What did you do with your flock today?

[PopoMyers]

View attachment 3765470
I'm in.

Now add the kitties.....and you're set!

 

[PopoMyers]

It's been so wet and gloomy the past several weeks with one atmospheric river after another pouring down rain, plus gusty winds and hail storms, my 8 hens have been hunkered down under the coop and covered run with only a few rainless spells to chicken-around outside. I felt bad for them, only so much amusement to be had under cover.

We finally had a sunny day today, so I tried out a chicken-toy idea I read somewhere here on BYC: a heavy plastic liter drink bottle with lots of pencil-diameter holes drilled in it, with about a cup of scratch inside. I wasn't sure if they'd be afraid of it, or not figure out how to get the grains out, but hoped they'd be curious and work at it.

Oh, boy, was THAT a hit! Jill the Delaware, Queen Pauline's 2nd in command, is always a very determined and vigorous scratcher and she glommed onto it immediately, kicking the bottle around their yard till a few grains spilled out then stopping to peck them up. She soon had a crowd of VERY eager fans wanting to participate - but she didn't want anyone else to have a turn with rolling the bottle! ("Mine!")

They are usually a very mellow flock, well settled hierarchy, but that scratch bottle brought out the chain of command in sharp detail! Jill was fine with sharing the spilled bits of scratch with her pals Pauline and Xena, but Queen Pauline actually chased away Sheila and Rhonda (#4 & 5 in order), and the other 3 lower ranked girls quickly decided to go do something else entirely.

Pauline's such a mellow flock queen, at times I've thought she'd "abdicated" but she was on full display today -- a smallish Buff Orpington fluffing, flapping and chasing off the much heftier Australorp and RIR! Then she was right back to enjoying the bits of scratch Jill was kicking out of the treat bottle. Well, well...

(There was no violence, pecking, etc.)

When it started to get dark 5 of them were still crowded around playing with the bottle (Jill finally let the others have a turn) to the point that it was after their usual "go to roost" time and only the 3 bottom-rank girls had gone inside. I took the bottle away for the night and they seemed to "come out of it" -- "Oh, wait...how'd it get so late? What am I doing outside?" and one by one meandered into the coop - Pauline last in.

Curfew, girls!

I've never seen them so obsessed with a toy. And they only got about 1/4 of the scratch out of it, if that much, plus lots of exercise rolling it all around their yard. Next time I'll bring my phone out there and try to get video...

Wish I could remember who suggested the scratch bottle idea, I'd love to thank them! Simple, cheap, using stuff already lying around, and the girls absolutely love it. I'll only let them have it a few hours at a time, keep it fresh & novel (and reasonably clean!)

What an awesome and cheap idea! Think I'll try this! Videos? So glad it stopped raining for them and you. We have a short blue sky spell, but it's frosty grass in the morning, so the girls don't come out so early.

 

[PopoMyers]

As I planted sweet peas today I had to watch the lurking roosters that wanted to see what kind of goodies were being put down for them. I finally waited for Ma to get to where I was and hold them off so I could drop the seed and get them covered up. I know they feel mistreated over that but I'll make it up with some scratch in a few days. It's really to warm for scratch now with temps in the 70's by day and 60's at night.

I am anxious to plant things, but it's still too . Still below freezing T night, not above mid to high 40's
Lucky you in Tennessee!

 

[akroberts1085]

Today I started digging a hole for my blueberry and blackberry plants and decided to start picking out the worms. They went crazy for them.

 

[Smokerbill]

The girls had three hours free time in the yard today. Plus they went down into the woods and scratched around there too.

They know that I don't appreciate it when they climb the stairs up to the deck in back of the house, but all seven of them went up there at the same time today. I don't like chicken poop on the deck. LOL

When they saw me driving over to them on the riding mower they all ran down the stairs and went back down to the woods.

Funny chickens!

 

[PopoMyers]

Decided to take advantage of the sunny 45 degree afternoon to clear the raised beds of weeds. Threw a bunch of chickweed into the run, along with other kinds. Then the sun dropped behind the trees, and started getting cooler, so I dug 2 clumps of grass for the chicks and went inside. Had to give it a trim. Only one clump went in the brooder, and they are having fun investigating and pecking at it. Now for pain meds...

 

[ValerieJ]

Stopped by the Farm Store yesterday and they had 3 little Buff Orpington chicks available, so we picked them up. We set them up in a sectioned off portion of the coop with a Sweeter Heater, and they did just fine first night in. So great to have a way to raise chicks in the coop! I wish the hens would do it for me, but they have not had a successful hatch in a year, so I resorted to this.

So yay! Who doesn't love raising chicks?

 

[kurby22]

Stopped by the Farm Store yesterday and they had 3 little Buff Orpington chicks available, so we picked them up. We set them up in a sectioned off portion of the coop with a Sweeter Heater, and they did just fine first night in. So great to have a way to raise chicks in the coop! I wish the hens would do it for me, but they have not had a successful hatch in a year, so I resorted to this.

So yay! Who doesn't love raising chicks?

Exciting!! I went to Tractor Supply today and did NOT buy any chicks! So proud of me Congrats on the new babies!!

 

[kurby22]

It’s been a roller coaster ride of sadness this month. We had a terrible round of coccidiosis and mites (no where to dust bathe it’s all mud everywhere) and lost several birds. :-( So I’ve been dealing with sadness and guilt that I can’t seem to provide enough dry ground during these atmospheric river storms that are apparently the norm anymore. We have had two days of dry so I am beginning the work to dry things out and fix the muddy messes and clean out all the mites. I’ve gone thru a bottle of CORID, two huge bottles of permethrin, straw, shavings, PDZ, Lime, meds and vitamins…and think I finally slowed the dying. I also found a hole in my quail pen where the rats were reaching thru the hardware cloth and killing the quail…so it’s been a rough month!! Needless to say I haven’t felt like talking about the birds much…

Today we drove 100 miles to deliver 6 bantam Ameraucana chicks to a family from south of Fresno that really wanted pure Ameraucanas. They have two little ones and the daughter is probably 5 and just super excited about them So that was fun but I still find it hard to let go of them when I hatch them. They’re my babies once they’re out of the eggs! But that is why I hatched them right?

 

[akroberts1085]

The store that I am going to get my chicks from have: Barred Rocks, Black Sex Links, Cinnamon Queens, Easter Eggers, Salmon Favorelles, Silver Laced Wyandottes and White Leghorns.