The Old Folks Home

[vehve]

Bunny, yeah, it all depends on your point of reference, our's would look tiny next to sine if the real giants.

All I'm saying, they're not in panic mode but seem to be skipping about peacefully. It looked pretty different when one had escaped the pen and had a dachshund on it's tail. That led to improved locks on the upper cages.

Any thoughts on the weight of Hilma (the one standing up in the pic)? I think she's a bit fat since she's sharing lodging with a mommy and her kits at the moment, and has access to more feed.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Bit of a zombie enthusiast, are we? Karin watches that, somehow I haven't gotten excited. I'd probably like it though.

...

The acting, scripts and directing are very good. It's supposed to be the most popular show.

Yes!

The eggs were $2.99 per dozen or about the shipping cost of a dozen hatching eggs.

My plan this year is to hatch the store eggs for layers--I need them in the winter for my customers. I have 5 hens from last year that are still laying.

Then I want to hatch some Black Penedesenca from Jason(@Hangtown Farms ). I would get them from Guy but I can drive to Jason's house. I have been there before and I want to see his improvements and his rare Catalina Island Goats.

Finally I want to hatch some Super Blue Egg Layers from dmrimpy.

I have to do this since the Chicken Cops busted me--now more Roosers at my place

You don't ship eggs priority? It costs me $18 to ship a large priority box which fits my foam shippers perfectly. The shippers add another $10.
I used to try to get an appropriate sized box for smaller foam shippers but by the time I found one and modified it to fit, I'd have a couple hours devoted to it and it made me feel like I was giving the eggs away. I have shippers that will hold up to 25 eggs. I also have 9 hole shippers that I still use if someone only wants 6 eggs.
The foam pack fits the sides of the box but leaves a bit of room vertically. So I use half of that space to reinforce the floor of the box with layers of corrugated board and then packing peanuts on top to fill the rest of the space. There's a 1/2" foam pad that goes above and below the egg foam.



The packing process for the 9 hole shipper.

Thanks, Ron. I only did a test hatch because I brought home some eggs from the Knoxville show. None of them were fertile, and I didn't include those in my count. I actually had 4 showgirl eggs from a showgirl hen that I bought there and two of them were the ones that hatched. I have no idea what she was in with before the show, so we'll see. The two that didn't hatch are still in the incubator, but look like they lost too much moisture as the air cells (or clear areas) take more than two thirds the space. I will open them this afternoon to see what happened. The other two were just two free range eggs that I put in as a control. They always hatch!

I will be making final selections for the spring breeders this afternoon, and will start lights at the same time. I will start hatching when I am getting two dozen eggs a week from about 10 hens. Those will be from an "a" team and a "b" team. I'm planning to try doing it a little different this season. I will put the top five hens in one pen with the best cockerel and the next best five in the other. The rest of the hens will join the RIR pair so that cock doesn't wear out his one hen and I will just eat the white eggs from that pen. That will be all the breeding pens I will have this season. My free range egg flock will be all the Ameraucana hens, the really bad Campine hens, and the Ameraucana rooster. I also have a pet Campine rooster with a bad foot, his name is Hershel, (from TWD, CC, I'm a fan, too) and if he is tolerated by that Am. cock, he will free range with them. The rest will all learn to speak Spanish.

I have 5 units for breeders but also use 3 other buildings for breeding. It gives me good flexibility. I have no more space for buildings or breeds.
The breeding units are for anywhere from pairs to a cock and 6 hens. Each unit has a couple of attached forage areas.
I'm continuing to rotate hens and roosters but my program was set back a couple years by the mink last year.

@vehve

We humans do so much verbal communication, we tend to forget about "body language," but animals are fluent in it, and read it on us even when we don't realize we are "speaking." Working with horses has taught me to be mindful of what I am "saying;" mine read me so well, they can seem to be reading my mind sometimes. Trust me, an animal knows when you are pursuing it, even when you think you are being subtle. Break off the pursuit, and you remove the "threat," so they behave differently.

