What did you do with your flock today?

[TropicalBabies]

Happy Aloha Friday all!
We're to start... well, 3rd hen is having reproductive issues. This time it is Lady Ruby... bout 1.5+ rsl, so at that age ☹☹☹ Found a soft shell and broken yolk about 6" away from each other on the poop board last eve. Yolk was under her. Deep sigh and say it isn't so!
So dosed her w/600mg calcium and 250mgs on Amoxicillin. I am definitely sensing a pattern. She has stayed very parallel today.

Was so proud that I was finally getting ahead of my bags, had a bit of a stash and thought I was going to be able to get to other projects while Rod was in the mainland... not to be. All but 2 bags remain of my stash after 2 stands were ridiculously low, so I am basically starting from behind again as I have2 more stands that are also low. I should be happy and I am, just tuff always chasing this thing.

I'm down to 14 eggs per day on average now @Popo. 2 of my blues are on hiatus and now L. Ruby is down. I'm just gunna ride this one out. I am fully prepared to have some losses, matter of fact counting on it and that is one reason I closed my flock and no more hatching for a bit. Too many old girls. Is spring over yet?

Stopped at the feed store down the road where I got the oystershells from and did mention- but not blamed- that I was a little suspect so if anyone else mentioned.... maybe she could take a mental note? She was a little defensive and went on to tell me of all the people with chicken problems right now. She knows next to noting about chickens and I gleaned what I could. Coccidiosis & mosquitos. Her order of McMurray chicks all died in transit. The good news is she has stocked up on some meds.
I grabbed one old feed bag from her and got the H*LL out of there. It was is nice bag lol.

I'm sorry @kurby22 . Hugs to Ariana and you. Quick thinking on the eggs and I hope you find your rainbow or pot of gold or whatever the heck that saying is... Good hatch, there, that's it. I hope you have an excellent hatch of all girls ♥︎♥︎♥︎ Help to ease yet another blow.

 

[TropicalBabies]

Oh, for some fricken cheery news lol. I have someone interested in the 2 boys up Koke'e! We have been chatting for a bit and he has not disappeared. Encouraging. AND the boys have made a friend out of our mountain neighbor who came to talk to me today. He said he is feeding them.and they eat out of his hand and he enjoys. So they are welcomed at his house. ♡
There. Thought I would blurt out something positive after my gloomy post.

 

[kurby22]

Happy Aloha Friday all!
We're to start... well, 3rd hen is having reproductive issues. This time it is Lady Ruby... bout 1.5+ rsl, so at that age ☹☹☹ Found a soft shell and broken yolk about 6" away from each other on the poop board last eve. Yolk was under her. Deep sigh and say it isn't so!
So dosed her w/600mg calcium and 250mgs on Amoxicillin. I am definitely sensing a pattern. She has stayed very parallel today.
Was so proud that I was finally getting ahead of my bags, had a bit of a stash and thought I was going to be able to get to other projects while Rod was in the mainland... not to be. All but 2 bags remain of my stash after 2 stands were ridiculously low, so I am basically starting from behind again as I have2 more stands that are also low. I should be happy and I am, just tuff always chasing this thing.

I'm down to 14 eggs per day on average now @Popo. 2 of my blues are on hiatus and now L. Ruby is down. I'm just gunna ride this one out. I am fully prepared to have some losses, matter of fact counting on it and that is one reason I closed my flock and no more hatching for a bit. Too many old girls. Is spring over yet?

Stopped at the feed store down the road where I got the oystershells from and did mention- but not blamed- that I was a little suspect so if anyone else mentioned.... maybe she could take a mental note? She was a little defensive and went on to tell me of all the people with chicken problems right now. She knows next to noting about chickens and I gleaned what I could. Coccidiosis & mosquitos. Her order of McMurray chicks all died in transit. The good news is she has stocked up on some meds.
I grabbed one bag from her and got the H*LL out of there. It was a nice bag lol.

I'm sorry @kurby22 . Hugs to Ariana and you. Quick thinking on the eggs and I hope you find your rainbow or pot of gold or whatever the heck that saying is... Good hatch, there, that's it. I hope you have an excellent hatch of all girls ♥︎♥︎♥︎ Help to ease that blow.

Ahhh I’m sorry to hear you have another older lady with laying issues! All this water creating just the worst scenarios for all of us! Coccidiosis, mosquito’s, warm and wet everything

Thanks for finishing on a high note! Happy to hear the rooster boys have made some friends

 

[ChicksnMore]

No, I don’t think that is it. Everyone else is doing fantastic. It’s just them. I have one more who has externally pipped. I want to see if this little one does better. If not I may just leave it to their moms to hatch them. One of them has officially decided to go broody. I guess I shouldn’t say officially but she is still on the eggs. And boy she worked hard to get some fake eggs under her. The pink is where she took the fake eggs from and you can see her in the blue of where she is.

