Man, I swear I've been cursed this year or something...Goober just got badly injured. If he survives, he'll lose an eye for sure. It wasn't a fight that did it, although Squeak did attack him right after because something weird and scary happened, but that wasn't what did the damage. Goober just...
It's actually surprisingly light compared to what I expected. I don't have a way to weigh it exactly, but it's certainly a lot easier to shift around than a standard size feed bag or even a single cinderblock. Probably a bit more than what it's like carrying a couple gallons of milk, so I'm...
Prepping for chicks...built a new, very sturdy 3x2x2 enclosure with 1/4in HWC to use for integration. It's big enough I can also put a nest box in it to get Scruffy used to being in the house for a couple days prior. Assuming she accepts the chicks, I'd then move her with them into the 4x4x4...
Well, it has been several months of nest box curtains now. They are still a big hit with everyone except the one pullet I was really hoping would be convinced. I still pick up a little green egg from in front of the nest box each day. Until recently, anyway. Now she's broody and still not in the...
Back before I had chickens I thought I'd maybe get 4 to 6 and that would surely be plenty to satisfy the chicken need, so naturally I now have 19 chickens with an order for chicks scheduled for the end of the month LOL.
🎶 The beaaaans are back in town! 🎵
Coco's pretty much un-broodied and there are some HOT days on the horizon where it will be a lot healthier for her to be outside in the shade and breeze than in the broiling house. I decided I didn't want to risk another random brawl between Coco and Scruffy...
I feel like I should document what I did with Chungus a bit ago, in part because I just had to repeat it with Goober the past few days, and google was about zero help in both cases. So...maybe this post will turn up in someone else's googleage some time later.
Long story short: I think Chungus...
Ok so this is what I have as symptoms shared between these two cases...
bird found in dehydrated state
weakness
wincing at internal pain whenever something goes "gurgle" inside the bird
some kind of compacted material passed after dehydration fixed
vegetable matter (obviously from outdoor...
Seems like it happened again - different bird from different flock. Cockerel this time. No bark mulch in that enclosure. Impaction was much milder this time but I also caught the dehydration within just a few hours of the bird being bouncy and normal (noticed in the evening vs catching it the...
OMG this year continues to kick my butt in weird ways! Things were calming down. My husband is working on a new bachelor flock setup, Tengu and Squeak are starting to settle out with see-but-no-touch, Goober is periodically revenge-pooping on Squeak WHY IS HE SO WEIRD being himself, and Vanilla...
With my luck I'm kind of expecting an oops boy somewhere in the mix...I've read cochins are one of the less accurate ones like BOs for whatever reason. Still, an accidental boy or two would still be a better outcome for me than either mostly/all boys from a small hatch or getting half cockerels...
I saw Cackle had a couple types of sexed large size cochin available at basically the perfect time for Scruffy...so I went for the partridge ones. Cochins were on my radar since Vanilla Bean's dad was a lovely large cochin, but I'd previously thought my only options for something like big...
Took the plunge and did my first mail order for a few chicks…should be timed pretty well with Scruffy’s broodiness since it will be end of the month. Now the nail biting begins since I have never done this before lol.