Texas

[Ms Jellybean]

I saw another craft y'all may like:



Canning rings.

Did it say what these are wrapped around?

 

[lovingmyhens]

Thanks for all the good thoughts. This is a proud momma!

 

[jajeanpierre]

We have a family of 5 falcons that live in the park across the street. I see them all the time. We have tons of hawks and owls too.

I read bantams tend to be flighty and like to fly (into trees) somewhere.

My dog will be alright and when we get a puppy she will be trained to leave the chickens alone.

I plan on using a variation of the deep litter method in the big run. It will basically be a flat compost pile for them. Leaves and grass clippings to scratch through. I am going to grow oat grass in a raised bed covered with chicken wire so that they can eat the grass and not destroy the bed and I will plant some bushes so they have some cover. I am also getting a large branch that they can hang out on .

I think most of the chickens I want come in a bantam style. Not all though.

Why are you sure there are a family of 5 falcons living in a park across the street? Are you talking about Kestrels? What kind of falcons? Do you have a picture of them?

I ask because it just doesn't sound like falcons to me. They don't live in family groups and they migrate. Birds of prey are really hard to identify--they are usually just a momentary flash of brown blur. I spend a lot of time trying to identify the birds of prey in my area--I'm really motivated because I fly my parrots outside. My raptor library exceeds my fairly extensive chicken library. They are just really hard to ID--miscellaneous brown with lots of variations in the color based on age, sex and color morphs to boot.

I would not think bantams are spookier than large fowl, and most are not particularly good flyers. I imagine some of the lighter breeds might be, but I doubt a bantam Cochin can fly well at all. Any chicken I have ever seen "flying" has flown like a clipped parrot--they do not a lot of lift. They can jump and then they can stay aloft for a bit, but they are on a downward trajectory. I have lots of live oak and a couple of the Polish and the Bantam Plymouth Rock like to get into the low branches. I have one Polish who does like to climb trees. She does not fly into them--she climbs them. She hops up onto a low branch and then climbs up the leaning trunk of a live oak. She still stays in the yard with my 4' fence around it. Most will try to get up in trees if they are roosting outside at night and don't have a coop to roost in, but as long as they have a coop, they'll go into a coop rather than a tree.

 

[Aphrael]

Why are you sure there are a family of 5 falcons living in a park across the street? Are you talking about Kestrels? What kind of falcons? Do you have a picture of them?

I ask because it just doesn't sound like falcons to me. They don't live in family groups and they migrate. Birds of prey are really hard to identify--they are usually just a momentary flash of brown blur. I spend a lot of time trying to identify the birds of prey in my area--I'm really motivated because I fly my parrots outside. My raptor library exceeds my fairly extensive chicken library. They are just really hard to ID--miscellaneous brown with lots of variations in the color based on age, sex and color morphs to boot.

I would not think bantams are spookier than large fowl, and most are not particularly good flyers. I imagine some of the lighter breeds might be, but I doubt a bantam Cochin can fly well at all. Any chicken I have ever seen "flying" has flown like a clipped parrot--they do not a lot of lift. They can jump and then they can stay aloft for a bit, but they are on a downward trajectory. I have lots of live oak and a couple of the Polish and the Bantam Plymouth Rock like to get into the low branches. I have one Polish who does like to climb trees. She does not fly into them--she climbs them. She hops up onto a low branch and then climbs up the leaning trunk of a live oak. She still stays in the yard with my 4' fence around it. Most will try to get up in trees if they are roosting outside at night and don't have a coop to roost in, but as long as they have a coop, they'll go into a coop rather than a tree.

Nope, bantam cochins do not fly well at all. They can manage a kind of hop accompanied by mad wing flapping that accomplishes little but to throw leaves and dirt everywhere.

My LF EEs and Australorpes fly better than them. However, my D'uccles are very excellent fliers and love to get up high and look down on everyone else. That being said, they have never even attempted to escape my large yard even though it is only fenced with 4' chainlink. I know they could clear it easily if they wanted to, because they have flown up and perched on the 6' fence of their run. But they seem satisfied with the area they have and don't try to go beyond it.

 

[jockeyeba]

I am planning on a coop/run area inside a much larger run area - like the size of a one car garage. I plan on landscaping inside the big area and putting things in for the chickens to 'climb' around on and 'play' on.   Due to the location of my house I don't think I can leave chickens out unattended all day.  I live across the street from a busy park and there are a lot of hawks and even some falcons around.  My back yard is fenced but it is only a 4 foot chain link fence.  My biggest concern is the chickens getting out and getting run over, lost or taken.

Flighty=spook easily.  I've also read bantams like to fly into trees. 

The puppy comment is because I want to also get a puppy.  No, there is no comparison between chickens and dogs.


How many bantam eggs equals one large chicken egg?

I would think the "bantam" version of each breed would act like their large counterparts. I have OEGB's & they can fly like a bird-I have a net cover over their large run & their eggs are so tiny I use 3 to 1.

 

[topdycke]

I just posted some important information that you all need to see on my farm page on FB. That is all I am going to say on here.

One of my friends who competes in herding dog trials, keeps brahma chickens and is also a professional photographer will not do BYC anymore because of this. Her photos were taken reproduced on the calendar and she was never compensated for the use.

 

[topdycke]

so?

MJA you could use your horse or home canning photos for avatar - it might be less likely that they would be lifted.

 

[Teri Metcalf]

Meet Polka Dot (that was her name when I got her, so I kept it)! She's a 1 year old Sizzle, but as you can see, has normal feathers.



These little monsters! Pearl and Onyx (not sure about keeping those names, but they'll do for now). As you may have suspected, they are a Porcelain d'uccle and a Frizzled Cochin! They're just over 5 weeks old, and Onyx is already crowing. Seriously. At least he's trying as hard as he can. He follows Phantom absolutely EVERYWHERE, and tries to mimic everything he does. Phantom was an early crower as well... 8 weeks to the day.

Those are great names for cute chicks!

 

[Teri Metcalf]

Doing a little catching up with y'all. We were in Southern California for a week (it was cold there too), and I've been busy signing Chickenn Poop over the past week. This is yesterday amidst the poinsettias at our local Farm Patch.

 

[TammyTX]

Did it say what these are wrapped around?

Some people used a foam wreath ring with a slit cut into to slide the rings on.