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piscesbobbie posted:VS - beautiful hen, the way her feathers wrap down around her neck and the colors are gorgeous. Did her crop wiggle with the live prey after she swallowed it! hee hee hee (just joking around) While I've been researching in anticipation of a small flock next year, it seems more breeds are available in the UK The book is in a holding pattern for now as over the summer I needed to focus on getting moved into the new house, family emergencies and getting the kid started for the school year. Just too much going on at once. I informed the publisher and she understood, so I'll get started on it again soon.  There are for sure more breeds, and better examples (the Giant Cochins in the UK are amazing) in Europe, I think there has been more interest in preserving those breeds for a longer time and breeding outstanding examples than in the US, where eggs/meat has been the priority. Now more people here mainstream are getting into chickens so I hope that changes. Most chickens have roughly the same life span unless they are a production meat breed such as Cornish Cross, it's up to the owners to extend their lives as much as possible be providing excellent living conditions. Hens have a finite number of eggs in their bodies (just like human females) and when that supply is exhausted (or they have some medical reason for falling out of lay), they stop laying. Usually lay starts at around the age of 6 months, peaks at age 2-4 years, then will taper off and finally stop at the age of 6 years, give or take. I have had old ladies who hadn't laid for several years suddenly pop off with an egg or two at the age of 8-9 years when Spring came.  Completely undignified.
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Aug 29, 2012 02:08
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I had people buying the molted feathers from my chickens, as well as from my Bourke's parakeets and Elegant parakeets (grass 'keets from Australia--beautiful, sweet little birds). I'd save them for a few months and then sell a baggieful on ebay. You do have to make sure they are clean and in great condition, tho. There is big money these days in feathers, not only from fly tiers but from beauty supply places getting them for hair ornaments/feather extentions. The long pheasant feathers are especially sought after, as are Barred Rock roo hackles. And yeah, you'll see a lot of whole-neck and whole-back chicken parts for sale. At least more of the animal is being used, not just the meat... Fermented, Caffe continued to lay even though her feathers changed, up until she got too old. I think it depends on the degree of trauma, your bird obviously suffered a greater trauma, poor baby! Poof, our White Crested Black Polish hen is getting quite old and has a few white wing feathers now, but I put that down to age rather than trauma. Poor Poof is also going blind and will probably become an indoor chicken by this winter.
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Sep 1, 2012 01:36
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Ha, Onion is pretty darned smart.  I've had to wash chickens before for various reasons, some of my Silkies didn't give a rat's rear end and others freaked RIGHT the gently caress out. Their favorite part is the warm air from the hair dryer set on 'low'. Nice 'shed' ya got there, Tim.  VVVV Lots of people who show animals use liquid blueing to get them their whitest-white, it works really well. Unless your chicken commits laundry additive sabotage, that is. Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 10:54 on Sep 2, 2012 |
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Sep 2, 2012 02:42
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Onion is beautiful even with the punker blue streak. Chido, you may have a corneal abrasion, I had one years ago (and didn't know it) and rubbed my eye, making it 10x worse. Cue 5 days lying in bed in a darkened room in extreme pain. Don't be me.  If it gets worse have an opthamologist look at it, he can give you antibiotic/numbing drops to help it.
