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Chido is like the world's most devoted chicken keeper, so I doubt anyone else could have done more. Hang in there, goon buddy.
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Jul 7, 2012 19:22
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| # ? May 13, 2024 23:36 |
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Chido, so sorry for your loss. You gave Spaghetti a great home. As you said earlier, she was ill when you got her. She lived a great life with you. You deserve a day off work to grieve. Pets are family members, whether cat, dog, fish, parrot or chicken. HUGS TO YOU DEAR CHIDO!
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Jul 7, 2012 20:34
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Sad to hear about Spaghetti, but you did so much for her and gave her personal care up until the end.
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Jul 7, 2012 21:12
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I want to offer my condolences as well. The world would be an amazing place if all of us were as kind and gentle as you are.
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Jul 7, 2012 21:43
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I'd also like to give you my condolences. Seriously, the love and care you give those chickens is amazing.
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Jul 7, 2012 22:38
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Sorry for your loss, sounds like she had a wonderful life with you.
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Jul 7, 2012 22:51
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God I fucking love Diablo 3 gold, it even paid for this shitty title
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I'm sorry to hear about Spaghetti. I've not posted in this thread before because I live in an apartment building in a city surrounded by cities, but I've followed it for a very long time. Spaghetti had a good life, and you are an incredible chicken keeper. Grieving is a process, and there's no shame in taking a day off work.
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Jul 7, 2012 23:24
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Chido posted:Spaghetti didn't make it. I was hoping she'd make it at least one more week until I get paid so I could take her to the vet, but she died some time early this morning. I fed her some watermelon and baby food last night and she ate it, but I guess her body couldn't keep going. I'm so sorry. You are a great chicken mom, and you should be proud of the great life that you gave her.
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Jul 8, 2012 00:52
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I went to work and managed to stay my whole shift without showing I was upset (it was a short poo poo, only 4 hours). Reading all these replies just got the waterworks going. Thank you guys for the kind words, you have no idea ow much they mean to me. I'm not a very social person in real life and I haven't made any good friends since I came to the US and it's been over two years since I went back to Mexico and saw my friends, so my family and my pets mean he world to me right now. Losing Spaghetti hit me more than I thought. I knew she wasn't going to live as long as my other chickens, but I didn't think she'd go so soon. At least she got to enjoy being part of a flock and have a big yard to forage and bugs to eat with no big worries for a year 
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Jul 8, 2012 00:56
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Chido, I'm so sorry about Spaghetti. You gave her a good life and I'm sure she appreciated it. I know what you mean about it hitting you hard even though you knew she wasn't going to live as long as your other chickens. I had a cat with congenital problems that I always knew wasn't going to live as long as a normal cat, but when I had to put him to sleep at 5 years old it still hit me hard. What kind of heat should I expect my chickens to be able to handle before I should worry about them? It hit 90 or so today and they were clearly unhappy about it. And it's going to be mid 90's for the rest of the week. Their run is well shaded by a nice old apple tree and they've got plenty of water but they were panting for much of the day (though otherwise acting normally). Is that just a normal cooling off strategy like it is for dogs?
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Jul 8, 2012 08:31
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Try putting ice in their wateter if you can. When it gets really hot I put a bottle of water in the freezer, then put the frozen bottle inside their wateter to keep the water a cool as possible. Tim also suggested to have a sandbox and wet the sand so the chickens can cool down on it.
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Jul 8, 2012 15:54
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Chido posted:Try putting ice in their wateter if you can. When it gets really hot I put a bottle of water in the freezer, then put the frozen bottle inside their wateter to keep the water a cool as possible. Tim also suggested to have a sandbox and wet the sand so the chickens can cool down on it. The ice and wet sand are great ideas to cool hot chickens down. Would chickens sit under a water sprinkler? In the summer, whenever I put my water sprinkler out to water the grass, all the wild birds show up to sit under the sprinkler and bathe in the cool water. I wonder if chickens would do the same?
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Jul 8, 2012 16:01
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My chickens hate getting wet, but they love to take extra dust baths in the shade when its hot.
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Jul 8, 2012 16:30
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I threw my chicken in the pool yesterday. God, she had so much filth on her I didn't realize. Anyways, she didn't like it but at least she stopped panting.
