The Front Porch Swing

[heartsizedfarm]

Way to much cuteness going on today~ cute puppy, cute baby, cute southern sayings. You guys all make me smile. Trying REALLY hard to be a patient and loving wife. Some days are harder than others. My chickens really need to live outside. I really need my chickens to live outside. My husband is building a coop, a real nice one. Probably sturdy enough to with stand a tornado. The problem is he is very slow at it. Please, don't yell at me I'm not man bashing, I'm stating a fact. Even other men tease him about how long it takes him to get something done. Every evening I round the chickens all up into my "chicken bus" to go on a field trip to my garden. Then I chase them all over the garden later when its time to go back inside. The garden is next to the coop so I find my husband watching the chickens and laughing at them, that makes thing even slower. Hopefully this is the weekend that things will start rolling along. THE CHICKEN BUS.

They do look just like school kids on a bus! What's that funny line husband says to wife? "If I SAY I'm going to do it, you can depend on me, I'm GONNA DO IT! There's no need to NAG me about it every six months!"

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

It's time for another terrible photo ...

Every morning the Freedom Mutts press up against the hardware cloth in this corner of the coop waiting for someone to open the door to the run. The door is just to the right of this photo ... and the chicks' little tunnel under the fence is right there too. They can almost taste the freedom.

But if I get too close they scatter. So this photo was taken using maximum zoom with my iPhone.

The adorable B&W chick is on the left. Look at the size of the breast on that chick! Of course, it's glowing in the sunshine, so it could be an optical illusion.

 

[MistyMountain]

Well, bee, I am convinced that MJ is in fact broody. She now poofs up when I reach for her. No aggressiveness, though, but she was always a nice chicken. Not all over you, but will follow at a distance and talk to you. This couldn't be a worse time, really. I have the new mini coop, just for this situation, but it is currently occupied with 18 5 month olds. Story from last night on that later. Anyhow, I am tempted to try her to see if she would be a good momma. I have two EE eggs and expect another plus a NH egg that I would consider putting under her. No clue what the fertility is other than Willie Roo stays busy enough. The problem will be where to keep her. Her choice nest is in a wooden crate that is turned on its side. It is a taller crate with a 12x12 footprint, maybe 20 inches tall. That is on its side with a dish tub set back inside and held in place with a board slipped between the slats of the crate. I found an old cat crate type door up near our barn (last owners left us all kinds of goodies. Good and bad.). I could rig that to keep her inside the crate to keep the other chickens from using her nest when she gets out to stretch. My worry is keeping her locked up even if she feels she needs to leave for whatever reason. Right now I remove her each morning and she spends a good 10-15 minutes outside. I think she made a second trip outside yesterday. I could pick up some of those little metal food and water dishes to hook on the doors for her.

I have a couple of concerns. One being that we will be going on vacation for much of July. If I set eggs, lets say they are all hatched by the 19th-20th of June. If we leave around the first of July, they will be a week and a half old or so (I am not actually counting days, just kinda estimating this stuff). My neighbor will be letting the chickens in and out and feeding them. I really don't want him to stress out over these chicks. Do you let your broody out and about with the flock from day one? I notice a lot of people do not for their own reasons and some to try to protect the chicks. These are not expensive eggs, nor are they essential to my flock. I may just give them away or sell them when we get back. I want to think that the hen will naturally take care of them within the flock. I know this is not always the case, but I guess what I am asking is whether or not it is possible for things to work this way??

adding a pic from my phone in a sec. This is not MJ, but gives you an idea of her nest.

 

[bruceha2000]

Trying REALLY hard to be a patient and loving wife. Some days are harder than others. My chickens really need to live outside. I really need my chickens to live outside. My husband is building a coop, a real nice one. Probably sturdy enough to with stand a tornado. The problem is he is very slow at it. Please, don't yell at me I'm not man bashing, I'm stating a fact. Even other men tease him about how long it takes him to get something done. Every evening I round the chickens all up into my "chicken bus" to go on a field trip to my garden. Then I chase them all over the garden later when its time to go back inside. The garden is next to the coop so I find my husband watching the chickens and laughing at them, that makes thing even slower. Hopefully this is the weekend that things will start rolling along.


THE CHICKEN BUS.

My wife says everything takes me 3x as long as I think it will and I can't really argue with her!

Yeah, those birds are waaaay ready to be outside. How much has he gotten done? They can live with 4 walls and a roof. Don't NEED roosts or a run and nest boxes are months away. He might pick up the pace if he has to deal with chickens inhabiting it.

Time to train them to BOSS and/or scratch. Then they will be chasing YOU all over the yard when it is time to go in.

