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Speaking from my own sad experience, they need to be kept strictly quarantined from your hens. If you post them on Facebook, Craigslist, NextDoor, or wherever you will most likely find people who will eat them. If they were a special breed then they would have been easier to place, since they were dumped I’m assuming they are barnyard mixes. Those will be very hard to place and you will have to maintain strict biosecurity while you wait, which means probably a cage in your garage or something. I’m sorry to be so blunt about it but I would kill them and bury them next to a tree if you don’t have a dog to feed the meat to. It’s either you or someone else doing the deed and you can keep the situation very low stress as a kindness to them. They have been through a lot already. I have lots of experience to share if you decide to cull them.
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Dec 18, 2023 08:33
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Joburg posted:Speaking from my own sad experience, they need to be kept strictly quarantined from your hens. I figured that was most likely from the get-go ... but I'd never actually done this before, so I just went along with my wife. (The best way to learn that fire is hot is to get burned ...) We've actually had two cockerels dumped near our doorstep before, in a much less wild neighborhood of San Jose. It took <1 week for both of them to get eaten by predators. A cage in our house is currently fine. It won't be once the cockerels start crowing. I suppose I might need to look into the broomstick technique.
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Dec 18, 2023 19:08
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Boldor posted:I suppose I might need to look into the broomstick technique. It sucks that you are in this position but I’m glad they have the chance at a good end. Discussion of killing a chicken: Just to share all my knowledge since I’ve become a semi-pro at this: This is one of the best videos about how to do the broomstick method. https://youtu.be/qg-DnPEaxRw?si=SJMNdZALygnT-DMk I do all my chicken killing after the chickens have gone to roost and use a red light on my headlamp so they don’t become too agitated. One thing I do differently from the video is I dig a furrow in the dirt with my heal to guide the neck and head placement. I prefer the head to remain facing forward rather than turning like her chicken does. A furrow helps prevent beheading and gives me a chance to reposition if needed. (The rooster’s neck isn’t crushed so he isn’t panicking, just confused.) Don’t make it too deep, your bar must have contact with the skull to keep him from just sliding out when you pull. If you want to have a big mess, you can skip the furrow and just pull really hard to purposely pull the head off. If you fail at the broomstick method you can do the same action with your hands but it can be difficult if the rooster is panicking. I take a knife with me just in case I fail at both methods. The video says to check the eye reflex but with the broomstick method you can feel the neck and tell that the bones, etc. aren’t connected to the skull anymore and the neck skin will start to fill up with blood. They will flap and sometimes make noise, but if you feel the neck is separated you can be confident that he is dead.
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Dec 18, 2023 19:52
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We found a local business that would take the roosters. We paid $1 per rooster-day to quarantine them until they can send them to local rescue ranch. I think they'll likely even actually do that, because they're both also a cat rescue service (they don't advertise that they're also chicken rescue), and had a bunch of roosters hanging around in large enclosures for no apparent reason.
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Dec 20, 2023 19:47
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That’s great. I’m glad they will be in a good place.
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Dec 21, 2023 01:23
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We are taking a long holiday in February, and putting the girls into a local chicken boarding farm. While they’re away, we have a day to do a deep clean of their coop before our flights, and one thing I have been thinking about is red mites. We don’t get them too badly, but we do get them and have to keep them under control in Summer. I was wondering if there’s any sort of pesticide we could use while the girls are away that would kill off any mites/eggs? I’m wary of using anything particularly strong while they’re there, just in case they breath in a load of poison, but since they’re away for almost a month, it occurred to me that we could do something a bit more scorched earth.
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Dec 24, 2023 09:49
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I haven’t dealt with red mites in particular but Permethrin dust or spray has worked for me on poultry lice and fire ants in the coop. I think the dust would be most effective since it will kill the adults right off and still be there when the mite eggs hatch and will then kill those mites.
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Dec 24, 2023 11:06
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We have chicks! Snow White is a great mom so far and she handled the move to a new coop like a champ. Since our roosters are both White Rocks and the hens are almost all bow tie Naked Necks, two of the chicks are fully feathered and one is a bow tie Naked Neck.
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Dec 24, 2023 14:11
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I’m testing out the iPhone Imgur shortcut for posting pics. Snow White & co were willing to pose for me. Some thoughts: I love baby chicks. Snow White is perpetually dirty, should have named her Pig Pen. Neck wrinkles make everyone look old.