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Jul 8, 2012 20:40
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Birds should be good up to 100 degrees. At that point is when my birds get in danger and its only ever the hens. The stress of laying an egg in the extreme heat often does them in. My birds dont like to get wet but getting sprayed with a hose or being dunked is better than dying. Im not sure what other birds heat tolerances are but cochins and silkies dont do to well in triple digits due to how fluffy they are. My standard hard feather birds deal with the heat much better than the bantam fluffballs.
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Jul 8, 2012 20:49
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Tim the Enchanter posted:Birds should be good up to 100 degrees. Thanks. Mine are 3 easter eggers and a wyandotte and they haven't actually started laying yet (they are 4.5 months old). I do want to make sure they aren't in danger, but I don't want to do anything I'm not going to be able to reliably keep up with if they don't really need it, since I want them to be able to adjust as much as possible on their own. I do notice that they are doing better with the heat now than when things first started warming up. The first day it was over 80 they were panting a bit, but now they aren't panting until it gets closer to 90. The floor of the run will only stay wet for about an hour at a time so I'm not sure how helpful that will be and ice cubes in the water isn't an option with the current watering setup (the opening isn't large enough). Not to mention that we don't have an icemaker so between giving some to the dogs and using it for ourselves (we don't have AC in the house so the hot weather is tons of fun) the ice cube supply tends to be a bit low here when it gets hot out. I did design a new waterer that we put together yesterday and should be able to start using within the next couple of days once the seals are completely dry. It's big enough that I will be able to put 1/2 gallon containers full of ice in it to keep it cool and those should last for most of the day and be easy to trade out as needed. If we start getting closer to 100 or they show signs of distress other than panting (right now they are still eating and acting fine) I'll take more drastic measures like spraying them down.
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Jul 8, 2012 21:13
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One of the hens brought me a nickle today.  I've been making them puddles in the shade for them to play in while it's been so hot. I guess between the water and the normal chicken scratching I've unearthed One-Eyed Willy's treasure.
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Jul 8, 2012 22:04
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We have a drainage pipe in our backyard that's about a foot in diameter and I've caught ours going and sitting in the cold underground cooled dirt in it.
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Jul 8, 2012 22:21
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I asked my nieces to keep an eye on the chickens and tell me if they see any of them act weird, just in case Spaghetti had an illness that might have spread to the flock. So far nobody looks sick or acting weird, and after a quick physical exam (man I sound so doctor-like), I found two bumps on the back of Rusty's neck. Let me tell ya what I learned today. I discovered today that chickens can have ingrown feathers, and they can be popped like zits... and the cheesy-like pus inside the bump is gross  PS. We went to a barbeque on Wednesday and I saw Roo's babies. The family who adopted them kept three of his babies, and boy do they look silly. I'll post pictures once I find my camera. PPs. I miss Spaghetti, she was the only hen in my flock that really enjoyed sitting on my lap and doze off. 
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Jul 8, 2012 23:19
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Geez, chicken zits! aha ha ha ha who knew!
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Jul 8, 2012 23:48
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Roostroyer, poopyhead and dainty princess of the yard: + Tissue, hen hoe extraordinaire  =  ==        Roo's offspring are bigfooted roadrunners...
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Jul 9, 2012 07:04
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Awwwww...girl Roostroyers!  Those are gonna be some BIG chickens when they grow up! I hope you educate your neighbors about bumblefoot so they can keep an eye out for injuries. Of course, they won't need to worry about that for another year yet.
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Jul 9, 2012 07:24
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Whoa Chido! Roo's babies are adorable. Look at those big feet! They do look like the roadrunner! BEEP BEEP! Thank you for the updated pictures! Hope you are doing well. How are the broody gals? Tissue just lets Roostroyer have his way with her?
piscesbobbie fucked around with this message at 02:22 on Jul 10, 2012 |
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Jul 10, 2012 02:19
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So sorry to hear about Spaghetti. Its always sad to lose a pet, no matter the species. I lost my big Buckeye hen, Jean Grey, I think to heat. The rest of them are doing ok with misters and shade, I think she was just too big and overweight to handle the heat, especially with her little bitty pea comb. I'm sad, since she was a sweet girl and a very good broody hen.
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Jul 12, 2012 08:21
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Hell, dude. I've been meaning to catch up on the chicken thread. I'm sorry about Spaghetti, Chido, even though I'm kinda late. That one girl Roo looks like her neck is about 20 miles long. What the hell.
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Jul 12, 2012 08:34
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Found my first egg this morning! It's small and surprised me. The chickens are only 18 weeks old this week, and I didn't think they'd lay that early. I have buff opringtons and barred rocks. I gave them their last bit of grower feed this morning and was going to buy more since my book says not to feed them layer ration for another four weeks. Should I just switch them to layer now, and even if they're all not laying?
