Texas

[TammyTX]

Good morning Lisa!!

I have a hen that has been broody for about 10 days now. I think this weekend I'm going to set some eggs under her to get my Olive Egger chicks.

We had 3/4 inch of rain yesterday and the chicken run is mud. Yuck!! I know we need the rain but our ground has been pretty saturated for a while now. It takes over a week for the overfill of the horse trough to absorb. We are on black clay.

Anyone know the status of the NatureWise poultry feed?? I've emailed the company but they did not respond. Tractor Supply (in Bastrop) told me that Nutrena pulled ALL poultry feed, but my online search said it was just the meatbird and chick starter formulas that were affected. (UPDATE: I just called TSC and spoke to the manager who said that no one has even asked her to place the order....! The mgr will call back after she "investigates".)

 

[jajeanpierre]

I am looking for a puppy of large breed to train him with the chicken in the farm .. .replacing the dogs passed away in the last 2 yrs.

Good morning Hungnguyen,

You need a dog with little or no prey drive. Check for prey drive--that's the instinct to chase things--balls, sticks, people and animals. Herding dogs have high prey drive but (usually) without the desire to kill. They are not suitable around chickens because they'll chase them and try to herd them which is not how chickens want to live. Retrievers, hunting dogs and hounds all are bred to have a strongly developed prey drive with or without the drive to kill depending on their function.

Check carefully for prey drive. Innocently ask if the dog likes to play fetch. Is the dog good with cats? Small children? Throw a ball past its face and see how interested it is in it. There's all kinds of way you can get an idea of how developed a dog's prey drive is. Birds, especially chicks, are absolutely irresistible for many dogs that are otherwise safe around small animals.

Also, it seems you've written in the past that you lost two dogs because of the heat. You really need to evaluate what kind of protection from the environment you are offering your dogs, because dogs just shouldn't ever die of the heat. Something is wrong.

Dogs do not cope well with temperatures above their body temperature. They have very poor cooling systems. They do not sweat. The only way they dissipate excess heat from their bodies is by increasing their respiration rate (panting) which can cause its own problems, or by digging a hole in the cooler ground. If your dogs are outside during the summers in Texas, they need not just shade, but enough deep shade that the ambient ground temperature around that shade is cool. A 10 x 10 foot covered area out in an open pasture with the blazing sun beating down on the pasture around it will give you dead dogs no matter how much water you provide. The dogs need a large area of deep shade. Keeping a wet and damp area will help keep the dogs cool.

The color of the dog, the type of coat and the type of head makes a huge difference for how well a dog tolerates excessive temperatures. Avoid any short-faced dogs.

Listen to the dog breathing--does is make a lot of snuffling or snorting sounds if excited? Does it snore at night? That would indicate either a soft palate that is too long (the biggest problem in short-faced dogs) or one that is too flaccid. Either way, a soft palate can close completely and block the airflow--and dogs do die from it. This is especially a problem in heat, during exercise, times of excitement and during air travel. That's why airlines refuse to fly short-faced dogs such as pugs, bulldogs and pit bulls. Pit bulls are not allowed on many flights because of their short-faced heads, not because of their temperaments (which, by the way are outstanding!).

The best color would be white or sand color. Avoid anything dark. Also avoid a breed that has too short a coat or too long/thick of a double coat. You need enough of a double coat (outer guard hairs with a fluffy undercoat) to insulate the dog's skin from the sun beating down on its back, but not so much undercoat that it traps heat in the body. Great Pyrenees, although fantastic livestock guard dogs are unsuited for the Texas heat because of their coats. I suspect they have a few issues with their throats as well. The best dog for guarding livestock in our climate would be an Anatolian Sheepdog.

Here's a link to their national rescue: http://www.nasrn.com/

You might be able to find a dog or two through this rescue. Like all big mastiff-type breeds, they pose a challenge with their very strong temperaments. These are tough dogs. When my little Dachshunds die off from old age, I will be looking into getting this breed.

You really don't need a puppy to train, an adult dog might be your best bet because the temperament is known and fixed and they don't have overly playful silly puppy behaviors where a puppy might kill all your chickens for fun one day, but as a grown dog be an extremely reliable livestock guard dog.

Think carefully of how you are keeping your dogs. You need to protect them from the elements. No animal should die from the heat. I would take that as a personal failure on my part if something like that happened to any animal in my care.

On my own property, about two thirds is completely covered in mature live oak. The native grass under those trees never goes brown in the summer, even during last summer's brutal heatwave and lack of rain. I don't water, either. The other third of the property has only a few much smaller live oak on it. The grass was parched. The difference in temperature between the two areas is shocking. Under the canopy, I never felt it was particularly hot, even in the heat wave. As soon as I stepped out into the open, I could feel the heat radiating up from the ground and my legs became uncomfortably hot. I had to shade many new trees to try to reduce the heat radiating up and desiccating the leaves, even though the soil was always moist.

