The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[delisha]

After a couple of days of warm weather in the 20's and even 30's, had a blizzard yesterday. Dug out the coop, and the snow had drifted over the trash cans I store feed in (standard size). I'm guessing about 14" of new snow on top of the 3 feet that was already there. The people door to the coop was frozen shut, which took some cussing to loosen up, and I was amazed at how much snow was inside the coop. There were actually drifts in there! Just a few inches deep, but still.

The; wind even blew snow, maybe 3-4 inches deep all the way under the coop! Never had that happen before.

I haven't dug out to the chicken door yet, so no one is going out anyway. At least they have food and water. Me, I'm ready for bed. that was totally exhausting. I have 3-4 inches of snow covering everything inside my screened porch, too, so got to shovel and dust that - even the bed is covered in snow.

If anyone mentions the "S" word (s*p*r*i*n*g) today, I'm liable to spit.

just saying.

Spring Spring Spring..

Shoot..the wind today closed off all of my paths to my coops and I had to trudge through hip deep snow this morning to open up. The snow it too wet to snow blow. I have an inch of ice in the garage and my feed is frozen to the floor. I refuse to shovel one more shovel full..with as windy as it is..I think it will all blow away..by dinner.

this was this morning when she left the hatcher with the rest of the sfh 'harvest'... I'm almost thinking blue, not black. what do you think?

hmm..If I get a few SFH will I get these?
Looks possible blue. not black

 

[aoxa]

this was this morning when she left the hatcher with the rest of the sfh 'harvest'... I'm almost thinking blue, not black. what do you think?

Definitely blue

 

[Jewelwing]

We got hit by a storm last night - the first one without snow for a long time! But of course along with it came a tornado warning, which brought our 22 yr old son racing to our house from his trailer in town so he could hide in our basement with us. The poorly kept up gravel road leading to our house was very soft and muddy with the warmer weather and snow melt, and the creek was already lapping just at the top of the concrete bridge (that doesn't have sides - it's just a slab). There is a steep muddy hill just past the bridge, so my husband told him just to park his car on the other side of the bridge from us and walk (run) to our house.

Meanwhile, I had to talk the chickens into going into the coop 1/2 hour early, which they were very confused about. I wanted to lock them in and not have to come back out later to make sure they all got in safely. Quite often, the automatic ADOR1 pop door closes before some of them have made it inside, so they're pretty relieved when I get there to let them in! But last night they were just confused. I guess they can't sense a bad storm coming!

Turns out it was good that our son left his car on the other side of the bridge, because this morning when we went to check out the creek, there was a huge dead tree that had washed down the creek and gotten stuck on top of the bridge, blocking it from cars. There were also huge slabs of ice that had broken free from the banks and washed down the creek also. Some of them made it to the top of the bridge and some of them were pressed against the side, unable to go over or under.

So our son drove DH and the two younger kids to work and school respectively (they were able to walk across the bridge), and I got to stay home!!

That was after we three "adults" spent about an hour chipping ice chunks loose from the bridge where they had frozen stuck to it when the temp dropped and pushing them off the side into the water so the bridge would be safer to walk across. Hard work, but kinda fun! Things like this totally stress out my husband, though, so instead of getting any enjoyment from it (some of the ice chunks were beautiful, and the enormous power of nature is pretty awe-inspiring), he worried that we were getting too close to the side of the bridge, and he worried about calling the road commissioner (not always the most pleasant of people), and he worried about potential damage to the bridge, etc.

It's just life, though, and we were all safe, so I enjoyed the early morning work.

Plus today was an eight egg day (out of eight chickens)!

 

[texasmomma]

So yesterday, I got 4 eggs from 4 chickens! Woo Hoo! Now if I only had a way to take pictures. My phone doesn't focus anymore and I'm not eligible for an upgrade, so I'm stuck. I could get out the camera, but I tend to lose cords. So of course, I have no way to download pics to the computer.

Lately, we have had quite a bit of hawk activity. One was shrieking something fierce a couple of days ago. Today, I realized that some of the shrieking may actually be baby hawks in a nest. Oh dear. I've been keeping the chickens in the tractor, but I have no idea what else to do to protect them. I do let them range in the yard, but not right now.

