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omg incredible edit: uhhhhHHHH it's a snipe but i do have a real question small flock of chickens, no roosters permitted. what's my best breed option for a bunch of birds who won't immediately walk into the woods and die? they'll be cooped and penned and hopefully protected, of course, but i do want a breed that isn't completely helpless. or at least not as helpless as quails.
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Jan 21, 2023 15:49
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excuse me. what are you doing
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Jan 22, 2023 10:17
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my cat is norris posted:omg incredible Maybe not polishes, or any breed where you have to regularly groom their head poofs or they're effectively walking around half blind? Or silkies for that matter
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Jan 22, 2023 16:30
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i bet some good ol standard breeds would be fine. if i had to pick from my flock the most "self sufficient" hens, i'd say the Rhode Island Reds. they take no guff from anyone and their biggest fault is greediness. they aren't silly like the Brown Leghorns or flighty like my Easter Egger. they don't do "clever" things like the Australorps (eg sneak into the garage and eat whatever they find off the floor). barnyard banties would be my #1 recommendation if you want chickens for chickens sake and aren't worried about eggs. they're keen little things, excepting the broodiness. in a similar vein...i made a very short "edutainment" video for people thinking about getting chickens. i'm no expert/it's not exhaustive, and i'm sure all of us here are well aware of these things, but maybe there is a lurker who would find it helpful? i really wish i was brave enough to share it on my regional facebook chicken page. that place is just a mess of new people wanting to get chickens and getting scammed. i'm sure the flood of unwanted chickens (esp roos) in a few months is going to be huge. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4D9zFltFtA
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Jan 25, 2023 06:02
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thanks for the recommendations! I've thought about banties...
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Jan 25, 2023 17:15
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I have some sad news: Tammy passed away last night. She was fine not 12 hours earlier when I raided the hutch for eggs. We think she was egg bound but since we couldn't palpate an egg it must have broken and led to injury and infection. It's unlikely but possible she was also just really old, we don't have good info on how old she was when we rescued her from that student in the university dorms, but she was exhibiting all of the classic symptoms. She wasn't even that bad in the morning when Dienes noticed she didn't come running out into the yard for sprouts like she usually did and brought her inside immediately. It was at least quick, just a few hours. We had actually sat with her for quite a while then went downstairs and found a vet who could take care of her. We ran upstairs to grab her and go to find she had passed in the maybe 15 minutes we had been away. I'm glad we at least had that last time with her. I think she was a happy bird. Even right up until the end she loved getting scritches and just sitting in our laps. She definitely loved Zapdos, I would always see her walk up and nuzzle him before settling in to borb by his side.  We gave her the best life we could, and I like to think that of all our birds, she knew how good she had it given where she came from. The last picture I have is of her enjoying her sand bath just two nights ago:  Roost in peace, Tammy.
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Jan 25, 2023 21:32
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Roost in peace, Tammy. You and your partner have done a great job in giving Tammy and the other quail a wonderful home. She definitely knew love and comfort.
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Jan 25, 2023 21:41
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Chaosfeather posted:Roost in peace, Tammy. Ditto.
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Jan 25, 2023 23:00
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aww, sweet Tammy. roost in peace.
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Jan 26, 2023 05:02
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What's the deal with this conspiracy going around about chicken feed causing chickens to stop laying eggs?
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Jan 28, 2023 03:46
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Alterian posted:What's the deal with this conspiracy going around about chicken feed causing chickens to stop laying eggs? Idiots who don't know chickens stop laying in winter?
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Jan 28, 2023 04:11
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i'm sorry to hear about tammy   she was a happy little bird and you gave her a great life with so many friends!
