Southern NY, Dutchess county and below

[stoopid]

Love the looks on both their faces!

 

[smkchick]

It's classic! The type of picture you can drag out when she brings her fiance home for the first time...

Yesterday, Bobby's friend Peter came over to pick up the old coop (yay!!). He brought his wife and 3 kids - 2 4yo twin boys and a 5yo girl. OMG. 3 hours of highly energetic children - chicken chasing, tree climbing, coop exploring. Us old folks were completely wiped out.

But I am so happy to have the old coop out of the yard. We didn't get to do the final work on the new coop yesterday, but I'm hoping we get to it today. I have to work 10-2, but that's it.

Fingers crossed for some nice weather.

On an unrelated note, I have no water in the incubator and it's still at 35%. 99-100 degrees. Fingers cramping from being crossed all the time!

 

[ChickenAl]

I have an actual chicken-related question for you all - shocker -

One of my hens, I suspect the White Rock, has been laying thin to no-shell eggs on and off and it's gotten worse lately. Sometimes they are out underneath the roosting perch, like she laid it while sleeping. Those have no shell at all, just membranes. I've been mixing in shells with cooked scrambled eggs to feed back to them along with some oyster shell pieces. I also keep oyster shells mixed in with the grit bucket in the coop. I am giving them layer crumble feed, they don't free-range all day and lately I've been keeping them locked up even more since the fox sighting on Thursday. This morning a hawk flew into the new exercise pen we built, as in, it flew into the wire mesh siding - duhhhhh - so I'm definitely not letting them out.

Is there anything else to do? I bought some liquid mineral supplement for pet birds that are laying but it said for pets only, i.e., is it safe to give to chickens? You add it to the water. 

Is it a dietary deficiency or something else? The other two seem to be laying ok eggs. I should add that J. Lo's eggs have always been a bit wonky. Their shape is "unique", sometimes there is a calcified deposit at the end of the shell that's bumpy, sometimes they are wrinkly looking, sometimes they are streaky or spotted or faded in color from one end to the other. She's the diva I guess!

That sounds like what can happen when they first start laying. Ours did it but it stopped after a few. It sounds like a calcium deficiency, but it is odd that only one has it. She may not be eating her crumbles as much as she should or she is not eating the oyster shells to make up for what she needs. The other possibility is that she has something wrong with her digestive tract or is unable to absorb calcium.

Check her crop to see if it is impacted. Another thing I've heard of is they can eat too much grit which limits the amount of food intake. If they are eating just crumbles, no need for them to have grit, must the oyster shells.

Hope this helps.

 

[ChickenAl]

Lavinia is doing really well. She looks and acts just like a normal chicken. As in, she wants nothing to do with the chick necklace anymore. I put her and the big chicks together and she was scared poopless. They kept stepping on her and she kept trying to crawl up under their wings. So I put the fence back in. I changed the bulb to red because the light was hurting my eyes (I can imagine how she felt). Here's the baby. Couldn't decide which picture was cuter, so I thought I'd post them both:

Adorable! So glad she is doing better.

 

[Cheeky Chick]

Oh Lavinia is SO cute! The second picture reminds me of the "Angry Bluebird" picture. Love that one.

I have a problem that started yesterday with Little Zen, my black silkie chick. She's developed a head tilt! I ran out this morning and bought poly-vi-sol without iron and put a drop on her beak. She's fairly perky eating ok, and her sister, Karma is cuddling with her, so hopefully the tilt will get better. I feel so awful for her, she's really SO tiny.

 

[Carolyn252]

Hi, and welcome to BYC

I'm in Nassau County. I read some of your blogs and enjoyed them very, very, much. Beautiful family, beautiful chickens.

This thread is a great resource of new, like-minded, friends. Welcome to the fun.
-Carolyn

 

[smkchick]

Hi, and welcome to BYC

I'm in Nassau County. I read some of your blogs and enjoyed them very, very, much. Beautiful family, beautiful chickens.

This thread is a great resource of new, like-minded, friends. Welcome to the fun.
-Carolyn

Hi Carolyn:

Saw you in the Newsday article. I grew up in Baldwin. I think my brother had a friend named Jamie Hecht. Any relation?

Suzanne

 

[Toxic Chicken]

Tomorrow is day 14 for my Orpington
Eggs. This has been THE longest
2 weeks of my life.

My parents are now calling me
Chicken Little
Because I'm worried about chicks and eggs all day, but mostly because when they asked my why I needed so many
I told them for when the economic collapse happens. Hahaha

The sky is falling


- Karen

 

[Toxic Chicken]

Hey! I grew up in Baldwin too !


- Karen

 

[smkchick]

Hey! I grew up in Baldwin too !
- Karen

Where in Baldwin? What year did you graduate from BHS?