Wow...gotta love a determined lady
That's really too bad on the cochins. Hope they give you some healthy babies down the road.

these boys turned 4 today!!View attachment 3442514View attachment 3442515

O so cute! Happy birthday lil ones! Looks like a fun time

Adorable N welcome to the thread!

@FBMcrazy8 so sorry you lost another baby! Man that is hard...maybe failure to thrive? My little that died last hatch that prob had that would stand underneath the heat plate with eyes usually closed ...I could get it to come out and eat but it more or less pecked at it rather than really eating from what I could tell.

Welcome to the others that are new on thread as well...the copy thingee didn't work.

@TropicalBabies really nice setups you have and luv how u made it from scraps!!!

@ChicksnMore hoping your lil mom continues to do well along with the flock on the new babies!

@kurby22 Yall still got flooding?
I'm guessing several of you others are getting hit like we are in TN with this nasty weather.

So many nice days and the builders didn't show...again. DH told em it had to be done before Easter...i.dont see how.when they don't show up on pretty days much less once a week.

DH helped me get couple pieces cut on the coop addition and I began the hardware cloth on the outside edge.
Definitely going with the L-shape and gonna use remaining leftover hardware cloth (man that stuff makes you wanna swear!) To enclose the area alongside the main run so the lil turds, I mean sweet babies, will stop eating my lambs ear! They gave it the worst haircut on all NEW growth in just 30 minutes! Plant Beasts!!!
That way they'll get some free time, safer from wide open area for dang hawks and my flowers and gardens will have a better chance at life lol!
Just gonna have to rethink the lil area there where all the sunflowers and compost cantaloupe grew so well last year.

So sorry on your contractors! Hope they do get it done and they don't completely disappear on you. I'd be nervous as all get out in that situation.

Love your coop plans! I think your lil turds...erm, sweet babies...will love it and you will too

Hahaha chickens are the worst garden destroyers

Glad you had some nice days but I’m sorry that your contractors are so terrible! Your problems are exactly why I stress out about hiring anyone to do anything hahaha. Such a huge pain!

Well, I don’t have any flooding where I am…but all the rain caused a tragedy that I’m very upset with myself over. I came home from my therapy appointment on Wednesday night and Aria was sobbing and holding my rooster bobtail Cochin…and they told me they found his girlfriend Ms Muddi dead in her nest box I’m just devastated and mad at myself and so very heartbroken I cleaned out the coop and wet bedding in the run and found bloody poops So I treated their water with Corid and desperately collected her eggs and put them in the incubator in hopes they might be fertile. I just adored her I feel like such a terrible chicken mom. I just wanted to wait out all the rain before trying to refresh bedding but I should have powered thru it. Such a brutal lesson learned. We’ve had two days of sun and get one more tomorrow before we get MORE rain. Several birds are sneezing, so everyone got some meds in their water and tomorrow we will be putting out fresh shavings to dry things out. The mud is out of control. So sadly, I’m in a bummed out mood and feeling bad. Other than that, I have been working on my chicken logo and plans for the Poultry Expo. I may mainly take quail and d’Anvers now since my bobtails won’t be producing anymore :-( And my bantam wheaten pullet hasn’t laid a single egg yet. Plus she isn’t alone and I can’t guarantee purebreds! Blah! Chickening is such an emotional rollercoaster!

Aw man...I'm so sorry . I hope those eggs all hatch and all hens too! Poor Aria and poor Ms Muddi. That long uber wet spell you guys are having sounds so rough. Hope she's all you lose from it.

Forgot to check the egg cache yesterday, so over 2 days had 21 eggs. The boys are frantic everyday they see the girls outside. I noticed poor Little Miss is missing a bunch of feathers from the base if her tail area. Those boys just don't know the proper technique and balance yet, between that and the double tapping, the back of some girls' heads also look slightly bare. Read somewhere that some roos can take up to 2 years to settle. Is this true? It's been great to not have any excess eggs. Sold 7 dozen last week, made 18 into deviled eggs today, and then my neighbor came looking for a dozen. He got some freshly laid ones. How are you all's percentages doing? We're at 75% laying.
Cinnamon escaped from the fenced yard. I look out the kitchen window and there she is, exploring..I got her to go back in with treats. The fencing is 6'. Wonder if she flew over? She's the queen of the coop.

