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Tim, your cochins are adorable and beautiful. Thank you for sharing. Wish I could knock on your door and ask if your chickens could come out and play. It's like I would like to visit Velvet Sparrow and Chido and their chickens too. I'm hoping perhaps next year I might have a little flock. Tim, when your chickens molt you could probably make a couple of feather pillows! piscesbobbie fucked around with this message at 03:03 on Aug 24, 2012 |
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Aug 24, 2012 03:00
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Found more old photos I had saved away. First two are of a lemon blue cockerel.  Reverend Cleophus James ,the brown-red cockerel at a show somewhere looking awkward.  Charmin the Silkie hen, 30 white hens at this show and she was the best looking,she was holding her self wonderfully and was fitting the standard perfectly,she was a sure thing for show champion as well. Then it happened, her tiny Silkie brain just flipped the switch and she went into mother clucker mode. This picture was snapped after I dragged her out of her corner.  Back to her corner to sit on imaginary eggs.  Judge made his first pass,got her out and was looking at her,impressed,when he came back to compare her to some others she had gone broody and refused to do anything but fuzz and cluck in the corner. Reserve feather leg. 
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Aug 24, 2012 05:18
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God I fucking love Diablo 3 gold, it even paid for this shitty title
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LOL that's so funny! Just going from normal to broody so fast is hilarious and adorable, chickens are so dumb yet endearing 
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Aug 24, 2012 05:22
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LOVE that - Mother Clucker Mode - that is hilarious! Amazing how fast that happens! Lovely prize winning to crazed Mother Clucker in minutes! piscesbobbie fucked around with this message at 13:47 on Aug 24, 2012 |
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Aug 24, 2012 13:16
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Tim the Enchanter posted:
I've never been to any sort of poultry show so I have no idea what goes on there. I don't understand why she was disqualified? Aren't they mainly judging for looks? Why would she disqualified just for acting broody?  Also, Reverend Cleophus James is gorgeous. I really like his comb and he's got such beautiful feathers. Is he also a lemon blue?
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Aug 24, 2012 16:05
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It's hard to judge a bird that refuses to stand up and just hunkers down in the corner. They judge based on feathering,body type and how the bird holds it self. All they can really tell if the bird goes broody is thats it's really fuzzy and angry. Cleophus is Brown-Red, the little bird in the pictures above him is lemon-blue.
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Aug 24, 2012 20:46
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Broodyism is infectious. The judge must have touched another broody hen and passed it to your girl. 
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Aug 24, 2012 20:55
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Those drat hormones/pheromones!
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Aug 24, 2012 22:27
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coyo7e posted:"Whenever you want some nuggets"? What exactly does this mean? Do you think you can just get chicken mcnuggets by casually pulling them off of your chickens? Have you ever slaughtered a bird and cleaned it? Many people do exactly this, regardless of how you feel about it. In many of our grandparent's time it was common, and the animals were better treated than the animals in the factory/farms that provide meat to stores and fast food franchises. Which is more honest; to raise, kill and eat your own food or buy it prepackaged in a bag so you don't have to look it in the eyes beforehand? Where do you get your nuggets? Quality of life includes being able to eat something without fear of additives and hormones as well as the knowledge that the animal was happy and well cared for before it gets to the table.
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Aug 25, 2012 01:20
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TIM YOU ARE KILLING ME WITH THOSE COCHIN PICTURES. My absolute favorite breed, and right now I only have two--Boots, a partridge hen and Moet, a buff Frizzle hen. Both of whom are 9 years old.  I need new bantam Cochins in the WORST WAY. If you ever have any Cochins that need a good home, let me know. Also, Pepper isn't a chicken, she is a puddle. One of the Chickam names someone suggested fits her to a 'T': The Oncoming Fluff.  coyo7e, lots and LOTS of people raise chickens for both meat and eggs, the fun and companionship of them is secondary. Home-grown meat and eggs are some of the most amazing-tasting, fresh, healthy and fulfilling things ever. Being self-sufficient, no matter if it's raising your own meat, gardening/canning or whatever, is very empowering and satisfying--and lots of small farmers supply local produce and meat/eggs that more and more people are turning to as a healthier alternative to factory produced food. BTW, anyone who keeps livestock animals that happen to produce food can tell you, it's hardly 'free food'. There is a lot of money, sweat and time that goes into keeping livestock.
