What did you do with your flock today?

[FBMcrazy8]

Well baby Oscar isn’t going to make it She is barely moving now and won’t open her eyes. Just gonna give her love and let her pass on and learn from my carelessness Thanks for the support @FrankieDoodle and @TropicalBabies. It’s okay to laugh, I named her Oscar as a way to make the mistake a bit more funny. Poor sweet baby never really had a chance
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I’m so so sorry!

 

[pennyJo1960]

Good morning to all of you! Banty are having a blast in their tractor and learned that when we go they can get there. We did get it free, We have one panel on top .. a shade cloth quite large.. Both ends are wood my better half replaced both ends. Hardware cloth all around up 4 ft has been added for security.
Second photo is it as we got it. Metal conduit makes up the dome of it and cross members. A electrician built it for his wife.

 

[ChicksnMore]

Hi all - thanks for the kind words. I was really bummed out about the sweet little babies. :-( I hate when stuff happens I feel I should have prevented if I’d just thought about it a bit more. I’ve made the pit in my stomach even worse too…because I made an very upsetting discovery the same day the baby died. I had my daughter go in the coop and collect eggs from the broodies on Wednesday and kept them out to candle them and found one that was so far along it had already pipped externally. The other two eggs they’d been on had quit so I gave the egg back to momma hens and tossed out the two duds. I also found two more developing that the chicken sitter missed They look to be exactly as old as the days since we went on vacation Soooo more babies

Anyhow, I found it odd that the next night the egg hadn’t hatched that had pipped, so I sent my daughter in to check on the egg and candled it and realized it was one of the dud eggs…which meant I had thrown away the egg with the baby chick. So my husband dug thru the trash in the kitchen and by some miracle it hadn’t cracked and broken in the garbage. The egg was really cold though so I cracked it open at the Pip mark and while it wasn’t much, it was barely moving and SO cold. So we rushed it in the house and I popped it in the incubator that’s got the one Spangled egg from my second attempt to hatch eggs from @ChicksnMore and crossed my fingers. I also cried a lot and felt (still feel) SO awful . I spent all night with a horrible pit in my stomach and couldn’t sleep…and then spent most of yesterday afternoon holding the baby and dabbing it’s beak with Nutridrench. The cold time seemed to slow down the yolk absorption and the cord sort of shriveled up and left a small bunch of yolk behind and baby was really weak and super quiet. Today it has looked a bit better, but still sleeps a lot and seems a bit unsteady. I’m not sure it’s going to make it, but I’m trying really hard to save it anyway. It gets dabs of Nutridrench and lots of snuggle time, since the poor thing is all alone. I was hoping the Spangled egg would hatch tomorrow so it had a friend, but it DIS sometime Friday :-( So it gets to be my buddy for now. Not gonna go rush out and get her a friend if she’s just gonna die anyway :-( So for now, it’s me and baby Oscar…

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So think lots of good thoughts for Oscar! I need her to live and be a GIRL. I don’t need anymore boy chickens!

I spent time tonight with the big kids. They’re all getting so big! @TropicalBabies Ruby is definitely a Rubero…the saddle feathers are coming in a nice shiny buff color So that explains the biting…although he has gotten better. Tonight he even sat on my chest for a bit and let me hug him. He’s gonna be so pretty. My babies are all so pretty…I wanna keep them all!

Some pics I took while outside…
This is Tweedle Dum (Tweedle Dee is in the other run and looks exactly the same haha). Tweedle Dum got the moniker because he kept escaping the run and chanced getting eaten by the dogs or birds!
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Nohope is DEFINITELY a boy and is getting huge. Not sure what to do with him…he’s gonna be way too big to stay in the Banty coop but he likes it there! He’s also going to be gorgeous

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Amy (aka Chocolate) has the MOST amazing muffs and beard. She’s getting braver and visits me now on her own. Emily (aka Marshmallow) her sister isn’t quite there but she stood near me tonight anyway!

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And last, Rolly (from 101 Dalmatians) sat with me. I have three like him, 2 girls and Rolly. They are all three the nicest little birds, I just adore them.

Here’s hoping Oscar is even more lively tomorrow! Night all!

