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Chido, you are a GREAT chicken mom! How many broody girls do you have now?
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Jun 27, 2012 07:23
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Four, silly hens keep going broody. I remember reading that gamefowl tends to go broody a lot, and most of my hens seem to be some sort of bantam/game/something mix. As soon as a hen stops being broody, another one gets broody.
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Jun 27, 2012 07:28
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The older white hens I call the cream-puff herd due to their color. They're all ex-show hens that I let take it easy. They have a cockerel with them right now but im through hatching their eggs this year. I have to keep a pile of wet sand out for them to wallow in every morning or they get upset,guess they enjoy being yellow rather than white. Beauregard  As they get older their beaks tend to turn down so they end up looking like the grouchy old ladys they are.   
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Jun 27, 2012 15:23
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God I fucking love Diablo 3 gold, it even paid for this shitty title
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Heehee! Grumpy old lady!  Tim, do you know many chickens do you have? You seem to have a full-time chicken operation going! Thanks again for the fun photos.
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Jun 27, 2012 15:34
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I try to keep no more than two hundred adults at a time. Any more than that and I wouldnt be able to give them the time and attention they needed. I tend to hatch about 50 of each color im working on in a year,after culling defects and serious deviations from the standard that lets me keep a steady number of adults. I recently chainsawed and drug out a bunch of fallen oaks from the tornadoes last April and had them cut up into lumber. Planning on building two new chicken barns, the first of which im maybe 50% done working on. This one will be around 2000 square feet when I get done. Once I get the walls up all ill have left to do is have an electrician wire it up. Im happy building it but I dont mess with the electrical part. This will probably end up being my breeder barn, ill cut doors in the sides and put up exterior runs for the birds. Hopefully this counts as chicken pictures since chickens will live here soon!  When stacking lumber it's best to not stack it directly in the way of what you're trying to build. Now I have to move it and restack.  White cockerel so theres something with feathers in this post!  Edit: Thank you Zeta,I like keeping chickens and I really enjoy keeping them happy. They do get mad when the state guy comes around and does blood tests on them every year though but not many people enjoy doctor visits. Tim Jong-un fucked around with this message at 21:24 on Jun 27, 2012 |
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Jun 27, 2012 17:43
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Tim, I wanna live in your home and play with your chickens all day long, they are so pretty! Also, do you feel like driving to los angeles county and build a chicken coop for Roostroyer and his henhoes this summer for free? I need to make a bigger coop but I've never built anything as big as that 
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Jun 27, 2012 22:49
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Chicken butts before bed. These butts belong to 2 roosters that have just recently finished molting and are starting to grow back their feathers. You can see a lot of their fluffier down feathers poking through the primarys. A Lemon-Blue butt.  A Brown-Red butt. 
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Jun 28, 2012 03:36
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Tim the Enchanter posted:These butts belong to 2 roosters that have just recently finished molting and are starting to grow back their feathers. You can see a lot of their fluffier down feathers poking through the primarys. Wowwwwwww....such fantastic colors! I can see now why the Lemon-Blues are Velvet Sparrow's favorite chicken color. Amazing!  Thanks again for posting all the chicken photos. I'm really enjoying them. BTW, nice coop! Now that we've seen in the outside, you'll have to take some photos of the inside (complete with some laying hens singing the Egg Song). 
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Jun 28, 2012 04:04
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Oh it's no problem. Ive about decided to keep photo records of birds in addition to my notes for breeding purposes any way. Hermes the Lemon-Blue rooster.    Jupiter the Brown-Red rooster.  Pretending he can fly.  Side-butt shot.  Same two birds from my previous post,both finished molting recently so their tail feathers havent grown back in to full coverage yet.
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Jun 28, 2012 15:47
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I’m running ideas through my head on coop design, and will go with the chicken tractor concept with their coop being a box on top of the run. I’ve seen people talk about “poop boards” where they put a flat board under the perch and because a significant percentage of the poop falls on that, it keeps the remainder of the coop cleaner. What would happen if I just didn’t have a floor, or a wire floor immediately under their perch? It seems like wire floors are not recommended for the entire coop because it’s bad for their feet, but I don’t see the harm in having a solid floor for 90% of their coop but leaving a small part open. It should even help with ventilation.
