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What do people generally do for the times when they're not at home? Feeding and watering I can see working with the proper equipment, but if the coop needs to be cleaned at least twice a week that two-week vacation and even that six-day business trip look to be impossible. Do you guys have experience with this kind of situation?
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Nov 14, 2011 16:51
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Sorry to hear about the hard decisions. Back in the day my grandmother always put eggshells back out and the hens would go absolutely crazy for them. I thought that this was the thing to do of course. But now with all the talk about egg eaters I'm not so sure if that isn't teaching the hens to eat eggs. Then again, I've never heard about egg eating until this thread and now I'm all confused. So far we don't have any hens yet, but the coop is going up right now and Chicken ETA is in May, so I'm preemptively obsessing about what to do and not to do. Should I give the eggshells back to the hens?
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Mar 13, 2012 22:53
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Inveigle posted:The designs are nice but I'm not a big fan of using particle board/OSB sheathing to build with, especially if the wood is going to be unpainted and exposed (like it shows inside the coops). Normally OSB sheathing is behind/underneath things that are going to be covered with something else (under shingles; as sub-flooring; over wall studs/framework). The problem is the OSB sheathing is held together with various glues and can expand/contract from moisture and if exposed directly to water may eventually fall apart. Don't you need to occasionally hose down the inside of a coop? Could other people weigh in on this please? I just put up my own coop, and it has OSB floor and walls. I don't expect to hose it down more often than every few months, so degluing of the OSB didn't seem to be too much of an issue for me. A buddy of mine told me it's more structurally sound than plywood, so that's why I used it. Also, plywood can come unglued and delaminate as well. I didn't even plan on painting the inside because I thought that the chickens shouldn't be eating paint chips. If painting would be better than naked OSB, what kind of paint would be good? I'm just glad all this comes up before the inhabitants move in!
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May 2, 2012 15:41
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Between Chickens for Dummies, the Backyard Chicken forums, what the store lady told me, and the advice from the guy we got our chickens from, I'm confused about feeding. We have Barred Rocks, and Rhode Island Reds, which I understand are multi-purpose breeds. For the time being we just want eggs from them though. Right now they're six weeks old. They get to spend time on grass all day, and they're locked up over night. They also have a feeder full of Tractor Supply-rebranded Layena crumble, which has ~16% protein and Ca formulated for layers. Now some sources say that they would need higher protein and lower Ca for their age. At the same time I get the impression that they're already growing super fast (although I have no way of weighing them) and I'm worried that's not healthy either. Our goal is not really to maximize production, just to keep them healthy and happy. Should we feed some kind of "finishing feed" instead of the layer ration? Would it help/harm/make no difference?
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May 31, 2012 15:06
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Chido posted:I think giving them layer feed might cause some problems from the extra Ca the chicks don't need yet. I know there is a grower or developer feed for chicks up to 12 weeks of age, so I'd use that just to be safe. Thanks Chido. Does anyone know anything more substantive? My problem is that I've gotten advice that runs from "your chickens will take care of themselves" to "your chickens will die of horrible organ failure if you give them the wrong feed". Ideally I'd like to know what I'm doing to them with the feed they get. Also, here, have a bribe: 
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May 31, 2012 21:27
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WrathofKhan posted:At six weeks, you should have them on either flock raiser, or you can even keep them on chick starter until they are ready to switch over to layer feed. Putting them on layer feed too early most likely won't cause them to drop dead, but the calcium will put strain on their kidneys, which could cause them health problems later on. Zeta Taskforce posted:Im not an expert here, but why wouldnt you buy grower feed and give them that for now, but keep the layer feed dry and enclosed so mice and other vermin wont get to it and feed it when they start laying? It wont go to waste and that day is only a few months away. Chido posted:Oh, by the way Hey Santa Baby, if you are getting so many conflicting answers about the feed, just go safe and keep giving your chicks grower feed until they start laying, then switch to layer feed. Alright guys, thanks. The confusion came from lots of sources emphasizing production and being light on actual health effects. So I'm going to go ahead and take your advice and get a flock raiser type of feed and store the layer crumble for later. I tried to give those ingrates scrambled eggs yesterday but they turned their beaks up at it. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Jun 1, 2012 21:30
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 Is the chicken in the center a rooster? They're all 6-7 weeks old according to the guy we got them from. As much as I hope it's a slightly bigger hen with a slightly bigger comb, I can't imagine it's not a rooster. What the heck am I going to do with a rooster?