So sorry about Oscar! Those things can happen to the best of us and I know you gave her all the love and care you could.
Your birds are all so beautiful. I'm absolutely in love with Amy...she looks a bit like a puffy faced hawk in that picture!

We finished the bottom row of fence for the coop. And we are adding chicken wire to the top part. Once that is finished we will Add the shirt and then some hot wire. Probably 2 rows of that close to the bottom to help prevent climbers.

We also set a trap out for the smart ass coon we have. We have been trying forever to catch him. Ok well at least the last month. The one trap we have is so old the trigger for the door is all the way to the back of it and all he has to do is pull the food to him and avoid the door coming down on him. So my brother was able to borrow one for me but it’s smaller and his butt holds up the door. My brother came out one night with his .22. And he never showed up. I’m hoping to catch him do it so I can pop him in the butt with a pellet gun and he just go in there. But NOOO. I come up with a game plan and he doesn’t want to come around. Oh wait, yes he did…he dug up some herbs around the chicken coop and broke my butterfly bush into pieces. Luckily I was able to save the herbs and most of my butterfly bush is still ok. This little turd has to go. And has to go fast. Because I can’t send my chickens out to the coop, even if we get it done soon, knowing that their doom will be because of the coon.

I've never had to deal with raccoons...it sounds awful though! We had a coyote trying to work his way into our big chicken coop years ago when we didn't have dogs for a brief spell, and I did the sit out with a gun thing too...nope...lil bugger nevered showed if I was out there...lol. Hope you get him!

Welp. In my world it is all pretty much the same. Truck is half packed and I am treading water doing chores.
I finally got some security cameras for the house and yard, been waiting for it to go on sale and July 4th it did. That took me some hours to get up and running and it hurt my old woman head for a bit as I missed a step and had to trouble shoot. Called a good smart friend who suggested rebooting router. I had to reboot it a few times... in the end I got it done and is quite fabulous.
I def need to roll hoses and rake leaves to feel better about the images. And I think the thing went off 500 times so far between the chickens and the cats. Looking forward to spying and already think I need a few more cameras, like maybe 4 more... ok. 3 more. Guess I'll wait for the next sale.

This mornings coffee tastes particularly good. It is cool and quiet now except for Spider who has belched out a few good ones.
Awesome chicken observation- Share, the one who has ascites, started roosting in the mini coop a month + ago. She has never been high in rank so I did not think too much of it at the time. Normally the young and lower rank like to roost in the mini coop till brave enough or glutton enough to go through the main coop hierarchy. Anywho, this morning Indy and Eva were roosting in the mini coop with her when I went to retrieve her from the roost. (I think Share is having a hard time jumping down so I go get her down after the flock pours themselves into the yard) I was shocked to find Indy and Eva there. Those are 2 of A team, the "it" girls, the matriarch's. They then escorted her out to graze.View attachment 3180906View attachment 3180908View attachment 3180922
What amazing awesome creatures ♡
Share, seems ok. Still eating and moving, just slower off the roost and I think she appreciates the lifts down. I have not drained her yet as I don't want to interfere too soon and cause any troubles if she is fairly stable on her own.
Today, I only plan to scrape poop, freshen nest boxes and roll up hoses. I'm sure I will find some bugs or lizards in my travels to toss their way. Yesterday they got a little bruised papaya and bit star fruit. So good days.

The cameras sound like fun and getting things ready to leave for a while sounds like a lot of work. Do you travel back and forth frequently?
Fingers crossed for Share. That's so sweet that the A team is looking out for her.

I'm having a late and lazy day today. Thinking of how I can rearrange my garden so I can let the dwarfs out to play during evening chores without sacrificing my plants. I have them in a coop that I used to use for the chickens I was looking to re-home, babies or whatever I needed it for at the time. So it's right in my garden and I have a lot of edible plants in that area. I might switch the ducks to there and redo the duck area for the chickens. The ducks are fun and easy to have running around in the garden and their pen is a good spot to let chickens play. I also want to move my yokos closer to the house so I can enjoy them again. I so rarely get to see them anymore.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Building the new coop here taking the old dome coop down .. There will have to be fencing to keep birds out where the size of the dome has done that ..