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Dec 29, 2023 19:20
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yessss baby chikens.
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Jan 5, 2024 20:14
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FYI for anyone concerned, Velvet Sparrow met the funding goal for her medical care fundraiser. Glad to see some good news on that front. Chickam forever!!
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Jan 6, 2024 21:48
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my cat is norris posted:FYI for anyone concerned, Velvet Sparrow met the funding goal for her medical care fundraiser. Glad to see some good news on that front. Chickam forever!! 
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Jan 6, 2024 22:05
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yay velvet sparrow  wishing a fellow chickaholic all the besti am in a situation where a power failure ruined a batch of quail eggs, so i went out and bought six week-old chicks... only to have one of the eggs rise from the dead! so now i have six gangly preteen quail and one tiny idiot baby who wants to be around them all the time, screams hysterically when they're not in its line of sight, but requires constant supervision so they don't accidentally kill it
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Jan 8, 2024 23:51
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Joburg posted:I’m testing out the iPhone Imgur shortcut for posting pics. Snow White & co were willing to pose for me. so cute  my cat is norris posted:FYI for anyone concerned, Velvet Sparrow met the funding goal for her medical care fundraiser. Glad to see some good news on that front. Chickam forever!! that's awesome 
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Jan 11, 2024 23:57
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my head brahma just started molting in january a few days before a polar vortex smh
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Jan 12, 2024 00:46
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Our mixed flock (two brahmas, a French maran, gold laced Wyandotte and an olive egger) all molted in December. Lazy bitches still haven't started laying again! This is their second winter, and while they slowed down last time, they didn't stop completely. We've gotten maybe a dozen eggs in the past month. I keep telling them how fat chickens would roast up really well, but they aren't taking the hint.
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Jan 12, 2024 14:47
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We need to insulate our coop again before the temps drop next week. Shoving foam board didn't work super well because they wouldn't stop pecking it. I was thinking of getting some sort of insulating blanket to throw over it at night?
Alterian fucked around with this message at 16:29 on Jan 12, 2024 |
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Jan 12, 2024 15:58
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MrUnderbridge posted:I keep telling them how fat chickens would roast up really well, but they aren't taking the hint. This never works for me either, I've come to the conclusion that my chickens don't speak English.
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Jan 12, 2024 17:53
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Alterian posted:We need to insulate our coop again before the temps drop next week. Shoving foam board didn't work super well because they wouldn't stop pecking it. I was thinking of getting some sort of insulating blanket to throw over it at night? Same here. Wind chill is expected to be 5° F next week.
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Jan 12, 2024 18:39
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Scientastic posted:This never works for me either, I've come to the conclusion that my chickens don't speak English. But they do train us to make their demands are understood (ours do anyway).
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Jan 12, 2024 18:43
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Alterian posted:We need to insulate our coop again before the temps drop next week. Shoving foam board didn't work super well because they wouldn't stop pecking it. I was thinking of getting some sort of insulating blanket to throw over it at night? Yeah I did foam board and then plywood, so the foam is sandwiched inside. Seems to work in both the cold and heat. I also got this to run at night.
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Jan 13, 2024 05:04
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In Summer, our girls are up at 4am, and make a fair old racket until someone (inevitably me) gets up and lets them out. We used to have an automatic door, but the neighbourhood foxes are really active, so I have to stay nearby supervising until everyone else is up. I keep thinking that while it’s still reasonably dark in the mornings, I should rig up some sort of blackout blind for the coop window, and something to overshadow the vents on the cool, so less light gets in in the mornings. Is this something that I could do? Would it work? Or would I be messing with their body clocks and making them unhappy?
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Jan 13, 2024 08:33
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Can you fine Chicken Folk help me with a question for some fiction I’m writing? If a person maintained a lineage of roosters for forty years, in what ballpark would the numerical generation be at by year forty? This doesn’t have to be precise, I just need to know a general answer.
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Jan 13, 2024 18:29
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Captain Log posted:Can you fine Chicken Folk help me with a question for some fiction I’m writing? A chicken's generation time is roughtly 6 months, depending on breed. You'd have a max of 80 generations, but probably want a lower number to be more realistic - some years you might have illness in the flock, or a bad hatch, or need more time to see the animals mature further.