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Jun 28, 2012 16:48
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So, I've got this idea of possibly turning a playhouse on our property into a chicken coop. It is sort of like this one:  But only has one entry way, two windows (that could be removed/sealed up if needed) and a nice little roof with shingles and everything. And then of course I would make a run attached to it. Does this sound like it could be made into an appropriate chicken coop?
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Jun 29, 2012 00:09
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I think it'd make a great coop  . I've seen pictures cars, plastic playhouses, plastic sheds, and even large rubbermaid storage containers used a chicken coops, so I'm sure that wooden playhouse would work .
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Jun 29, 2012 00:27
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Zeta Taskforce: The only problem with that is that you'd still need a way of cleaning up the poop that ended up falling through the wire. Just leaving it there would get really stinky and breed flies like crazy. Cleaning off a poop board isn't that bad, it takes me about five minutes to do it, I use a cheap rear end whisk broom and dust pan, and a putty knife, for scraping any stuck on poo. Greycious: I think that would make a really sweet coop. Go for it!
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Jun 29, 2012 00:31
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Was keeping this girl in show condition then she decided it was a good time to explode all over the place. It's getting so hot it might force all my birds into a molt. Shes half the size she was before her feathers went everywhere.
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Jun 29, 2012 01:53
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Chido posted:I think it'd make a great coop Oh, well, I forgot to mention we have pretty bad winters. I did get cold hardy breeds specifically for that reason though. Can I or will I need some amount of insulation?
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Jun 29, 2012 02:49
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Greycious, As you can tell, I am learning along with you, but you might find this article interesting. It was written by a guy in Southern Ontario who does not put himself in the category of "super cold" and is therefore adding more ventilation to his coop, even in the winter. http://www.backyardchickens.com/a/chicken-coop-ventilation-go-out-there-and-cut-more-holes-in-your-coop WrathofKhan posted:Zeta Taskforce: The only problem with that is that you'd still need a way of cleaning up the poop that ended up falling through the wire. Just leaving it there would get really stinky and breed flies like crazy. Cleaning off a poop board isn't that bad, it takes me about five minutes to do it, I use a cheap rear end whisk broom and dust pan, and a putty knife, for scraping any stuck on poo. Sorry for the bad MS Paint drawing, but I was thinking something like this. I am thinking of a tractor that would have a coop portion with no more than 3 feet of headroom that I would access by hinged doors along the side. The coop would be partially above the run. I would be moving it around so I imagine I would get away with not having huge piles of poo poo build up. I could also get the old bedding out with a hoe and could collect it with a garbage can and then add it to my compost pile. Also my roof isn't levitating, but I was thinking holes along the top below the roof eaves that would allow air to come in and precipitation to stay out. 
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Jun 29, 2012 04:18
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Zeta Taskforce posted:Also my roof isn't levitating, but I was thinking holes along the top below the roof eaves that would allow air to come in and precipitation to stay out. You could put in some continuous soffit vents under the eaves. You don't have to use the fancy metal/plastic grills, just cut a long continuous slot in the plywood sheathing under the eaves and tack on a fine wirecloth or wire mesh (with wood trim on top if you want it to look nice). Depending on what type of insects (or possibly animals) you want to keep out, pick the wire cloth, and how you will attach it, accordingly. Sometimes people put a ridge vent in the roof so that the soffits will pull in air which is then vented through the ridge vent. Remember that soffits/ridge vents are a passive air system so while they are great in the summer, they will also let in cold air in the winter (which you may not want).
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Jun 29, 2012 10:49
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Poop Drawer. No drafty fannies.
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Jun 29, 2012 17:06
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Forgot to close one of the barn doors last night, possum showed up and went inside. Happened to be the barn I let Lucifer roam as he pleases in at night because he likes murdering mice, guess he now likes murdering possums. He was perched triumphantly atop it's corpse when I went out this morning. Small possum but still, Lucifer was a Tyrannosaurus in a past life id imagine.
