Texas

[hensfortherapy]

Hi...I'm new to BYC and to chickens. I hope to get a coop this spring and get some chickens. I'm an animal lover and very excited about chickens! I have a question about free ranging chickens here in Central Texas where we have little to no grass and lots of dirt. Is it worth doing? I am also somewhat concerned about predators during the day. We are on 24 acres, surrounded by acres and acres of open land, our nearest neighbor being a mile away, so I see the hawks. But this is all undeveloped, and I have left all of my "yard" as unlandscaped as possible. We cut down all of the tall native grasses near the house for fire reasons and because I don't want snakes to sneak up close to the house (this is where I am counting on those hawks to see clearly!). I am planning to clear out more grasses where we want to put the coop, but even if there was grass, there just isn't much to it before it turns crispy and dry. Is this something that the chickens like? Basically it's rocky dirt with little grass. Am I better off putting in a big run for them? I'm thinking of having a roofed run so they can be in the shade if it's hot or raining, and possibly letting them free during the day. If I had an urban backyard I'd let them out without much worry. What do the rest of you who are a bit more rural do with your chickens during the day? I'm attaching a picture of the area I'm going to put the coop. Where the shadow is the grass ends. I'll trim further back, to the trees. I've tried to read as much as possible, but I think i could read forever and still feel unprepared! ---Mandi

If I were you I would get an Anatolian sheperd. They make great flock dogs.

 

[hensfortherapy]

It is going to be another beautiful day today. Enjoy!
Cedar pollen count is awful.I can't wait for it's time to be done.
Miss Priss is not acting broody any more. Oh well I wanted to wait until Spring for chicks anyway. One of the girls will go broody then for sure.

 

[galanie]

The one that wants to stay flattened..makes me wonder if she's broody. They are lovely birds!!!

 

[Brookshire11]

Yesterday, my pullets were in the San Antonio sorting facility and my local post office tried for a long time to call them to arrange that I could pick them up yesterday rather than this morning. Typical Post Office fashion, the San Antonio sorting facility simply wouldn't answer their phone, so I waited to get them this morning. The first employee arrives at 5:30 and they called me at 5:45. Such a different attitude in my local post office than Brookshire11's post office!

I LOVE the mottled girl! She looks very typey to my uneducated eye and has an incredible attitude. I haven't gone over them, just looked at them in the pen, but I opened the box, put the mottled in the pen and she stood up on her feet and looked around, calm and happy as can be. The other, the splash, was flattened in the box when picked her up and stayed flattened on the ground. She did drink and eventually stood up, and has been in the feed dish, but she'll flatten herself if I so much as look at her. They had a big piece of eaten water melon in their box, so they didn't have too tough a trip.

I hadn't appreciated the advice for small flaked shavings or even some sort of corn cob bedding until I took the splash out of the box. She has a massive amount of feathering on her feet. My feather-footed birds are two frazzled Cochins (hardly any feathering and what's there breaks) and hatchery Silkies. I'm going to have to buy a different shavings today.

The pictures were taken from above, so the angle isn't good to show their type. They were hatched in June. I think the mottled should be named Morticia, after the wife in the Addam's family with her swirl of black at her feet.

Here are my new girls:



This picture doesn't show her very well, but I think it shows how typey the mottled is:





I didn't get any good pictures of the splash. She really wanted to just flatten on the ground, close her eyes and pretend her new reality didn't exist. She is a little bigger than the mottled and very heavily feathered.

They're gorgeous! Congrats! I'm glad your post office was more accommodating!

I'm down to 10 chicks out of the 15 I ordered. Lost that Buff and another overnight....I'm 90% sure I'll lose a Barred Rock before I get home for lunch. Way too many babies gone.
The upside is that the rest are full of life and energy!
I don't know what's getting my other babies, if its not the trip. I did decide to have the vaccinated for Mareks. I checked every fluff butt..
I'm going to give them some minced garlic today for a boost.
And here's my (possibly silly) new chick mom question: pecking....
I have an EE chick that is just getting everyone! Going for everyone's eyes and tossing the other chicks around. Is this normal, establishing dominance behavior? OR is she just being a bully?

 

[jajeanpierre]

They're gorgeous! Congrats! I'm glad your post office was more accommodating!

I'm down to 10 chicks out of the 15 I ordered. Lost that Buff and another overnight....I'm 90% sure I'll lose a Barred Rock before I get home for lunch. Way too many babies gone.
The upside is that the rest are full of life and energy!
I don't know what's getting my other babies, if its not the trip. I did decide to have the vaccinated for Mareks. I checked every fluff butt..
I'm going to give them some minced garlic today for a boost.
And here's my (possibly silly) new chick mom question: pecking....
I have an EE chick that is just getting everyone! Going for everyone's eyes and tossing the other chicks around. Is this normal, establishing dominance behavior? OR is she just being a bully?

First off, don't give them garlic. I know, I know, everyone raves about the health benefits of garlic. The reality is that garlic and any other of the onion family have negative effects on the blood, the platelets I believe. It is on the "never feed" list of foods on all parrot lists. All the research into feeding parrots comes from the research into feeding chickens....

I've had a few chicks that have been like that. I hung toys for them. Since I have parrots, I have lots things around that I can make into toys. Hang a little metal mirror for them or an few aluminum pie pans. Just hang things low enough for them to peck at and be interested in. You can also buy a hanging chick cake, but I always feared they were a bit rancid. Give them little roosts and places that they can hide behind.

