Texas

[tcmstalcup]

Pazole started in the pot and we are warm in the house. Not sure when and how I'll check chickens today. Steps are all frozen-not good. Church is cancelled. Let my son's big dog come in the house. He thanked me by stealing pumpkin bread and having horrible gas.

 

[bnjrob]

How do you tell if an egg is fertile?

The egg pictured has a very small creamy patch on the yoke. It is just to the left of the center--I hope you can see it.

Is it fertile?

It looks fertile based on the size of the dot. You can always see a small dot with all eggs, but when the dot is larger, that is the sign that the cells have started dividing. Once you get used to how your particular eggs look, it is easier to tell at a glance when they are fertile.

 

[TammyTX]

NICE! You'll love it. I have a similar one but it's a Yanmar. About the same size and with the front loader. Have brush hog and box blade too. Absolutely love the thing. It's been invaluable for digging, carrying, mowing, you name it.

...then you know exactly what I mean by all of the "honey-do's" !! It didn't come yesterday, now we are waiting for it on Wednesday. We did go ahead and order the box blade, too. Now we just need to dry out some because we are on blackland.

Hankamer Tx., Male,41. New to the fowl life. Raising RIR's and Orpingtons. On a split two acres. Planning on doing more self sufficient farming. Anyone around let's have a meet-up.

Welcome!! Good for you for becoming more self-sufficient. We have been on our property for over 30 years and have not done much at all. Now that we are into our 50's, it doesn't get any easier. My suggestion is to make a plan and do what you can before you wake up one day and find yourself "too old" to do it!! Believe me, it feels like just a few years ago that we moved out here and I was 20 years old!




JaJean - It seems like people have been losing several chickens of various ages due to the cold. I don't know if it just came on so fast or what but even very experienced people are having problems.

I went to TSC to get another heat lamp but they were out. I DID buy some extra cedar shavings and cracked corn to give the chickens and horse a little "internal" heat...we have to be careful with the horse given his recent colic. I went to Lowe's and no heat lamps. I ended up buying some "high energy suet" for the chickens-again for internal heat. I'm not too worried about the (nearly) 16 week olds, they are still in the hoop-coop and still cuddle together in the deep cedar shavings. I am worried about my (nearly) 5 year olds. I have two I am most worried about...one my husband's favorite Buff Cochin, that will not roost, instead she and my Cuckoo Marans roo just sit at the bottom of the roost. They are the "underdogs" of their chicken world, for sure. The problem is the bottom of my roost is just fencing...no floor...and it gets breezy and cold!

 

[jajeanpierre]

...then you know exactly what I mean by all of the "honey-do's" !! It didn't come yesterday, now we are waiting for it on Wednesday. We did go ahead and order the box blade, too. Now we just need to dry out some because we are on blackland.


JaJean - It seems like people have been losing several chickens of various ages due to the cold. I don't know if it just came on so fast or what but even very experienced people are having problems.

I went to TSC to get another heat lamp but they were out. I DID buy some extra cedar shavings and cracked corn to give the chickens and horse a little "internal" heat...we have to be careful with the horse given his recent colic. I went to Lowe's and no heat lamps. I ended up buying some "high energy suet" for the chickens-again for internal heat. I'm not too worried about the (nearly) 16 week olds, they are still in the hoop-coop and still cuddle together in the deep cedar shavings. I am worried about my (nearly) 5 year olds. I have two I am most worried about...one my husband's favorite Buff Cochin, that will not roost, instead she and my Cuckoo Marans roo just sit at the bottom of the roost. They are the "underdogs" of their chicken world, for sure. The problem is the bottom of my roost is just fencing...no floor...and it gets breezy and cold!

What do you mean by "blackland?"

I am really worried about my chickens with this nasty cold and rain. I wouldn't worry with just cold, but the rain is really scaring me. I've been checking chickens all day.

Yesterday I brought the double copy frizzle pullet into my house. Her feathers are all broken (because of the double-copy of the frizzle gene) and she is pretty much naked except for her wings and a bit on her chest. (She just laid an egg for me a few minutes ago, bless her little heart. Early today, I brought the double-copy frizzle cockerel in. Around noon, I set up a pen with a heat lamp in the garage for all the Silkies. I have one Silkie left outside, but she is broody so she is happily sitting in the nest box, snug and dry. I've left out my smooth-feathered birds and my four Polish. The topknots of the Polish are quite wet, and I'm a bit worried about that since a lot of blood goes to the heads, even chicken's heads I would think.