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Aug 25, 2012 01:28
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Tim the Enchanter posted:It's hard to judge a bird that refuses to stand up and just hunkers down in the corner. They judge based on feathering,body type and how the bird holds it self. All they can really tell if the bird goes broody is thats it's really fuzzy and angry. Poultry shows need to give out an award for most Fuzzy and Angry Broody Hen! Your broody girl was still lovely and adorable. I don't think it's fair they would take off points for her suddenly going all broody 'n' moody.
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Aug 25, 2012 05:26
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As long as we're sharing broody pics, here are Boots and Moet, our two Bantam Cochins in action! Moet in 2001 with 5 chicks, not hers but heck she didn't care! Since she'd hatched them in the coop with all the other chickens, we moved her and the babies into a cardboard box in our living room.   \ Moet also fostered chicks in 2009 (the pics of her and the babies asleep on the couch), and if she or Boots are still around next Spring and go broody like they do every year, we'll offer next year's Chickam chicks to them to mother. Boots in 2006, in this pic she is clamped down on 7 chicks.  Running around in the living room, chasing mealworms.   Mealworm tug o' war! Terrific fun for the chicks...not so much so for the bug.  First dustbath with mom, pure chicken-y bliss!  Cochins, like Silkies, make excellent mamas.
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Aug 25, 2012 07:24
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Rusty being an Angry Bird.    I see murder in those eyes   I've been thinking that if Turkey goes broody again when I get the chicks, I'll try having her adopt them. I get the feeling she's the only hen that wouldn't try to rip my face off if I get close to her babies.
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Aug 25, 2012 07:30
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Rusty gives good Broody Glare. Also, just 'cause it's hilarious, Moet from the top:  And from the back:  She really DOES look like a champagne bubble.
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Aug 25, 2012 07:42
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She's adorable
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Aug 25, 2012 07:49
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Boots is such a pretty hen.
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Aug 25, 2012 11:44
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Velvet Sparrow posted:Moet and her babies from 2001. Moet looks like she is so incredibly happy in this shot! This image of Boots with a baby nesting on her back is seriously one of the cutest photos I have ever seen. Chido posted:Rusty being an Angry Bird. I see murder in those eyes Rusty is such a fluffy, angry broody! Was she growling at you while you were taking the photos? Look at the death lasers she's got for eyes!  Velvet Sparrow posted:Also, just 'cause it's hilarious, Moet from the top: Moet is doing her impression of a large pine cone! VS, you definitely need more Frizzles! Velvet Sparrow! I'd love to see more photos from Chickam 2009 and 2010! I missed those years! Or any more chicken photos you'd like to post. You always take such amusing pictures!
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Aug 25, 2012 14:12
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I love the BEWARE BROODY HEN WITH CHICKS on the side of the box! AHA HA HA I'm laughing so hard I have tears!
piscesbobbie fucked around with this message at 16:19 on Aug 25, 2012 |
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Aug 25, 2012 16:16
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Angry Birds: IRL Edition. Never mind the pigs.
