Texas

[TammyTX]

Hello,

I'm down in League City Texas.
We r new to raising chickens but loving it!
Me and 2 buddies have 6 chickens 3 Sex Links & 3 RI Reds.
The Sex Links r the newest and they stay up in the roost while the reds stay on the ground.
I have been told that they will get mix & mingle once they figure out what the pecking order is.
But it's been a week almost 2 weeks and there still split up!
Any thoughts on this?

Have a Great Day!
james

Welcome

My old chickens do not mingle with the 4 black coppers (5.5 months old) but they do roost together. I have a rooster who will actually keep them away from the roost and I have bully hens who will peck them once on the roost. I was completely surprised by this because last July we had a "surprise" hatch of one chick...the roo mentioned above...and the flock accepted him immediately. The old birds have never "attacked" the younger birds as if to really hurt them though...more like showing them who is boss.

First, make sure you have enough room for all birds. For large fowl I would give them about 14 inches of roost. Are your roost all on one level? I realize the sex links are the newest, but are they older?

I would watch and see if the sex links are bullying the RIRs away from the roost. It is possible they will never flock together but will learn to tolerate each other.

 

[TammyTX]

Hung - I'm glad your wife-to-be is okay. That is really a horrible situation in that area of the world.

Now get to work...again!

 

[Ms Jellybean]

I've been planning out the planters I've decided to put up around our garden for this reason. My idea was that mint and other strongly-scented herbs would deter rodents and pests (like bugs who don't seem to like mint plants). Then I watched a documentary about people using lemon and lime juice as a natural insect repellent. I think what I'm going to do is make a strong mint and lemon tea (just boil it all up until it is super strong) and spray it all over my garden once I start it up.

Has anyone else used lemon juice or mint? It sounds like a good combination that will deter all sorts of animals, so I'm pretty interested. It would also mean that I don't have to go out and find anything other than organic lemons. Assuming I have my mint growing by then, I can just use what I have available.

So many ideas!

I have a planter with mint in it that is home to an ant colony. :/ I don't want to use pesticide in it since I eat the mint and so do the neighbour's kids. Other things (not sure what) ate it this past summer too. I haven't found anything that does not like mint. Marigolds are supposed to be a good deterrent too, but mine always get eaten. I have read the horse apples are great for keeping pests away. They are all over the ground right now up here in N. Tx.

 

[Ms Jellybean]

In honor of Veteran's Day, I will first say thank you to any and all who have served.

Then I will plug Adopt A Platoon. I have been writing letters to soldiers over seas for the past 3 years through them. A very rewarding experience for me. I have also headed up a program at my church that adopted two platoons. I had so much fun shipping items to them. The soldiers are so grateful for anything you send them. I am sending weekly letters right now and I just got assigned a lady soldier for the first time. I really enjoy this. Check it out.

 

[galanie]

I too wish all Veterans a good Veterans Day and a Thank You for your service.

I added photos to my previous post but here they are again. This guy needs a home. Can't be shown but a nice fellow for some Gold in your yard.

 

[TexasLisa]

Hello,

I'm down in League City Texas.
We r new to raising chickens but loving it!
Me and 2 buddies have 6 chickens 3 Sex Links & 3 RI Reds.
The Sex Links r the newest and they stay up in the roost while the reds stay on the ground.
I have been told that they will get mix & mingle once they figure out what the pecking order is.
But it's been a week almost 2 weeks and there still split up!
Any thoughts on this?

Have a Great Day!
james

Welcome to the Texas forum!


Lisa

 

[GFamily]

Well, yesterday was a long day. My Mom was leaving to go back to Louisiana from visiting us for 4 weeks early that morning. And we let the chickens range while we were all packing up her car and getting ready to go to Church yesterday. Well, we went to go put the girls back up after all of that to head off to Church. One of the girls was suffocating. She couldn't get a breath and her comb had turned white. These are our first chickens that we've raised from 1 day old chicks and so far for 8 months we've had them and they've been completely healthy. We knew we wouldn't be back all day because we were going to Spirit Fest after Church so my husband and I made the decision to open her up and see what's wrong and see if we can process her to eat or not. Well, when we went in and began processing her we actually found that her crop was impacted and that it had gotten so big that it was crushing her windpipe. I guess in the future we'll know to try surgery on her first, but being our first time this is definitely a learning experience. It was emotional and our daughter helped us with the de-plucking and now she has a much better appreciation of where we get our food from...as do we. We never expected to "not" process the birds, but we just didn't think we'd have to do it so soon. It's a lot easier for me to kill something that I shot out in the wild and eat it than it is something that I hand raised from chicks and nurtured and cared for. So that's how our Sunday went. I hope the rest of your weekends were wonderful!

 

[Ms Jellybean]

How sad.

How was Spirit Fest? Are you in the DFW area? I am north of Dallas.

 

[JudithKerlin]

South Austin with a few more Ameracauna cockerels than my yard can hold peacefully! Four out of five hatched three months ago are boys-- healthy, gorgeous, clever birds they are but they would rather have a home with a better male-female ratio. Anyone have room for one?

I don't mind them eventually meeting the crock pot, as long as they're happy and well kept till the sudden end. The smallest one, which imprinted on me at hatch, probably gets to stay here being a pet as I'm ridiculously attached to the poor little guy.

Judith
South Congress near Hill's

 

[GFamily]

How sad.

How was Spirit Fest? Are you in the DFW area? I am north of Dallas.

Spirit Fest was great. We had to leave before Third Day came on because our daughter was getting very tired and cranky. I'm in the Fort Worth area.