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Jun 5, 2012 16:20
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You'll want to strike a balance between use and cost. To keep predators out, half inch should be adequate. Even half inch was cost prohibitive for the height and length I wanted, so I went with 2x4 in welded wire for support, and ordinary hex chicken wire alongside it to keep the hens from sticking their heads out and raccoons from reaching in.
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Aug 18, 2012 02:49
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Not to pick on you, but this is 2x4 inch welded wire on your run -- far from the quarter inch you recommended. This is what I have, and it works well enough to keep critters out and chickens in if you "reinforce" the bottom third with ordinary chicken wire. I don't know about you or other folks here, but I couldn't afford the several hundreds of dollars to fully enclose my run with quarter inch welded wire.
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Aug 18, 2012 19:16
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Velvet Sparrow posted:
This, and Chido's response, is all very reasonable -- I just objected to the unqualified "everybody uses quarter-inch welded wire". When people actually talk details about their setup, as you and Chido have done, it looks like half-inch is what people use if they need to be secure. I have vent openings in the coop covered by half-inch mesh as well. I stand by saying that quarter inch is generally unnecessary. Our run is about 25x15 feet for 4 hens, and I can walk in it. And of course it's never a matter of "can't afford" -- it's always a cost-benefit tradeoff. I guess I'll say that so far we've been doing well with the reinforced 2x4 welded wire, and if anything bad happens we'll adapt. Actually, I expected to see a lot of small rodents going after the feed, but the hanging feeder seems to be working rather well in that regard.
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Aug 26, 2012 19:24
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All those silkies and frizzies and whatever other fluffbutts can get right lost, but this guy right here is making me think hard about chicken math.
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Dec 1, 2012 20:11
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One of our barred rock hens frequently has her beak open and seems to be panting. Now it's summer, and sometimes the other hens do that too, but she seems to be doing it more. Even when the others act cool. She also roosts a little apart from the others. Otherwise she doesn't act distressed. She is three years old. Counting eggs, I'm thinking she stopped laying about a half year ago, but I can't be positive. Do the symptoms sound familiar to anyone? My hypochondriac wife thinks the hen has "lung worms" or somesuch and wants to feed her goat dewormer. This freaks me out so I thought I'd ask here. Brew day: 
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Aug 6, 2015 02:17
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Fluffy Bunnies posted:It's not like deworming her is gonna hurt her. Fair enough, but all things being equal I'd rather not medicate for a specific issue if there's no indication of that specific issue. There seem to be many different deworming products out there with different active ingredients, for different kinds of worms. Reading up on the symptoms, the one that fits at least in principle is gape worm. So I'm reluctant to use some all purpose dewormer. I probably should call a vet for a recommendation since the wikipedia page lists API's but no brands that I could go out and buy. I hear everybody else saying chickens pant when it's hot, but this one really does it a lot more than all the others. And they do free range a lot of the time, so parasites are not out of the question. Thanks for the replies guys.
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Aug 6, 2015 15:27
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Velvet Sparrow posted:santa baby, have you held that hen up to your ear to listen for any rattling, gurgling, wheezing, etc? Is that spent brewing grain they are eating, and if so, I'd ask your vet about the safety of it in hot weather--the crop on a chicken is basically a holding bag for food and provides a warm, moist environment for things to grow! Yes to the gurgling - it was audible a few days ago while she was roosting. Something seems clearly amiss. I ended up ordering some dewormer with fenbendazole at a recommendation of a vet (not a bird/livestock vet though). We'll see how that works out. The spent grain was back in April before it got hot, and there was no change in behavior near that time. Whenever I give them some they're usually all over it.
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Aug 7, 2015 15:17
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The ladies will be roosting in the display windows. Just like in Amsterdam.
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Aug 10, 2015 20:40
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Carmen has been acting very weak. Today I noticed something on her bill. It was there for maybe 5-10 minutes, then it was gone. She wouldn't let me handle her so I could take a closer look, but she was too weak to run away from the camera. Does it look like some kind of flatworm? As far as I can tell the chickens' poop looks normal, and this one is eating normally. She is just a lot less lively, and is too weak to jump up to her roost. 