All the best.

 

[TexasLisa]

Welcome back! I missed your informative FUNNY posts!

Lisa

 

[Brookshire11]

Well i did it! Placed an order through Meyers.
A friend said her in laws would happily take any I didnt need, since there was a 15 minimum.
I have 5 Easter Eggers, 3 Mille Fluers, 4 Buff Orpingtons, and 3 Barred Rocks coming next week!

 

[jajeanpierre]

Welcome back! I missed your informative FUNNY posts!

Lisa

Are you talking to me? Or Tammy? I missed Tammy, too.

How's this for funny:

Did I write this group about picking up my silly broody Silkie and gently depositing her on the ground, only to have her lay an egg while I was holding her in mid air? I thought my dear friend, Jaime Samour a famed falcon expert and avian vet, would enjoy that story. He runs a conservation center and falcon breeding center in Abu Dhabi for the second in line for the Abu Dhabi throne. He is the one who really first got me interested in chickens and especially Silkies. He told me I HAD to get Silkies because they were so sweet and friendly. So I did.

He wrote me back and advised me to get incubators to hatch my own chicks this year. I wrote back, no, I had Silkies and would try to hatch from them. Was I surprised when he wrote back to tell me FALCON BREEDERS in the1970s used Silkies to incubate the very endangered Peregrine falcon eggs!!! (Remember how DDT almost wiped out Peregrine falcons before it was banned?) He told me he wished he had Silkies at his facility! Can you imagine the shock that Silkie mom would have when she hatched out a clutch of falcons!! I have to ask if the Silkie lived to raise another brood. I'll let you know.

 

[TexasLisa]

Are you talking to me? Or Tammy? I missed Tammy, too.

How's this for funny:

Did I write this group about picking up my silly broody Silkie and gently depositing her on the ground, only to have her lay an egg while I was holding her in mid air? I thought my dear friend, Jaime Samour a famed falcon expert and avian vet, would enjoy that story. He runs a conservation center and falcon breeding center in Abu Dhabi for the second in line for the Abu Dhabi throne. He is the one who really first got me interested in chickens and especially Silkies. He told me I HAD to get Silkies because they were so sweet and friendly. So I did.

He wrote me back and advised me to get incubators to hatch my own chicks this year. I wrote back, no, I had Silkies and would try to hatch from them. Was I surprised when he wrote back to tell me FALCON BREEDERS in the1970s used Silkies to incubate the very endangered Peregrine falcon eggs!!! (Remember how DDT almost wiped out Peregrine falcons before it was banned?) He told me he wished he had Silkies at his facility! Can you imagine the shock that Silkie mom would have when she hatched out a clutch of falcons!! I have to ask if the Silkie lived to raise another brood. I'll let you know.

Haha, I was talking to Tammy. She has been AWOL for a while.

Isn't it amazing that Silkies were used to hatch Peregrine eggs?!! I found a picture of the Peregrine with her chicks:

• 
  Peregrine falcon at nest with young
  
  
  Steve Knell / naturepl.com
• 
  Peregrine falcon ssp. peregrinus head portrait

Lisa

 

[TexasLisa]

Well i did it! Placed an order through Meyers.
A friend said her in laws would happily take any I didnt need, since there was a 15 minimum.
I have 5 Easter Eggers, 3 Mille Fluers, 4 Buff Orpingtons, and 3 Barred Rocks coming next week!

How exciting! Make sure to take pictures of your babies!

Lisa

 

[jab2you]

Is there anyone in the area of Baytown?? I keep seeing areas I know nothing about so I don't know if your close or not.

 

[TammyTX]

Is there anyone in the area of Baytown?? I keep seeing areas I know nothing about so I don't know if your close or not.

I think there are people from the Katy area here.

Elgin is a bit north and east of Austin about 25 miles. The area where I live is directly due east.

...Baytown. I have fished in Baytown in '78 the same year they filmed Urban Cowboy in Pasadena. My brother caught a huge Sheephead on a pier using just string and hook. He was about 11 and they took his photo...a very proud moment for him (...and he has had very few). ....memories.

 

[surfdok]

Well, it is done. The wife and I went to the feed store close to our home in Mission and went chick shopping. She is supposed to be MY voice of reason when it comes to shopping for anything. We were to look at and maybe purchase 4 barred rock pullets. Came home with 4 barred rock and 4 rhode island reds.

I named one red "Dora" because she likes to explore and escaped the garden. (It's penned in and waiting to be planted) So, Dora squeezed under the fence and ran to the back porch where Sarah (wife) and I were hanging out. She wanted to hang out with us.