Texas

[chick-among-us]

That is so sweet. How old are your kids?  Mine are past the sweet stage.  They are 19 and 21. Neither of them really cares about mom right now.  The oldest is coming around though.  It's nice when they turn back into human beings after being teenagers.

they become human again?? Thank you Jesus!

I've got a 23, 21, 20 and 8. All girls. It's hard being a mom. I think the easiest age for me was elem. they are still kids even now-

I have five three boys two girls....if you didn't have the memories of them as babies carrying them around holding them as they slept,the smell of them as tiny little things....we would eat them as teenagers like lions do! I'm allergic to teenagers that's what my problem is.es that's it I'm just allergic....

 

[chick-among-us]

Anyone want a very mean little OEGB roo before I really do kill him this is what he did to me again tonight, my leg ached as soon as he hit me & tonight I'm actually lame he got me about an inch below my kneecap & a little to the right

Umm he's got to go!!

x2 ! Yikes!

 

[chick-among-us]

well it's time to pack eggs and I am sleepy and want to go back to bed...but I'm pretty sure my customers want their eggs lol.. My silkies are laying like they have lost their minds and I have eggs coming outta my ears! Lol happy HUMP DAY!!

 

[FossilPeak]

 

[TexasLisa]

good morning Texans and Lisa. I am up, waiting for the Post Office to call me to pick up a chicken, a gift from a friend I visited in summer.

How exciting! Make sure and take pictures. I hope it arrives safely!

Lisa

 

[Ms Jellybean]

Awwwww! Lol They'll come around

I went through a rough patch with my mom from 17-20 lol
My girl is 3, baby boy just turned 1.
Im ALREADY not looking forward to the sass...lol and she's already getting it..
She's excited about the chicks but im glad she wont be home when they arrive. Ive heard opening a box of chicks isnt really a kid-friendly activity....

My daughter

I miss those ages. My favourite is a little older, when you can tell them to do something - like get dressed, brush your teeth, etc - and they can do it, as well as crafty things. I guess 5-10 age range.

Tin roofs are the best

Love ours

I would love a metal roof. I just don't have the money for one.

Anyone want a very mean little OEGB roo before I really do kill him

this is what he did to me again tonight, my leg ached as soon as he hit me & tonight I'm actually lame

he got me about an inch below my kneecap & a little to the right

OUCH!!!!!

good morning Texans and Lisa. I am up, waiting for the Post Office to call me to pick up a chicken, a gift from a friend I visited in summer.

Yeah!!

I've got a 23, 21, 20 and 8. All girls. It's hard being a mom. I think the easiest age for me was elem. they are still kids even now-

I have been a single mom since my boys were 2 and 4. It has been very hard. It's still hard. My 19 yr old is torn between being an adult and child right now, not so much with my 21 yr old. He is away at college though so that could be why.
I have 4 sisters. Getting into the bathroom when I was growing up was a challenge at times.

Well it really is hump day and I'm not feeling like getting up. I've developed a nasty cough. Just not feeling it today. Ugh

Get elderberry extract and take 3 times the dose on the bottle for a few days. You may not get sick. The key to it working is to catch the bug early. I use elderberry all the time, haven't been sick since 2005.

I have five three boys two girls....if you didn't have the memories of them as babies carrying them around holding them as they slept,the smell of them as tiny little things....we would eat them as teenagers like lions do! I'm allergic to teenagers that's what my problem is.es that's it I'm just allergic....

I think we all are allergic to teenagers. lol!


It's chilly this morning! I have so much to do today too. Looks like another trainer ride for me today. Lots of errands to run plus work... yuck.

 

[LBejaran]

That is so sweet. How old are your kids? Mine are past the sweet stage. They are 19 and 21. Neither of them really cares about mom right now. The oldest is coming around though. It's nice when they turn back into human beings after being teenagers.

