Sitting with a cup of coffee. (coffee lovers)

[chickisoup]

Oh no say it isn't so chicki! No Snow! Snow is a 4 letter word! I'm so enjoying the fall I can't imagine snow!

Time for another cup!

me too!

All the heavy rain has knocked down a lot of our pretty colors and now the wet snow will probably do in the rest. We had probably the shortest autumn on record this year and my garlic isn't even in the ground yet. Boy, that new organic stock I ordered better arrive soon!!!

 

[ocap]

B r r r r r r r r r

cold out this morning, strong north wind, 50F and dropping, light rain

looks like a four cup day

I have a broody silkie hatching Monday and a broody Wyandotte that I have not given any eggs, Monday forecast is for warmer temperatures

 

[perchie.girl]

it was 97 yesterday and at eleven AM its already almost 90....

we are heading for Santa Anna weather.... Humidity is dropping too. Typical fall day in San Diego.... Our trees turn... but they turn brown then the leaves fall off.

deb

 

[Highcotton]

Smart man! "Plans fail for lack of advisers." =)




I get GPTV. There's something else on that I watch when that's on, but I see it on the guide. I'm pretty sure that the poisonous snakes in Fla (where I live) are EDR (you mentioned), Coral snake (not the King Scarlet; Red on Yellow could kill a fellow, red on black won't hurt Jack.), and the Copperhead/Cottonmouth/Water Mocasin (spelled wrong, of course). IDK whether those are all they same species or not, but from what I understand they are the same species but that species appears different depending on gender, time of year, and level of maturity (or some such things). Oh, and the pygme and/or hog nosed rattler(s); again, I think I've been told they're the same species and that they're two different species. Either way, I know the FWLF states that there are exactly four species of venomous snakes in Fla.
Hang on, I'll look up a good source for us all! =D

This:
Only six of Florida's 44 snake species are venomous, the eastern coral snake, the southern copperhead, the cottonmouth, the eastern diamondback rattlesnake, the timber rattlesnake, and the dusky pygmy rattlesnake.
...is according to the Fla Fish and Wildlife Conservation and Commission and here's a link to the article:
http://myfwc.com/conservation/you-conserve/wildlife/snakes/
I was wrong, 6, not 4. hog nose wasn't even on there.

Whacha gonna do?

You have the species correct. The Cottonmouth and the Copperhead Are two completely different species. The Cottonmouth is a water dwelling snake. the Copperhead is a more upland and a more northern snake with an hourglass pattern on its back. The Copperhead can be confused with certain species of rat snakes or corn snakes because of the similar color and patterns. I found a baby copperhead swimming in my pool skimmer 2 years in a row about October or November. Although it has been a few years I am still wondering where Mama, Papa and the siblings are.

 

[Alaskan]

Oh no say it isn't so chicki! No Snow! Snow is a 4 letter word! I'm so enjoying the fall I can't imagine snow!
Time for another cup!

And @chickisoup

Total on the weather! It has been COLD here, but actually not too cold...a bit of ice in the waterers and frost in the mornings...but not TOO cold because my tomatoes in the greenhouse haven't died yet, and I can still dig in the ground! Thank GOD for that! Last year when I was working on the duck coop, the boards would sometimes freeze so solidly to the ground that I couldn't use them! It was über frustrating!

B r r r r r r r r r

cold out this morning, strong north wind, 50F and dropping, light rain

looks like a four cup day

I have a broody silkie hatching Monday and a broody Wyandotte that I have not given any eggs, Monday forecast is for warmer temperatures

Too cold for chicks..... Bad biddies!!

 

[ronott1]

B r r r r r r r r r

cold out this morning, strong north wind, 50F and dropping, light rain

looks like a four cup day

I have a broody silkie hatching Monday and a broody Wyandotte that I have not given any eggs, Monday forecast is for warmer temperatures

We are not cold!

it was 97 yesterday and at eleven AM its already almost 90....

we are heading for Santa Anna weather.... Humidity is dropping too. Typical fall day in San Diego.... Our trees turn... but they turn brown then the leaves fall off.

deb

We are heading into the mid to upper 90s for the weekend.

Gotta get some work done this weekend too!

 

[TeaChick]

@TeaChick So Sorry!!!! Always makes me sad to lose one for whatever reason.

Thanks. =)

I kept chickens with my grandmother when I was a kid. I would order the chicks and take care of them at my house until they were old enough to go to her place. Then, whenever I visited her, I would do all of the chicken chores, the butchering, and the coop cleaning.

Since I got all grown up.....I think I have had chickens 6 years...or maybe 5.

I think I once got a few hens up to about age 2.5 , but I am not sure.

