Surviving Minnesota!

[MNChickMom]

Layers those are beautiful birds.

 

[I Love Layers]

Layers those are beautiful birds.

Thank you

 

[duluthralphie]

Hutchenson

 

[Cluckies]

Thank God the damage from the skunk invasion was kept to a minimum. Skunk dug under the dog kennel and next to the block foundation rolling back the buried hardware cloth as he went. Walked into the coop through the pop door and raised a holy ruckus at 6:20am. Coop lights go on at 6:30am. I heard the ruckus but did not here AJ (BR rooster) so I flew out the door in my PJ's and crocs. Open the shed door then walk to the coop door, for some weird reason the bottom half of the door stayed shut when  I flung the door open...only the top half opened. I flipped the light on to see 2 hens fly at my head and A SKUNK sound his alarm. The hens were escaping out the pop door and out the human door. I ran back to the house for the gun.....yes 20 guage shotgun with buck shot. (The only thing I feel comfortable shooting.) Yelling at the kids "CALL GRANDPA QUICK". Grandpa shows up with a 410 - (Closest thing he had). In the mean time son says I saw the skunk escape and down to the pasture. Sorry hens you are locked in the coop with pop door closed today.

I shower with Tomato Paste, and we are off to school and work....we are 1/2 mile from our house and I see the skunk on the gravel road. Called my father in law again....He is tracking it as I write.

As fate would have it today is picture day for daughter at her school and picture day for me at work, (I will be doing retakes.)

Irony.....tonight is the first night I teach 4rth grade religion.....my ice breaker for tonight was Introduce yourself and share one time you had Faith in God.

ALL CHICKENS accounted for and alive.

OMG, I thought my encounter was bad. So sorry you went through this! I'm hoping mine doesn't come back!

So I go over to Runnings to get the chick food as I said I was going to do. I increased their oyster shell, their Omega 3's, and their protein as in BOSS and meal worms. Hopefully Regina will start laying and a couple of the other hens that are being lazy. THEN! I was doing the usual talk talk with the girls at Runnings and they mentioned that a person had special ordered 50 Gold Comets (I call these ISA's) and the hatchery sent an additional 50. So they were looking for homes for the extra chicks so I took six and while I was there another person took 20. They were the right price. But I don't like the time of year for them. I do not have the facilities for early winter chicks. Maybe I can get the DH to run electric to that little coop and then I can heat the water and maybe put a light bulb in it so those new chicks can go out there sooner than later. Of course not til the first of November at six weeks - I dunno - how do you transition them at that time of year?

You should talk to ralpie about MHP. Best way to raise chicks outside in winter.

Hutchenson

Good luck in Hutch, have a great time! I'm tempted to head down... but, I'll probably just wait for your report, lol. Lots of people there looks like...

 

[Cluckies]

Morning! Got a JV Tournament all day in Richardton.


The cochins were roughly 5 months

they are lovely!

 

[duluthralphie]

I am home..

Let me see if I can recall everything I need to ask/say:


LAYERS How did you do? Did you kick some butt?


HOLMS I relooked at your EE, I say boy. All the good looking ones are boys....

Cluckies you could have rode with me. It was interesting there, I did not make any money but I got rid of a few birds. I was surprised at the number of Asian there looking for eating roosters. I did not bring any of them. Live and learn!

I also misunderstood or read the stuff. It said there would be lots of parking for your trucks and trailers. I thought that meant we would be selling out of our vehicles in the parking lot like a lot of swaps are....WRONG!!

Everything had to be brought inside to be sold I had no cages with., they had none there. So after a quick trip to Walmart for some "cheap" cages I was a half hour late starting. Next sale/swap I bring trailer and cages so no matter what I am set up right for it.

I only sold a few CLB, and I had to dicker on them to do that. I hate dickering. 5 guineas and almost did not sell them. The woman wanted to know if they were male or female. I gave her my famous " I dunno".

She said, wait, I can tell what they are. She ran off and came back with a string on a ring. I watched her perform her voodoo and declare them boys and girls but I had no idea what she was looking for. She says she got 3 girls and 2 boys.

You should have been there Ivie to confirm it for her..

 

[holm25]

Ralphie it seems to work that way!



Well I am probably going to be MIA the rest of the weekend. Gonna go see Blair Witch with some friends later tonight.


Well have a good rest of the weekend fellow chickeners!

 

[I Love Layers]

Ralhie, we just got home.
I would like to say we got 1st but we didn't. We got 4th though. We were so close to first though!! We were 2 points away from beating Hazen, a girl didn't have her black together though, and didn't react fast enough.... So then we played for 3rd place and lost against Heart River. So we got 4th. I'm super pumped for the tournament in October though

 

[duluthralphie]

I was repeatedly attack by my best looking Dom Rooster tonight. It is Judy's fault. I have reprimanded her appropriately. Last night she was going to hold this one or had reached in it's cage for some reason and she withdrew her hand rapidly saying it had pecked her hard a couple of times.

I told her just man up and grab it and hold him. I assumed she did this as I was doing other things.

Tonight I went to take that guy out of his cage and he repeatedly peck me, HARD! I reached in pulled him out held his head down. tipped him over looked him in the eye and told him that was enough of that crap. I did not use the word crap in all honesty. To sat what I really said might get me my 2 days detention from BYC.

I held him in submissive positions for several minutes. When I ley him up I had a changed bird. He was meek and mild and did what I wanted. He did not even fight my stretching out his wings. He stood straight and tall on the table and did not try to get away once. When I put him back in the cage there was no attack, he just waited for his treat. He took it graciously without any snide comments.

I think I have solved that problem. We will see tomorrow.


I have a toe that is not perfectly straight on one of my SS rooster, how bad will that hurt me in the judging? I think he is near perfection otherwise, but what do I really know about it.

 

[Cebarmlds]

We just had a bear here again, DH had just filled the bird feeder this afternoon and we had been out in the yard trimming trees and had a fire going, maybe 35 minutes before. The bear doesn't seem to be scared of people or a barking dog. I'm thinking keep filling the bird feeder so it goes to that instead of the coop.