Texas

[hensfortherapy]

Watching the news it us obvious the world has gone mad. And people thing I'm crazy for keeping chickens as pets!

 

[henless]

My girls loved to scratch around in there. I would go in and rake and make everything nice and smooth. I go back to lock them in for the night and it looked liked we had a bombing episode!

Lisa

I've got frizzled Americauna chicks if anyone is interested. Having them sexed tomorrow. Egg were from a breeder outside Houston.

I saw a picture of a frizzled Americauna. They were so pretty! Alas, I'm at my limit until we get our outdoor pen built.

Watching the news it us obvious the world has gone mad. And people thing I'm crazy for keeping chickens as pets!

I agree.


Morning everyone! Looks like a cool, cloudy day ahead for my area. We never got any of the severe stuff, just some rain.

I have a question about Easter Eggers. I have 3 pullets (I hope). They are all the same age, about 3 weeks old. Two of them already have tail feathers, the third one had no tail feathers. Are some of them slow developing tail feathers or is this a sign of gender? This is the chick I have the headshot of that looks like one of Lisa's chicks.

It's the one in the middle. That's my 4 week old BR to the right, Big Bird.




If you need a comparison, I'll try and get a pic of the other two today. I call her my Emu.

 

[jajeanpierre]

I see y'all all talking about chicken shows is there a website that shows where and when they have these?

Yes, Poultry Show Central.

http://www.poultryshowcentral.com/

There is not likely to be many more shows in Texas until the fall--it is just too hot. There is a show in two weeks at the end of March in Beaumont, South Texas State Fair.

I believe all Texas shows are limited to Texas residents--the competition is restricted which makes the shows smaller.

Sorry I missed people from this thread who went to the Fancy Feathers show. Did the cream legbar person on this thread man the information booth about the breed?

Janet

 

[Cockle-Dood]

I saw a picture of a frizzled Americauna. They were so pretty! Alas, I'm at my limit until we get our outdoor pen built. I agree. Morning everyone! Looks like a cool, cloudy day ahead for my area. We never got any of the severe stuff, just some rain. I have a question about Easter Eggers. I have 3 pullets (I hope). They are all the same age, about 3 weeks old. Two of them already have tail feathers, the third one had no tail feathers. Are some of them slow developing tail feathers or is this a sign of gender? This is the chick I have the headshot of that looks like one of Lisa's chicks. It's the one in the middle. That's my 4 week old BR to the right, Big Bird. If you need a comparison, I'll try and get a pic of the other two today. I call her my Emu.

When it comes to sexing, its almost impossible from looking at that age...i had fast feathers be pullets, and slow be pullets. Best method i had was checking the girth of their legs...but even then its only a guess. Got an ee roo from ken last year that i still wasnt sure until it started trying to crow!

 

[granthamkk]

I saw a picture of a frizzled Americauna. They were so pretty! Alas, I'm at my limit until we get our outdoor pen built. I agree. Morning everyone! Looks like a cool, cloudy day ahead for my area. We never got any of the severe stuff, just some rain. I have a question about Easter Eggers. I have 3 pullets (I hope). They are all the same age, about 3 weeks old. Two of them already have tail feathers, the third one had no tail feathers. Are some of them slow developing tail feathers or is this a sign of gender? This is the chick I have the headshot of that looks like one of Lisa's chicks. It's the one in the middle. That's my 4 week old BR to the right, Big Bird. If you need a comparison, I'll try and get a pic of the other two today. I call her my Emu.

It's hard to tell.you can post under the what gender is this forum. From what I've gleaned, boys are usually more flashy in color, while girls have more regular, predictable coloring, boys have larger legs, usually.

 

[tcmstalcup]

x2 granthamkk on the easter eggers. I learned along time ago that pretty chick usually means roo. I went to my favorite feed store yesterday and they had chicks and plants everywhere. I was looking in the chick brooders and found a chick being pecked badly. Of course they were white babies (Ideal 236) so it was really obvious and ugly. I pulled her out and took her to the front. They check them often but had been super busy so they missed it. They asked me to please take her as no time-no place etc to treat or separate her. So that's how I got home with a single bloody LOUD chick that doesn't fit my program. She is very healthy except missing some hide. I have 5 week old babies in the baby run outside and eggs hatching in 4 days so she doesn't even fit in age wise with anyone. I'm not too concerned, it will work itself out.