Frisky Cinnamon . Is she a lighter breed?
Congrats on good laying! Bet the ladies are enjoying the boy break.
Egg layings been funny here...all last week we had light laying going on, then today we got over a dozen. My ladies all seem a little confused by our weather. It was chilly for a few days and nicer today, so think they threw an egg laying party to celebrate. I've got a lot of ladies that don't lay much anymore, so my percentages aren't good. Some 4 and 5 year olds and quite a few three year olds. Think my younger hens are laying well though.

Happy Aloha Friday all!
We're to start... well, 3rd hen is having reproductive issues. This time it is Lady Ruby... bout 1.5+ rsl, so at that age ☹☹☹ Found a soft shell and broken yolk about 6" away from each other on the poop board last eve. Yolk was under her. Deep sigh and say it isn't so!
So dosed her w/600mg calcium and 250mgs on Amoxicillin. I am definitely sensing a pattern. She has stayed very parallel today.
Was so proud that I was finally getting ahead of my bags, had a bit of a stash and thought I was going to be able to get to other projects while Rod was in the mainland... not to be. All but 2 bags remain of my stash after 2 stands were ridiculously low, so I am basically starting from behind again as I have2 more stands that are also low. I should be happy and I am, just tuff always chasing this thing.

I'm down to 14 eggs per day on average now @Popo. 2 of my blues are on hiatus and now L. Ruby is down. I'm just gunna ride this one out. I am fully prepared to have some losses, matter of fact counting on it and that is one reason I closed my flock and no more hatching for a bit. Too many old girls. Is spring over yet?

Stopped at the feed store down the road where I got the oystershells from and did mention- but not blamed- that I was a little suspect so if anyone else mentioned.... maybe she could take a mental note? She was a little defensive and went on to tell me of all the people with chicken problems right now. She knows next to noting about chickens and I gleaned what I could. Coccidiosis & mosquitos. Her order of McMurray chicks all died in transit. The good news is she has stocked up on some meds.
I grabbed one bag from her and got the H*LL out of there. It was a nice bag lol.

I'm sorry @kurby22 . Hugs to Ariana and you. Quick thinking on the eggs and I hope you find your rainbow or pot of gold or whatever the heck that saying is... Good hatch, there, that's it. I hope you have an excellent hatch of all girls ♥︎♥︎♥︎ Help to ease that blow.

So sorry on Lady Ruby...hope she's ok. Also sorry on the bags. I don't know how you do it...it sounds like so much work. Satisfying but consuming too. Fingers crossed you find a helper.
Phttt on the feed store woman... hopefully she does remember though if others mention the same problem.

Yay on your Koke'e boys! Love the image of that fellow with them

 

[ChicksnMore]

Just read about something called Chipdrop in another thread. They randomly drop off large loads of wood chips and/or logs from local arborists as they're available. It sounds wonderful and I just signed up. Thought I'd share in case anyone else would find it useful.

https://getchipdrop.com/

 

[TropicalBabies]

I forgot to share a photo of the feral chickens up at the Lodge. Big crowd. I tossed them some yummy REAL chicken feed, not scratch and they all gobbled it up. If you zoom in you can see all of the chicks. Cute ♡

 

[PopoMyers]

Just read about something called Chipdrop in another thread. They randomly drop off large loads of wood chips and/or logs from local arborists as they're available. It sounds wonderful and I just signed up. Thought I'd share in case anyone else would find it useful.

https://getchipdrop.com/

Around here we have to be careful since we have a lot of cedar, and may get a load of that mixed in. We had a cedar and fir dropped, so mixed chips can't be used with the chooks. AZ shouldn't have that problem, right?

 

[PopoMyers]

Frisky Cinnamon . Is she a lighter breed?

She's the only ISA Brown left of 4. The other 3 were killed by raccoons and coyote before DH got the tall fence up. She finally just finished her hard molt at 2.5 years old. Her feathers were looking quite tattered at the ends before that. Yep, she the spunky one. Was fighting off the boys from mounting anyone until they got bigger than her.

 

[Shetland lover]

Think there topiary ball frames. My best guess. Kind of expensive unfortunately. I kind of wish they made them for chickens though. Might be handy for the little bantams or all kinds of situations.

I make topiary balls by wiring two hanging baskets together, cost about 10xless than a proper one. Could try doing that for chickens if anyone was inclined to try it.

 

[Shetland lover]

these boys turned 4 today!!View attachment 3442514View attachment 3442515

Oh how cute! Love the little hats and birthday sashes!