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Jun 29, 2012 17:35
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You did say Lucifer was mean as @!#$. He lives up to his name, killing possum! You have your own varmint control. hee hee
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Jun 29, 2012 21:05
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Zeta Taskforce posted:I’m running ideas through my head on coop design, and will go with the chicken tractor concept with their coop being a box on top of the run. I’ve seen people talk about “poop boards” where they put a flat board under the perch and because a significant percentage of the poop falls on that, it keeps the remainder of the coop cleaner. What would happen if I just didn’t have a floor, or a wire floor immediately under their perch? It seems like wire floors are not recommended for the entire coop because it’s bad for their feet, but I don’t see the harm in having a solid floor for 90% of their coop but leaving a small part open. It should even help with ventilation. I designed my coop to have hardware cloth as the bottom, with straw on top. It works really well. It doesn't hurt their feet with a significant amount of straw inside. The poop usually clings to the straw and the straw can be pulled out easily. If not, when the poop dries, I usually just poke at it with a stick. The poop breaks apart and falls through the hole. I also designed it so that I could slide plywood underneath the wire when it gets cold. Just remove that, poke the poop, and it falls through. Anyways, they don't spend that much time on the floor because they're either roosting or laying. Also, are anyone's chickens hell bent on killing your cats? Because mine is. Everytime I go outside with one of my cats. She will charge over clear across the yard without provocation and peck at the cats. It's kind of hilarious to watch. I threw an arm in front of my cat and she accidentally pecked me, giving me a blood blister. What the hell, chicken? Why does she hate them so much? Especially when I'm around the cat, she'll charge over on her stumpy feet and attack them. Is she protecting me?
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Jun 29, 2012 23:46
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Tim the Enchanter posted:Forgot to close one of the barn doors last night, possum showed up and went inside. Happened to be the barn I let Lucifer roam as he pleases in at night because he likes murdering mice, guess he now likes murdering possums. He was perched triumphantly atop it's corpse when I went out this morning. Small possum but still, Lucifer was a Tyrannosaurus in a past life id imagine. Holy poo poo I cannot stop laughing at the mental image of one of those little puffbirds killing a possum Do not underestimate
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Jun 30, 2012 00:49
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Tim the Enchanter posted:Forgot to close one of the barn doors last night, possum showed up and went inside. Happened to be the barn I let Lucifer roam as he pleases in at night because he likes murdering mice, guess he now likes murdering possums. He was perched triumphantly atop it's corpse when I went out this morning. Small possum but still, Lucifer was a Tyrannosaurus in a past life id imagine. Please tell me you took a picture of the crime scene, tiny Lucifer is  as hell.
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Jun 30, 2012 03:17
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Chido posted:Please tell me you took a picture of the crime scene, tiny Lucifer is Nah I cleaned it up, didnt wanna take dead critter pictures. Lucifer managed to damage his beak on possum skull I presume. I had to trim it down some and put him in a show cage till it grows out enough for me to trim off ragged edges. Other than that and a few tufts of feathers getting pulled out hes fine.
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Jun 30, 2012 03:41
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One thing is not like the others  
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Jul 1, 2012 03:06
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Wait. I don't...I don't understand how a chicken can kill an opossum?! Opossum can be vicious assholes, and chickens are..well they're chickens. 
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Jul 1, 2012 03:23
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Don't let them fool you, chickens are just fuzzy derpy-looking dinosaurs.
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Jul 1, 2012 03:36
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Bash Ironfist posted:Wait. I don't...I don't understand how a chicken can kill an opossum?! Opossum can be vicious assholes, and chickens are..well they're chickens. Think that's hard to imagine? This will make it harder: the rooster is as small as the chickens in this video http://youtu.be/JUhc5YZZjTY
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Jul 1, 2012 03:41
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Bash Ironfist posted:Wait. I don't...I don't understand how a chicken can kill an opossum?! Opossum can be vicious assholes, and chickens are..well they're chickens. Lucifer is heavy for a bantam bird,he weighs almost 4 lb. The possum was a juvenile and weighed less than 3 lb. Lucifer is a hyper aggressive murder bird so the possum was probably as surprised as you are.
