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With mine, they have distinct running styles. Nugget, the gentle low end of the pecking order, runs with her head held back. Cluckface runs with her head straight outin front. Kennedy, the fattest and Head Hen, runs flat out with lots of flapping. The other day I tossed some leftover rice into the run after scratch time outside. Kennedy barreled through the other girls and actually growled at the others to get the biggest chunks.
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# ¿ Aug 30, 2019 18:01 |
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# ¿ May 10, 2024 18:23 |
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Having had an eyeballs-eye view of a pecking chicken, nah, not very amusing.
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# ¿ Sep 8, 2019 05:21 |
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Mine never learned that. It's always "Woot-woot! I've got a goodie!" And the chase is on. Every time.
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# ¿ Oct 4, 2019 13:24 |
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Wow. The beta version of the game was brutal.
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# ¿ Oct 16, 2019 22:59 |
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My right eyeball might disagree.
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# ¿ Oct 18, 2019 12:59 |
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Found a weirdy today. Egg with no shell, and an umbilical looking cord that ended in a blob of egg white coming off of one end. The membrane was robust enough to handle some squeezing, but there's no way that egg went to the egg tray in the fridge. The other two girls are still laying fine, and they're all eating layer feed as they have for two years, and getting daily scratch time.
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# ¿ Oct 31, 2019 04:16 |
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drat. Roo boy got in on it,too!
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# ¿ Oct 31, 2019 23:37 |
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My girls have gone on strike. No eggs in over a month. It's cooler, but not super cold, and they kept laying even in the shortest days the past two winters. They're two and a half, so they should at least be giving something, right? Kennedy decided November was a good time to molt, so she has an excuse. Somebody, we don't know who, had a couple of shell-less eggs before the general strike. Are they done? These are our first chooks, so we don't have a lot of experience.
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# ¿ Dec 13, 2019 19:05 |
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Hmm. Is it the eggpocalypse?
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# ¿ Dec 13, 2019 23:00 |
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And not only do they hurl themselves, one actually drops her own eggs on the pigs.
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# ¿ Dec 22, 2019 04:07 |
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Yeah ours decided winter was the best time to molt. And go on egg strike. We haven't gotten an egg in weeks. Lazy chooks. I berate them verbally every time I put them back in the coop, while still tossing worms everywhere. They just give me the eye as they squabble for the treats.
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# ¿ Dec 25, 2019 17:21 |
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What I've heard is that you can clip the feathers on one wing. The thinking is that makes for asymmetry, which they can't compensate for. Clipping both sides they can flap harder and get some lift.
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# ¿ Jan 15, 2020 23:56 |
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My chooks have ended their strike. After about a month with no eggs, they're back at work. Apparently they got mad I made it get cold just when they molted. But two are back in full feather and looking fat, shiny and happy. Poor Nugget, on the other hand, looks pretty pathetic. She seems to have molted more than the others, and later.
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# ¿ Jan 20, 2020 06:53 |
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Well, gently caress. A raccoon dug into the run and got all three girls. My wife sort of saw them and came in tears to get me to go check. rear end in a top hat raccoon had eaten the heads off of them. Goodbye, Nugget, Kennedy and Cluckface - you were good girls who had a good life and didn't deserve this. MrUnderbridge fucked around with this message at 12:37 on Jan 26, 2020 |
# ¿ Jan 26, 2020 12:31 |
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My buff orps had no trouble, even Kennedy, who was a seriously chunky gal. As long as it's not too steep and you have some cross pieces to give traction it should be fine.
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# ¿ Feb 6, 2020 18:53 |
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So after losing our three girls, we're looking to get a new set of chicks this spring. Our last girls were buff orps, and we don't want to try to replicate them. What we're looking for are breeds that can handle fairly warm summers (over 38 C or 100 American) and potentially winter occasionally going sub freezing for a few days. We'd like regular sized quiet eggers with the friendliest temperament possible. Fancy-schmancy breeds work, too. We are limited to three by the city. Any suggestions for breeds and/or suppliers?
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# ¿ Feb 11, 2020 21:25 |
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So now weeaboo chickens will be a thing. Great.
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# ¿ Feb 16, 2020 23:21 |
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ToxicFrog posted:I don't know what happened, but there is a huge spray of blood across the ceiling of the run, plus some on the walls and the ground where it's dripped down. It looks like a slasher film in there. Make sure you check for tiny shoes and a wee red conical cap. You never know.
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# ¿ Feb 19, 2020 16:07 |
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Yeah, we got some of those from our girls. Especially at first. Sizes varies widely, and before the winter egg strike they dropped a few without shells. One was weird and soft, and had some kind of chalazae like tail hanging off it. Tl,dr: chickens can drop weird stuff.out.of their butts.
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# ¿ Mar 2, 2020 00:52 |
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Great. Now I've got to hit the feed stores and watch the peepers. We decided not to restart this year after losing our girls a while back. But a guy can look, right fellas?