Oh no, don't worry! We stop being unbearable the moment we realize we need you more than our teenage minds can comprehend! Actually, I wasn't that bad when I was a teenager, but that mostly had to do with the fact that I was ignored at school and I spent most of my time with my parents. Mom and I used to go out at night and clean an office building for extra money because Grandma was living with us (she had dementia and other problems that made it hard for her to take care of herself) and paying for everything we needed to keep her comfortable was getting difficult. That's how most of my high school years were spent. We got along really well and we still do.

Nowadays, though, it certainly shows how much those years affected us. Now that I'm 21, I get frustrated with her more often because I technically am an adult but I don't know how to express that. However, because I'm older, I can now try and figure out how to deal with it (something I don't think I would have been able to do when I was younger). Of course, Mom forgets that I'm my own person sometimes because I never caused any trouble when I was younger. So now if I have vastly differing opinions or ways of reasoning, she gets a bit unhappy with me.

Ugh, I went on a rant there. Oh well, I hope this was just a little insightful. Trust me, your 21 year old will eventually stop acting awful when they realize you've been there for them all along. Sometimes it just takes a little work (and maybe a bad break-up or lack of money, hehe!).

 

[jajeanpierre]

Tin roofs are the best

Love ours

Are steel roofs noisy?

When I built the little chicken houses I have now, I used painted plywood for the roofs--I didn't want to lacerate my clumsy self as I serviced the birds. (By the way, in the Caribbean, roofs are painted plywood to catch rain for the cisterns. Surprisingly, water is a scarce resource on the Caribbean islands if you don't catch the rain.)

I'm now building a little coop for my group of bantam Cochins that will be housed in one of my parrot aviaries. I need to make the roof of the little house "parrot proof." They'll be going in the flight that houses the smaller, less destructive parrots, but no parrot larger than a Budgie is not destructive. I had thought of just putting an untreated, unpainted piece of ply wood on top and just replacing it as the parrots chewed it up or the weather rotted it, but am now thinking of using a metal roof. A metal roof would just look a little nicer since most of my property can be seen from the road. I fear my chicken houses are making my beautiful house and property more suited for a trailer park than my neighborhood.

How much noise will rain and hail make on a tin roof? If I insulate the roof, will the noise be eliminated?

I've put sheets of untreated plywood over parts of my parrot aviaries to keep the rain and sun off most of it. The flights are situated under a canopy of live oak as well. They rot and the birds chew them up, but they are non toxic, cheap and don't become dangerous flying killing machines in a wind. I don't anchor the plywood sheets because my aviaries are expensive and I don't want the roof to rip my aviary apart. My flights have survived a couple of hurricanes and many tropical storms in the Caribbean, so without anything to catch the wind, they are pretty strong.

Thanks for any input.

 

[jajeanpierre]

Anyone want a very mean little OEGB roo before I really do kill him

this is what he did to me again tonight, my leg ached as soon as he hit me & tonight I'm actually lame

he got me about an inch below my kneecap & a little to the right

I'm sorry you have a nasty rooster on your hands. If he weren't nasty, would you want to keep him?

I have far too many cockerels at the moment, and two have started going after me and others on occasion. They are both very good breeding/exhibition-quality birds, and I was intending to use them in a breeding program and show them. I was mentally preparing to send them to freezer camp, but that would leave me with no rooster to protect my girls, and they are good protectors. (The other two cockerels are just plain ugly birds and not the color I want to breed.) I'm an expert at avoiding processing birds until I absolutely have to. My latest excuse, by far, is my best--I just had cervical spinal fusion surgery December 30th and I don't want to risk any blood or gore getting on my neck brace!

I've been in touch with some internet chicken breeder friends who work with this breed (Ameraucanas) and one has given me some really good advice. She told me my problem (besides the too heavy testosterone load for the number of pullets) was partly because they were juveniles with no mature rooster to teach them manners. She also said it was not too late and they still could be trained.

I had been doing things like walking towards them if they so much as looked at me funny and chasing them if they actually rushed me, but they are pretty fast and I'm pretty old, so I never did catch them to pick them up and let them know that they really were not as big and tough as I am. It wasn't working.

