eggs regardless of the freezing weather. Do they put heat packs in with the eggs? Newbie here, well, at least for receiving eggs in January. I also was talking to a woman out in Canastota, that she puts her shipped eggs in her humid basement for 3 days, turning them, and then up in the cooler part of her house for a day, also turning. She has incredibly high hatch rates with her shipped eggs, a hundred percent most of the time. Anyone ever hear of this? I'm willing to give it a try. I lost over a hundred dollars worth of eggs last year, then again, I was a complete noob when it came to hatching. So that obviously has a lot to do with it, but I will say, I got better as the year went on!! Nothing like a bit of determination. Amy and Tim remember my frustrations for sure!! lol
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I tell ya, god bless Amy for her wonderful instructions on how to wire a pc fan to an lg bator. OMG, her directions were better than anything I've ever seen. Step by step and with pics and precise instructions. I still have that saved onto my computer!!!
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Well, I rambled on and I'm sorry, but yeah, there are gonna be a ton of chicks again next year and I cannot wait!! LOL Have a wonderful day everyone, it is gorgeous here in CNY this morning, sunshine and cooler weather, perfect for just about anything!! Trish

Rancher, I see you......
 
I need your esteemed opinions on this Delaware roo I hatched out from Rancher's eggs. I would like to keep him and I have a couple shots as well of the cutest wittle frizzle you've ever seen and a very pretty (if I say so myself, lol) del pullet. Also assorted shots of my eclectic flock and coops!! LOL The dates on these pics are all wrong, have to reset the camera. They were all taken this morning.

The roo in question...can you see his points well enough??

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The wittle frizzle, I just love this girl, she looks like an angel with the light coming in from the back! LOL

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The Del pullet

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BROODYTOWN!!! Yeah, more like "shanty town", but for now it works!! There are two ameraucana girls sitting patiently on their eggs, too cute!

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The girls and their man! The lavender roo all the way to the bottom left of this pic.

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The yellow coop, still needs some finishing touches, but we'll get there.

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And my little sweetness, a lavender ameraucana pullet. Sorry, had to include her, she's a little princess wrapped in purple!

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And last but not least, the hoop house!

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I know this is incredibly pic heavy, but I hope you enjoyed them!!

Trish
 
Trisha!
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I love every bit of it!
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It's your hoop house design that Denny and I will be utilizing for the bachelor pad we need to build very soon! In fact sweetie, if you have the time, do you think you could email me a few close up detail shots to me so I have a little bit better idea of what I still need to pick up at Home Depot? I sure would appreciate it! I'm running out of time real fast out here. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if we have snow by mid October!
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Any time you get tired of or board with that lovely little lavender Amer, you just send her up my way! I'll be happy to spoil the living daylights out of her!
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I like the looks of your little Del pullet. How old is she now? Has she gone through her first molt yet? Your little Del boy has a nice chunky body! Just what you want to start with, from what I hear. You always have to take my opinion with a grain of salt girl. I know next to nothing about what constitutes a good bird in any breed, let alone Delawares. But I know what appeals to my eyes, and as such, I like both of your little goobers! I think they'd work just dandy as a starting point, and maybe add in a few other lines in your January hatching sessions.

Back to the hoop house for a moment. What are the dimensions of the one you built? I'm trying to get a feel for if it will be big enough for three beautiful boys and a small coop for them. Do you think they'd be comfortable throughout the winter in that kind of a set up? You know me and my boys!
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I'd give them each the Taj Mahal and a flock of perfect ladies to go with them, if it were within my power to do so!
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And speaking of which..........................Time to go get the boys up and set for the day, along with everyone else!
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Trish, thanks for sharing the pictures. They're all great!
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I hope everyone has a beautiful day, filled with great adventures with your flocks. Happy Labor Day y'all!
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