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Sep 3, 2012 09:18
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Dammit, sick chicken. Peepsquire, our Marans hen hatched last year, is acting as if she has soft shell egg stuck. We had only been getting eggs from her sporadically, but she's been healthy. This morning I found her fluffed up and kind of straining to lay, but not in the full-on 'eggbound' penguin stance. It was more like she was straining to poop, but not constantly. We just brought her into the house because her vent was a bit bloody and we didn't want the other chickens pecking her. She won't eat or drink so I'm going to handfeed her some goodies--a mixture of yogurt (for calcium, good for muscles depleted of calcium from straining) and Karo syrup (for energy). I've also got some egg and leftover noodle/ground beef from dinner last night out for her. I lubed up one finger and reached into her, can't feel any egg even when I press her abdomen from the outside while feeling around in there. She's dripping a bit of water but other than that is just standing around, not straining to lay. All the rest of the chickens are fine. Considering we lost a 3 year old hen to prolapsed vent a couple of weeks ago, I'm leery of what the Hell might be going on. Other eggs from the hens all look great, normal yolks/white/nice hard shells. They are getting high quality feed, oyster shell, dark leafy greens and other goodies. We wormed the entire flock about a month ago, no signs of parasites inside or out and she's nice and fat. Her comb is a bit shrunken but I suspect that's from her not drinking. It's been warm here but not killer hot like it was about three weeks ago. Anyone have any ideas? Edit: After having her in the house and watching her for the last few hours, I'm going ahead and treating for Coccidiosis with Corid, a liquid Amprolium-based coccistat. Since she won't drink we're giving it to her orally every 20 minutes with a feeding syringe. She's NOT a happy hen and is at least strong enough to fight us, which is good.
Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 02:38 on Sep 4, 2012 |
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Sep 3, 2012 23:43
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Peepsquire has improved this morning and ate two hard-boiled egg yolks on her own. She's still getting medicated water ladled down her throat about every hour, so I'm getting nuclear-strength Hairy Eyeball from her, but that's OK.
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Sep 4, 2012 18:03
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Inveigle posted:VS: since the 'Squire is sitting there in the house, could you please take and post a few updated photos of her? I haven't seen a good photo of her in a long time. Aw, poor Peeps is looking pretty ragged right now and not at her best, I'm afraid. But once she gets better I sure will. Plus, we had our cable company come out today and fix the damned thing so our upstream bandwidth is MUCH better, so we'll be testing it out with the cam out in the yard on the chickens soon, probably in about 5-7 days.
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Sep 4, 2012 22:21
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Chido, I'm SO proud of Roo and his first hawk butt whoopin'... *sniff* He looks so snazzy! Captain Foxy, wow is Louis ever beautiful! He reminds me of our young roo Nigel. Speaking of Nigel...he just went to his new home. We made the tough decision to rehome three of our roo boys, the hens just can't handle all the fellas and it isn't fair to the boys. So Nigel just went to his new home with a young couple here in town who just fell in LOVE with him, he'll have his own flock of 4-5 hens. The other two that will be rehomed will be Georgia (light Brahma/Americaunas mix roo hatched in March) and Dinner, our two year old light Brahma roo. I have a lady nearby who has Brahma hens and is looking for a Brahma roo for them that may take one of them. Dinner and Weedcat are just battling over the hens way too much and making everyone miserable. So we'll keep Weedcat (splash Giant Cochin) and Rafe (buff Brahma, a big, mellow sweetie) from last year's hatch. Bloop, the Belgian d'Uccle roo hatched in March will also stay, as will Scott, our elderly d'Uccle/Frizzle Head Roo. As soon as the extra two boys are rehomed we'll be combining both flocks into one and opening up the yard to them, so things are going to drastically improve for all of the chickens.
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Sep 5, 2012 01:11
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Uh huh, corneal abrasion. Thought that sounded familiar. They hurt like a BITCH. Good girl for getting it looked at, and one word of caution: Make sure the eye drops they gave you are for use in the EYE. Years ago I had a doctor give me samples that clearly said, 'Not for opthalmic use' right on the label. When I pointed it out, he looked pretty shaken. Do the full course of antibiotics, even if you think you're gonna be OK--stopping them too soon can lead to a relapse of the infection which can then be drug resistant and even HARDER to treat the second time around. That poor guy in the other chat window looks SO confused. Nettle: I've never run chickens on woodchips, but straw stays pretty dry on top and works well for us...my chickens always managed to scratch around my garden bed woodchips and pretty much got to the dirt, but straw tends to just spread around and interlock better. Zeta, I agree with everyone else, friend or not if someone is on the job kids and pets should stay at home. Or in the truck. Dogs, that is.  We successfully integrated both coops today with only minimal grumpy fussiness on the part of the older chickens. The really older birds just gave us that disgusted, 'What, again?' glare. Nigel has gone to a new home and Dinner and Weedcat are now in the small coop till the rest of the flock is running smoothly. The two boys aren't too happy but all is well. Scott jumped Bloop about three times, just enough to make the point of who is Head Roo, which Bloop accepted. Georgia is just blending in although some of the older hens have givien him the hairy eyeball and he's wisely run away when they do. Rafe is just chill with everyone, he doesn't bother anyone and no one bothers him (he's too damned big!). Detente is a beautiful thing.