She advised me to take a light stick (I use a 5 foot long bamboo garden stake) and just poke them a little to make them move away from me. She didn't recommend hitting them, kicking them or hurting them in any way, just poke them and make them move out of my way fast. You know what? It's working. If one gets a little uppity, I grab a little bamboo pole (that I have lying all around my yard) and just chase him around and make him run and jump to get away from me. It is quite funny, because as this cockerel is running for his life, the pullets are underfoot hoping for a goodie.

The other thing she said was to not allow them to breed a hen in your presence. Top roosters never allow a lesser rooster to breed a hen. They run up and knock the offending rooster off the hen.

The little stick is not to hurt them, it is to be your feet as if you were a rooster. Alpha roosters use their feet to knock the lesser roosters off the hens or out of their way.

When I started this program, I had to carry a bamboo pole every time I went anywhere near where the free ranging Ameraucanas hang out. Now I don't. Once in awhile, one particular cockerel needs to be reminded he is the lesser bird, but I am not fearful of being rushed by any of them when my back as turned as I had been. For any "Dr. Who" fans, these cockerels are like Weeping Angels, the scariest monsters in the universe.

I keep these birds in my front yard, and I often am out walking in the yard and working in it. I just can't have nasty roosters.

The lady who gave me advice reminded me that this was juvenile behavior and might very well go away as they got older. She finds she gets this kind of bad behavior when she has too many juvenile cockerels she is growing out. An older rooster won't allow this kind of behavior to happen.

So, if you really would like to keep this rooster, think about the above. If you don't want him, don't give him to someone else. Slaughter him yourself and enjoy using him. You raised him, you know what went into him and why should some stranger get some really wonderful tasting chicken--nothing like the mush you buy in the grocery store!--for free. Slaughtering isn't all that hard. After processing your own birds, you will have a new appreciation for any meat you eat.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[LBejaran]

Are steel roofs noisy?

When I built the little chicken houses I have now, I used painted plywood for the roofs--I didn't want to lacerate my clumsy self as I serviced the birds. (By the way, in the Caribbean, roofs are painted plywood to catch rain for the cisterns. Surprisingly, water is a scarce resource on the Caribbean islands if you don't catch the rain.)

I'm now building a little coop for my group of bantam Cochins that will be housed in one of my parrot aviaries. I need to make the roof of the little house "parrot proof." They'll be going in the flight that houses the smaller, less destructive parrots, but no parrot larger than a Budgie is not destructive. I had thought of just putting an untreated, unpainted piece of ply wood on top and just replacing it as the parrots chewed it up or the weather rotted it, but am now thinking of using a metal roof. A metal roof would just look a little nicer since most of my property can be seen from the road. I fear my chicken houses are making my beautiful house and property more suited for a trailer park than my neighborhood.

How much noise will rain and hail make on a tin roof? If I insulate the roof, will the noise be eliminated?

I've put sheets of untreated plywood over parts of my parrot aviaries to keep the rain and sun off most of it. The flights are situated under a canopy of live oak as well. They rot and the birds chew them up, but they are non toxic, cheap and don't become dangerous flying killing machines in a wind. I don't anchor the plywood sheets because my aviaries are expensive and I don't want the roof to rip my aviary apart. My flights have survived a couple of hurricanes and many tropical storms in the Caribbean, so without anything to catch the wind, they are pretty strong.

Thanks for any input.

We have a metal roof and it doesn't make that much noise, to be honest. It's sloped so the rain travels from the shed (which the coop is built off of) and off the roof of the coop. The slope also helps with the sound, I think. Sometimes, on days with particularly strong winds, it shakes a bit but I don't feel that it makes much noise. The chickens certainly don't care much either way.


You can't see it, but behind the wood is our metal roof and it has kept for years. The main chicken coop is actually an extension of a goat pen we used to have. This coop used to actually be open and was filled with junk, but we finally cleaned it up and turned it into a big coop. (This picture is from last year, so I don't remember if I showed it on here or another thread, hehe).

When you mentioned collecting rain water, I thought about it and realized that, if we were so inclined, we could probably collect rain water with the roof set up as we have it now, but we're a little focused on other projects.