The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[chickiemomy]

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I started in reading on the Washington thread AFTER I came back from Monroe -- wish I'd looked at it before since so many of you were there & partying too!. It is a breed I'm particularly interested in - & I was looking for that breeder to see the stock that was available not many have them - else I may have not noticed either. The trio were in a cage in the back, on the floor - I was looking for them, they weren't in the middle in that nice big stack of birds & cages. I think it was pips & peeps-- ameraucana -- not Araucana -- that I talked to. I really liked her-- no nonsense & direct.

I live just up over the hill from the Monroe fairgrounds - 20 minutes by back roads. You had a little drive!

 

[chickiemomy]

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They are winners! -- & you deserve them mumsy - such a good chicken soul...

 

[chickiemomy]

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x 2!!! those paws are huge! - he's gonna be a big boy!

 

[chickiemomy]

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Territorial adult chasing away an immature Red Tailed Hawk

The Red-tailed Hawk reaches sexual maturity at two years of age. It is monogamous, mating with the same individual for many years. In general, the Red-tailed Hawk will only take a new mate when its original mate dies.[29] The same nesting territory may be defended by the pair for years. During courtship, the male and female fly in wide circles while uttering shrill cries. The male performs aerial displays, diving steeply, and then climbing again. After repeating this display several times, he sometimes grasps her talons briefly with his own. Courtship flights can last 10 minutes or more. Copulation often follows courtship flight sequences, although copulation frequently occurs in the absence of courtship flights.
In copulation, the female, when perched, tilts forward, allowing the male to land with his feet lodged on her horizontal back. The female twists and moves her tail feathers to one side, while the mounted male twists his cloacal opening around the female's cloaca. Copulation lasts 5 to 10 seconds and during pre-nesting courtship in late winter or early spring can occur numerous times each day
It sure would suck to live in close proximity to a nesting hawk..



We have a bald eagle nest next door to us. They stole it a decade or so ago from some red tail hawks & come back every fall to enlarge their digs. We still have the hawks too - so overhead is tres dangerous. I've only seen eagle fledglings one year - they had two & boy were they active that year hunting & overhead all the time. But that was before I had chickens. I had the state wildlife guy come over to map the nest for protection (from construction disturbance) - & he was shocked our cats had survived living that close to the eagle nest. Just found out from a neighbor one of the eagles had taken one of his chickens & flown off with it- he'd seen the attack - but we're very wooded, and the eagle bumped into a tree & dropped the chicken. He thought it was a goner, but it came back home 3 days later. Doesn't help with chicken survival - but eagles aren't very coordinated, well, not as coordinated as you might think. They carry 8 foot long branches for their nest through the trees CROSSWISE - & consequently drop a bunch - It's wierd seeing them banging their way through the treetops. Osprey, on the otherhand, carry branches the same direction as their body oriendation & don't have the issue of crashing into branches so much. Even odder seeing how they break off branches to carry off - they land on a branch really hard - sometimes they miss grabbing a branch they've dislodged & it will crash thru to the ground. And they have such weenie squeaky calls. Truly not majestic at all. It's been fun watching them - the year they had baby eagles - they spent September getting them out of the nest & teaching them to hunt. Boy those babies made such noise late afternoon- no wonder they were ready to kick them out! mom & dad were trying to get them off the nest - babies were hollering for food - mom & dad were come on out here to get your own you lazy teenagers. - no anthropomorphising here!

Leah's mom - 7:30 seems late - but I bet you still have daylight at that time now - you're south of Justine for sure & me as well - think their hunting is likely in relation to sunset so it would mean to compare the last attack to this, you should think about hours of day left. 'my' eagles seem active late afternoon - filling their crop for overnight???

 

[chickiemomy]

Unfortunately I have seen the exact same thing... I went so far as to tell this guy that if he came back to the new show, that I would tell everyone what he was doing. He did not go.

Though gaping.. It can be a sign of URI, but could have been gape worms as well. and if you got the instinct he was sick, he probably was.

Aoxa -- the gaping was less dramatic than the head tick. I noticed it second after my eyes did a double take on the head tick. I actually thought I was going to hear a good roo crow, but it would stick it's neck out & pant, instead of crow.