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Jan 13, 2024 18:38
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Or maybe just forty generations with the detail that they only raised a new generation each late spring because it is easier in the nice weather. I only raise chicks when the warm weather makes it easy.
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Jan 13, 2024 18:59
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freeedr posted:Or maybe just forty generations with the detail that they only raised a new generation each late spring because it is easier in the nice weather. I only raise chicks when the warm weather makes it easy. That's a really good point that I forget. Being in Florida sucks a lot, but at least hatching chicks year round isn't hard.
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Jan 13, 2024 21:42
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This would be Tennessee, roughly 1870 to 1910. The initial flock was three hens and a “runt rooster.” Think of one of those microscopic breeds, and you’re about right. They are more pets than livestock. But I’m curious if his great great great grand-rooster should be a twentieth, thirtieth, or fortieth. 
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Jan 13, 2024 23:38
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hello folks. please assuage my anxiety. my workplace sells chicks part of the year. we keep them in plywood/plexiglass tanks. we have had a LOT of pasty butt the past few years, even when the babies are selling within one day. so we thought we'd try to sanitize everything as much as possible. looking online, we tried a 9 parts water, 1 part bleach sprayed on, then scrubbed in and wiped off. you can't smell bleach anymore, and they don't come until Feb. are they gonna die now. I made sure my bosses did NOT spray Lysol in the tanks. (one tank came out of storage with a partially decomposed pigeon in it, and tons of mouse and rat poop. that one needs a deeeeep clean but is thankfully pure plexi, no wood. but ugh.)
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Jan 15, 2024 05:20
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Culex posted:hello folks. The tanks are fine. Any chlorine will be long gone by the time the chicks come.
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Jan 15, 2024 11:29
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Sad news: We lost one of our hens while we were at a wedding in Buenos Aires. The sitters got a bit cocky and weren't being as careful on day 6 as they were on day 1, and Trinket popped up and made a break for freedom over the back fence. I'm making sure I design the new hutches to prevent this, as the same thing happened on Christmas day with another sitter (only Korben Dallas flew into the neighbor's yard, and said neighbor was able to return him in a basket later that day). I didn't think it was that hard to open the door slowly and watch for escapees preparing to launch, but evidently that is an incorrect assumption. Anyway, recovering today from massive sleep deprivation, so I brought some quail inside to sit with me for a bit. My girl Vin might be our chillest hen, she was happy to sit getting scritches for quite some time. https://i.imgur.com/Y6VyZpd.mp4 We just made sure wings were clipped for obvious reasons, and I got a good laugh out of how stumpy she looks when she borbs up now: 
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Jan 17, 2024 23:05
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Sorry about your hen.   Looks like the NN chick is a boy, which is what I was hoping. The fully feathered chicks are 1 girl and 1 boy.
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Jan 20, 2024 22:22
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bvv, the bond you have with your quail brings so much joy to my heart
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Jan 22, 2024 01:03
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Some Pinko Commie posted:https://i.imgur.com/B0eb6Ay.mp4 From the funny pictures thread.
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Jan 29, 2024 00:05
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Nettle Soup posted:From the funny pictures thread. That’s hilarious! Spring is in the air. One of Lucy’s boys has become a grown up roo. He stared mating with hens this week and he has one hen out of 27 that chooses to spend time with him. He’s only 15 weeks old so it’s a little earlier than I expected. His brother hasn’t even crowed yet. 
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Feb 2, 2024 01:14
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Get you some, boy
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Feb 2, 2024 01:17
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Aww, he's got a girlfriend. 
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Feb 2, 2024 01:21
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One of our birds has figured out how to jump the backyard fence. She tries to jump the fence every single time we let them roam in the yard. They are on coop arrest now and it sucks. We really want to let them roam around and explore but we can't have them escaping the backyard. I'm looking into tunnels around the perimeter of the yard now. Dumb rear end birds.
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Feb 14, 2024 06:35
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Can you redirect her obsessive curiosity onto something else?
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Feb 14, 2024 08:34
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We had to trim one of our hens wings as she almost got over a 6 foot fence. It was a bit nerve wracking to do but Willow wasn't able to fly that high again and decided not to try it again.
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Feb 14, 2024 09:27
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Yeah, just clip the primaries on one wing and see how she does. Some rare adventurous ones need both wings clipped.
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Feb 14, 2024 15:03
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