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Sep 5, 2012 22:56
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Very sad day. Rafe, our big buff Brahma roo hatched last year, just died of a heart attack. He'd been hanging out with some dust bathing hens moments before. It's kind of a known hazard of large breed roos, they carry so much weight on their chests. He was one of my favorites, so big and beautiful, so calm and sweet to the hens.
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Sep 6, 2012 19:19
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Vaga42Bond posted:Rafe, no! Rafe was the biggest and heaviest, taller and broader than Dinner. He weighed about 15 pounds I think. He was the Brahma roo we'd just decided to keep, we and the hens loved him.  Why is it always your favorite?
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Sep 6, 2012 20:11
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MisterOblivious posted:What do you suppose has her attention? All chickens do this, it has to do with keeping their equilibrium. Yeah, even though she had recovered from her bout with Cocci, was eating, drinking and carrying on normally, yesterday evening we found Peepsquire dead in one of the nest boxes. I think she had just been too weakened, had lost too much weight and her heart just gave out, poor baby. We put her next to Rafe. This has been a really lovely week.
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Sep 10, 2012 00:57
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Ha ha, someone stuck their head in a cobweb... Such cute chickies. Your big gray Cochin reminds me very much of one of my favorite hens, Skitters: Skitters used to sit in my lap pretty much constantly, she was a Cochin/Jersey Giant/Americaunas mix. I actually went through the Chickam thread and made a list of all the damned names and who suggested them, I can send it to you if you want. Fair warning, it's huge, tho.
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Sep 12, 2012 21:16
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Raikiri posted:That would be great, thanks. I'll just make a throwaway email so I don't have to worry about spam. OK, list sent!
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Sep 12, 2012 22:24
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Oh God button quail.... I have a button quail story. When I was a kid my dad had the brilliant idea to get an incubator and hatch a shitload of button quail--his grand, get-rich-quick scheme was to sell the adult birds and their eggs to local restaurants. So pretty soon we had 30 button quail, all of which were psychopathic, frenetic nutjobs that would freak OUT if anyone came near, even though they'd been raised by us and saw us every damned day. We're talking full-on, screech and fling themselves about, freak outs. Well, needless to say no one wanted the quail OR their eggs, and pretty soon the quail were reproducing like rabbits and we had a SHITLOAD of psychopathic freak-out quail. Who sat right down and got busy making MORE quail... Dad, disappointed, ended up just giving them all to some poor dumb sucker. He never did make a dime, poor guy. Edit: To clarify, quail is sometimes served in fancy restaurants, as are the eggs. And yeah, quail are awesome and damned cute. One good thing--it was the first time I'd seen bird eggs incubated and hatched, I was hooked! So that's where Chickam has it's roots.
Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 16:44 on Sep 13, 2012 |
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Sep 13, 2012 10:45
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Chido, often the PO will call you at any hour to come and get the chicks--there are people working behind the scenes, not just when the front is open to the public. So be ready for the call whenever it comes. They are usually really good about calling right away when chicks arrive. I'd give the chicks some unflavored Pedialyte to drink for the first 24 hours, it'll boost their electrolytes (stressed or sick birds benefit from an electrolyte boost). You can get it at the grocery store in the baby aisle or make your own: Be SURE to keep it refrigerated and to make a fresh batch every 12 hours. Offer it in place of regular drinking water. Mix together until all dry ingredients are dissolved: 1/2 Qt. Water 1 tsp. Sugar 1/4 tsp Salt 1/4 tsp. Baking Soda
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Sep 20, 2012 02:21
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Bantaras posted:One of my Red Stars laid this earlier today. It's certainly a record for us. I wonder if she is sore? Someone is bucking for Employee of the Month... heh, 'bucking'... Yeah, one of my hens laid a double shelled egg last year, it was hilarious.  Here's what was inside:  Normal egg in all other respects, it just got a double coat of eggshell. Nettle, I remember when one of my baby chicks got stuck upside down, jammed behind the brooder box one day while we were gone. It was scary, but she turned out OK.