& if it was sick, It just seems so -- - I don't know-- - dishonest - taking advantage of your fellow.people - and possibly infecting others.

Always hated the people who came to work sick too - they think they are doing their boss a favor, but they are really spreading their germa around & making for more absences overall. Self-riteous whatevers.......

 

[chickiemomy]

So I went out about 20 min ago to close the coop door. Everyone was in finally from gallivanting all day. Since I only got 2 eggs this morning I thought I would check the nesting boxes again. Low and behold I was surprised to see a girl in the nesting box after dark. She talked quietly and I thought it was red sleeping there for the night since one of her sisters yanked out a mouthful of feathers on her neck today when nana was giving them ham. She got up and to my surprise she had just laid an egg!! Never had my girls lay after dark before. Must of been because she was out in yard today when she normally lays and maybe forgot lol

I've never had one lay so late at night before

Is it like the little kid who doesn't want to come in from playing to go to the bathroom??? LOL.

 

[aoxa]

Unfortunately I have seen the exact same thing... I went so far as to tell this guy that if he came back to the new show, that I would tell everyone what he was doing. He did not go.

Though gaping.. It can be a sign of URI, but could have been gape worms as well. and if you got the instinct he was sick, he probably was.

Aoxa -- the gaping was less dramatic than the head tick. I noticed it second after my eyes did a double take on the head tick. I actually thought I was going to hear a good roo crow, but it would stick it's neck out & pant, instead of crow.

& if it was sick, It just seems so -- - I don't know-- - dishonest - taking advantage of your fellow.people - and possibly infecting others.

Always hated the people who came to work sick too - they think they are doing their boss a favor, but they are really spreading their germa around & making for more absences overall. Self-riteous whatevers.......

I had started a thread about this on here.. He knew they were sick.. A friend of mine purchased a good number of birds from him and they infected her entire flock. It was not a recurring disease thank God, but it was highly infectious and the agricultural department around here tested her birds and found they had I'm quoting her:


Quote: The pictures she had sent me looked like coreyza. The vet from the department said it was similar to CRD and Coreyza in symptoms, but that once treated they would not become carriers or develop it again.

I felt so terrible for her..

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

I started in reading on the Washington thread AFTER I came back from Monroe -- wish I'd looked at it before since so many of you were there & partying too!. It is a breed I'm particularly interested in - & I was looking for that breeder to see the stock that was available not many have them - else I may have not noticed either. The trio were in a cage in the back, on the floor - I was looking for them, they weren't in the middle in that nice big stack of birds & cages. I think it was pips & peeps-- ameraucana -- not Araucana -- that I talked to. I really liked her-- no nonsense & direct.

I live just up over the hill from the Monroe fairgrounds - 20 minutes by back roads. You had a little drive!

Yes, P&P has nice birds. And she is friendly and knowledgeable. Yes I had a bit of a drive, 217 miles each way just to meet a bunch of BYC'ers.

 

[farmerfogg]

It's never "easy," but good for you for taking such a big step.

Thank you BDM.

 

[lalaland]

I'm still dithering between icelandics, leg creambars and those super blue layers. One or two of these, plus the swedish flower hens. These would be hatched for me by a woman in the cities who trades hatching eggs - and she'll time the hatch so I can have the new quarters ready for the chicks before they come. I want to end up with no more than 8 additional hens, so allowing for roosters, I think I will get 16-18 chicks. I can always sell extra hens, it the sexing ratio is in my favor.

I've decided to move an old coop into the chicken yard, that way I can fence off the babies til they are ready to be combined with the current flock. So I will have to wait til mud season is over enough to allow a tractor to move the old coop, and to pull up some fencing to allow the tractor into the yard.

Alternatively, I could renovate the construction trailer storage area and have half the trailer for the new chicks. But....I would have to build a storage shed for all my gardening tools and canning pots/jars, etc that are now in the storage area. So probably the old coop in the run, and work on the big coop so by mid summer, I can move the pullets into it.
Leigh's hard work on the trailer coop is inspiring me, but I always plan too much for the spring when there is so much gardening to do, not to mention kayaking.

good to dream today, it is snowing again and they say another 5-8 inches today.