Southern NY, Dutchess county and below

[highpointfarm]

Hey there just ran across this we are from cold spring (the forgotten westeren side of putnam)

 

[ChickenAl]

Hey there just ran across this we are from cold spring (the forgotten westeren side of putnam)

Hi, and welcome. I know what you mean about the forgotten side of Putnam. It's like, Philipstown is in Putnam? Duh!

Coldspring is an awesome town. Always enjoy lunch at the Depot restaurant.

 

[highpointfarm]

You post good stuff though, I find your posts interesting. And heck, if I get to read more posts-I'm a happy girl!

thanks! I am always jealous of people that put essay length posts! lol I always summerize everything enough to put it into 4 lines at the most!

I never take the time to type all that up LET ALONE think it all through xD

 

[goldeneggtees]

Several milestones in the chicken world for me. I got some of our spare fencing panels and set up a small section outside the ChickArena for the two new little three-month old buff Orpingtons that I got last week from Roberta (a/k/a "stoopid"). [ ugh, how I dislike that nickname for Roberta; she's such a NOT stoopid person]

Anyway, the big girls came to the fence and were curious and watchful, but only one Delaware pecked at the newbies. No problem, though; it was only one peck and I don't think it actually landed. After about three hours, I watched one of the little girls wiggle through a slight gap in the fence and she joined the big girls in the big fenced backyard. I let the other little one join her sister and they had about an hour of endless grass and shrubs and sunshine to wander around in. One Delaware would march toward the BO's every now and then, but I threw a wooden clothespin toward her when she got too close and she was immediately distracted and walked away.

DH then constructed a roost board for the BOs in their little wooden henhouse. I'm going to go outside and put them on it. Not sure if they'll stay there or not. We'll see. I made a perfect little ladder for them to use; we'll install it tomorrow.

Yesterday we drove to Hicksville's Agway and bought a huge bag of Layena crumbles for the BOs; they won't eat the pellets that I've been giving them. Also bought a starter/grower feed which I'll offer them for the next four weeks. By then, they'll be 16 weeks old, and I'll then start adding some Layena to it.

We're keeping their names, as given to them by Roberta. "Laverne and Shirley". They are SO sweet.

One of my Delawares ("Necklace") keeps eating her eggs. I've tried a bunch of deterrents, but she's still at it. So today, I ironed a big piece of black fabric and clipped it to the top front edge of the nest box. Used black binder clips a/k/a pinch clips. It covers the entire opening of the nestbox, but is free and loose at the sides and the bottom.

Then I took each big girl and one at a time, lifted them up and put them into the nest box from the back door (the egg collecting door).

They HAD to be brave and push their way past the scarey new curtain in order to get out, and they did, so now I know that they know that it's safe to go through. [I only have three hens, so it was no big deal for me to show them all.]

The curtain is to make the nestbox very dark; supposedly Necklace won't be able to see the egg and will therefor not go poking at it and eating it. We live in hope.

I also upped their protein intake considerable today. Took cooked talapia fish and shredded it (was leftovers from a restaurant dinner), added skim milk to it and set it out for the three big girls. They ate it all.

They get a quarter cup of 32% protein kibble EVERY SINGLE EVENING, so I really don't think that the egg eating is from a nutritional need.

Will post results tomorrow.
-Carolyn

Carolyn, did you ever try putting a golfball or wooden egg in the nesting box? I've heard it helps as it is hard when they peck it. Worth a try anyway.

 

[Toxic Chicken]

I took Tylenol cold and a mucinex, drank a huge mug
of tea. I'm gonna try and sleep away the rest of this
darn cold I caught at the hospital. I think I might put my
4 week old orps outside in a puppy play pen for an hr
or two. Maybe watch a Netflix movie.

 

[Carolyn252]

Carolyn, did you ever try putting a golfball or wooden egg in the nesting box? I've heard it helps as it is hard when they peck it. Worth a try anyway.

There's been TWO decoy eggs in there for weeks. One is milk glass white and one is polished wood. We've also blown out eggs and refilled them with mustard and pepper and left them in the nest box. Useless. AND, the Delawares have been wearing yellow pinless peepers (a/ka blinders) for the past year at least. We also added a tilted floor so the eggs would roll away downhill to where the hens can't reach them because we added a strip of wood for the eggs to just barely fit under as they rolled past.

Also tried using no shavings and only a plastic rollaway nest pad instead. Everything was problematic for one reason or another and the egg eating continued. HennyPenny was occasionally pecking a small hole in her eggs, but now with the nest box back the way it was before all these new fangled changes were made, she's stopped.

We've kept the tilted floor but took out the plastic nest pad (I think they hated it), and added a deep three inches of fluffy pine shavings and a handful of Treats For Chickens Nesting Box Blend (that's a fragrant blend of mite/lice deterrent dried herbs).

We took the wood strip out because while it did allow some eggs to roll past, other eggs got hung up on it; if we were to simply raise it, I think the hens would be easily able to stretch their necks and get their heads under it and poke the eggs. But, maybe we'll try that if need be.

Although, I think the hens objected to the wood strip because it cut down on the roomyness of the nest box.

Sigh....

By the way, DH and I went out slug and snail hunting around 11pm last night. We do it about five nights a week around midnight. We hunt in the veggie garden, the flower beds, the shrub beds, the tree beds, the ChickArena, and all the side walks, front walk, front steps, back steps, etc., etc. We each find about one to two pounds of them!

We must look a fright: two silly people covered head to toe against the mosquitoes, rubber gloves, plastic bags, flashlights, bent over staring at the ground for an hour and a half, slowly walking the night away. Every minute or so, one of us rings out with, "SLUG," or "SNAIL."

I found seven slugs in the ChickArena. And of course, while there, I checked to see if the two new little BO's were still on the roost board where I put them at 9pm full dark. Nope. They were back sleeping on the floor. I'll keep putting them on the board every night until they get the hang of it. They're all alone in there, with no older hens to copy, so they don't know from roosting up high on a board.

Should have a fun day today. Four year old granddaughter is coming with her parents and we'll all go out to a brunch buffet at a local Mediterranean restaurant. Can't wait to show them the new girls, Laverne and Shirley.
-Carolyn

 

[Carolyn252]

I was looking out the window over the kitchen sink, when my EE Nana flew up onto the back of a deck chair to look at me. I said hi to her and she attempted to fly through the window and bounced off the screen. I opened the back door to make sure she was ok. She ran full speed into the house and into my bedroom , flew into the brooder that used to be hers. It now has the orpington and Ameraucana chicks in it. They all froze still and became silent just looking at each other. Then Nana looked at me with the stink eye and started complaining. She was like ' I KNEW it ! Your cheating on ME!!!' I held her for a little while before putting her back outside. She is just too funny.

Hysterical funny!! Great description.

 

[Carolyn252]

Hey there just ran across this we are from cold spring (the forgotten westeren side of putnam)

Hi from Long Island.

 

[magsrags]

I took Tylenol cold and a mucinex, drank a huge mug
of tea. I'm gonna try and sleep away the rest of this
darn cold I caught at the hospital. I think I might put my
4 week old orps outside in a puppy play pen for an hr
or two. Maybe watch a Netflix movie.

Feel better roberta!

 

[magsrags]

Found these 2 heron type birds in my yard at dusk last night! I believe they are juvenile grey herons from what I am seeing in my search to identify them. Very gracefull and on the prowl it looked like for bugs?
I need a good camera. DH said 1 was there in the early morning yesterday as well. I hope they stick around. Long as they don't eat chicken.