What did you do with your flock today?

[pennyJo1960]

We are into our rainy fall ot here allot pits in the main coop as they do dirt baths in it.. Made myself a huge promise new coop for the main one but no floor they laove doing them inside when it rains

 

[kurby22]

We are into our rainy fall ot here allot pits in the main coop as they do dirt baths in it.. Made myself a huge promise new coop for the main one but no floor they laove doing them inside when it rains

I can imagine you have to deal with a lot more issues with the rain. That’s one plus to living in this hot miserable Valley…we stay warm and dry most of the time so the weather and tear on the coops and the mess is less. I wouldn’t mind your rain though! I miss green stuff haha.

 

[kurby22]

They turned out to REALLY like the black soldier fly larvae. Which is good for me, ‘cause I bought a five pound bag!

That’s good! I hope mine don’t waste them haha! My quail will eat them at least!

 

[kurby22]

Today was a mostly quiet day. I spent some time this evening with my favorite lap chicken while watching football. It’d be a lot more enjoyable without the inevitable poop!

We did have an incident involving the lavender cockerel and my daughter though. I have noticed in the last week or so he has been especially saucy at my husband…squawking at him and dancing a bit. So I made him come in the run and push back when he tried to be a butt, and then had him pick him up and walk around some. He’s just reaching 7 months and I think he’s fully feeling his male hormones. He handled being held just fine and once put down he walked away. Tonight my daughter went out to put away the chickens and he ran up and pecked her leg a couple times. No skin was broken, but still not okay and my daughter was super scared and upset. So we all went in the run, I picked him up and made him sit in her lap and get pet and hugged a bunch. I had to spend a bunch of time explaining to my daughter that she can’t respond by running away when he does that because then he’ll know it works. He again handled being manhandled just fine. No attitude except a couple squawks of protest. I’m hoping that is the worst of it and we can get thru the naughty teen boy stage. Guess we will see. I haven’t ever felt or seen a bone of aggression in his eyes, and he backs down really easily. I know he’s just doing his job and kids need to be supervised around roosters, so sadly she had to accept that he’s no longer the sweet baby boy she could trust completely tonight and it made me sad for her. Fingers crossed he shapes up! It would be hard to have to rehome him…for all of us!

Anyway, Happy Friday everyone!

 

[TropicalBabies]

Almost all of my boys have gone through the hormonal challenge stage but keep doing what your doing Kirby and it will pass... and then you will have a perfect roo that you can be very proud of ♡♡♡ I actually HD mine like a football and walk and talk while strolling the yard and looking for bugs. Give treats to change the attitude. I then become a bigger source for his happy. He will then run to me for treats and be able to show off to his girls what a great provider he is. Total win.

I love the rain but agree chicken keeping is way easier with out it. Mess, smell and room wise, even my eggs stay perfect clean in our dry, sandy arid climate.

Soldier flies happen naturally in my compost tumbler (along with many other bugs). I cut a 1/2 barrel to empty my compost in but bugs fall through the cracks and into the empty half. Certain seasons it is the favorite run to place for the girls first thing in the morning.

I just harvested a slow compost process a few days ago and got to play with the young gang finding bugs. Always a favorite of mine too.

 

[TropicalBabies]

Happy Saturday gang!
I turned in my last cats/kittens to be fixed (haha Penny! ) yesterday. Making the long drive and waiting in the lines for the paperwork and process was a tuff one and because of that and a- believe it or not- cat bite injury I did not have the energy to go all out how I hoped. But I got my 10 cats in and will finish my release this morning. Ele Ka Pele was released into a colony yester-morn. Oh, except for 2 kittens that I will socialize. Kahili, the cat who bit me will not leave his cage lol. Yes, that is a him. This morning I will take his big cage and release him into the same colony as Ele KP.

So, cat bite ALMOST sent me to the ER looking for relief but I had amoxicilin in the fridge that seems to be handling it. Still can't do much with my hand but grateful for much less pain and swelling.