 

[Tomtommom]

I got two little EE chicks on Wednesday from a fellow BYCer. Beautiful little splash and a black one with hints of brown. Gonna be my luck they're both males....

 

[Triple Willow]

I think my five adorable silkies have cocci. So I'm not very happy right now.

Last year I had cocci go through my first flock. It all started when a pullet was attacked by MY dog. She wasn't even hurt real bad, just chased down and picked up. However it stressed her bad so a few days later she got real "droopy" and started the bloody poop. Being a complete noobie I didn't have a clue what was up. It spread through my flock. I ended up taking a poop sample to the vet (that really didn't know much of anything about chickens) and cocci was confirmed. The way he talked I was sure my chicken keeping was OVER because "now my place was contaminated with coccci and every bird that I got would get it". I had 25 or so chicks in the brooder and I was SICK!! Well the vet gave me Corid and I gave that to the older flock for I think 10 days. The pullet perked up and the rest that didn't even act sick got past the cocci and praise God Almighty, they ALL survived! I fed the chicks medicated starter until they were on the ground long enough to build up immunity to the cocci THAT IS HERE (I suppose). I do the same, feed at least one bag of medicated starter to all new chicks until they have had a chance to build up immunity. The only chicks that don't get the medicated started are chicks raised by a broody hen. I don't know if they are born immune to cocci or build up their resistance early on or what...? The first flock, second flock, broody hatched chicks and meat chicks are all out there together and so far so good.

I do believe feeding fermented feed and keeping the birds on deep litter as best you can plays a big part in controlling cocci. At least try to keep the bare ground covered in your coop/run covered with litter, and that can be difficult to do. While dealing with cocci keep your feeders and waterers clean using ammonia (bleach won't kill cocci). Don't bring in new birds that might be a carrier of a different strain of cocci your birds haven't been exposed to or you will have to deal with that too.

Good luck to you.

 

[Beekissed]

Way to much cuteness going on today~ cute puppy, cute baby, cute southern sayings. You guys all make me smile.

Trying REALLY hard to be a patient and loving wife. Some days are harder than others. My chickens really need to live outside. I really need my chickens to live outside. My husband is building a coop, a real nice one. Probably sturdy enough to with stand a tornado. The problem is he is very slow at it. Please, don't yell at me I'm not man bashing, I'm stating a fact. Even other men tease him about how long it takes him to get something done. Every evening I round the chickens all up into my "chicken bus" to go on a field trip to my garden. Then I chase them all over the garden later when its time to go back inside. The garden is next to the coop so I find my husband watching the chickens and laughing at them, that makes thing even slower. Hopefully this is the weekend that things will start rolling along.


THE CHICKEN BUS.

I'm with you on that and it's not exactly man bashing...it's just that they seem to have different priorities than us ladies and so we stopped waiting on men long, long ago and started just doing everything ourselves. Nothing frustrates a man more than to see a woman heading towards a construction project with HIS tools. I never had a HE around long enough to worry about that part, but my mother had to worry about it often enough. Me? I just get out the tools and start slamming things together and not a square or level used once....just my eyeball. If it holds together, I'm golden.....

Could be you'll have to not wait on the hubby and take matters into your own hands so your chooks won't have to ride that lovely little bus!

It's time for another terrible photo ...

Every morning the Freedom Mutts press up against the hardware cloth in this corner of the coop waiting for someone to open the door to the run. The door is just to the right of this photo ... and the chicks' little tunnel under the fence is right there too. They can almost taste the freedom.

But if I get too close they scatter. So this photo was taken using maximum zoom with my iPhone.



The adorable B&W chick is on the left. Look at the size of the breast on that chick! Of course, it's glowing in the sunshine, so it could be an optical illusion.

I know! That's what impressed me with that chick in the beginning....the sheer size of the breast and really of the whole body. You'll have to give us updates on that little butterball and let us know how he/she develops....should be interesting.

Well, bee, I am convinced that MJ is in fact broody. She now poofs up when I reach for her. No aggressiveness, though, but she was always a nice chicken. Not all over you, but will follow at a distance and talk to you. This couldn't be a worse time, really. I have the new mini coop, just for this situation, but it is currently occupied with 18 5 month olds. Story from last night on that later. Anyhow, I am tempted to try her to see if she would be a good momma. I have two EE eggs and expect another plus a NH egg that I would consider putting under her. No clue what the fertility is other than Willie Roo stays busy enough. The problem will be where to keep her. Her choice nest is in a wooden crate that is turned on its side. It is a taller crate with a 12x12 footprint, maybe 20 inches tall. That is on its side with a dish tub set back inside and held in place with a board slipped between the slats of the crate. I found an old cat crate type door up near our barn (last owners left us all kinds of goodies. Good and bad.). I could rig that to keep her inside the crate to keep the other chickens from using her nest when she gets out to stretch. My worry is keeping her locked up even if she feels she needs to leave for whatever reason. Right now I remove her each morning and she spends a good 10-15 minutes outside. I think she made a second trip outside yesterday. I could pick up some of those little metal food and water dishes to hook on the doors for her.