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Sep 20, 2012 17:05
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Well drat the PO all to Hell anyway. I'd for sure write a nasty letter to the postmaster there letting him know they killed baby chicks. I don't know what else you could be doing for the survivors that you aren't already doing...good luck!
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Sep 21, 2012 01:45
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Inveigle posted:Maybe VS, or one of the people who raise lots of chickens, might have an idea about Ravioli. Poor little chickie. All I can suggest is to keep them warm, quiet, and keep up with the Pedialyte. Scrambled eggs and tiny bits of diced, peeled grapes and tomato would be a good thing, too. They are too young for mealworms just yet unfortunately... If the stress of shipping and being without water for too long has damaged their kidneys/liver, there isn't much else you can do that I know of, poor babies. Great names, tho! If anyone can save these babies, Chido can, she's a great chicken mom
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Sep 21, 2012 16:46
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Chido posted:I don't know if Ravioli and Caponera are having a heavy case of chick derpiness and narcolepsy, or if their tiny brains were damaged too. Capo is active and everything, but then suddenly she drops wherever she is standing and closes her eyes and falls asleep. Ravioli tends to stand in one place and doesn't move as much, but she does drink well from the dropper and eats, she just looks weaker than the other and less active. I don't know if she'll make it, but she's hanging in there. Normal for chicks, they seem as if they are wind-up toys that suddenly run down. They fall asleep standing up, plop down, sleep for a bit then pop back up again. Keeping our fingers crossed!
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Sep 21, 2012 23:59
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Chido posted:Thanks Inveigle for reminding me of this. VS, is there a guide online on how to handfeed baby chicks? I don't know...but the 'food hole' is at the back of the throat, the 'air hole' is under the tongue. So don't put food down the wrong pipe, if they aspirate food it can kill them. I just put a little food in their mouth and allow them to swallow naturally. Give it drop by drop--agonizingly slow and time consuming. Give them a little bit every 20 minutes or so. You can try a mixture of stage 1 (the kind for the youngest babies, all strained, no chunks) baby food mixed with some Pedialyte to a 'bit watery pudding' consistency and handfeed that. Get a jar each of strained meat, a green vegetable and a orange vegetable (chicken, peas, carrots). Mixing in a tiny bit of plain yogurt with active cultures can give them a 'good' gut bacteria (probiotics) boost if their digestive system is off a bit. Refrigerate any unused food mixture and warm it a tiny bit (just a hair warmer than your skin temperature) before feeding--if you microwave it STIR IT WELL and test it, too-hot food can burn a baby's sensitive crop and kill! Finish the feeding session with a drop of two of Pedialyte to rinse the food out of their beak so it doesn't gunk up their mouth. You can only do so much, Mother Nature seems cruel sometimes but really does know best. Keep them warm and quiet and give them a chance to get stronger. Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 08:04 on Sep 22, 2012 |
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Sep 22, 2012 07:59
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^^^ Shrimp is also the reason flamingo poo poo smells so horrible. Good God, what a profound stink. Well, poo poo. You did everything you could, Chido, great job. If you ever have to handfeed again, ask your pharmacist for an irrigation syringe--they have no needles, just a pointed plastic tube end that is either straight or curved (I use straight) and you don't need a prescription to buy them. Some pet stores and feed stores sell them as well, sometimes calling them 'handfeeding syringes' for birds or kittens/puppies. You can trim the end with scissors if the opening is too small. If you can't find one and want to have one or two on hand (something I strongly suggest for every chicken emergency kit) let me know and I'll send you a couple. Tim, very cute white fuzzballs, they remind me of Yang, my white banty Cochin hen, who was the mother of Moet, my buff Cochin Frizzle. This is Yang back in 2002, VERY concerned because the baby was carrying eggs. She followed her all around the yard.  That same year, we'd had a yard sale one day. After it was over, my daughter decided to go out back and price the chickens. The tag & tape were no longer sticky, so she didn't hurt the poultry, she would just hold the tag up to them. $10.00 each! Starting with Latte, our grumpy old Brinkotter hen.  Wild Child, our Head Hen, gets the same tag, closely watched over by Jack, our Head Roo.  Wild Child hangs out while Latte gets priced again, obviously hoping that the small human will be dropping food soon. All of the chickens were very tolerant when it came to the kid.  ...while Jack politely declined. 