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Aug 25, 2012 17:20
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 So, there's a reason why I only have 29 sex link pullets right now. Meet number 30, who was cornered nearly pecked to death by the brown hens. In the space of about an hour they had totally skinned her head and neck. Not being the wasteful sort of person I put it out of it's misery and since it was the size of a cornish game hen I figured I might as well toss it in the freezer until I felt like having some chicken for dinner. E: Killing a chicken humanely and then dressing it is not hard to do. You truss the legs, chop the head off (they DO tend to flutter a bit when you do this but it is a very quick death), hang it upside down to let the blood drain. If you want to keep the skin you scald them to make feather plucking easier. If you don't want to keep the skin you just use a knife to cut the the skin near the breast and then peel. The offal is the only hard part, you have to reach up inside and pull it out without puncturing the organs. The lungs are the hardest part to remove because they are attached to inside of the carcase near the neck, chances are your first few times you won't remove them fully, don't worry about it. Once you've dressed a chicken a few times you get the hang of it and can do it fairly quickly and humanely.  Oh god the eggening. As of today the ones in the yellow container are 2 weeks old, the rest have been laid more recently than that. I like egg salad and pickled eggs so I tend to let them sit around awhile until they're old enough for easy post-boil peeling. I'll probably be cooking most of the pictured eggs this weekend. [/quote] Fermented Tinial: I'm jealous - I LOVE egg salad sandwiches - I refuse to purchase eggs at the store so it's been YEARS since I've had one. You're awesome - to be able to harvest your own meat. I saw a few videos on the youtube. Learned a lot.
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Aug 26, 2012 02:55
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 First eggs from this year's Chickam hens today! Two tiny, pigeon-sized eggs plus one slightly bigger, all in the bottom row. The two eggs on the top are Brahma/Giant Cochin eggs for comparison.  Pretty sure the two tiny ones are d'Uccle eggs, the other one is a mystery! Tons of mating going on from all three youngster roos, so no doubt these are fertile. Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 04:28 on Aug 26, 2012 |
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Aug 26, 2012 04:25
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My coop progress so far: bought a book:  looked closer at cover and dreamed up some measurements:  had some old telephone poles, a few sheets of roofing tin, and used lumber. I threw them together (including a bathroom window left over from a construction project) under a big shade tree:  I didn't make it big enough, so I extended the back of the pen behind the hen house using an old dock walkway that was just wasting away in some tall grass behind my tool shed. (this also works as a raised platform to stand on when getting eggs out of the nesting boxes that I will add to the back of the hen house):  added lumber around the perimeter of the floor:  leveled the ground with rake & shovel, used old plywood that I had in shed for sides and front of hen house:  put on some hardware cloth for opening around top of hen house for ventilation:  put hinges on side walls of house:  added sand to floor of coop:  framed the whole thing up (so that sides would be square and straight for wire) and then stretched hardware cloth across bottom half, and chicken wire on the top half, then added my Wheaten Marans chickens (raised from one day old!)  made a drawer system for easy clean out:  chickens standing around insulted because the house is not painted yet:  things yet to do: paint exterior roosting perch nesting boxes with outside access Colonel Sanders portrait for interior of hen house What I've learned so far: Wait till winter to build a project like this - it's been way too hot!
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Aug 26, 2012 05:00
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Velvet Sparrow posted:
Congrats! Are all the chickens doing well? After your move and the new chicks and the new chicken house there were a lot of changes going on! I know I sound like a broken record, thank you VS for sharing! Hope your MIL is doing well.
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Aug 26, 2012 05:33
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Bantaras posted:My coop progress so far: Bantaras - lovely looking! How many chickens are you building for? I'm thinking of starting a small flock next year, maybe 6 (but you know chicken math!) How many chickens do you have and how much bigger would you have gone. I see 8 by 10 feet. I love the look of your set up!
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Aug 26, 2012 05:38
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18 days after being attacked by a fox, Pip finally laid an egg again this morning. Such a relief, was concerned her egg system had got backed up and she was possibly heading towards egg peritonitus.
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Aug 26, 2012 14:13
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spookygonk posted:18 days after being attacked by a fox, Pip finally laid an egg again this morning. Such a relief, was concerned her egg system had got backed up and she was possibly heading towards egg peritonitus. HOORAY for Pip. So it appears she has made a full recovery!?
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Aug 26, 2012 14:18
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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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hey santa baby 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. Well, in my defense, I finally figured out that the wire in y coop is half an inch. I'm sorry Santa Baby, I grew up using the metric system and I still have some problems visualizing measurements in inches. So I agree, half an inch is pretty good. XD
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Aug 26, 2012 19:32
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Some more white cochin pullets,both these are fairly young,just 8 weeks but they're developing nicely.   I finally finished putting up the long sides of my new barn,now gotta install vent fans and get the doors built on the ends. After that ill be building enclosed runs off the sides with interior access for the birds. Havent been working as fast as id like,havent had time in between work to build. 