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Jan 28, 2023 10:25
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quail
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Jan 28, 2023 16:58
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sometimes i catch myself thinking "drat quail are so simple, they die at the drop of a hat, they must be a lesser life-form", but then the drat things look me straight in the eye and i realise they are tiny people
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Jan 28, 2023 17:13
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a strange fowl posted:sometimes i catch myself thinking "drat quail are so simple, they die at the drop of a hat, they must be a lesser life-form", but then the drat things look me straight in the eye and i realise they are tiny people That's the exact reaction I have to human infants. We've been missing Tammy. Zapdos definitely does - his crowing, particularly at us, has increase exponentially the past few days. But its been nice to have the chicks as a distraction. They are starting to show different colors and personalities: Our only silver pharoah chick (thus far):  We have 2 turning more orange, likely to be Italians like Zapdos.  A lone Tibetian-looking chick.  One of the 2 brown tuxedos. They are some of the chiller chicks.  The one chick who has a name - MIL decided this was her favorite and dubbed them 'Striper.' Naturally, this one is the least tame. It also can fly across the room.  The one black chick, who hatched from our own quails' eggs and is undoubtedly Windlord's baby.  The black chick has an underbite and ever-so-slight scissor beak. Doesn't seem to be holding them back at all, though!  One of the many, many pearl chicks.  The chick I can't pin down yet. Doesn't look like the pharoahs or silver pharoahs, color is more patchy and chest is very dark.  Another shot of the same chick: 
Dienes fucked around with this message at 12:51 on Jan 30, 2023 |
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Jan 30, 2023 01:59
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they're cute 
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Jan 30, 2023 03:56
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Can you keep quails and chickens together? My daughter is very keen to get some, but I feel like our chickens will bully the poo poo out of them
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Jan 30, 2023 09:55
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Scientastic posted:Can you keep quails and chickens together? My daughter is very keen to get some, but I feel like our chickens will bully the poo poo out of them
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Jan 30, 2023 10:33
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a strange fowl posted:not together as in, in the same enclosure. they can transmit diseases between species and the chickens will harass the quail. but you can keep them fairly close together as long as you practice good hygiene, as long as the chickens can't physically get at the quail they will probably leave them alone (at least in my experience) That’s what I thought. We have the chickens out in the garden a lot when it’s not flockdown, and it would have been lovely to have a mixed menagerie, but sounds like it would be a bad idea
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Jan 30, 2023 12:37
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City of Glompton posted:they're cute They're all adorable 
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Jan 30, 2023 13:40
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Scientastic posted:That’s what I thought. We have the chickens out in the garden a lot when it’s not flockdown, and it would have been lovely to have a mixed menagerie, but sounds like it would be a bad idea keep in mind that quail don't need nearly as much space as the chickens, and you can even keep them in elevated hutches like rabbits! they also do well indoors provided you're good at regular cleaning and can give them some outdoors-esque enrichment. if you have the space and think it's worth the effort to appease the kids, there are ways to make to work safely for all!
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Jan 30, 2023 15:07
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It's very cold here after several days of warmer weather so the chickens have been treated to some sunflower seeds. Their combs look extra glossy because we smeared Vaseline on them last night.
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Jan 31, 2023 00:37
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 We had a surprise visitor in our front yard tonight. We're seeing if we can get her back home. If nothing else, we found a volunteer to take her in. For the night, she's staying in the spare dog crate in our daughter's room so she can stay warm.
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Jan 31, 2023 02:15
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I have more sad news far too soon: Kylo Hen passed away this morning  Just a stupid random accident. She got herself wedged into the food dispenser and panicked, making it worse. This was supposed to be a safe food system, but evidently they didn't take a quail with Kylo's girth into consideration. The last photo I have from when I raided them for eggs:  She was definitely a happy bird, which is what makes this so hard. She would just sit with us and enjoy scritches. Even when she was a little baby, she would scream at us and peck at our hands until we picked her up. Right up until last night, she came running whenever I went out to check on everyone, and I could never steal the eggs without picking her up for at least a few seconds. Roost in peace, Kylo. Even Peanut Hamper is upset about this one. I caught this video earlier when I was sitting with them for a while (sound on): https://i.imgur.com/I0zwZm5.mp4 That's not like her. She kept going around the hutch almost like she was searching for Kylo and Tammy. She was infinitely happier when I picked her up and let her sit in my lap, or when she climbed into the plants near where I was sitting. 
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Jan 31, 2023 02:21
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Explosionface posted:
Oh weird. We also found a random bird in our yard today, but it was a blue parakeet. I hope you find its owner!
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Jan 31, 2023 02:28
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oh no, bvv, i'm so sorry! quail, quail never change. it's tragic watching them mourn for birds who have passed. just know that you are doing a good job. accidental deaths are awful but they do happen, especially to quail  the important thing is their quality of life, and yours have a life that most other quail would envy.
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Jan 31, 2023 03:06
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Explosionface posted:
What a beautiful visitor!
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Jan 31, 2023 03:15
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RudeCat posted:What a beautiful visitor! She's great. Very calm and quiet. By far the quietest chicken that's been in/around our house.
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Jan 31, 2023 04:04
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chickens are so fascinating. what a head poof. i will miss hearing tales of kylo hen's endless love. it's always a tragedy...may one of the newbies fill that little void.
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Jan 31, 2023 15:23
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Sorry for your loss, BaronVonVaderham. I finished my de-flocking (and crying all my tears) and have ordered some chicks for the end of March. I’m going with white naked necks from Mcmurray. My thought is to do the 3 clan method (spiral breeding) if I can swing it so I won’t have to reorder chicks every year. We’ll see how it goes.
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Jan 31, 2023 18:19
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Joburg posted:Sorry for your loss, BaronVonVaderham. I'm sorry for your loss. That must have been devastating.
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Jan 31, 2023 20:26
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Arsenic Lupin posted:I'm sorry for your loss. That must have been devastating. Yeah, it was way up there in the list of bad parts of my whole life. Unfortunately I had a very similar thing happen with my colony of rabbits a few years ago, so I may be cursed.
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Jan 31, 2023 21:24
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being a caretaker is hard.
