Surviving Minnesota!

[BantyChooks]

BantyChooks - I thought you were new to raising poultry but am rethinking that now. Where in the world did I come up with that assumption? You have already done quail.

I've had chickens since April 2014 and have owned chickens, guineas, quail, dux, and had the neighbour's turkeys adopt me. Still new to chickens but trying to learn and pass on info as much as I can.

I love Banty's fan girl moment on here. Lol. Jerry has a cabin in my hometown and asked about growing pear trees in my little town on this thread. I thought somebody was pulling a funny on me. Because the town is really small and I had never divulged my town on here before. Well after a meet and greet luncheon with Ralphie too we had a laugh about the coincidence. So pretty special to have Jerry joining this little Minnesota group for sure. Thank you Jerry.

LOL, I may have gasped a bit when I saw his last name... I have a great deal of respect for Mr Segler as an expert breeder of (IMO) one of the most beautiful chicken breeds in the standard.

 

[holm25]

Can you see the Simi influence in the calves

I am gonna get some new pics of the calves tonight. They look about 10 times better already. I also have to get a halter on my show heifers calf...

 

[MinnesotaNice]

Good morning all. I had a nice lengthy post typed but lost by a mobile glitch.


Had my largest production week last week for 5 hens laying. They are such good girls. I think they really like junior as well.
With saturday's warm trend the grass popped some green and the flock grazed and grazed. They also were on the hunt in the woods for chirping frogs. Skeeters hatched and I don't have any dunks. I will have to change that state of affairs.

Time to make the donuts.

You got those ladies laying! Great picture!

You had me at donuts.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do about an aggressive rooster? He was originally very sweet but I left for a month in February and since then he's been attacking me. Nothing really serious, but I can't walk, crouch, touch the feeder or waterer, or be near the chicks without getting pecked or kicked. Haha, he just jumps up at me with his feet, which I can easily block with my foot. I've tried using the same boots and coat as I used to, in case my newer ones were confusing him. And I've tried holding and petting him in from of the girls. This wouldn't be a big deal to me, just an annoyance, but my mom frequently takes care of them for me and is really upset about it. I don't really want to cull him as he's won first place several times in shows and I'd like to keep him for future shows and breeding. I got rid of his brother for aggression as didn't want that in my line, but I really am hoping to keep him. He's a year and a half old Lavender Orpington rooster.

I think @MNChickMom , has a great idea. Our rooster became Owl dinner, but we'd carry him around like a baby anytime we could get him. Sometimes, we'd pull him off the roost and carry him around to do outside chores. He was a good boy, but this was something we also did since hatch day with him. I guess just remind him who the boss is over and over again. That, or I'm sure he'll make great soup.

https://stcloud.craigslist.org/grd/6070463048.html

Almost tempting.

Now that is cool.

 

[MinnesotaNice]

That Turkey hen and Mr. T will make incredible babies? Did you get her from Ralphie?

 

[lvie]

The taming of the roo per Ralphie. When I had Tom Hanks, who hated men a.k.a my dh and ds Ralphie told me to 1) Pick Tom up (which is fairly easy to do because an attacking roo wants at ya and so fairly easily caught - in MHO - OR - it being my first year in chickening I did not realize what may be a difficulty in this endeavor - hold Tom firmly under my arm. In my case this would be my right arm. 2) with the left hand push his head down and hold it there. Begin to pet while walking around with Tom under my arm. I talked to him and told him the error of his ways and what was so wrong about his attitude. I also explained to my DH that Tom was protecting HIS girls. It did not good for either Tom or the DH. They hated each other. 3) after about 10 minutes of doing this task let Tom get down and yell at him. For me this meant that I made myself as large as I could by flinging my arms out and bending over and shout "I feed you!" 4) Walk toward him and make him move.

Tom's and my relationship was not too bad but I had to repeat this procedure about once a month. As the typical male of any species he did not think I, a female, was serious. I would find him following me giving me the stink eye and although I told him 'don't even think about it.' I could see he was. So we would process the whole procedure once again.

Okay - gotta repeat the Tom Hanks and DH charades once. Just the best one.

