The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[chickiemomy]

I hate tax season @_@

?? and what brought this on??? -- are you a tax preparer? just curious - I know ot!

 

[chickiemomy]

Quote: oops - sorry to let you know - I am a tax preparer - not practicing this year however ... tired, and re-tired.

I would concur, there are some weirdos out there - find an individual you like - follow them wherever they go - stay away from walk-in - go for the person, not the firm -- look for the professional -- just sayin'. (Luv the TurboTax ads with the plumber & store clerk...)

 

[Mumsy]

Buff must be hard to be fertile..out of her eggs and the eggs I have here..non of them were fertile. 17 are still many eggs to have hatch..wonderful news!!

I got two Buff eggs in the mix and both are fertile and developing. But they are from the same pen.
Buff is a difficult color in Silkies to get right. I particularly love the Catdance Buff.

All of the Blue Splash eggs from pen 2 were infertile. Karen told me it was usually the Lavender eggs that were the most difficult to hatch. She and I had a lengthy discussion about the difficulty of getting fertile eggs from typey Silkies. There can be many reasons. Sometimes because the weather is cold and winter when it's so dark. Sometimes because the roo is heavily crested and so are the pens bums. Sometimes the color pens that are very closely line bred.
She also told me that it is in fact true that heavily vaulted Silkie chicks have a more difficult time turning into position for hatching. My hunch about this was correct. I'm hoping the tips she gave me about my Genesis 1588 will help in the survival of hatch. I'm going down to pick up more eggs in six months when I pick up a Buff pair.

 

[armorfirelady]

I wanted to share what I noticed yesterday after my Mom gathered eggs. They all were almost white in color they were so pale. Now my hens lay brown eggs and normally I have one egg that is a very light brown/tan. But yesterday 3 out of 4 were light. And one had a weird shell. It was also very narrow compared to the other eggs. It also has a bunch of bumps all over it with weird *design* on it. Actually 2 of them had bumps on the shells.


Here is the weird design on the egg that was narrow and not normal egg shape.


Next to a normal shaped egg. I even checked the eggs I collected earlier in the week & none were odd shaped.


And one of the bumpy eggs.

You can see the eggs in the carton behind this egg. The darker brown ones are what they normally look like. I usually only get one light colored egg.

Thoughts on cause? And why the color change in the shells?

I am guessing the 2 bumpy/deformed eggs are from the hens that have prolapse. They are given layer pellets via FF and have calcium free choice. They have been laying for 3 months now. I've gotten an egg once in awhile with a few bumps on it but this one was all bumps.

 

[armorfirelady]

I'm convinced that ACV is a cure all for a lot of things. My poor Australian Shepherd was driving himself and DH & myself. After reading on the earlier thread I diluted just a little water with the ACV, Prob 6:1 and spritz him nightly. I was careful to stay away from hot spots. It hasn't cured him but when Mom got sick I haven't been as faithful. mom's illness caused her to itch so badly, she bled, all over. I convinced her to try the ACV on spots that weren't raw and it does help. Because her illness is on the inside, the relief is temp. (Very OT, she starts chemo Wed).

I use ACV with water on my dogs hot spots in the summer when their allergies kick in. Even on the raw patches. After a few applications their itching has subsided a lot. Even the vet agreed it was a good treatment

 

[Leahs Mom]

Point being only that yep - my set up needs to try to keep wood from getting wet. Thought about linoleum, but not sure about the ease of putting a sheet down, cutting it to fit & all. My coop was made to fit the area - & is kind of an odd L-shape - a few too many corners. and I'd heard the squares don't work, as they tend to pull up at the corners. So I bot a can of floor urethane from the 'oops' section of the hardware store -- it's a nice dusty gray color - the rest of the inside is pink as I had some leftover enamel from something else - function over form LOL - chicks don't care what color they're sleeping in!

At the corners you could try using a furring strip nailed right into the wood floor or wall to keep it secure....or was it EVERY corner of EVERY square you were concerned about?

My hen shed is up off the ground like that too - but only about 18". We finally got an enclosure up all around the bottom. It has 1/4" hardware cloth and an apron on the ground about 12" out from the hen shed.

Lots of folks like to let their chickens get underneith for shade but I was concerned that they'd get under there and I couldn't get to them....also that predators would be able to get under there, etc. So we shut it in. I do have one piece that is hinged so I can get to the electric, etc.


You can see the enclosure in these photos. Just hardware cloth on the frames then screwed to the base of the shed.

 

[aoxa]

?? and what brought this on??? -- are you a tax preparer? just curious - I know ot!

oops - sorry to let you know - I am a tax preparer - not practicing this year however ... tired, and re-tired.

I would concur, there are some weirdos out there - find an individual you like - follow them wherever they go - stay away from walk-in - go for the person, not the firm -- look for the professional -- just sayin'. (Luv the TurboTax ads with the plumber & store clerk...)

I'm a book-keeper/tax prep person. Though I really don't enjoy it (not where my heart is), but I am really good at it. Just not good with the people side of things. I am not a people person. I find it hard to kiss peoples butts so to say. It's never came naturally to me.

What brought it on is a really busy day. I have to duck in here to bring some sanity back when I feel about to lose it. You guys are great. It's just so many people in and out..

Can't wait for closing time!

 

[aoxa]

If you ever decided to do a vinyl in the future you could try the vinyl tiles...way easier to put down if it's just you because you don't have to cut and handle a huge sheet.....just the smaller tiles.

My hen shed is up off the ground like that too - but only about 18". We finally got an enclosure up all around the bottom. It has 1/4" hardware cloth and an apron on the ground about 12" out from the hen shed.

Lots of folks like to let their chickens get underneith for shade but I was concerned that they'd get under there and I couldn't get to them....also that predators would be able to get under there, etc. So we shut it in. I do have one piece that is hinged so I can get to the electric, etc.


You can see the enclosure in these photos. Just hardware cloth on the frames then screwed to the base of the shed.

Yes I need to do this. I know they will get under there and drive me crazy trying to get them out.

I had a tree like this at our old house... We still talk about how much we loathed that tree.. It was against a wall and we couldn't get at them when they decided to hide behind it.

 

[Leahs Mom]

CM..... I think the floor paint would work well as long as it's cured well before they go back on it. Have you put that down yet?

 

[Leahs Mom]

Who wants to give me ideas on which color to paint this shed?

I hate the color... was thinking about barn red, some kind of green, etc. How 'bout some photos with ideas?