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Jul 12, 2012 12:27
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18 weeks is well into 'point of lay', which is when you want to put them on layer feed. Most sources I've seen say to start to transition them to layer feed at 16 weeks. If you want to keep them on starter, get a dish of oyster shell, so they get extra calcium.
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Jul 12, 2012 20:38
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I mentioned a little while back in the Chickam thread that my family and I had been planning to get some chickens. We've had our girls for a couple of weeks now and they're beginning to settle in with each other (we got them in pairs from different places). Here they are running around on the grass, happy to be free of the coop and run while it isn't raining for once! Going clockwise from the left, we have Noodle (Bluebell hybrid), Yasha (a Rhode Island Red/Maran/Plymouth Rock cross), Jojo (Light Sussex) and Nugget (a Rhode Island Red/Light Sussex cross). We bought Noodle and Jojo from a local farm and Yasha and Nugget were bought from Omlet. They all have very different personalities but seem to get on pretty well! Yasha is definitely the head hen and has been since her feet touched the ground, Nugget is a very curious girl who loves to get in your face, Noodle is very friendly and calm (though she tends to boss Nugget around!) and is the most lap-friendly, and Jojo is the unlucky bottom girl but she's a bit more of an individual and can be quite gutsy even to Yasha. The Omlet girls were laying out of the box (or rather in the box!) and Noodle started laying this week so we're already getting lots of eggs. We're just waiting on Jojo now. More pics:   
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Jul 12, 2012 21:53
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I've been thinking a lot about my upcoming chickens, just planning things out in my head, and was wondering how I can keep my back yard relatively clean against chicken poop? I know birds poop a lot. My dogs love their backyard. I am going to get my chickens a decent sized run just for them, but will also let them have run of the backyard a couple times a week. I know at some point, my dogs will end up getting into some chicken poop...however I would like to limit this as much as possible. Would it be feasible for me to use a dog pooper-scooper to help clean up chicken poop in the yard when needed? How do you guys keep your yard tidy? Also, how often are coops usually cleaned out, weekly, bi-weekly? I guess that depends on the number of chickens, too.
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Jul 12, 2012 22:12
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It's pretty easy to scoop up the droppings - we use an old trowel and dump the poop in our compost bin. As far as the coop goes, we clean out the droppings trays every 2-3 days and will clean the coop in full every 1-2 weeks. I think how often you clean the coop really depends on the size of it, the material it's made from and how many chickens you have. We ended up getting an Eglu Cube, which was pretty expensive even here in England but is very easy to maintain (cleaning it in full takes maybe 30 mins at most) and is the perfect size and fit for our garden. To keep our garden fairly tidy, we bought a net pen for the chickens to run around in. They get to roam about on the grass but they can't get at my parents' flowers. The pen posts are also moveable so if the grass starts to wear a bit in one place we can always put it elsewhere. The chickens do need supervision while they're out though since the net will keep chickens in but it won't keep any predators out.
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Jul 12, 2012 23:03
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Apparently there's a petition going around in my county to allow people with yards smaller than 1/4 acre to keep hens. We have just over a quarter acre, so I think we were already allowed, but I hope this goes through and people with small plots can start keeping chickens. From time to time I think it would be nice to have them myself, but I'm so allergic to bird dander that it's probably a bad idea...
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Jul 12, 2012 23:28
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Can chickens miss a flock member? It's been almost a week since Spaghetti died, and I've noticed the chickens hang out more often near the kitchen and the garage, and go into the garage and climb on top of the cage where I kept spaghetti. I don't know if it's just a coincidence and they are looking for shade and a cool spot, or they do miss her. 
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Jul 13, 2012 00:38
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WrathofKhan posted:18 weeks is well into 'point of lay', which is when you want to put them on layer feed. Most sources I've seen say to start to transition them to layer feed at 16 weeks. If you want to keep them on starter, get a dish of oyster shell, so they get extra calcium. Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens says you shouldn't feed layer ration to non-leghorn varieties before they're 20 weeks, which is why I was concerned about switching to the layer feed. I ended up picking up more layer ration and oyster shell, so thanks for the advice. No more eggs as of about an hour ago, although after this one today I wouldn't be surprised to see more. Most of the ladies seem to be about the same maturity level.