 

[lvie]

For those of you that were not on this thread two years ago: That is when I began chickening. I got six chicks. One got wry neck, Eagles ate three BA, leaving me with two ISA's. Those five were laying so I was quite distressed. I looked for RIR and bought four from a source in Clear Lake. While looking I came across a pair of BR. I thought, after my incident free-ranging and providing the Eagles lunch that it would be a good idea to have a rooster. So I met and purchased the two BR. The hen became Gilda Radner because she was constantly yaking about something and the Roo became Tom Hanks because he looked so handsome and I used to think Tom was handsome. I asked (having no experience with roosters) if he was a nice rooster. When I think back about it I never did get an answer. So all this transpired about five months into this adventure of chickening. The winter was quiet. It was in the Spring when all the trouble started.

One night I came home from a walk at 6:30 and found Tom in pain sitting on his roost. Clearly not doing well but I could not see anything wrong - at first. Then I noticed his beak was broken. I asked the DH, who was calmly grilling at the time, why Tom was on his roost so early. The DH said that they had a fight and he hit Tom with a stick. In my shocked and horrified state of being I announced that he (the DH) had broken Tom's beak. To his credit the DH felt bad. At 11:00 p.m. that night I had Tom burrito wrapped in an old bath towel and laid out on the table, gluing tea bags to his beak (used fingernail glue - worked great) to put it back together and make a point so he could pick up food. He was the old Tom within a day and a half.

But the fights continued. Tom got locked down if DH was in the yard.

 

[BantyChooks]

after about 10 minutes of doing this task let Tom get down and yell at him. For me this meant that I made myself as large as I could by flinging my arms out and bending over and shout "I feed you!" 4) Walk toward him and make him move.

The mental image on this one is hilarious!

 

[lvie]

One hot summer day I was working in the yard and finally figured out that I needed something to eat as I felt famished. I went into the nice cool house and made half of a P&J sandwich. As I was in the kitchen I heard a honk - just one - and thought - odd. The DH was out and about doing his construction biz. Maybe he had returned home but as it was only one honk it could have been from the highway. About five minutes latter I heard another honk. Ahhhhh - it is my DH - Tom must be nearby. I will go out and help the woos DH get out of the truck.

 

[lvie]

Since I had been drinking a gallon of water my sandwich was yet not eaten and so I picked it up, went outside without shoes on (we have a crushed cement driveway) and carefully walked to the truck where the DH waited. I looked around the corner of the dumpster (there for biz purposes) and sure enough, there was Tom about fifteen feet away waiting for the DH to get out of his truck. No hens were present. Just Tom and DH ready to face-off.

My dogs (3) plus the one chocolate lab from next door were there with me. The DH got the clearance to get out of his truck which he did. Then he stands there talking to his barefoot wife holding half of a P&J sandwich. I did not want to talk. I wanted to eat that stupid sandwich. Remember - I am hungry and I am a woman. The two simply do not blend. So the DH proceeds to the shop door which was approx 10 feet. All the while I am watching Tom and Tom is watching the DH. The DH opens the door to the shop, steps in, turns around to close the door and at approximately ten inches of space of open door - there flies Tom, literally, actually, no kidding, at eye level through what is now about eight inches of open space. I yell - open the door! Then a person could hear stuff banging around and scuffling and door - which had closed before either of knew what Tom was up to - yanks open and out come Tom and DH tangled up together. I am still holding that stupid sandwich in my left hand. I grab Tos neck with my right hand and pin him on the shop cement apron and the chocolate lab from next door is trying to help me hold Tom down by wrapping her jaws around his chest. I am telling cocoa to 'leave it!" All this time (no more than 30 seconds) the DH is standing there watching me. I un-nicely ask him ' What the - - - - are you doing?" He responds that he wants to go into the shop but that I am in his way. Needless to say my instructions to GO AROUND me were emphasied strongly.

Hindsight - what a great story.

Tom was rehomed to a friend from church that had acquired 14 RIR. I gave him the scoop on Tom, don't know if Tom is still around, but I do know that this friends birds did not free-range. I stopped to see Tom a couple of times. I missed him. He was doing well but that was a year ago now.

 

[lvie]

Just a p.s. This bird would kick the tires on the DH truck as it was leaving the yard. And the truck being a diesel, was easily recognized when it was pulling into the yard and Tom would come running to 'greet' the DH.