I'm so sorry you have lost so many chicks. Mareks vaccinations are pretty tough on the chicks and maybe the vaccination and the shipping was just a bit too much. That said, my chicks from Murray MacMurray took at least as long to arrive as your birds and they were all vaccinated and I didn't lose one bird. It is possible your birds might have hatched in an environment that wasn't as clean as it should have been and have developed an infection in the yoke sack.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/mushy-chick-disease-yolk-sack-infection-omphalitis

Is temperature high enough and can they get out of the heat so they can control how cold or warm they are?

Good luck. I'm sorry you are dealing with this.

 

[jajeanpierre]

The one that wants to stay flattened..makes me wonder if she's broody. They are lovely birds!!!

She certainly looked like a broody in that nice dark box.... She stayed like a pancake when I put her down.....like a broody. She drank her water flattened like a pancake.....like a broody. I just couldn't imagine a pullet wanting to be broody while in transit. I'll put a nest box in for them today and watch. Or maybe I won't put that nest box in!

The breeder had told me they both should be ready for the shows I'll be going to in March as long as they didn't decide to go broody. Maybe he already knew she was broody and giving me the heads up.

 

[jajeanpierre]

If I were you I would get an Anatolian sheperd. They make great flock dogs.

That would be my first choice for a livestock guard dog in Texas. The breed club has a rescue, and a lot of those dogs are being fostered with farmers with livestock so you can get a pretty honest opinion of how well they should do with chickens. Unlike sheep and cattle, birds flutter and can be irresistible to many dogs that are otherwise good with small animals. Once most of my aging mini dachshunds are gone, I'll be looking seriously at this breed.

 

[LBejaran]

Good morning, everyone! Today is looking to be a beautiful day, despite the thick fog. I had the best night's sleep last night (I dreamt an incredibly detailed dream that took place in a glorious chicken coop!), so I decided to clean the coop this morning. For the past month, I've had to layer hay because the rain we had in December would have made going into the coop very difficult and messy with the dirt floor (not to mention, the chickens would have despised me for making them wade through mud). Finally, I had the chance to remove it!

It was awesome! The bottom layers of hay were practically dirt, the moisture wasn't too bad, and the little Frizzles took over as clean-up crew because they were finding loads of little bugs, hehe!

Funny story, though. I was using my Dad's hay fork to lift up some of the heavier piles. Unbeknownst to me, there was a heavy plank of wood in the hay (it probably fell from the wall where we hang our emergency hurricane planks) and lifting it was increasingly difficult. But I had to get the hay out, so I kept going. Then, suddenly, it lightened up and I was thinking that I'd dropped some (or I'd been bitten by one of those radioactive fleas you sometimes hear about). But nope, it wasn't a flea.



It was Sandy! She was walking beneath the fork and keeping it steady for me, haha! For a 10 year old mutt, she's the best helper. She even dug through the hay and let the hens have at it (see where her back is covered in hay, hehe)!



As a reward (and a way to relax), she's now taking a long nap in the house. The cold, wet weather isn't so fun for her, so she gets several hours of sleep after working with me.

I've got to get to work, though. First gotta design a couple web banners and then I've got some painting to finish. Wink, wink, RachaelS!

 

[Brookshire11]

First off, don't give them garlic. I know, I know, everyone raves about the health benefits of garlic. The reality is that garlic and any other of the onion family have negative effects on the blood, the platelets I believe. It is on the "never feed" list of foods on all parrot lists. All the research into feeding parrots comes from the research into feeding chickens....

I've had a few chicks that have been like that. I hung toys for them. Since I have parrots, I have lots things around that I can make into toys. Hang a little metal mirror for them or an few aluminum pie pans. Just hang things low enough for them to peck at and be interested in. You can also buy a hanging chick cake, but I always feared they were a bit rancid. Give them little roosts and places that they can hide behind.

I'm so sorry you have lost so many chicks. Mareks vaccinations are pretty tough on the chicks and maybe the vaccination and the shipping was just a bit too much. That said, my chicks from Murray MacMurray took at least as long to arrive as your birds and they were all vaccinated and I didn't lose one bird. It is possible your birds might have hatched in an environment that wasn't as clean as it should have been and have developed an infection in the yoke sack.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/mushy-chick-disease-yolk-sack-infection-omphalitis

Is temperature high enough and can they get out of the heat so they can control how cold or warm they are?

Good luck. I'm sorry you are dealing with this.

It's sad but maybe its for the best.
Not to sound terrible, but originally I had only wanted 4-5 anyway, and the rest were just fillers that were going to a friend. It's hard after you get attached to them though.
I just think I'm going to get a refund for the birds that didn't make it. Part of me wants them to send 3 more of the Mille Fleurs..but I'm afraid since they're so tiny, they wouldn't make it, even if they had no bigger birds to trample them.
I've been on top of the temperature, so I know that's good: paying close attention to how they're behaving and such.

 

[Ms Jellybean]

A lot of posts to read this morning! Some good info in them too.

Sorry to hear about the lost birds/chicks.

Welcome to the new people.

Love the speckley birds! How pretty.

My roofer's wife's surgery went very well and my roof is going on on Monday.

It has been a long week. Hard on me too. So glad it is Friday.


Hope everyone has a great day!!