 

[TammyTX]

What do you mean by "blackland?"

I am really worried about my chickens with this nasty cold and rain. I wouldn't worry with just cold, but the rain is really scaring me. I've been checking chickens all day.

Yesterday I brought the double copy frizzle pullet into my house. Her feathers are all broken (because of the double-copy of the frizzle gene) and she is pretty much naked except for her wings and a bit on her chest. (She just laid an egg for me a few minutes ago, bless her little heart. Early today, I brought the double-copy frizzle cockerel in. Around noon, I set up a pen with a heat lamp in the garage for all the Silkies. I have one Silkie left outside, but she is broody so she is happily sitting in the nest box, snug and dry. I've left out my smooth-feathered birds and my four Polish. The topknots of the Polish are quite wet, and I'm a bit worried about that since a lot of blood goes to the heads, even chicken's heads I would think.

"Blackland" refers to "blackland prairie". It's a black soil/clay mix that makes it impossible to work when it's wet. Then when it dries it's hard like a clay brick. Black clay is usually the land you hear about that gets DEEP cracks in the summer and causes terrible foundation problems. Half of our land is blackland, the other half is a gravely red/black mix...which is weird because we have less than 7 acres.

Yes, keep your chickens out of the cold/rain especially if their feathers can't repel the rain.

I'm about to go out and get everything ready before it gets any colder and I need to let the 16 week olds out to stretch their legs. We have had light rain all day.

 

[jajeanpierre]

"Blackland" refers to "blackland prairie". It's a black soil/clay mix that makes it impossible to work when it's wet. Then when it dries it's hard like a clay brick. Black clay is usually the land you hear about that gets DEEP cracks in the summer and causes terrible foundation problems. Half of our land is blackland, the other half is a gravely red/black mix...which is weird because we have less than 7 acres.

Yes, keep your chickens out of the cold/rain especially if their feathers can't repel the rain.

I'm about to go out and get everything ready before it gets any colder and I need to let the 16 week olds out to stretch their legs. We have had light rain all day.

Your property and my property sound very similar. Mine is even smaller, only two acres. Half of mine is deep black stuff, some with clay and some without clay. Some of it has red clay, some with gravel. Other parts of the property have more kaliche in it. I can't tell what the soil is like by looking on the surface. What looks like kaliche, sometimes turns out to be little limestone rocks washed down from the hill across the road on top of deeper black stuff mixed with gravel.

Why does the clay cause foundation problems?

 

[jajeanpierre]

Yeah, I don't identify birds. I just take pictures and send them to my friend, who is a wildlife biologist for the NFS. She specializes in birds, so I tend to take her word on these things. she did say young, and I interpreted that as juvenile, so he may be a young adult. In any case, he was pretty cool. The cardinals, sparrows and titmice weren't spooked by him, though, or maybe they were just too distracted with that fat orange squirrel that was stealing their seeds!

I'm glad to hear the small birds weren't worried about the hawk--gives me hope they aren't too interested in trying for birds.

Juveniles have a barred chest. Adults have that bright orange breast.

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/red-shouldered_hawk/id

 

[TammyTX]

Why does the clay cause foundation problems?

The earth under the house foundation cracks which causes the foundation to crack and shift. There are some homes that the entire wall will crack all the way up...not seams from the sheetrock, but ripped apart cracks in the wall.



I just came in from getting the chickens ready for the cold. They all have plenty of food, water and fresh cedar shavings for the young ones to keep them as dry as possible. It's 37 here and drizzle/sleeting but not sleeting hard enough to really notice unless it's hitting you in the face...which it did, me. It must be too cold for the chickens to bicker because they were soooo quiet! Even the roo's were not crowing.
My husband came out after about an hour and a half and wanted to know if I was okay...I said I was and then he went back in to continue his nap.

My sister sent me some coffee from this little roaster in Rappahannock County, VA. We drove through this little town and the smell of coffee was...like Heaven. This one is Sulawesi Toraja and it made a great little warm up capp. I am not a coffee connoisseur but I wish I were!

I'm making chili tonight....what are y'all making?

 

[Aphrael]

A venison roast, which is smelling heavenly right now...

We had chili last night. Great for fending off cold.

 

[TammyTX]

That's exactly what she looks like!!! Except for the extended chest. I'm going to read some more. I'm babysitting two little boys, trying to be entertaining and trying to figure out about my chicken! Lol plus I've come down with a runny nose

How is your chicken today?