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Sep 23, 2012 00:12
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Chido posted:Holy crap Pancake is a brat. he new chick Waffle is cute and quiet, Pancake just keeps peeping so loud because she doesn't want to be in the brooder. She only wants to be held, that spoiled brat ...and here we go again!
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Sep 23, 2012 07:18
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I can absolutely vouch for what Tim said...mine were being VERY photogenic, tooling around in the flowers...until I pointed the camera at them--then they swung about with precision that would make a military drill team jealous, and presented me with their best side: I hung around for a bit hoping they'd turn back around, even called 'chick-chick-chick', but no soap. Every so often one of them would sneak a glance over their shoulder to check if I was still there, then go back to showing me their fannies. Brats. 
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Sep 24, 2012 19:00
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Great pics. Pancake has meaty thighs, good chicken! As for goodies, yes, the raw corn on the cob can be given now, just shave the tops (carefully! off the tops of the kernals with a knife before giving it to them to make it easy to eat (also easier to peck, accidentally get a beakful of yummy corn and discover that it is FOOD). Peeled, diced tomatoes and grapes are also great, and any day now the tiny mealworms. You MUST have the cam on for their first bout of Mealworm Chicken Football. Pardalis, the quail eggs are beautiful!
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Sep 27, 2012 08:09
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Ah ha ha, the relief when she came back was palpable. We ordered 3000 giant mealworms today, in a few days we're gonna have some VERY happy chickens.
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Sep 29, 2012 09:45
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Inveigle posted:Haha! Wow. Flashlight for an incubator light source? And I thought Nettle Soup's incubator (using a light bulb) was low tech. We found that lighting the eggs obliquely works best, that way the cam will focus on the eggs rather than the viewing pane of the 'bator.
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Sep 30, 2012 04:49
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Pardalis, you appear to have hatched a wet, stripey bean.
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Sep 30, 2012 08:04
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Saint Darwin posted:So is there any reason that raising 2-3 would not be do-able or practical? I don't have a giant back yard. Yeah, 3 is best. Chickens are flock animals and don't do well singly, so if you get only 2 and one dies, you'll have one VERY unhappy and lonely chicken. Bantams are great, and Belgian d'Uccles and Silkies are both very quiet, docile, sweet and friendly breeds. All chickens lay eggs, with or without a roo, and banties just lay smaller eggs is all.Check your zoning, both for how far a coop must be from any housing (yours and the neighbors) and also check noise ordinances (usually apply to roosters, but some really uptight cities may count hens as well). I'd just contact your city zoning office and ask about chicken keeping in your area. The most important thing for chickens is a secure, safe place to live, especially at night when they are most vulnerable--so if you build a coop/run, don't stint on it please!
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Oct 3, 2012 08:05
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Saint Darwin posted:Thanks for the info, but I talked it over with my girlfriend and she hates chickens. Like, really really hates them for some reason. She got mad at chickens from me just bringing it up. Possibly she was chased by a rooster as a child, or got pecked. Lots of people who grow up to be afraid of chickens had a bad experience as a child from some shithead roo. Maybe have her meet some sweet, gentle chickens to provide a more positive experience and broaden her mind a bit...?