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Aug 26, 2012 23:30
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Tim the Enchanter, do you wait to name them, after you have decided to cull them or not? I know, this probably sounds like a stupid question.
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Aug 27, 2012 02:19
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I usually name at 6-7 weeks since by that time ill have weeded out most defects. The 2 pullets above dont have names yet.
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Aug 27, 2012 02:35
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Your cochins are so pretty If I lived in your town (and if it wasn't rather creepy) I would love going to your farm and see your chickens, they are just so pretty!
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Aug 27, 2012 04:53
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piscesbobbie posted:HOORAY for Pip. So it appears she has made a full recovery!? Only thing of notice is the feathers on top of her rump and tail are looking unkempt, so I think she's still having trouble reaching that far round to preen them. The feathers in her bald patches are coming through at a rate of knots and we have another egg from her today. Pip's steely eye is definitely back and she's (re)asserting her position as top hen. spookygonk fucked around with this message at 14:39 on Aug 27, 2012 |
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Aug 27, 2012 14:04
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Glad to hear pip is doing well.. My chicks are 5 weeks old today! And their coop is almost finished. They will be in it tonight or tomorrow. My favorite chicken is Bubbles, the white rock: She likes to help me feed everyone else. as soon as I lift the next off the box she flies up to see me:   She is also the only one that will occasionally come and jump into my lap for attention. The dogs are getting use to the chickens. Sasquatch is the most intrigued/obsessed.  and, The little seabright bantam can be such a LOUD MOUTH: http://youtu.be/8uq-SfGIhe8 the video is a little long, but you can skip towards the end to hear her out her loudest.
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Aug 27, 2012 15:10
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GREYCIOUS- Beautiful birds. Your little sebright is sooooo cute. Was there talk that perhaps she was a rooster? She is VERY loud! So adorable.
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Aug 27, 2012 17:15
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Greycious and Tim the Enchanter: I really enjoyed seeing the photos of your cute chickens! Thanks for sharing them! Found this image on Reddit's front page today. I see a few chickens there with the turkeys (at least I think they're turkeys?). VVV Edit: okay, they are guinea fowl. Thanks Chido! "Some poo poo is about to go down." 
Inveigle fucked around with this message at 22:28 on Aug 27, 2012 |
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Aug 27, 2012 22:13
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They are guinea fowl .
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Aug 27, 2012 22:23
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Inveigle posted:Greycious and Tim the Enchanter: I really enjoyed seeing the photos of your cute chickens! Thanks for sharing them! The chickens are clearly thinking they've hit the giant mealworm jackpot. I can only imagine the amount of noisy cackling that was going on, especially from the guineas.
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Aug 27, 2012 22:55
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Velvet Sparrow posted:The chickens are clearly thinking they've hit the giant mealworm jackpot. I can only imagine the amount of noisy cackling that was going on, especially from the guineas. Did anyone identify it? Hard to tell from this angle and side, and it's too grainy to tell if it's rough-scaled, but that looks uncomfortably like a big ol' rattler (markings vary by region! Fat body, sudden taper to tail, broad flat head... good thing those birds are as far as they are.)
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Aug 27, 2012 23:00
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Rose Wreck posted:Did anyone identify it? Hard to tell from this angle and side, and it's too grainy to tell if it's rough-scaled, but that looks uncomfortably like a big ol' rattler (markings vary by region! Fat body, sudden taper to tail, broad flat head... good thing those birds are as far as they are.) The snake was identified an Eastern Diamondback rattler and evidently guinea fowl like killing and eating snakes. That image I found was actually taken from this badly-edited video (stupid music with no audio and it does NOT show the aftermath of the guinea fowl VS. the rattlesnake). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUu-GcLSoHc
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Aug 27, 2012 23:11
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