I learned to herd a variety of animals growing up from cattle, horses, pigs, chickens. I can get wild chickens to go just about anywhere by NOT herding them.
Whenever I walk among the chickens, if at all possible, I avoid walking directly toward them.
The coop fairy and some of her rescue friends tried for days to catch a crippled Canadian gander. They even had a pricey net gun.
I went on the day the local TV station was filming and I caught the bird in about 5 minutes. It was in a parking lot of an office complex. He was used to people walking to and from their cars but whenever someone tried to catch him, off he flew. He didn't like to fly, I guess because landing on the bum leg hurt.
He was standing on a patch of grass and I walked as though I was passing him from some distance. I didn't even look at him but when he was to my side POW with the net gun. One try.

Here's my video proof.

http://fox2now.com/2012/05/10/wild-goose-rescue/
Turns out it was a goose and not a gander
http://fox2now.com/2012/06/26/injured-goose-released-in-franklin-county/

 

[ronott1]

The acting, scripts and directing are very good. It's supposed to be the most popular show.

You don't ship eggs priority? It costs me $18 to ship a large priority box which fits my foam shippers perfectly. The shippers add another $10.
I used to try to get an appropriate sized box for smaller foam shippers but by the time I found one and modified it to fit, I'd have a couple hours devoted to it and it made me feel like I was giving the eggs away. I have shippers that will hold up to 25 eggs. I also have 9 hole shippers that I still use if someone only wants 6 eggs.
The foam pack fits the sides of the box but leaves a bit of room vertically. So I use half of that space to reinforce the floor of the box with layers of corrugated board and then packing peanuts on top to fill the rest of the space. There's a 1/2" foam pad that goes above and below the egg foam.

Yes, I ship in Priority--but I won't be any more. All of my Roosters were processed when the community services officer busted me.

4x3=12 so the eggs cost me 12. I am often charged $20.00 to pay shipping on hatching eggs though.

I did have to walk to Whole Foods on my break at work and then stop at Trader Joes on the way home. Shipping was very cheap this time.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

For anything over 9 eggs, I'm charging $28 and I'm not making any money on that. That's my cost. Perhaps if I bought the foam shippers in lots of 100 it would be cheaper but I can't afford to do that.

That's a real bummer on the chicken police.
It took us about 9 months of haggling and filling city council meeting to overflowing so that we could continue to do what we were doing all along. No one knew any of us in the city limits had chickens so where was the problem?
As a result of our efforts, people that want to keep chickens for the first time are allowed to keep one rooster.
I'm allowed 5 roosters because that is what I put on my permit application. That's what I like to keep but often have 20 cockerels of crowing age. I'm allowed 85 chickens.
This is the first city I'm aware of that actually wrote roosters into the ordinance. Many cities around here allow them but that's just because they don't have a chicken ordinance at all.

 

[bamadude]

For anything over 9 eggs, I'm charging $28 and I'm not making any money on that. That's my cost. Perhaps if I bought the foam shippers in lots of 100 it would be cheaper but I can't afford to do that.

That's a real bummer on the chicken police.
It took us about 9 months of haggling and filling city council meeting to overflowing so that we could continue to do what we were doing all along. No one knew any of us in the city limits had chickens so where was the problem?
As a result of our efforts, people that want to keep chickens for the first time are allowed to keep one rooster.
I'm allowed 5 roosters because that is what I put on my permit application. That's what I like to keep but often have 20 cockerels of crowing age. I'm allowed 85 chickens.
This is the first city I'm aware of that actually wrote roosters into the ordinance. Many cities around here allow them but that's just because they don't have a chicken ordinance at all.

One hatched. 9 pipping/zipping

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Great. Today is your hatch day isn't it?

 

[bamadude]

Great. Today is your hatch day isn't it?

I set them 5:00 am on Dec 13

 

[Cynthia12]

What a good looking guy! And the giant rabbit is cute too..and..I am old enough to be your mom!

 

[Cynthia12]

Love SG's! I've hatched a few this winter too. What color are these going to be?

 

[Alaskan]

When mine do that, I give them chores. They make themselves scarce when I'm in the house.

Mine too.... I walk into the room, and there is silence, because they know when I show up they have to work.

When I have geen handing out loads of work they start to scatter like roaches when
I show up.