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Oct 4, 2012 10:38
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Chido posted:Today I noticed that Waffle my EE is fatter than Pancake, he brahma chick. Wafflei s 2 days younger but boy is she a piglet. Is it normal that a brahma chick may be smaller than another breed when they are babies? Depends on the individual bird...my Giant Cochin ladies are all pretty darned small for 'giants', especially Sonic, my Golden Laced. She was a tiny girl from the get-go. Dinner, our light Brahma roo we hatched last year, just went to his new home. Another guy is coming shortly to look at Georgia, the Light Brahma/Americaunas mix roo boy, likely he'll go today too.We HATE to have to rehome them, but we just had way too many fellas, the girls were suffering and they were after each other constantly. The people who took Dinner seemed like very nice people, they needed a roo for their 20 hens...so he'll have plenty of ladies.
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Oct 6, 2012 00:03
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Inveigle posted:Awright! Plenty of ladies for Dinner! Yeah--Scott, our elderly banty roo, Bloop the youngster banty roo and Weedcat the Giant Cochin, hatched last year. They all seem to get along OK. I have pics of Georgia...he'd been playing in the mud, tho. He also wasn't too keen on posing for pictures.    You can see his Barred Rock cape feathers coming in, courtesy of his great-grandfather, Jack.
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Oct 6, 2012 00:42
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...and Georgia is off to his new home in Carson City, Nevada where he will have a flock of ten hens! The family that came for him loved him, especially the dad, which is great since Georgia gravitates towards men. Before he went, Georgia and 12_String spent some quality time together while 12_String played Halo:  I miss the boys, and will worry about them no matter what, even though we did what was best for them... So we're down to 3 roos, and Weedcat went back into the main run tonight with the rest of the flock. He couldn't be happier, Scott is complaining, Bloop is indignant and the hens...are on the fence. Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 08:51 on Oct 6, 2012 |
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Oct 6, 2012 02:11
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^^^^ We call it the 'Hey, baby!' dance.  As for the dog, we now have a 5 year old female Schnauzer/Cocker mix (a 'Schnocker'), rehomed from a nice couple who were moving and couldn't keep her. She's awesome, and the girls (both named 'Jennifer') had trained her to be well-behaved. My kid loves her and she loves her right back, they are inseperable. Bloop and Weedcat had a bit of a tussle tonight when we reintroduced Weedcat to the flock, Bloop ran up and challenged Weeds, they jumped at each other and finally one time Weedcat accidentally sat on Bloop, who wisely decided to retire from the batttlefield after that. I was right there to ensure that no one got hurt, they were fine. Scott stood in the coop and complained. Loudly. Since everyone has been right next to each other but seperated by wire, it shouldn't be too dramatic of a change...We'll see what the morning brings! We're thinking of running the cam tomorrow or Sunday...my new washer is being delivered tomorrow morning so it would be later on. Y'all can see the 'Hen As Pincushion' look that a bunch of the girls are sporting...they hadn't started to regrow feathers on their backs since it's been so damned hot, but we've suddenly had some quite chilly nights in the last week, so they're growing them now, by God! Poof, our 9 year old White Crested Black Polish hen, became an indoor chicken for good tonight. She's nearly 100% blind but can still ID moving shapes, and is moving pretty slow, bumps into things and sits a lot. Other than that she's healthy. We want her final months to be as pleasant as possible so over the winter she'll get to lounge on the carpet, sit by the fire and get lots of pets and goodies. Muffy_the_Diver posted:Rooster weirdness Yeah, read the page Chido posted, it's got all kinds of roo behavior tidbits and psychology--and absolutely read the link to Shilala's page on 'Keeping Your Rooster Sane', it's terrific advice. And scoop him up when you go outside. Don't be timid or too gentle about it either (but never hurt him), just grab him up without asking permission or hesitating. Then carry him around for a minute in full view of the rest of the flock, petting him thoroughly (especially his head, which when you are covering it and pressing down slightly sends a clear dominance signal) and crooning to him about what a goooood boy he is and how much you luuuuv him. Roos secretly love this kind of attention, watch his pupils--if they rapidly expand and dilate it's a sign of pleasure and excitement. Parrot also do this. When you do go to set him down, do so slowly and lingerly, allowing him to slowly walk out of your hands as they trail down his body. And only set him down when he's calm and docile, NOT while he is struggling. This will help teach him that only when he is a good boy does he get put back down. Croon at him some more as he walks away, telling him what a good boy he is. He will be embarassed, confused and make 'aw shucks' noises as he slinks away. You've just taught him (nicely) who's boss. Do this as often as you can to keep your 'Head Roo' position strong in his mind and him off-balance. It will also help tame him, and when the hens see this they see who's boss, and the roo KNOWS they are seeing it. Another great roo tamer is food. Offer him goodies from your hand (he must come up and take it from you) for him to then give to his girls. By deferring to him this way you send a signal to the flock that while YOU are boss and in control of the food, you love your flock and acknowledge him as the fella all the girls love. Chickens, roos especially, have a rigid sense of dignity and stature within the pecking order and all this is simply you working within parameters that they can understand. Chicken detente. VVVV Or, that. Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 17:26 on Oct 6, 2012 |
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Oct 6, 2012 08:36
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Vito is gorgeous, and so cute! Nice of him to give us an example of the Hey Baby/Dance of Seduction/Retard Shuffle thing.
