Texas

[Starfire669]

Yes, I will take them later in the year. It will be good to have some mature roosters ready to go for next years pullets. I may even take 2. I live in New Braunfels, so I can pick them up from you if you are stil in SA.

Do mature Roos take good care of pullets? I need 2 mature Roos to fend off the neighbors mature Roo who I swear is drooling over my sexy hens. But I am concerned that my pullets, who are 8 weeks right now and will be around 12 weeks when I hope to add a Roo, might get hurt by a Roo that much bigger. Am I being stupid, or is this a valid fear?

 

[harley1975]

Harley you know every time you post one of these craigslist articles I end up buying something.  LOL  Here you go again feeding me.  We live to close my friend.  But I must say, you do find great things, rain barrels, silkies, now this!!  I will not go to Mineola..... I will NOT go to Mineola..... Oh but I have to go to Walmart.... Guess I am going to Mineola.  e

I would be going to Mineola if I had the money to get 10 of each. But I have over spent this month already. So I am hoping she still has some next month. I have gave up on resisting getting more chickens I guess I am going to start breeding and hatching to sell the chicks.

 

[magpiesing]

Beautiful morning folks

Busy day today...Son and family coming Friday so will be mowing today. Chickens will enjoy that effort. Gotta have the place looking decent for pics of grand daughter with chickens! DH helping with the last 6 sheets of tin on the folks roof and that will be done. Then gonna celebrate FIL 75th this afternoon. Then head to HD for plants...my pots and beds are empty. So thought I would sit a bit and enjoy the last of my tea before getting started.
Have a great day y'all...Magpie

 

[epinkstn]

Hi ya'll!
I'm a newbie from Richardson (real close to Dallas) and lived in Houston for most of my childhood. I read through a lot of this thread and excited to see that there are a lot of us!!

I have 3- 8 week old hens (2 EEs and 1 BSL) I posted about the EEs over in the gender/breed? forum.
We can't have roos here, but sure wish we could 'cuz we sure have the hawks watching. GRRR! I wish my dogs got the memo and wouldn't try and eat the girls, then maybe they could free range a bit more. They've only been outside for a week and they sure like it better than the dog crate in the garage!


This is Cora (BSL), Sandy on the left and Abigail on the right.


I'm sure I'll be looking for a way to expand the coop/run because I'm loving this so much! I want more

For "ANTS" I was going to suggest the diatomaceous earth as well. I have it sprinkled all around the house. My front porch looks like a bottle of powder exploded, but the ants are gone! I've also heard of using baby powder and cinnamon.

For "mint" do ya'll plant around the outside of the run (on the fence line). I wonder with my set up if I should put some around the small run on the inside of the big run.

 

[ClovisMan]

Quote: The dominant rooster will always win out. If your neighbor raises Game Cocks then it will usually be the dominant rooster. They fight to the death most of the time. Your neighbor needs to do a better job at keeping his livestock on his property. And what I mean by mature rooster is that they are more likely to be able to fertilize eggs when they are a year or more old. Young roosters sometime cannot get it done.

 

[Starfire669]

The dominant rooster will always win out. If your neighbor raises Game Cocks then it will usually be the dominant rooster. They fight to the death most of the time. Your neighbor needs to do a better job at keeping his livestock on his property. And what I mean by mature rooster is that they are more likely to be able to fertilize eggs when they are a year or more old. Young roosters sometime cannot get it done.

The neighbor in question is an older man, about 45- 50, with a sever spinal disability. I too have a spinal disability but his is much worse than mine and I get medical care through VA since it happened during active duty, he doesn't have good medical. The only reason he keeps the birds is because they are the last thing he has from his daughter before she was kidnapped by her mother. He maintains the hope that the girl will come looking for him as she ages, but holds on to her chickens and rabbit in remembrance. I say this so you know why I don't push for him to get rid of the Roo. He tried coop training like his layers, he called friends to catch the birds and locked them up for 3 weeks. The day he let them out again not one came back to the coop. All got up 10 feet high or more in the trees. At the time he locked them up he gave most of the flock away, only keeping 1 Roo and 5 hens for himself. And he did that for me. I would feel horrible if I made him give them all up. The Roo is an excellent guardian for his flock, without the Roo the dogs would have killed most or all of his birds. That Roo's alarm call has even brought me out running to save my cat from those dang dogs (if I had had my gun problem would have been solved that day). When I hear the Roo sound alarm I always check and I will repell the dogs from both our yards if needed, we have a standing pact to look out for each others birds. I just don't want game cock blood mixing in my flock. My girls are all brown egg layers and I want to keep it that way. I was hopeful that a mature pair of Roos would be able to hold his off. I have close to 20 pullets and so I think I can support 2 Roos. If you don't think a layer Roo would work, any other ideas? I am looking into the Havahart water spray/noise repellent, but really can't justify the expense with us taking in my neighbor who had his house burn down Easter Sunday.

And since those dumb birds won't coop train, clipping their wings would be a death sentence.

 

[Starfire669]

On a completely different note, we are having a yard sale this Saturday. All the money will be given to my neighbor who lost everything this Easter Sunday. So if you live in or around San Antonio and want to donate or buy, you will find the notice in the Express news or can PM me for directions.

Thanks

 

[Mov1estar]

Does the mint really repel ants? Are there other good plants to put around the coop to repel insects?
I'm new to this also, so I have LOTS to learn. I've started with two Rhode Islands and ok success with one the other eats a lot but no eggs.
Good Luck,
Robert

 

[tcmstalcup]

Well my math is terrible.I sold 7 babies yesterday and pulled 22 out of the incubator today!!!! Of course other bators are fully loaded! If anyone needs some great marans or my own blue egg layer( Arkansas Blue Roo crossed back on My Ameraucauna and SBEL hens.) I'm 54 miles from San Angelo.

 

[SlipsWife]

We eggtopsied our eggs that should have hatched on Monday. None made it.

Before day 18, we had a few early quitters, all appeared to be around days 10-14, with maybe 2 that quit earlier.

Two had completely absorbed their yolks, the rest seemed to have quit right before that point. I don't know what went wrong. I tried a dry hatch, humidity stayed around 30-40% without adding water. I added water to a sponge at day 18 when we removed the turner, humidity was around 70%. Placed eggs upright in egg cartons that had the bottoms cut out.


I don't think they were shrink wrapped. The 2 that had progressed the furthest were shipped eggs, with the rest being shipped and home eggs. The eggs were not old.

We have Turken eggs coming this week, hopefully today. I'm going to clean the incubator and keep it off for at least today. Once the eggs come in I'll let them set for 24hrs and I might collect a few of our own eggs to use as controls again.

Any suggestions on what went wrong? The only thing I might do different this time is when I remove them from the turner I might just lay them down instead of leaving them standing up. I've read a lot of people have had success with them in the egg cartons though. I was going to do half and half this time but decided not to.