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Nov 14, 2015 23:18
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Thanks for the replies. Yes, the white thing must have been something else. The inside of her bill looks clean. She does have matted poop around her vent, so I'll give her a bath now because I don't know what else to do. I didn't see mites. * OK the bath went reasonably well. She seems to be eating and drinking normally with the others. Right now she is inside and very much interested in meal worms. However she weights less than 2.5 lbs, which is really low for a standard size hen I think. Other than the general weakness and low weight I can't see any specific symptoms. No wheezing or gaping or anything like that. She doesn't squat like if she was egg bound. Feeling her up, there's nothing in her anyway. Lawson fucked around with this message at 18:38 on Nov 15, 2015 |
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Nov 15, 2015 18:02
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Velvet Sparrow posted:Have you dug through her poops for signs of worms? I realize this is a nifty way to spend your weekend...you might consider doing or having a vet do a fecal float test for parasites... OK, this could be interesting, and a microscope is no problem. I'll see what I can do, thanks for the suggestion. Though it'll be hard to know exactly what I'm looking at, I expect there will be all manner of things that could look like worm eggs.
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Nov 17, 2015 00:24
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 Carmen, you were a drat good head hen. You took the lead in any situation, you put the drat cock in his place, and you even chased that rear end in a top hat kitten back in the house. Until the very last day, when you were already too weak and could barely walk, the other hens followed you wherever you went. We will all miss you, you bird. ** Yeah, I think we caught the whole thing too late. Although she had the appetite of a wolverine to the end, she had lost so much weight that electrolytes and separate feedings of all the mealworms didn't help. She led the hens out of their house in the morning and then quietly died. I thought I'd cut her open, but couldn't bring myself to do that. It's been emotional. There were no visible parasites on the outside of her. I can only hope that whatever she had, the other hens didn't catch it. Thanks for all the advice along the way.
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Nov 19, 2015 03:21
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Thanks everybody.
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Nov 20, 2015 17:29
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Errant Gin Monks posted:poo poo I would buy and pay to ship a goon turkey! Same. Even more with geese. I'm thinking about a goose or two for the holidays next year, although that would be a drastic change to the backyard population.
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Nov 23, 2015 22:40
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Errant Gin Monks posted:Also here are the idiots hanging out from a few weeks ago. So awkward!
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Dec 2, 2015 05:53
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I need to make a decision, and haven't quite worked it out yet. Of originally four hens, the last one went missing yesterday. No feathers or any other sign, so probably taken by a hawk. She was out of the run for a bit, and I was aware of the risk. I got complacent over the years. That's not the upsetting part. The upsetting part is that this rear end in a top hat:  is now all alone. And he's constantly calling. And I can't handle it. Killing him and starting with a fresh batch in the spring would be the rational thing to do. I could also beg a neighbor for a couple of old hens to give him for company. That could be a quick fix, I think, although who knows if they would take to each other. And the neighbor would have to agree, of course. I haven't asked yet. Or I could start with a batch of chicks right now, keep the cock inside near them (separated of course) to give him something to look at and get them used to his presence from the start. That sounds like the stupidest solution.
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Feb 16, 2016 17:27
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Thanks for the replies guys. I'm too much of a pussy to off him, and a 4 year old bantam wouldn't be good eating anyway. The neighbor practically begged us to take some of his bantams, so the rooster is getting used to two of them as we speak. It's dark, they're calm, fingers crossed.
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Feb 17, 2016 01:11
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Fluffy Bunnies posted:He'd be a perfectly fine stew or casserole. The neighbor is begging you to take these old birds because they aren't of any use. Hopefully you stop getting poached by whatever's taken the rest of your flock. If I remember correctly you're more of a pet chicken person than a livestock chicken person, though, so hey whatever floats your boat. Yeah, pet chickens for sure. One predator incident in 4 years isn't too alarming. The other hens died over time of various non-predator causes. Seeing the rooster miserable I couldn't handle though. We'll see how they're getting along.
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Feb 17, 2016 03:17
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Getting your opinions just helps putting my situation in perspective. I still need to decide on my own, and live with the decision. For what it's worth, the rooster and his new mates were roosting together this morning. After they came out into the run they foraged together, making what sounds to me like regular chicken noises. No overt signs of stress in any of them, so this went about as well as I could have hoped. And also for what it's worth I'm grateful to everybody who said something. Next project: getting them used to eating mealworms out of my hand.
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Feb 17, 2016 16:25
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Now that it's the weekend and I don't have to work, it's time to take a look at the unwanted garbage birds in daylight. Do they look like Dutch bantams? There is the white ear patch and the smallish comb, otherwise they look rather nondescript. They're definitely shy, but of course they're in a new environment and I don't think our neighbor handled them.  Also, I found the other hen. She was wedged in a gap between the stoop and the fence, hidden under some bushes. Only her head was chewed raw, otherwise she was intact. So it probably wasn't a hawk, maybe a racoon or a mink. Still good to have closure, and the new ones won't get unsupervised yard time. As sad as it is, this loss didn't hit me in the gut as much as when last year our head hen wasted away to nothing in the space of 2 weeks for no clear reason. It's all in my head anyway.