I have only had some disease deaths, but predators!

and

Actually, at my grandmothers, I don't think any chicken made it past 3, lots of predators there too. She had the most lovely chicken coop, total

city. It was concrete floored, a walk in storage room, a big roosting area with this super set of roosting bars, all at the same level, that you could raise up and hook out of the way when cleaning. It had a SEPARATE nesting room, so no one could sleep in the nest boxes, plus one completely separate room on the back with it's own run for geese or baby chicks or whatever. All of the runs were fenced with chain link fence, nice and sturdy, and I think 6 feet. There was one separate run with no coop where you could lock up chickens for a day with no food before you butchered.

I wish I knew the dimensions..... maybe 12x12 for the roosting room, and 6x6 for the nestbox room, 6x6 for the extra room with it's own run, and 4x6 for the storage room.

She also had a water spigot right there in the run for the water. The pen was maybe 20x30, anyway, nice and big, and all of it had been put under oak trees.

She had grown up a 5th generation ranching girl in Texas, and this was her dream chicken coop that she got to have built after her husband retired.

That's great experience!!!
Yeah, I hate the predators!!!
That is a (emoticons not working...) (Ah, that's the problem; yes, stupid computer, I do want to be connected to the intro-web!!!)....

-isious coop and run. Lots of rooms; I want one!!!
She's brilliant to put it all under oak trees. I'm happy for her that she got her dream coop!!! =)

Morning everyone

Yup

@TeaChick please don't feel too bad. You did your best
Now you know what to do next time!
Just a suggestion-try to keep some Valbazen around instead of Wazine. much more effective (kills all the different worms, unlike Wazine) and now proven to be as or more gentle than Wazine.

@Alaskan - that sounds like my dream "snow coop" with a bit more of enclosing, of course.

Boy, with our yucky weather today, I don't mind so much being grounded. 1 1/2" of rain overnight. It was a warm 50o when I got up but the temp is dropping fast now and it should be snowing by this afternoon. Poor hubby will be sliding to the coop by dark!

Thanks. =) Yeah.
Thanks for the tip about Valbazen instead of Wazine. It's what was recommended to me in an emergency a month or so ago.
Snow? Already?

 

[TeaChick]

me too!

All the heavy rain has knocked down a lot of our pretty colors and now the wet snow will probably do in the rest. We had probably the shortest autumn on record this year and my garlic isn't even in the ground yet. Boy, that new organic stock I ordered better arrive soon!!!

I'm looking at planting some greens this year. No snow here, thankfully!

B r r r r r r r r r

cold out this morning, strong north wind, 50F and dropping, light rain

looks like a four cup day

I have a broody silkie hatching Monday and a broody Wyandotte that I have not given any eggs, Monday forecast is for warmer temperatures

I don't like the cold weather, but I like the coffee counting.
It's getting colder here too. We're going to have lows below 50 after the weekend.
Congrats on the broody Silkie! How do you get a Wyandotte to brood?

it was 97 yesterday and at eleven AM its already almost 90....

we are heading for Santa Anna weather.... Humidity is dropping too. Typical fall day in San Diego.... Our trees turn... but they turn brown then the leaves fall off.

deb

Sounds like autumn here. I have to listen to complains about the weather year round. Even the weather DH likes, he complains through; that's what I get for marrying a Yankee and keeping him in the South.

You have the species correct. The Cottonmouth and the Copperhead Are two completely different species. The Cottonmouth is a water dwelling snake. the Copperhead is a more upland and a more northern snake with an hourglass pattern on its back. The Copperhead can be confused with certain species of rat snakes or corn snakes because of the similar color and patterns. I found a baby copperhead swimming in my pool skimmer 2 years in a row about October or November. Although it has been a few years I am still wondering where Mama, Papa and the siblings are.

Snakes would not be allowed in my pool!!! (if I had one). I'd wonder too, and keep wondering until I heard from a neighbor they'd been .... taken care of, unless I did it myself.

 

[chickadoodles]

Hahaha! My chickens tell fortunes: you will keep scoopin the poop, you will keep scoopin the poop...

 

[chickadoodles]

Yesterday morning it was 78* this morning it is in the low 40's! Wow! All the animals are looking for somewhere to get out of the cold wind.

Yesterday morning I found the bottom of a glass bottle in one of my chickens feed dish and it was not there the day before! We have a family that lives back behind us with lots of kids of all ages. I am very upset! I cannot even count how many nights their dogs kept me awake barking all night! And they are going to throw glass at my chickens because the roosters crow? Now I admit I do have around 40 roosters because we did have some customers that would come buy them, but they must have moved or something because they stopped coming.
With it being college football season my DH does not want to go to the auction to sale them right now.

I just don't know what to do!

I was thinking of buying some poultry netting to put up around the back of my pens to stop anything from getting into my pens. Would this work? Does anyone know?