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# ¿ Mar 8, 2020 04:15 |
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Yeah, our dogs loved snacking on the chickens ' yard nuggets. Back when we had chickens....
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# ¿ Mar 12, 2020 06:45 |
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The first time our chooks sunned like that, my wife initially thought they were dead.
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# ¿ Mar 16, 2020 14:11 |
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Speaking of feed, we have pounds and pounds of pellets left over since the raccoon incident. Any ideas what to do with this? The dried mealworms are going to the local feathered bunch.
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# ¿ Mar 23, 2020 06:41 |
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I'll take a feather icon, as well.
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# ¿ Mar 23, 2020 22:35 |
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ynohtna posted:Fox ate my girl's heads last night. Pickle, Rhubarb, Hilde - I am so, so sorry. Sorry to hear this. Happened to us a couple of months ago. Heads off all three after the bastard dug into the run. You'll probably spend a month or two seeing their place and going "Oh. Poor chickens."
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# ¿ Apr 1, 2020 19:01 |
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5er posted:I might be sad when she is eventually a normal chonky lady like the rest of the flock. Nah.
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# ¿ May 6, 2020 18:22 |
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Owning a parrot is a sign of how weird you've gotten.
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# ¿ May 18, 2020 08:44 |
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You might have to check out how to treat bumblefoot yourself. It's a fairly minor procedure if a little gross and intimidating at first. Haven't done it myself, but there are lots of places online with instructions and videos. Try looking at some of the chicken boards for more hints. Backyardchickens.com, chickenforum.com, forum.backyardpoultry.com
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# ¿ Jul 15, 2020 22:51 |
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For my girls I just used some small multi colored zip ties. Since there were only three, it was: right leg, left leg, untagged. I put them on when they were in their awkward adolescent stage and changing so fast it was hard to keep track of who was who. I just fitted them loosely, clipped off the extra and aside from a few pecks the first day they never caused any problems. I'd worry about ones that had extra things dangling off them - I can see those being peck bait forever. Of course, once they grew to full adulthood it was easy to tell them apart, both visually and by behavior. Kennedy was always the fat greedy guts with the biggest comb and wattles. Nugget was the small, sweet one. Cluckface was the bold midsize.
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# ¿ Jul 25, 2020 19:58 |
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my cat is norris posted:This is a safe space for quail. Sadly, it's the only one.
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# ¿ Jul 26, 2020 23:38 |
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Whichever one looks tastier?
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# ¿ Aug 11, 2020 18:32 |
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If you have a good pet place nearby, crickets. Don't go to the big box pet places, they charge way too much. I could get 50 crickets for $2, and thet would provide much merriment as the chooks scrambled around nabbing them. Well, merriment for the chickens and me, not so much for the crickets.
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# ¿ Aug 25, 2020 18:02 |
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We had a mouse issue some years ago. One evening I heard a SNAP followed by a squealing and thumping. Turns out the mouse trap caught a young rat and only broke its back. Had to get a length of 2 by 4 to put it down. Not fun at all.
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# ¿ Sep 2, 2020 00:36 |
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stealie72 posted:My teenagers enjoying their new run/coop Heh. Tell them.to.enjoy that grass in there. It'll be gone in a blink.
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# ¿ Oct 14, 2020 23:32 |
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LuckyCat posted:I was trying to clean Boo’s eyes out earlier and it was stressful as usual. So stressful that I sat her down and she squatted and laid an egg in my lap. It was a bribe.
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# ¿ Nov 5, 2020 23:47 |
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We left ours at all times. We did have to raise it up on bricks because they tended to get poop in it. (See thread title)
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# ¿ Nov 14, 2020 00:45 |
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We had some sub freezing days and we'd put warm water in a couple of times a day, and put a reusable heat pack under it at night. Their water was inside the coop, and not a nipple or cup type. Those would likely freeze the tube pretty quickly. The girls spending time inside and having it out of the wind kept it largely free of ice.
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# ¿ Nov 17, 2020 15:20 |
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So is the rage orb the basis for the angry "bap-bap" image from way back when?
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# ¿ Dec 28, 2020 14:38 |
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Aww... our sweetest Orp was also named Nugget. Of the three she was always the calmest and friendliest. We're looking at getting more chooks this spring, but I doubt we'll recycle any names.
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# ¿ Jan 6, 2021 19:44 |
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# ¿ May 10, 2024 18:23 |
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When we'd give our young'uns meal worms, whoever got the first one would run off chirping like mad. This led the others to chase them, even though there were mealworms just crawling around. They honestly believe that the one worm somebody else has is the best worm ever, and they have to have it and gently caress those trash wiggling on the ground! If they would just stop the chirping the others would leave them alone and get their own. But, nope.
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# ¿ Jan 8, 2021 01:41 |