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Jul 13, 2012 00:50
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Chido posted:Can chickens miss a flock member? It's been almost a week since Spaghetti died, and I've noticed the chickens hang out more often near the kitchen and the garage, and go into the garage and climb on top of the cage where I kept spaghetti. I don't know if it's just a coincidence and they are looking for shade and a cool spot, or they do miss her. Chido, the answer I think is YES! They can and mostly due mourn the passing of a flock mate - ask VS! I'm sure she has some stories of her chickens on this same subject!
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Jul 13, 2012 02:14
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I still haven't managed to get video of Pogo the guinea hen trying to attack a car. Two wild turkey hens have showed up. They sleep in the woods, and during the day, try to hang out with the flock like they belong there. Scratch around for bugs, circle the yard, try to walk with the guineas and the chickens. They have not yet managed to fool the other birds into thinking they've been there all along, as the other ladies flee when they get close. "Ugh, they're back again! Maybe if we run away they'll leave us alone." The roosters have been isolated into a fenced-in pen, and the turkey hens try to pick fights with them through the fence. It doesn't work, but it's very impressive looking. The one time a rooster managed to stick his head through the fence, one of the turkeys walloped him with her wing, like she was smacking him upside the head. It's just very strange to wake up one morning, and out with the chickens and guineas are two turkeys you've never seen before, running up to you to get in on the scratch action.  Part of the reason the roosters are isolated and weren't before is that we have five chicks now. We're hoping they're all hens because... we really don't need more roosters. There's the oldest, a Rhode Island Red named Cheep, two Silver-Laced Wyandottes - the oldest of which is named Chong - and I don't know what the others are. We haven't really named many because we were worried they'd die. Chong was born with one bent foot, but because it was only the one, she made a full recovery with physical therapy. The babies have a special pen in the yard now that they're big enough, and Pogo keeps trying to get into it. Apparently Pogo just goes crazy for cars and babies. It's very frustrating for Peep, who tries to get in the coop for the night only to have to come back out to wonder wtf his birdwife is doing. Peep has to wait until the babies get into their mini-coop to try and herd Pogo into the coop proper for the night. This had been my disappointingly pictureless Poultry Update. Mostly I wanted to share the turkey news with you guys.
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Jul 13, 2012 11:54
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Chido posted:Can chickens miss a flock member? It's been almost a week since Spaghetti died, and I've noticed the chickens hang out more often near the kitchen and the garage, and go into the garage and climb on top of the cage where I kept spaghetti. I don't know if it's just a coincidence and they are looking for shade and a cool spot, or they do miss her. They are social animals, so they definitely at least notice that something is different than it used to be. I don't know if chickens mourn, but they do recognize loss.
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Jul 13, 2012 14:07
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Ceridwen posted:This morning my husband woke me up wanting to know what was wrong with our chickens, because they were making all kinds of racket at 6am. Squirrels are obnoxious assholes and will harass any animal that can't catch them, though.. They like to sit in my cherry tree and gently caress with my cousin's dog when they get tired of eating yummy cherries, and if the dog doesn't respond by whimpering at them and trying to climb the tree after them, they will literally creep down within a couple feet of him and try to startle him into trying to catch them. RazorBunny posted:From time to time I think it would be nice to have them myself, but I'm so allergic to bird dander that it's probably a bad idea...
coyo7e fucked around with this message at 17:39 on Jul 13, 2012 |
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Jul 13, 2012 17:19
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Same babys I posted last time but now 3 weeks older! White Cockerel  White Pullet  Blue Cockerel  Blue Pullet  Splash Pullet  Splash Cockerel 
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Jul 13, 2012 19:15
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coyo7e posted:The chickens probably caught the squirrels in their feed, especially if you have a rooster, he probably started it when he caught the squirrels in the coop. Pretty certain the squirrels can't get into the feeders because the run is fully enclosed. And it hasn't happened again and I can't imagine the squirrels giving up an easy source of food like that if they could get to it. We don't have a roo either. They aren't allowed within city limits. Squirrels are definitely assholes though. Last year we had sunflowers and the squirrels waited until the day after each one opened and chewed the flower off. Then ate ~1/4-1/3 of each one flower and left the rest to rot.
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Jul 13, 2012 21:37
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| # ? May 13, 2024 23:36 |
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Tim the Enchanter posted:Same babys I posted last time but now 3 weeks older! Beautiful birds! Amazing - soooo cute.
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Jul 14, 2012 00:30
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