We are in the process of adding more chickens and revamping our coops and runs. What do you recommend for keeping the chickens safe from hawks? We have battled possum, coons and coyotes already. Hardware wire tends to be our best help when it comes to these predators. We have also used a live trap for the possums and coons.

But hawks? I have seen them around, but I don't think they have ever had a nest nearby.

 

[aaggjg]

Tank was so NOT impressed by her spa day......




She is still limping .... I took her off the roost this morning and will continue to monitor her.... I let her air dry

 

[Jewelwing]

Hello Everyone! It's been awhile since I posted. It is hard to keep up with the postings on this thread. Moves so fast. So I try my best to keep up and usually someone has already asked a question before I get a chance to type mine in.

Anyway to make a long story short. I got an email from Manna Pro and they have the eggskelters on sale for $10 off and it is a great deal. I had already gotten mine from Amazon. This is mine below. (I wish I waited I would have save $20 or more. Thought I'd share the info.

Love all the egg colors!! Do the different colors have different thicknesses? I find that my dark Welsummer egg (I have two Welsummer chickens, but only one lays dark eggs - the other one's are cream colored!) has a thicker shell than the other eggs.

 

[Jewelwing]

Tank was so NOT impressed by her spa day......

 

[Jewelwing]

I don't know why, but this morning after collecting eggs, I made up new words to the song "I've Been Working On the Railroad." This is not the sort of thing I normally do, so I'm pretty happy with myself! (I know many people here don't feed their chickens corn, but it rhymes so well!!) I have a chicken named Dina, so the song seemed appropriate:

I’ve Been Watching All the Chickens
Sung to the tune of “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad”

I’ve been watching all the chickens
All the live-long day!
I’ve been watching all the chickens,
Just hoping one will lay!

Can’t you hear the alarm ringing,
Rise up so early in the morn!
Can’t you hear the chickens squawking,
“Come give us our corn!”

Chickens won’t you lay, chickens won’t you lay, chickens won’t you lay an e-e-egg!
Chickens won’t you lay, chickens won’t you lay, chickens won’t you lay an egg!

Someone’s in the nest box with Dina, someone’s in the nest box I know-ow-ow-ow!
Someone’s in the nest box with Dina! Hopin’ she’ll just get up and go!

Buuuck buck buckuck buckAWK!
Buck buck buckuck buck buck buck buck buck!
Buuuck buck buckuck buckAWK!
Hopin’ she’ll just get up and go!​

 

[Shan30]

I don't know why, but this morning after collecting eggs, I made up new words to the song "I've Been Working On the Railroad."  This is not the sort of thing I normally do, so I'm pretty happy with myself!  (I know many people here don't feed their chickens corn, but it rhymes so well!!)  I have a chicken named Dina, so the song seemed appropriate:

I’ve Been Watching All the Chickens​

Sung to the tune of “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad”​

I’ve been watching all the chickens​

All the live-long day!​

I’ve been watching all the chickens,​

Just hoping one will lay!​

Can’t you hear the alarm ringing,​

Rise up so early in the morn!​

Can’t you hear the chickens squawking,​

“Come give us our corn!”​

Chickens won’t you lay, chickens won’t you lay, chickens won’t you lay an e-e-egg!​

Chickens won’t you lay, chickens won’t you lay, chickens won’t you lay an egg!​

Someone’s in the nest box with Dina, someone’s in the nest box I know-ow-ow-ow!​

Someone’s in the nest box with Dina!  Hopin’ she’ll just get up and go!​

Buuuck buck buckuck buckAWK!​

Buck buck buckuck buck buck buck buck buck!​

Buuuck buck buckuck buckAWK!​

Hopin’ she’ll just get up and go!​

Love it! Fantastic! Have to admit I make up weird songs all the time. Hahaha!

 

[lalaland]

Spring Spring Spring..

Shoot..the wind today closed off all of my paths to my coops and I had to trudge through hip deep snow this morning to open up. The snow it too wet to snow blow. I have an inch of ice in the garage and my feed is frozen to the floor. I refuse to shovel one more shovel full..with as windy as it is..I think it will all blow away..by dinner.

Ok, you made me laugh and spit out my coffee! great emoticon.
I knew you were probably having the same fun I was this morning. Still blowing like crazy, and now it is snowing again. I have power but the roads aren't plowed, neither is my driveway.

And after reading about Chaos' morning, well, I had it darned easy.