Search results for query: *

  1. Poppy Putentake

    Reply to review by 'Poppy Putentake' on item 'Beaktime Waterer Cups'

    I tried these for one summer, but the hens did not use them, then I modified them, removing the yellow trigger, and they worked well. See my post here.
  2. Poppy Putentake

    Waterer cups revistied

    Hi aart, I did notice, when trying this for the first time, that the water was very near the top of the cup, and the bottle would go empty in about two days. Then I tried reinserting the small black plastic part I mentioned. That seemed to lower the water level enough so that the bottle lasted...
  3. Poppy Putentake

    Waterer cups revistied

    In my post frrom last December (message #3), I mentioned modifying this kind of cup waterer by removing the yellow plastic trigger; converting them to passive, no-moving-parts, water dispensers. Since that was the beginning of winter here, I didn't get much chance for field testing then, but...
  4. Poppy Putentake

    Separating babies from Mom

    As I wrote in my post here, a broody hen will normally "wean" her baby chicks when they start getting bigger. In my experience, this has happened at about 5 weeks, (but it could be a little different for a different hen). That would probablly work best as the time to separate the chicks, and at...
  5. Poppy Putentake

    Help I need advice

    This is normal. It's a good thing you have an extra, smaller coop and they went there on their own. They will probablly prefer to sleep away from the grown hens until they reach egg-laying age, then they may decide to join the adults on their own. If you read here...
  6. Poppy Putentake

    Small nesting box for Broody Hen

    Glad to hear the eggs hatched and you have chicks! As for more roomy quarters, I've found that if you make a more roomy place available to the hen on a free-to-ccome-and-go basis, then after maybe 5 days, when the chicks start getting bigger, and more active and agile, she may decide to more...
  7. Poppy Putentake

    Egg with Strange Inclusion

    Update: This morning the hen laid a basically normal egg, although similar to what she had been producing lately -- pale, with a slightly darker rough area at the large end. At least a step in the right direction.
  8. Poppy Putentake

    Egg with Strange Inclusion

    Just discovered two eggs with the same size. shape, and color as the ones the Sussex had been laying before, but not in nests, on the floor of the coop. Both had very thin, almost paper-like shells -- just a thin layer of calcium over the membrane. So that's why I haven't been seeing any eggs...
  9. Poppy Putentake

    Egg with Strange Inclusion

    The hen is almost a year old, from hatchery May of last year. Always healthy and active, no problems, although always slightly on the small side. (Weighed just 31 grams when I got her.) Laying steadilly since mid December last year until now. The hen has been sitting in a nesting box for a while...
  10. Poppy Putentake

    Egg with Strange Inclusion

    A few days ago, I found a small abnormal egg in a nesting box. It was a bit less than an inch in diameter and soft-shelled. (The "shell" was a thin membrane.) Inside, there was some albumin (but no yolk), surounding a grayish object about the size and shape of an almond or slightly bigger. Cut...
  11. Poppy Putentake

    How do you store your feed/scratch?

    I use 5 gallon plastic buckets. A local food store gives them away for free. (They had previously contained various food products.) They are of heavy plastic that mice can't chew through, (and I actually don't see signs of them trying). One 5 gallon bucket holds 25 pounds of feed or a little...
  12. Poppy Putentake

    Bit if a dilemma here

    It is impossible for that coop to be 4.4 sq. ft.. They don't say how wide the coop part alone is, but estimating from the picture, if the overall run is 105", then the coop part would be about 42". 42" x 52" = about 15 sq.ft. (Note: 52.7" ~= 4.4 linear feet. Maybe that's where that number came...
  13. Poppy Putentake

    Bit if a dilemma here

    Hi Logar, What I would do in your situation: Ask your mom whether she prefers a commercially bought coop because it would look nice and finished, while a homemade coop could possiblbly look very rough. I would say that commercial copps do tend to meet a consistent, acceptable, standard of...
  14. Poppy Putentake

    Decorated fake eggs in the nesting box

    An Easter Sunday topic: Fake eggs in nesting boxes help encourage the hens to lay there, but a minor problem is telling them apart from the real ones when you check for eggs. You can get wooden eggs in sort of a dark olive drab color, but they tend to be hard to see against the nesting material...
  15. Poppy Putentake

    How tall should a fence be?

    This partly depends on how dire the situation would be if they did hop the fence (i.e. how valuablethe plants are and whether the birds would ignore the them anyway or imediately tear them apart. On the other hand, since you don''t need "predator-proof", only "chicken proof", you could use...
  16. Poppy Putentake

    Water needed in tractor?

    Yould make some cardboard nesting boxes, starting with coardboard boxes about 12" cubed or maybe a little bigger -- just glue or tape the top together and cut a circular hole about 10" in diameter in the narrower end. Add some bedding and maybe a fake egg, and they are ready to go. My hens love...
  17. Poppy Putentake

    Seeking Cup Waterer Recommendations

    What if instead of a flat-topped bucket, you used a container (like a gallon plastic jug) with a pointy top that they couldn't climb on? That's part of why I like the kind with the fitting that can be oriented vertically (pointed upwards, to go into the bottom of a hanging container, that could...
  18. Poppy Putentake

    Water needed in tractor?

    Here are several more possibilities: Cage cups, Vertical nipple waterers mounted on the bottom of small plastic bottles (or in the cap with the bottle upside down), and small hanging bottle waterers like this.
  19. Poppy Putentake

    2x2s for roosting poles

    A lot of lumber yards have wood from pallets measuring nominal 2"x 3" (actually more like 1.75" x 2.5") by 4 feet long, with a groove along one of the wiider edges. They are often for free. Those might be just rigjht for roost poles. (I would use a plane and a sander to round the corners down a...
  20. Poppy Putentake

    Late layer?

    Update here:
Back
Top Bottom