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Jan 31, 2023 22:52
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How it started: How its' going:  In January of last year, I moved to a house I actually own now. Due to a fence not being completed at the time of purchase, I had to give up my original six birds, but they were re-homed to a friend's family that just had their own little back yard flock die from old age. Within a few months, my wife fenced off the back yard and we were ready to flock back up! I originally had ordered 4 lavender orps and 3 gold laced wyandottes from Ideal Poultry. 1 orp and 1 wyandotte were DOA and chickens being what they are, the 6 remaining girls had themselves some grisly bonus protein during shipment. Ideal refunded me for the dead birds. I drove out to a TSC and rounded out the lost birds with 3 cinnamon queens, and chucked em right on into the nursery bin. I think we were very close to losing one of the wyandotte chicks at point of arrival too- the chick you can see in the upper right of the baby photo was very lethargic, and neither eating nor drinking for the entire day. That issue carried on the following day. Ideal said if she biffs it within the next 2 days, they'd refund her too. What we did was offer the chick some sugar water in a spoon. After a couple dips of the beak, she sucked down about two spoons, then gradually started eating & drinking on her own, and was recovered completely by the 3rd day! In July, one of the lavenders just poof vanished. We were trialing them in the back yard in an improvised hardware cloth kiddie pen, and it happened in a half-hour stretch when everyone was inside for lunch. No idea if it was predation, or if it somehow snuck off and then got nailed by something. We have a zillion stray cats in our neighborhood, our best guess is the latter. The current picture is from the end of December. We have some happy, puffy ladies now. The wyandottes are pretty, the cinnamons are in charge, and the orps are just large. Our cins are named Nefertiti, Catherine & Big Red, the wyandottes are Runty (the survivor) and Goldie (the darker yellow), and the orps are Grumbles and Stupid. They're both actually kind of stupid. Big Red has consistently been the darkest of the cinnamons. She was, at the outset, the biggest and bossiest girl, warranting the name... but her sisters caught up and surpassed her. Nefertiti is the one with the biggest comb, and Catherine's the 3rd. Queens. The three of them are totally in my face and under my feet, almost as friendly as the orps, but they shy from being touched. Grumbles and Runty have a routine where they -expect- me to put them up on the roost when I'm closing the coop at night. Runty walks right up to me when I show up at dusk and is ready to get picked up. Grumbles earned her name for this routine, because while she pretty much is used to it, she'll still do a broody, grouchy little trill when I pick her up. Stupid is so-named because she is always the one confusing the poo poo out of herself by getting stuck in the run with the open door because it's BEHIND where she saw treats thrown and can't quite process to turn around and go out the loving door. She is also the bird who keeps trying to follow a human into the house and has nearly had her face smashed in the door a few times. She's also the girl that seems to thrive on interaction and affection the most. She's stupid but lovable. The only way to distinguish Grumbles and Stupid, is that Stupid has a purple ankle bracelet. They're tough to distinguish if you don't know their personality quirks. Coming in March, I'll be adding four Beilefelders! I'm excited for this, because it'll add some visual variety, and they're apparently just as sweetly dispositioned as orps and rocks. I originally was scouting for some jubilee orpingtons, but holy poo poo, they are the 'it girls' right now- $40 to $50 per chick on hatchery sites, and backordered to July or just straight 'sold out check again next fall'. I read up on Beilefelders after that after seeing they were a little more immediately available, and decided to go with them instead. I found out a little bit later that Speckled Sussexes look just like jubilee orps and are also absurdly affectionate, but eh gently caress it, order was placed and I've already set my heart on them.
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Feb 1, 2023 05:36
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Our resident Red Shoulder Hawk family has decided to nest in a tree about 50 feet from our coop this year.
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Feb 1, 2023 16:36
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5er posted:Beilefelders I've never heard of these! They seem lovely! now i want them Alterian posted:Our resident Red Shoulder Hawk family has decided to nest in a tree about 50 feet from our coop this year.  there's a pair in my neighborhood, too. not entirely sure how to handle that beyond bird netting over the run i guess.
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Feb 1, 2023 19:38
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We got our fluffy-headed visitor rehomed last night. We were sad to see her go, but since we're on the no chicken list, she definitely had to go. Of course, about half an hour later, we found out where she really came from. I'm pretty sure she went to a better home, to be honest. She seemed to have some minor neglect issues so I wonder if she really had a good home to start with.
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Feb 1, 2023 20:39
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my cat is norris posted:I've never heard of these! They seem lovely! They've lived around our house for years and haven't messed with them. We have Robert Smith now, too. There are so many squirrels around I doubt they would run out of food.
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Feb 1, 2023 21:01
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Explosionface posted:We got our fluffy-headed visitor rehomed last night. We were sad to see her go, but since we're on the no chicken list, she definitely had to go. Of course, about half an hour later, we found out where she really came from. I'm pretty sure she went to a better home, to be honest. She seemed to have some minor neglect issues so I wonder if she really had a good home to start with. You did the right thing. 
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Feb 1, 2023 21:05
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Alterian posted:We have Robert Smith now, too.
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Feb 1, 2023 23:29
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