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Jul 1, 2012 04:38
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Tim the Enchanter posted:Lucifer is heavy for a bantam bird,he weighs almost 4 lb. The possum was a juvenile and weighed less than 3 lb. Lucifer is a hyper aggressive murder bird so the possum was probably as surprised as you are. I have this mental picture of a macho Lucifer standing atop a pile of corpses of dead mice and possums (a la Conan the Barbarian) with a couple of hens looking up adoringly at him. That picture is so sweet. Princess Roostroyer is so lucky to have such a loving family.
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Jul 1, 2012 05:41
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 I made a video of my chickens but I don't know if I should link it here because I'm self conscious about how I look. It's in my photobucket album if anybody want to see it, I get mobbed by mini raptors
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Jul 1, 2012 06:07
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Chido posted:
What are you feeding them? Bread? They sure sounded happy. Man...Roostroyer is so big, even next to the barred rock hen. How much does he weigh? He's so solid-looking even if he is very fluffy.
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Jul 1, 2012 15:08
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Is this a butterfly turning into a chicken or the other way around?
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Jul 1, 2012 16:30
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Silver Sebrights are my favorite chicken (at the moment). They look like a living ink drawing of a chicken, however I hear they tend to be flighty/skittish. Also, the enormous eyes on the dwarf variety makes them look super cute. Inveigle fucked around with this message at 18:24 on Jul 1, 2012 |
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Jul 1, 2012 16:44
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Why are their eyes so big? Is it just from being a small breed / neoteny, or is it some other thing going on? Showy chickens
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Jul 1, 2012 17:53
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GenericOverusedName posted:Why are their eyes so big? Is it just from being a small breed / neoteny, or is it some other thing going on? That particular image is of a smaller-sized dwarf Sebright. I forgot to add that.
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Jul 1, 2012 18:22
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Spaghetti has been acting a bit down since yesterday. She's kinda lethargic, standing often in one place and closing her eyes. Today she is limping and I've seen her eat, but not much. I hope she's acting like that because of the weather, it's been a bit hot lately, but I don't really expect her to be in perfect health. She's always had bad health since we go her, so whatever she has is most likely chronic due to how poorly she was treated by her previous owners. I'm not gonna take her to the vet, unless she suddenly gets worse, because I doubt we can undo the damage done to her  . I'll keep her locked in the run with Rusty and a couple of the broodies to give her a break from Roo. I hope she perks again, she's been gaining weight and being active and hungry until this weekend.
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Jul 2, 2012 00:15
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Poor Spaghetti She's had such a hard time, I hope she feels better soon.
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Jul 2, 2012 06:35
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I hope so too, she's my favorite hen because she's so docile and sweet. When we bought her from the feed store last year, the owner had dropped all her chickens there. She didn't want them anymore because they were noisy and somebody supposedly had complained about the noise. She was there when we were buying feed, so Spaghetti didn't spend time at the store at all. The previous owner said she got her the previous Easter. If that's true, then my grumpy lady is a little bit over 2 years old. She's never had a normal solid poop, it always comes out in a big splash. She had some nasty scratches and wounds on her back (that Roo made worse until I noticed how bad they really were... ), her feathers were dirty and felt harsh. The poor thing was in a poor condition. then she got a nasty respiratory infection last December, lost a lot of weight.Still, Spaghetti is still here and she has improved a bit. After she molted her feathers got so soft and fluffy, and she isn't so skinny. Her breastbone is still very prominent, but at this point I'm just glad she's been overall ok. She hasn't laid any eggs since last year , and I know she won't live as long as the other chickens we have, but at least she has a huge yard to explore and lots of dirt to scratch  
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Jul 2, 2012 06:46
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drat, how do you know if a chicken is skinny or not? This makes me worry about mine.
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Jul 2, 2012 07:06
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