 

[TropicalBabies]

Happy Monday gang and happy https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/main_image_deep_field_smacs0723-5mb.jpg day!

 

[TropicalBabies]

Cleaned out the chicken storage tiny shed. Yippee!

Collected 45 SF larvae and fed to the lower ranks

Poor little Manono puts her face right up to them because she can't see. Sooooo visually impared ♡

Share looks to have her first signs of bluing . Still being escorted 85% of the time by Indie and or Eva. I ran well water under the orange and avocado trees, the soursop, the papayas and the banana trees so the chooks had puddles to play and cool and pick up floating bugs all day long. They had a good day and I hope that made them happy.
Have been obsessing about the critter/security cams. So fun to spy on my chooks and it is great to see my cats on duty all night! Bravo kitties! Did not know they worked so hard. I forgive their all day naps.

 

[ChicksnMore]

Happy Monday as well!

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

Well the little one didn’t make it :-( I’m bummed

Oh @kurby22 I'm so sorry! I wondered what had happened since yall got home to such devastating circumstances!

Then I read your other news bout the lil baby Osker...I didn't get the name til someone said something. That was cute.
I am beyond sorry this all happened! It literally sounds like something I would have done as well.
Hopefully things will get better for yall! And if nothing else we learn through these things that's for sure!
Sending your way!

 

[FBMcrazy8]

Had a close call today…..

We take all the chickens outside to the run. The run is pretty much secure except for where the door is going. But the chickens stay by the coop since they can go under it and there is at least 20’ between there and the door opening. So since I wasn’t far I started watering the plants and herbs around the coop. I told my 9yr old to get the 2 dogs (Rottweiler and Husky) some water. We took them out first to their pen so that when they came outside they didn’t run to the run. So what does my 9 yr old do?!?!? Sends my 5 yr old to go get their bucket. Now she is a pretty strong girl and the dogs tend to listen to her. But not today! She left the flipping gate open when going inside and they both got out. The Rottweiler went back into the house….the Husky did not. Instead she runs to the run/coop. I was on the wrong side when this happened. Luckily she isn’t very bright being only 1 still and didn’t find the door. I drop the watering pail and run to the door opening. I’m standing there trying to keep her out and the chickens in. The 9yr old, 6 yr old and 5 yr old are tying to catch her. Of course the 2 yr old is no help and my 11yr old and 14 yr old are inside. They played ring around the chicken run longer than I was comfortable with. I could see it on her face and body language she was about to try to jump the fence. Of course the side I’m seeing this on we don’t have the second set of fencing up yet. And though the first set is about 5’ high, I know this dog can jump. So I yell at my 9 yr old and 6 yr old to go get the BB gun and bb’s. I had to try to stop her cause the kids weren’t getting her, if I left that door and put a kid in charge it would have been a whole lot worse! She wasn’t listening to me either and had her eyes set on them chickens. Got the BB gun and loaded it. Tried to shot her butt and the damn thing wouldn’t go off. I left the front of that door just enough to pop her and one of our twins (Lilo) got out.. And where does Lilo go? Yep flys right into the dog. F*ck! Luckily she is a quick little bird and went fast. All I could see was the bird flying towards our torn down barn. And the Husky ALMOST biting her tail. All I could do was yell. It went so fast. It looked like she got the bird pinned down and I run up and the Husky took off. The bird wasn’t there but I knew the dog didn’t have her. She went under the lumber from the barn. Got the dog in the house. Now it was a chicken rescue mission. By then my 11 yr old has come out to help. And I’m glad cause I couldn’t find her. My 2 yr old kept trying to follow me in there and that is the last place I wanted him to be. My 11 yr old found her finally. Checked her out and she is perfectly fine!

Gonna have to do things different with the dogs. I knew we were gonna have troubles with the Husky. But this lady has a shock collar that is going on that dog and I will ALWAYS have the remote on me. I will be damned if I loose a bird because of my Husky.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Husky are hard headed best dog in or on run, airline cable.
@kurby22 I am so sorry!
Good morning suppose to see 90 here frozen peas and corn to all the birds today.