What did you do with your flock today?

[Shetland lover]

Sorry, been there done that. So I can't help but laugh through the tears. I am sorry to hear about the spur, blood and hairball. Sounds a like Tuesday.

Well Ferdy was none the worse for his experience I was more perturbed than he was!

 

[TropicalBabies]

We FINALLY had a good soaking rain. The cooler temps and wet weather feel late, or not at all to me this year. I do enjoy my rain! Flock faired well as it was not a wind event. They gave me 5 eggs yesterday in protest of the weather.
Yesterday was a big kitty clean up after the rains, so today I will scrub and refill chooks waterers and feeders, boards and freshen nest boxes. Make them so happy they lay an extra egg or 2.

Girlfriend and her beautiful eyes always greet me in the mornings.

Have an awesome day all!

 

[dannichols525]

My free range birds are locked in today. Having a winter storm and snow and snow and snow and snow. No plan letting the birds out because they wouldn't find anything to eat anyway.

 

[Shetland lover]

Made a ton of 'chicken chop' for the boys and girls today. I use any veggies I have a surplus of. Today I used raw spring greens, collards, tuscan kale, broccoli stems and cauliflower. It all goes into my food processor and gets chopped into beak-sized chunks. I then mixed in peas, sweetcorn and grated in some squash. I also blitzed up a tiny amount of carrot and apple (which no-one likes but they will eat a tiny amount prepared this way ).! Then I portion it into bags to blast freeze. I also fill an airtight tub with enough to last a week when I first make it. It might sound like a lot of effort (it really isn't! ) but it means I can provide fresh veg every day, whatever the season. That's important for me as I don't have a lot of free range space and it keeps everyone engaged and interested. I don't feed commercial chicken feed as none of them will eat pellets and I got sick of wasting it, so the veggies provide a nice nutrition boost.

 

[PopoMyers]

Back for an update. So, the latest is the freezing weather made us take out the heated waterer for a couple weeks. DH has been kind and filling their feed and the water. My garden watering system sprung a leak at one of the spigot pipes, DH replaced the joint. The valve at the beginning also sprung a leak, so had the plumber out today to replace. I won't be able to turn the water on this until tomorrow. It will be good to have the automatic watering bucket working again. My next career will be plumbing. He charges $200/hr for labor.
All the girls are well, now that the snow has left. For awhile, one of the leghorns constantly was pecked, and had blood smears on the top of her neck, which varied in amount over time. Read that snow can cause this issue, and now that it is gone, doesn't seem to be a problem any more.

 

[Shetland lover]

Back for an update. So, the latest is the freezing weather made us take out the heated waterer for a couple weeks. DH has been kind and filling their feed and the water. My garden watering system sprung a leak at one of the spigot pipes, DH replaced the joint. The valve at the beginning also sprung a leak, so had the plumber out today to replace. I won't be able to turn the water on this until tomorrow. It will be good to have the automatic watering bucket working again. My next career will be plumbing. He charges $200/hr for labor.
All the girls are well, now that the snow has left. For awhile, one of the leghorns constantly was pecked, and had blood smears on the top of her neck, which varied in amount over time. Read that snow can cause this issue, and now that it is gone, doesn't seem to be a problem any more.

Yikes! Think I'll take a plumbing course too!
We've had no snow to speak of over here, just endless rain and avian flu restrictions.
I've never heard that snow can cause pecking issues in flocks. That's really interesting. Wonder why it happens?
How you doing?

 

[PopoMyers]

Yikes! Think I'll take a plumbing course too!
We've had no snow to speak of over here, just endless rain and avian flu restrictions.
I've never heard that snow can cause pecking issues in flocks. That's really interesting. Wonder why it happens?
How you doing?

Thanks for asking. Finally 100% well. Flu for the first half of January. In bed for a few days from New Years Day. Then not feeling 100% for a couple weeks. Then caught a head cold a month later, then tree pollen and seasonal allergies beginning, making me think the cold was dragging on and on.
The girls are all well . A couple pullets, now hens , molting in fall and one still not showing laying signs, feathers still coming in. I thought it was odd, but perhaps their breeding contributed to this.
As far as the pecking, perhaps the extra bright light reflection off the snow could be a stressor? They seem back to nice girls..
Spring is almost here, with plum buds and other fruit tree buds swelling, crocus in bloom, daffodils in bud. It's rainy this coming week, after a balmy, sunny, gardening weather past week. Teaser for sure. How are you?

 

[5Australorpasaures]

Fresh water in the morning steal the eggs in the evening.

 

[Shetland lover]

Thanks for asking. Finally 100% well. Flu for the first half of January. In bed for a few days from New Years Day. Then not feeling 100% for a couple weeks. Then caught a head cold a month later, then tree pollen and seasonal allergies beginning, making me think the cold was dragging on and on.
The girls are all well . A couple pullets, now hens , molting in fall and one still not showing laying signs, feathers still coming in. I thought it was odd, but perhaps their breeding contributed to this.
As far as the pecking, perhaps the extra bright light reflection off the snow could be a stressor? They seem back to nice girls..
Spring is almost here, with plum buds and other fruit tree buds swelling, crocus in bloom, daffodils in bud. It's rainy this coming week, after a balmy, sunny, gardening weather past week. Teaser for sure. How are you?

Ugh! I hate cold and flu season. Happy you're fit and well now though - just in time to get going on the garden
Our weather has been atrocious.Very wet, cold and windy. No snow to speak of. Just acres of cold, sticky mud.
We're having a dry, mild sunny spell this week so I plan to take full advantage at the weekend. So many outside jobs have been neglected, the place is a mess!
I'm O.K., thanks for asking. Been a rough couple of months, we lost our big cat, Elliot, suddenly on my Birthday. He was nearly 16yrs old. It's a huge hole in our lives but at least he went quickly and without pain. I've not been well either but things are slowly improving.
The birds are all good. Ferdy has lost the vision in his left eye after last year's hawk attack but it doesn't seem to be hampering him in any way. Gladys is still Queen of all she surveys - much to Clara's chagrin. Clara takes out her frustration out on Pru at roost-time, as a result. She refuses to let Pru over the coop threshold, little b*tch . Stan is still having breathing issues but is curiously unaffected by sounding like he smokes 60 cigs a day. Go figure!

 

[Ext 918]

Cleaned the brooder and added a few items for entertainment. Had to grab a picture of when I had just pulled the feed and water.