The Front Porch Swing

[Blooie]

x2    Wouldn't that be great?    

Some clever scientist futurist type of person should come up with a way to sex eggs.

I've been BLOOIED! I read Bruce's response about getting roosters if I slipped eggs under a broody and was going to say that I'll just go to eBay and buy eggs guaranteed to be girls. As I understand it, girls lay girl eggs and boys lay boy eggs, is that right?

 

[Triple Willow]

I went out a few minutes ago and one of the broodies was up off the nest I guess doing whatever she needed to do. When I walked up she WENT NUTS and I thought she was about to climb the wall just because I had walked up...stupid bird...?! Nope! That ol' girl pounced on a mouse, beat the snot out of it and left it laying in shock. hahaha

 

[perchie.girl]

I went out a few minutes ago and one of the broodies was up off the nest I guess doing whatever she needed to do. When I walked up she WENT NUTS and I thought she was about to climb the wall just because I had walked up...stupid bird...?! Nope! That ol' girl pounced on a mouse, beat the snot out of it and left it laying in shock. hahaha

Bwahahahaha.....

"Take that you possible Chick murderer... " She said as she turned and saw... "Oooh dust bath"

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:
Yeah.... some sort of DNA sniffer... Looking for them XYs.... LOL.

deb

 

[Triple Willow]

Bwahahahaha..... 

"Take that you possible Chick murderer... " She said as she turned and saw...   "Oooh dust bath"

She puffed up those feathers, shook like a dog and just walk off. Poor little mouse was left laying there quivering. It was recycled in the layer coop. LOL

 

[enola]

I don't use medicated feed since I am not sure there is truly any benefit from it. When I was raising 500 chicks a year in the other place I lived, I used bedding right out of the hen house floor in my brooder. After hatching in the incubator, the chicks spent 48 hours in the brooder on the porch, only so I could make sure they were eating and drinking, then they went to the brooder in the hen house. I "might" have hatched 15 chicks in a season that would get coccidiosis. I treated those few with corid. They went to the meaties pen regardless of gender. I banded those chicks so I would know if they needed to be treated again. Most of them never needed to be retreated, however a second round of coccidiosis got them culled.

Here is a different story. It seems like no matter what I do for my chicks, I have a lot of coccidiosis. I don't know the reason, unless it is the different location, so different germs....... But, even that doesn't make sense, none of my adult chickens got sick from coming here.....

The biggest difference is there is a dirt floor in this coop. In my old coop I had a concrete floor, with deep litter. So I am a firm believer in deep litter !!!!

I am another chicken owner that culls instead of treating with antibiotics. I dont have any medications except Corid. If a hen gets injured, I clean the wound, pick out any feathers that might irritate the wound and hope for the best. I have on occassion designed an Elizabethian color so the hen couldn't damage the wound herself. I have performed surgery on an impacted crop that was blocked by a wood chip. Put 2 stiches in the crop wall, 1 stitch in his skin, put on a collar so he couldn't pick the wound and he healed up just fine. Beginner's luck I guess.

My chickens are not pets! They are loved livestock at best.......

edited to add...... I only worm if I see symptoms that they need to be wormed.....which here has been spring and fall.................. must be the wet soil under my litter in my coop. When I get moved back up north, my hoop coop is going to have some sort of floor to keep my litter off of the ground !!!

 

[jmoeller]

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.

I have suggested that he finish the inside first and work on the siding after the chicks moved in but usually when he has an idea in his head it's hard to change the batting order. So far he has the roof on and shingled, the exterior walls up and mostly sided. the windows are not in. the doors are not on and no run. I never intended this coop to be so complicated.

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!

Been there / done that Beekissed. More than once I've started or "helped" with a project just to have him come along and undo everything I've done. I've learned that in the long run I just add to the amount of time it takes because he spends the time to undo what I did and do it his own way anyway. I've also learned the more agitated I get about it the slower he moves. So I bite my tongue and pray.

 

[Kerstiens]

I'll bet you sneak in some photos, my friend! Is your grand baby a boy or girl? I "had" my 6th grandchild on March 6, 2014. It's late spring, Colorado is blooming ... I'm doing my thing with my birds and my dogs. I feel so blessed. take care and send me a photo, Grandma!

 

[lovingmyhens]

What does it mean if a hen has spurs? Would it possibly hurt the other hens?

 

[rrrmamma]

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.

JM, I so identify with you. My husband is a sweetie and he really wants to get things done, but he is soooo slow. We have had the building for our coop for a month now and all we have finished is 10 bats of insulation and the floor. My chicks are in a falling down coop with a run that is not really safe. Of course there is mowing, my granddaughter's shopping trips, the cows and a million other things that "keep him busy". I know if I go out there and start using his power tools, which I know how to do, He will come running and work on the coop for a little while until another distraction comes along. You have my sympathy!!!!!