Surviving Minnesota!

[Elise Ferguson]

Okay the chicks are getting hard to catch these days. I was going to start training them with treats but so far they are unimpressed with anything I've presented: grapes, corn, strawberries, meal worms all pretty much a flop.

 

[BantyChooks]

Okay the chicks are getting hard to catch these days. I was going to start training them with treats but so far they are unimpressed with anything I've presented: grapes, corn, strawberries, meal worms all pretty much a flop.

Tip.... Let them get hungry. Then offer them the food. Obviously, don't starve them, just let 'em feel a few hunger pangs. They'll be your besties within a week if you do that once a day or so.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Or just straight up feed for a while.

Then get some BOSS. Black oil Sunflower seeds. I guarantee that will up your stock.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Are your meal worms dried or still alive. Live ones have that wiggle that they can't deny. Curiosity will get them on those. Pets mart.

 

[duluthralphie]

I use that fake hamburger for dogs and cats,,The birds go nuts for it.
Tonight I was just going give Ed and Weinerhead some "hamburger". I had it in my pocket so no one else would see it.

AS soon as I brought it out, hidden in my hand for Ed, Cuddles saw it and started getting excited and telling his hens it was coming..

I ended up feeding everyone the hamburger treats tonight. (in the barn that is)..

They will do aything for it. Even the birds that hate to be touched and seem ornery will come around to the fake hambyger...(well, almost. There was a SS rooster that went to MnChickmoms and then I think her FIL,,before becoming dinner... He failed to conform.

 

[lvie]

Good morning!
I had a gal come yesterday to buy my extra standard cochin cockerels. I knew her some had gotten faverolles from me before and loved that breed... So I sent the rest of my breeding pen along with her. 1 less breed... 6 bantam polish left and I can free up another pen.

A few years back I got into the exhibition type muscovies. Its pretty well known how muscovies normally generate LOTS of babies. Well not those big show type ones...Up until now I was lucky to get 2-5 babies out of them for the whole season. I was jumping for joy when a black hen came out of a nest from the back barn with 11 babies this weekend. Ralphie you might actually like these...they are nothing like normal ducks. They don't quack, they don't dig mudholes, they don't splash water out of a waterer the minute you fill it, they wag their tails like dogs when happy to see you, they have sharp claws and can fly so most predators don't tough them, AND when butchered, their meat is like veal.

I have the farrier coming sometime later this morning and I really have to go through and clean chicken pens again. Its day 11 without my 5 hour energy shots and I still have no ambition. At least the headaches are getting better from the caffeine withdrawal.

Why no 5-hour Destiny?

 

[memphis]

Ralph....are you showing Snitch??

 

[lvie]

I know how you feel on the lowering numbers... We used to have 150+ ducks and 75+ geese and we've whittled down to just less than 8 adult muscovies. We used to have 3 different breeds of turkeys and they are all gone. We used to have 25+ peafowl and I think we are down to 8 and I've been selling off babies as they hatch. Used to have 150+ pigeons between barn and my brother's loft in town.... I think he has just a couple left in his loft and none at farm now. On the chickens... Usually at this time of the year, I'd have enough to supply all the people on this thread plus some. This year I have less than 100 total and will still narrow more cockerels out by fall.

I think the older I get, the heavier those feed bags get. Cleaning pens and scraping crap off everything has me investing more in Aleve and the chiropractor visits. I sold the big 600 egg Redwood incubator this summer and am tempted to downsize from the 400 Redwood I still have.

Hi Destiny - I sure understand about the part about the older I get . . . . Thankfully we have the opportunity to experience getting older. Yippee!

 

[lvie]

I have 5o cockerels, Seems the predators and/or thieves preferred the girls over the boys. I find it amazing the predators found the girls pens and left the boys alone!

Hm m m m . . . . that is very interesting. A discriminating predator. I did not know that they knew how to sex a bird.

 

[lvie]

Ivie all you need is some PVC pipe (size is up to you), two caps for the PVC. Then all you need is a drill and a 3/8" drill bit and put a hole where you want your cup to be. You can get water cups at any feed store and it's like $5 for a pack of 3

ALRIGHT! Thank you! I have my own drill now and that bit. Whoo Hoo.