Washingtonians

[SadieSue]

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Oh no... So sorry about any losses, but double sorry that it was your araucana!

 

[SadieSue]

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Yes, hope you had a good day and ya got CAKE!!!(which is the only good thing about birthdays when you get past 50, lol, well, cake and the fact that you are still alive!)

Happy Belated Birthday CR!

 

[SadieSue]

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I saw the milf typo, but didn't want to get dinged any points, so let it go...

Crows? Maybe they'd be a danger to your little chicks? With my bigger girls I'm not concerned because as someone has mentioned before, they make an excellent alarm system for any larger predatory birds in our area.
When my chicks were under 5 weeks they were in a temporary outside X-pen for a couple of hours a day but I was clothes pinning a sheet over the top if I had to go in the house for a few minutes. After that I set them up inside the big covered run in an area separated from the larger hens.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

I think the crow thing depends a lot on time and place. I've seen crows with young hunt out Killdeer chicks year after year, and pick off fuzzybutt bantams straggling behind their hatch-mates and mother, but have only seen hungry wintering flocks gang up and take out a very old banty rooster with frost-bitten feet once. I think they're more dangerous as disease vectors and competitors for free-range food sources.

 

[Mia_]

What is the difference between a cockrel and a rooster? Is it before and after they start crowning?

 

[Kaneke]

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rooster = 1 year old or older
cockerel = not a year old yet

but that's the OFFICIAL word, actually we may very well call younger ones .. roo or rooster ...

 

[Kaneke]

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Yes, hope you had a good day and ya got CAKE!!!(which is the only good thing about birthdays when you get past 50, lol, well, cake and the fact that you are still alive!)

Happy Belated Birthday CR!

X2 to CR ----

(loud Bronx cheer -- LOL )

hey Dana, any action on those remaining two eggs? did the pecking/rocking egg give up ?

 

[Kaneke]

Quote:
Oh no... So sorry about any losses, but double sorry that it was your araucana!

X2

haven't seen or heard any owls here, but have been hearing a lot of redtail hawk screams .. AND at least one of the resident blue jays was imitating a hawk scream ...

if the chickens are still in the (tarp covered) run, they huddle in the middle or dive for the coop; if they are out free ranging with one of us standing/sitting near them, they either run to us or run under the Trooper parked near the coop on the back side lawn ... or if it's closer they scurry into the run (I leave the door open when they're out so they can do this, or so anyone wanting to lay an egg, can go jump into the coop where the preferred nest box is

we have both bald eagles and golden eagles, but the baldies preferentially hunt along the river, a quarter mile away, and the goldens more usually hang out over the swampy area at the foot of our northern boundary (steep 200 foot high slope down to the power canal and livestock quarantine facility that sit below up) -- where the redwing blackbirds sing ...

 

[Mia_]

I am headed down to Harbor Days. Anyone else going?

 

[hallerlake]

Ramona, the bearded Spitz, is on her own as of today. I've sold the rest of her hatch mates. She has her own dog crate run inside the Brabanters' run, and her own cat carrier coop inside the Brabanters' coop. In a week, they'll think she was always part of their territory. Or, at least, that's what I hope. Maybe I'll give her two weeks to get a little more size on her.

I'm using the money I made today to get a Brinsea brooder on sale. It's exactly the same amount, and supposed to use one tenth the electricity of a heat lamp.