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Oct 6, 2012 17:26
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Oh yeah, chickens are for sure little dinos. When I saw that movie I applauded the fact that the animators obviously sat and observed the way chickens move and flock behaviour. Have dinos ever really fallen out of popularity, though...? My fav toy when I was little was a lime green plastic Stegosaurus. Also, some guy nearby has bantam Cochins for sale on Craigslist...I have room, right?
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Oct 6, 2012 20:38
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Oh God, she's got 1 1/2 month old bantam Cochins. I emailed her back asking how many girls and what colors, and for pics....
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Oct 7, 2012 02:43
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Chido posted:I can't find my camera's usb cord, so no new pictures update, but chickies are doing great! I finally took and left the cage downstairs so the girls can watch over them and my BiL takes the chickies out for a few minutes in the morning. I only have one hen laying atm, even though most of the hens have just finished molting, or are almost done. Dust, the head henhoe, is just molting now and poor thing looks horrible in a cute way, she's so pockey and bald Does Dust look worse than Bear?  Bear molts the hardest of any chicken I've ever seen in my life, poor baby.
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Oct 8, 2012 08:28
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Poof is doing well, she was clearly born to be Queen of the House Chickens. We're using the bright red waterer, she can see it better and can't tip it over. Her food dish is another matter, she continuously sets her mealworms free to wander the dining room. Plus, tomatoes are yummy.
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Oct 9, 2012 05:26
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 11:29 |
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Yes, the porcupine quill-looking things are new feathers coming in on Bear in that pic. Very itchy and uncomfortable. I call her expression in that pic The Bear Glare. What we're going to do is get Poof a large, shallow, heavy crock-type dish and place a regular chicken feeder in it...since chickens love to scratch, she can make a mess to her heart's content and I won't be continuously sweeping up chicken chow. Poof pictures, as requested! Poof is a white crested black Polish hen. With spurs! Poof and Sugar, our other Polish hen (Sugar is a buff-laced)  Sugar had a sister, Seven, who sadly passed away about a year after we got them (she had a tumor), but here they both are:  One very rainy day Poof and Sugar were brought into the house--because of their large crests and the fact that many crested breeds have a hole in their skull, they can suffer brain damage from wet, heavy crests so keeping them dry is wise. Well, wouldn't you know, BOTH girls had to lay an egg, so we had to endure about an hour of them walking around searching for that ONE magical spot, wailing their heads off all the while. Poof chose the pile of unfolded laundry on the couch.  Sugar eventually got quiet, and when I went to search for her I found her thusly:  ...that's a bowl of Blood oranges I'd picked to make jelly out of. We just waited and retrieved the egg later. It's really hard to get pics of a Polish chicken's face.  Polish chickens are very comical and sweet. Poof being silly in the rain  Plus they love to photobomb...I was TRYING to get a pic of Rita, my black Cochin/Jersey Giant mix hen. 
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Oct 9, 2012 09:53
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