I have a couple of concerns. One being that we will be going on vacation for much of July. If I set eggs, lets say they are all hatched by the 19th-20th of June. If we leave around the first of July, they will be a week and a half old or so (I am not actually counting days, just kinda estimating this stuff). My neighbor will be letting the chickens in and out and feeding them. I really don't want him to stress out over these chicks. Do you let your broody out and about with the flock from day one? I notice a lot of people do not for their own reasons and some to try to protect the chicks. These are not expensive eggs, nor are they essential to my flock. I may just give them away or sell them when we get back. I want to think that the hen will naturally take care of them within the flock. I know this is not always the case, but I guess what I am asking is whether or not it is possible for things to work this way??

adding a pic from my phone in a sec. This is not MJ, but gives you an idea of her nest.

If you can just rig a partition out in front of that nest(like a private little pen of maybe 2x 4 ft), allowing her a place to stretch her legs and walk for the food and water, she won't make a mess on those eggs(just made the mistake of keeping food and water too close and it ruined a whole hatch under a broody.....). It doesn't have to be too awful big but just enough she can get up and out of the nesting area to eat and drink....put those at the far end. Broody pens are relatively easy to rig up because you have a hen that isn't exactly looking to escape and get too far away from her nest.

I let mine out the first week to integrate with the flock...this is always easier if the broody and chicks have been living where the flock can see and hear them and it works best if the flock is a free range flock, but others have reported good results with this even in a penned situation.

If she's a good broody she will keep those chicks safe and no worries.

 

[wyoDreamer]

They do look just like school kids on a bus!

What's that funny line husband says to wife? "If I SAY I'm going to do it, you can depend on me, I'm GONNA DO IT! There's no need to NAG me about it every six months!"

That is so much like my Husband. I will mention something that needs to be done, that he promised to do, and he will tell me to quit nagging! Well, I hadn't mentioned it for a least a year! I have found that I will suggest something, then let it drop. Then, about 2 months later, he will come up with this brilliant idea that he thinks we should do. "Yes, honey, that sounds fantastic. What a great idea!" hey, at least when he thinks it his idea, I'm not nagging...

 

[mimischicksnat]

Way to much cuteness going on today~ cute puppy, cute baby, cute southern sayings. You guys all make me smile.

Trying REALLY hard to be a patient and loving wife. Some days are harder than others. My chickens really need to live outside. I really need my chickens to live outside. My husband is building a coop, a real nice one. Probably sturdy enough to with stand a tornado. The problem is he is very slow at it. Please, don't yell at me I'm not man bashing, I'm stating a fact. Even other men tease him about how long it takes him to get something done. Every evening I round the chickens all up into my "chicken bus" to go on a field trip to my garden. Then I chase them all over the garden later when its time to go back inside. The garden is next to the coop so I find my husband watching the chickens and laughing at them, that makes thing even slower. Hopefully this is the weekend that things will start rolling along.

I hear ya about taking so long. It took 3 hours to put up roosts in the coop when it should have taken a half an hour!!!

 

[Tomtommom]

I'm a bit different with my chicken keeping and I suppose it could viewed as cruel... but if my chickens die from cocci they weren't very strong to begin with. That said. I've never had cocci... I should have, according to folks down South. But I haven't. I am not particularly cleanly. I mean, I rake the run and coop floor and change out the shavings in the upper part of the coop if it gets too dirty (otherwise I just put new on top of the old). Add some lime. Add some DE occasionally.

I've lost one bird in the year and a half I've been at this. Still thinking he ate something stupid, since no one else has gotten ill.

I do take out sick birds or injured birds and put them in a crate so I can observe them. No point in letting them get everyone sick by prolonged exposure.

I'm not putting anti biotics and other yucky meds into my birds. I plan to eat that at some point! And we eat their eggs daily. If they get too sick, they get culled. I'm not patching up weak birds just so they will get sick again. I do patch up injured birds, if they show a will to live. I'm not going to syringe feed birds or any of that crazy stuff

We've been through a bout of some respiratory bug, none lost, none worse for the wear. That's what I like in my flock. Strong birds that can deal with what comes their way.