Texas

[Ms Jellybean]

Ms Jellybean, I've been wanting to respond to your fencing questions. I used that same type of black plastic hardware cloth in my first coop and some in the run against dog kennel panels. It works well to keep birds inside. I don't feel it would hold up against a determined predator. We just haven't had many of those, thank God. I also used a lot of scrap lumber/pallets to build my second coop. It is not pretty, but it is very effective and cheap. feel free to visit my coop pages and I will try to update them soon to include our new brooder addition.

Thanks for the info. My yard has a fence around it so I think I only need the plastic for chicken control in the yard. The coop/run is all hardware cloth and will be very secure.

I really want to find a couple to raise for my DIL. She is in love with these girls. I would like a couple of white ones and a buff one but I can't find a breeder anywhere or anyone around here that has chicks. I am getting bummed!!

I was hoping to surprise her for Easter.

Come to McKinney next week and we can go to Shutt'er Down Ranch together. You can get your silkies there.

No Tarzan cry, but that darn little thing just wouldn't let go. I had him/her buzzing around my face for the longest time--I even walked into another room to show my husband.

Today I finally got around to vaccinating for Mareks. They are five weeks old, so I hope they will develop a bit more immunity than if I had done them at a day old. As I was taking them out, one had a huge chunk of wood in its beak desperately trying to get that big worm down. I took the wood out of its mouth, vaccinated the chick, put him back and he immediately grabbed that wood again. Silly thing.

What is the best age to vaccinate for Mareks? Is that one a shot or liquid in the nose?

I wanted to share the coop my dh is building for me. We are currently storing bicycles in it, but that will change as soon as I can get the bicycles into the too full garage.

From the front, it looks just like a garage.

On the back side. All of this is chicken wire. The outside will be framed in hardware wire as well to keep predators out. The door will go somewhere back here. I am standing in the run area.


Looking in. I could see more when I was taking the picture.


This is the side. I think that the roosts will go here. I'm not yet sure where we will put the nesting boxes.


This is the doorway between the front of the garage and where the chickens will be. I will keep the front area for feed storage, etc.


This is looking out toward the run area.

Bicycles belong in the house. Not joking. I would never put my bike in the garage or a shed. I could never replace it if it got damaged. I have a bike room in my house. It is also doubling as the chicken brooder room now.

We're getting a new car tomorrow, I think.
Haven't had a car payment in years...
My chicken addiction fund is quickly looking like a car payment fund...lol

What did you end up getting?

Speaking of. My lone SLW is missing

Oh no!! Hope you find it, alive and happy.

 

[Ms Jellybean]

this is Zootopia's Arkansas Blue Roo x my frizzle black EE's. Yippee a blue frizzle and hopefully pretty blue egg

Wow! What a cutie pie.

 

[Ms Jellybean]

Eating a tomato slice after having a chocolate brownie is a lot like drinking OJ after brushing your teeth.

 

[jajeanpierre]

What is the best age to vaccinate for Mareks? Is that one a shot or liquid in the nose?

I don't really know. I talked with the vet from the manufacturer for a long time and we discussed it. The vaccine I can buy is not very good and really doesn't prevent infection, just the severity of it. I believe it really only prevents the paralysis part of the disease. Small breeders can't buy the more effective vaccine because it needs to be shipped and stored in liquid nitrogen. The big hatcheries use that more effective vaccine.

I was just too busy to vaccinate when they were younger and just kept putting it of. Mareks is everywhere, and it is a case of the chick developing immunity before the disease overwhelms it. I think that was what the vet was trying to explain to me--it's a race between the immunity developing and the disease in the environment. The vaccine gives the chicks' immunity a bit of a head start.

My chicks are inside, so they shouldn't be exposed to Mareks. I'll keep them in a few more days.

My hatchery chicks were vaccinated at the hatchery before they were shipped. The Ameraucanas from the Texas breeder (the same one that I think your Ameraucana is coming from) doesn't vaccinate the chicks he is shipping, so the original birds I bought from him have never been vaccinated. The vet from the manufacturer felt they already had been exposed to the disease so it was pointless to vaccinate. Also, there is a 21 day withdrawal after vaccinating with Mareks so I passed on the few unvaccinated birds I have left.

Mareks is an subcutaneous injection, under the skin on their necks. I used a small syringe. It wasn't easy to do but I hope the next group I vaccinate will be easier.

 

[magpiesing]

A1momof3...I buy my mealworms at petco or petsmart, both sell them. i think I paid 2.49 for 100 but if you buy more they get cheaper.

 

[jajeanpierre]

Bicycles belong in the house. Not joking. I would never put my bike in the garage or a shed. I could never replace it if it got damaged. I have a bike room in my house. It is also doubling as the chicken brooder room now.

You would DIE if you saw how we take care of our bikes.

My husband kept his very expensive carbon fiber racing bike outside in the humid, salty air in the Caribbean. Things corroded and were replaced. He never washes it. You would have a fit!

My bikes are treated no better but they aren't expensive bikes.

 

[jajeanpierre]

A1momof3...I buy my mealworms at petco or petsmart, both sell them. i think I paid 2.49 for 100 but if you buy more they get cheaper.

I bought a bunch and then set up a worm farm for them. My chicks already know where that worm farm is, and if they escape the brooder they try to root around in the big box of meal worms.

 

[Brookshire11]

Send a picture of the buff's comb and side view of his top knot.  I got fooled by a few of mine.  Mine are only pet quality, but a couple of the girls made me think they were boys.  Their laying eggs set me straight. 

oh that'd be helpful, thanks!
Ill do it tomorrow, I just put them up.

Thanks for the info.  My yard has a fence around it so I think I only need the plastic for chicken control in the yard. The coop/run is all hardware cloth and will be very secure. 

Come to McKinney next week and we can go to Shutt'er Down Ranch together. You can get your silkies there.

What is the best age to vaccinate for Mareks?  Is that one a shot or liquid in the nose?

Bicycles belong in the house.   Not joking.  I would never put my bike in the garage or a shed. I could never replace it if it got damaged.  I have a bike room in my house. It is also doubling as the chicken brooder room now.    

What did you end up getting?



Oh no!!  Hope you find it, alive and happy.

Were going to look at a Ford Focus tomorrow.
We'll see! Maybe now that he'll have a car he will get mine fixed! I got pulled over by a bicycle cop today...a bicycle cop!!!
You should ride with him, he was fast! lol!

 

[magpiesing]

I bought a bunch and then set up a worm farm for them. My chicks already know where that worm farm is, and if they escape the brooder they try to root around in the big box of meal worms.

How did you get your worm farm going? They make good bait too.

 

[kenmlang]

How did you get your worm farm going? They make good bait too.

I would like to know this also, I have a ten gallon tank, and that is as far as I have gotten. I am looking for the best place to order my starter worms. Please help, nobody will will give me a straight answer.