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Feb 20, 2016 21:29
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Velvet Sparrow posted:young bantam Cream Legbar hens Huh, what do you know. They do have a bit of a crest/crown/Trump hair, which dutch bantams don't seem to have. It's not quite clear how old they are - they could be a year or two old. I guess we'll just have to see how they develop and what the eggs look like should they decide to lay. psychotic posted:And hi to Chido if you are still around, you guys and your birbs are the reason we have chicken and duck poop everywhere haha Also I can't second this hard enough. Chido is responsible for getting hens in the first place, and Tim the Enchanter is responsible for the drat rooster. Thanks, Obama!
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Feb 22, 2016 16:28
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AsYouWish posted:Backyard mixes This is probably it. Who knows what goes on in the neighbor's pen when he ain't looking -- and he's 83, so he really isn't looking too hard anymore.
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Feb 24, 2016 00:20
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Miso Beno posted:IS there any reason I couldn't top a 8x10' run with chicken wire instead of bird netting? I'm only asking because the previous owners of my house left a ton of chicken wire on the property and I'd like to press it into service. That's what I'm doing. The chicken wire sags over time, and leaves collect in it. So it's a good idea to make a tent of sorts, or make it slanted at least so stuff falls off sideways. Works well against raptor birds.
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Feb 25, 2016 21:35
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Shifty Nipples posted:Chicken wire also rusts and falls apart if you look at it wrong. Can't confirm this. Ours has been up for 4 years now, with healthy snow and rain amounts and there are no signs of rust. It's zinc plated though, so maybe that makes the difference. I imagine it would have been gone in the first year if it wasn't plated.
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Feb 25, 2016 22:46
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Shifty Nipples posted:My mom gave me what is basically the best t-shirt to exist. And right before pi day, too!
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Mar 8, 2016 18:42
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what the gently caress am i doing 
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Mar 20, 2016 22:04
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Chick rations have me confused. The book (Dummies) says that for general purpose/layer breeds (i.e. not meat birds) I'm looking for starter feed with 22 % protein. Stores seem to have either 24 % for game birds, or 20 % "grower" or feed that is labeled "starter" but has only 18 % protein. So I got them the medicated starter with 18 %. Now because I'm clueless but anxious about the protein I'm feeding them a hard boiled egg every once in a while, making the whole protein accounting go right out the window. Am i damaging them beyond repair? For what it's worth they go absolutely nuts over the boiled egg.
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Mar 23, 2016 19:03
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Inveigle posted:Haha! Chick owners here feed their babies scrambled and hard-boiled eggs all the time. The little cannibal chicks love 'em! I sort of figured that. I was more concerned about the 18 % protein vs. the recommended 22 % vs. the random amount they end up getting with the egg. The book talks about developmental defects if they don't get the correct amount -- crooked legs and so on.
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Mar 23, 2016 19:59
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Ugh, the "assorted crested bantam" is the boldest of the batch. Bullying the others and trying to jump out of the brooder at like a week and a half. I bet it's a boy.
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Mar 24, 2016 03:37
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I gave that hen a dog bed. Hens love dog beds.
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Mar 26, 2016 16:16
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Chido posted:Things chickens are useful for: termite control. We've got termites in the house and they decided to come out through the kitchen door frame (they are the flying ones that make new nests). Cue to a lot of dumb bugs on the kitchen floor... cue to my brother-in-law leaving the kitchen door open for the chickens to come inside and eat them. Within 5 minutes Megatron and Waffle ate them all This warms my heart. How old is Megatron now? Actually, I was just thinking the other day how old was Roostroyer when he passed?
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Apr 3, 2016 21:41
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Ausrotten posted:We got our first eggs! They're so hilariously small Speaking of, how do I discourage my garbage birds from laying on the floor in corners of the coop, and specifically right under where they roost (& poop)? Yesterday I removed all bedding from the floor, so there's only straw in the nest boxes. No eggs today though. quote:Not chickens exactly but I got three broadbreasted turkey polts yesterday I will be watching this. Please post updates whenever something develops.
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Apr 3, 2016 21:45
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Chido posted:Megatron, godzilla, and rusty are about 5 years old now. Turkey and dust were already adults when we got them that same year, so they may be 6-7 years old. Waffle is gonna be 3, and I have no ideal how old our current rooster is, he's 2-3 maybe. Roostroyer was 2 years old when he passed Oh, didn't realize he was that young. Also, this reads like a who's who of the chicken thread.
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Apr 4, 2016 03:48
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