South Carolina

[gvilledh]

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Ours was a Journey to Bethlehem with the village and it was great. About 3000 people came through in two nights. I will get some new pictures of the girls in a few minutes and put them up tonight. Just read the last 20 pages, so I slowly catching up on here!

 

[Jackie B.]

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Your Guineas do not know they are Guineas! They think they are chickens!

Of course, they are smart. You showed them what to do and they love their freedom. I am glad you have the set up the way you feel safer with and can have a lot less worry now.

And Midas can go out in the back yard now without worry?

Do you still have the d'Anvers in a separate cage?

Midas has been bad this week! We need to build a higher gate because he's gone on 2 adventures this week. Bad dog! Yup d'anvers still in the separate pen and no eggs! Wierd...

 

[Joycats]

Quote:
Susanne, don't trust your dog to be left loose. If you have woven wire fences, you might could leave him in the pasture but they will wander a LOOOONG way. They're bred to cover hundreds and thousands of acres.....they will try. My neighbor has lost his girl 3 times and the last time she'd been adopted by a family in the next town, he almost didn't get her back. Someone saw her with the family and called and told him. They'd planned to keep her. Also whatever you do, don't let him kill a chicken. Once they start it's nearly impossible to stop them. My horse trainer told me what she does .... she puts the dog on a long lead and walks it around the yard. Anytime the dog makes a step or motion toward the chicken she picks him up by the lead (off the ground). Yes it cuts his air off and yes it sounds horrible but she holds them for just a few seconds and lets them down without ever saying a word to them. The dogs seem to think the chickens have the power to hurt them and they leave them alone. I'm amazed ... she has all kinds of dogs that have come to live on her farm (puppies and adults). Not a single one of them ever even looks at a chicken. My girls are too big for me to do this now, I'd have to stand on a ladder to get them off the ground. I've tried EVERYTHING else and nothing's worked. I even bought a shock collar....Georgia just looked around like "what's that buzzing sound, a fly?" The collar did not phase them. They killed two of my chickens last week that flew into the dog run. I'm at a loss. I hope you have better luck!

 

[Joycats]

Jackie B. :

Quote:
Your Guineas do not know they are Guineas! They think they are chickens!

Of course, they are smart. You showed them what to do and they love their freedom. I am glad you have the set up the way you feel safer with and can have a lot less worry now.

And Midas can go out in the back yard now without worry?

Do you still have the d'Anvers in a separate cage?

Midas has been bad this week! We need to build a higher gate because he's gone on 2 adventures this week. Bad dog! Yup d'anvers still in the separate pen and no eggs! Wierd...​

Only a few of my bantams are laying right now. I think it's just a normal rest time for birds. My young pullets are starting to lay better, thank goodness.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

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OMG! Samantha! How exciting for you, too! Is this a day for wonderful new egg layers or what????

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Jackie B. :

Quote:
Your Guineas do not know they are Guineas! They think they are chickens!

Of course, they are smart. You showed them what to do and they love their freedom. I am glad you have the set up the way you feel safer with and can have a lot less worry now.

And Midas can go out in the back yard now without worry?

Do you still have the d'Anvers in a separate cage?

Midas has been bad this week! We need to build a higher gate because he's gone on 2 adventures this week. Bad dog! Yup d'anvers still in the separate pen and no eggs! Wierd...​

Bad, Midas! Bad boy!

Those dogs do love to roam though. And hims is a very big boy so over the gate at nothing.

I think these small birds just lay an egg here and there. I get about 3 a week from my Porcelain d'Uccle pen and maybe 2 a week from Bride, the white d'Uccle. Otherwise, those Cochins lay like mad and my Sizzles have picked back up to six a day from 7 girls.

 

[Patsy29332]

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Yippee! Congrats! How wonderful...a first egg!

 

[Patsy29332]

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YAY!

YAY!!

YAYYYY!!!!

 

[huckleberryfarm]

Quote:
Susanne, don't trust your dog to be left loose. If you have woven wire fences, you might could leave him in the pasture but they will wander a LOOOONG way. They're bred to cover hundreds and thousands of acres.....they will try. My neighbor has lost his girl 3 times and the last time she'd been adopted by a family in the next town, he almost didn't get her back. Someone saw her with the family and called and told him. They'd planned to keep her. Also whatever you do, don't let him kill a chicken. Once they start it's nearly impossible to stop them. My horse trainer told me what she does .... she puts the dog on a long lead and walks it around the yard. Anytime the dog makes a step or motion toward the chicken she picks him up by the lead (off the ground). Yes it cuts his air off and yes it sounds horrible but she holds them for just a few seconds and lets them down without ever saying a word to them. The dogs seem to think the chickens have the power to hurt them and they leave them alone. I'm amazed ... she has all kinds of dogs that have come to live on her farm (puppies and adults). Not a single one of them ever even looks at a chicken. My girls are too big for me to do this now, I'd have to stand on a ladder to get them off the ground. I've tried EVERYTHING else and nothing's worked. I even bought a shock collar....Georgia just looked around like "what's that buzzing sound, a fly?" The collar did not phase them. They killed two of my chickens last week that flew into the dog run. I'm at a loss. I hope you have better luck!

Well, my chickens are locked up and he will be in the pasture so I'm hoping chickens won't be an issue. He just wants to be with us. I blocked off a 5-acre pasture next to the goats/sheep. He figure out how to crawl under the gate and then came on the porch all innocent. I took him on the leash again through the pasture with the animals. The mama ewe stomped at her lamb and then took two steps toward Spartacus. He backed away. He went nose-to-nose with the goats. He's been with goats so I think it's all normal to him. He needs to be in the pasture. I'm hoping the animals will keep him company. We plan to get a different dog for around the open parts of the farm. Maybe a lab. We've always loved ours and my last one could have cared less about the chickens. Today has been crazy busy so hopefully tomorrow we can spend more time with him in the pasture. That's really where he needs to be.

Congrats on the eggs! It's always so exciting! My children and husband are singing at a church in town so I must get pretty.

 

[gvilledh]

Finally got a few pictures this afternoon. For some reason, one of the SLW's, Lacey, is having problems getting her comb in. It started to come in a few weeks ago and one of the tips points was actually dark and looked shriveled and fell off. There were only two of the little back points on it that had formed at that time. The next week, one of them was still there, but now she has no comb at all, yet her wattles and earlobes have continued to grow. Here are three pictures of her. The first is at 23 weeks, the second at 24 weeks, and the last one is today, 26 weeks.

You can see the small black area in this first image.

Here are some pics of the others.

Oatmeal time!!!

The Buff Orps are finally starting to grow some combs and wattles. They have been the slowest of the group.

Here is Cagney, the other SLW. She is growing a little faster than Lacey and has a lot more red now. My guess is the first egg will be from her or from Maranda, the Cuckoo Marans.