What did you do with your flock today?

[ChicksnMore]

Oh, thanks, but I got that information from someone else here, I am a novice at this!

Novice here too ..I'd be lost without Google and a lot of help from here

 

[ChicksnMore]

I accidently let the chickens' water bucket run dry for a while yesterday. It's a 2 gallon bucket so it needs refilled every 3 or 4 days.

Anyway, I drilled a couple holes into one of my orange Home Depot buckets, installed a pair of auto fill cups onto and set it next to the other waterer.

Now the girls are set with plenty of water. And three water cups instead of one.

And I caught a mouse in a trap under the kitchen sink. I tossed it over the back deck railing, but when I was out watching the chickens I decided to give it to them and watch the show. LOL

The hen I expected would get it got it. She's very aggressive (and fast) when it comes to food. She kept control of the mouse the entire time, shaking it and biting it to loosen it up.

It was finally how she wanted it, and she gulped it down head first. Good chicken!!!

With luck she'll learn to catch them when they try to steal the chicken food! I think you'd need window screen type mesh to keep those buggers out. I've seen them go right through the holes in hardware cloth

 

[kurby22]

Oh, to have taken a video of the mayhem! That would have made AFV, or an animal funny channel.

I know, a video of the chaos would have been amazing! The puppy was SOOO happy and FAST! It really would have been hilarious to rewatch the whole thing haha.

 

[kurby22]

I have a friend that loves to tell about how she asked for maid service to clean her house when she retired. She told her family otherwise she wasn't really retired. !

Maybe what we need is chicken coop maid service so we'd have enough time to enjoy more! Nevermind...then I'd be too broke to feed them anyway

A chicken coop maid service would seriously be the BEST and I would PAY for that without blinking! Free child labor is not at all sufficient!! Although I have started paying my daughter when I go out of town to do the work I usually do and she is amazingly more competent when being paid ha! I'm pretty sure that my chickens are the single reason I can't quit my job--they do NOT pay for themselves at all the louts!

 

[kurby22]

Greenfire again. I saw they had chicks up and I was behaving. But then they added an Easter sale discount and I just had to Saved $70 on them ..not bad at all!

That is so awesome! I didn't see that sale!! I should have been watching. I want a lavender baby OD!! Okay, when these babies start laying I definitely want to get some eggs from you I got overwhelmed with too many of my own hatching this year and couldn't process adding to it haha. Next year I will be approaching the spring hatches a bit differently! Less at a time and much later than January! You know I may be making my way down to Tucson for work soon too! How far out of Tucson are you? I would SO love to meet you in person finally and see Biscotti and your beautiful peas!

 

[ValerieJ]

A chicken coop maid service would seriously be the BEST and I would PAY for that without blinking! Free child labor is not at all sufficient!! Although I have started paying my daughter when I go out of town to do the work I usually do and she is amazingly more competent when being paid ha! I'm pretty sure that my chickens are the single reason I can't quit my job--they do NOT pay for themselves at all the louts!

I'd be all in for coop maid service too, IF they take care of my chickens the way I do.

 

[kurby22]

Now that I'm almost back to normal and can get up and down stairs, took a field trip out to see the girls and beebies, who have gotten quite big since last week. They are 7 weeks today, and have been out there for 3, so decided to open the door and let them out into the yard. Well, of course, the big girls barge their way in and start bossing the littles, going to eat their feed. I removed the food for a time. Only a couple of the littles came out for a short time, and got scared and ran back in.
I added another roosting pole for the littles.
Then noticed Onyx had messy looking fluff, and the poop under her roost looked abnormal. She hadn't laid in a few days as well. Decided to give all of them Valbazen, since it's been awhile.
I think when the big girls finish off their layer pellets, I'll switch back to all flock. Then maybe they won't want to eat the little's food, or will they? At that time, I will remove the barrier for final integration. I'll try to get some pics soon.

So good to see you! We've missed you! I actually let some of my 7-8 week olds out for some supervised play time on Monday and they loved it! They did NOT enjoy the clarinet practice however…

 

[kurby22]

Novice here too ..I'd be lost without Google and a lot of help from here

Same, Google and the BYC genetics threads have been a huge start for me as well! But I now have a friend that is a walking encyclopedia of chicken genetics and she has been very patient with my questions and is very willing to teach as well. It's really helped me think about things and understand results! But boy is there still SO much I do not come close to understanding yet haha.

 

[kurby22]

I'd be all in for coop maid service too, IF they take care of my chickens the way I do.

Yes! I have a chicken friend that has chicken sat for me and she is almost better at it than I am! Those people are rare

 

[PopoMyers]

Last night I went and caught Onyx and put her in a cat carrier, so I could soak her messy bottom. Poop this morning was semi solid.. Her vent is clean, so no gleet. This bulge you see is hard, not water balloon like. Is this an egg waiting to exit? She seems to walk normally, was on the roost when I caught her, comb is bright and upright. Since I had her captive, I gave her a 600 mg calcium tablet before putting her back with everyone. Shortly after releasing her, she had a watery poop, probably from the epsom salt water soak. Is this a wait and see situation? She normally lays whopper eggs, but haven't laid one in the past several days. The shell shapes have been a little wonky, not a smooth oval. A bit rough as well. Hopefully she isn't getting a reproductive issue. Breed wise, she is .25 BCM, .25 cream legbar, .5 blue sapphire PR. Age 1.6 y.o. Her molt has been slow and steady, as she hasn't gotten new flight feathers yet.
I'll go out this afternoon to observe her crop and behavior as she is a skittish one.
What is your take on this?