 

[Ms Jellybean]

I wasn't going to say anything because I know people FF in plastic buckets made into strainer inside other plastic buckets and seem to do fine but I just wanted to give you a heads up...

I only know from a baking stand point with sourdough starter (which from what little I've read about FF, seems to be about the same concept) that you should never put starter in a plastic container. When doing sourdough starter I always had to use glass or ceramic containers, I used a plastic container once, the starter went bad. I've read about people doing FF and not knowing what they did wrong but it going bad on them and I wonder if it might be the container they use?

Just wanted to give you a heads up, if you notice a funny smell or the FF seems 'off', don't give up on it and maybe try a glass container. I know Hobby Lobby sell oversized Mason Jars (look online for a 40% of coupon), I think I've seen gallon size Mason Jars at Target too. You could poke holes in the top for ventilation...only if the pitchers don't work!

I thought about that and did ask on the FF forum. I was told not to worry about it. Many on there are using HD and Lowe's buckets. When I need a bigger container I plan on getting a food grade plastic bucket. Maybe glass. I don't like the thought of a breakable container being used outside though, which is where this will eventually end up.

I plan on doing deep litter. In fact, I started working on mine this weekend. I've got about fifteen 39 gal trash bags full of leaves already stored in the shed.. Instead of bagging these up, thought I would just go ahead and put them in the coop. I did this yesterday. I finished filling it up this morning before the rains came.

Coop is looking great!

O that is so sad. She was always upbeat and very helpful. Thank you for letting us know.

I love the DL!! When I first received chickens 3 years ago, I was in there every day cleaning. Then there was the changing of litter, the flies, the smell....UGH!!! Since I switched, maybe 2 years ago, no odor, no flies, and it saved me money on pine shavings. You change it out once or twice a year. You leave about 1-2" in there and put new shavings on top. What you take out is good compost (ready to use). My girls loved to scratch around in there. I would go in and rake and make everything nice and smooth. I go back to lock them in for the night and it looked liked we had a bombing episode!

Lisa

How much fresh pine shavings do you add at a time? 1-2 inches? You do this weekly right? I need to read the article on it again....

You really have to look at the recycling # on all supposedly people safe products

some of them aren't

What is the number you should be looking for?

x2 granthamkk on the easter eggers. I learned along time ago that pretty chick usually means roo. I went to my favorite feed store yesterday and they had chicks and plants everywhere. I was looking in the chick brooders and found a chick being pecked badly. Of course they were white babies (Ideal 236) so it was really obvious and ugly. I pulled her out and took her to the front. They check them often but had been super busy so they missed it. They asked me to please take her as no time-no place etc to treat or separate her. So that's how I got home with a single bloody LOUD chick that doesn't fit my program. She is very healthy except missing some hide. I have 5 week old babies in the baby run outside and eggs hatching in 4 days so she doesn't even fit in age wise with anyone. I'm not too concerned, it will work itself out.

Note to self, stay away from the feed store.

 

[jajeanpierre]

When it comes to sexing, its almost impossible from looking at that age...i had fast feathers be pullets, and slow be pullets. Best method i had was checking the girth of their legs...but even then its only a guess. Got an ee roo from ken last year that i still wasnt sure until it started trying to crow!

I marked all my babies with my guess of sex using the toe and foot size guessing method. When they started to feather out, I found that it was exactly opposite (my fast feathering babies, supposedly the pullets, were what my foot sizing guess had a the cockerels. It will be interesting to see in a few weeks what they really are.

 

[Cockle-Dood]

I marked all my babies with my guess of sex using the toe and foot size guessing method.  When they started to feather out, I found that it was exactly opposite (my fast feathering babies, supposedly the pullets, were what my foot sizing guess had a the cockerels.  It will be interesting to see in a few weeks what they really are.

To me its all a coin flip until i can really see some.combs and waddles. Luckily for me though, roos are allowed so im usually not too concerned with how they work out

 

[Ms Jellybean]

Thanks for posting the links to DL threads Lisa.

Daisy8 started one thread with this post.
Quote: Good info here.

I have a couple of questions now.

1) When I build my coop (variation of this one) would having a hardware cloth bottom be better than a solid bottom? I'm talking about the actual roosting area that will be elevated. The coop would stay cooler in the summer. Would it be too drafty in the winter?

2) When I clean the coop out to lessen the amount of DL can I spread it in the large (garage sized) run area that I will have? I know I can put it in the garden too, but it sounds like I will have more than enough for the garden.