Forest kitty has slid into our kitty fold and we now have 5 of our own if we count him and my DH seems to count him. Maybe he is the one who needs the intervention this time. Forest still is listed on KHS website and I am good with him finding his own home. He is a fabulous kitty ❤

My friend and her family had a wonderful stay at the cabin. I need to go up this eve and collect more/all chickens but MIL is coming and that always puts a less productive spin on things.

Don't know if I mentioned but DH and I brought box into the run the other day. Just a few small details left- like me adding the wire soon as my right hand is happy, moving stumps etc.

K. Better get my roll going- Aloha all, have a fabulous and safe day!

 

[kurby22]

Happy Saturday gang!
I turned in my last cats/kittens to be fixed (haha Penny! ) yesterday. Making the long drive and waiting in the lines for the paperwork and process was a tuff one and because of that and a- believe it or not- cat bite injury I did not have the energy to go all out how I hoped. But I got my 10 cats in and will finish my release this morning. Ele Ka Pele was released into a colony yester-morn. Oh, except for 2 kittens that I will socialize. Kahili, the cat who bit me will not leave his cage lol. Yes, that is a him. This morning I will take his big cage and release him into the same colony as Ele KP.

So, cat bite ALMOST sent me to the ER looking for relief but I had amoxicilin in the fridge that seems to be handling it. Still can't do much with my hand but grateful for much less pain and swelling.

Forest kitty has slid into our kitty fold and we now have 5 of our own if we count him and my DH seems to count him. Maybe he is the one who needs the intervention this time. Forest still is listed on KHS website and I am good with him finding his own home. He is a fabulous kitty ❤

My friend and her family had a wonderful stay at the cabin. I need to go up this eve and collect more/all chickens but MIL is coming and that always puts a less productive spin on things.

View attachment 2867911View attachment 2867912
Don't know if I mentioned but DH and I brought box into the run the other day. Just a few small details left- like me adding the wire soon as my right hand is happy, moving stumps etc.

K. Better get my roll going- Aloha all, have a fabulous and safe day!

Oh no! I’m sorry you are nursing a cat bite!! Cat mouths are crazy dirty…I’m glad you had meds to take right away.

The coop looks great!! I would imagine it will go slower with only one working hand…sounds like DH has more work to do!

I wish I had the stomach to raise live bugs for the birds. They just give me serious heebie jeebies!!

It’s reassuring to hear you’ve had experience with this stage and they’ve ended up good boys! My daughter was so disappointed in him and sad he’s not nice anymore. We had a long talk about how his job is different now and he’s learning to be a rooster and she needs to realize it’s part of keeping a rooster we love, Lots of life lessons learned with chickens!

I was quite fascinated yesterday, speaking of Mother Nature and the animal world. I heard a bird call that sounded rather hawk-like yesterday morning but I couldn’t see anything. So I started looking up bird calls on YouTube to see if I could find one that matched. All of the chickens would look curiously at me each time I played a bird call…until I got to the hawks. Then both cockerels got very upset, started making alert noises and went on high alert while all the pullets ran for cover. They’ve never had any type of predator attack but knew the difference between song bird calls and predator bird calls. It’s innate to their bones and that fascinates me! Mother Nature constantly amazes me!

Happy Saturday!

 

[pennyJo1960]

Morning, we are dry this morning.
I took miss frazzle back to banty land no pecking of the younger banty .. She spent 5 days in the dog crate in the garage

 

[FrankieDoodle]

Coco hasn’t been feeling well the past few days, so yesterday I separated her and fed her some scrambled eggs. She’s acting better today, but I’m still keeping an eye on her.
When I gave her a quick check over for any issues I couldn’t find any, so I think she wasn’t getting enough protein since she’s molting. It would explain why she’s acting better after I gave her eggs and worms.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Molting is so tough on them after their first hard one next is even harder .. How old is she ?
@TropicalBabies I missed the cat bite crud those can hurt worse if cat scratch fever follows