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alnilam

I just bought a house with a bok-appropriate yard and deploying a bok squad has been my dream for a while, I'm gonna build a little bok-zone and hopefully recruit some this summer

# ¿ Apr 15, 2016 12:26

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 06:33

alnilam

Breakfast Dorito posted:

we were going to build our own bok barracks but my sister found a flat pack kit on the internet that was absurdly cheap

Do tell pls!

# ¿ Apr 15, 2016 15:58

alnilam

bok update?

# ¿ Apr 16, 2016 22:35

alnilam

boks rule fox drool

# ¿ Apr 19, 2016 03:44

alnilam

joke_explainer posted:

I was googling to see what a thousand dollar egg was, and this rear end in a top hat came up:

http://theduncangroup.com/blog/the-six-thousand-dollar-egg

I am glad he eventually let his wife eat breakfast after what reads like 40 minutes of yelling about an egg.

lol what even the gently caress

# ¿ Apr 19, 2016 12:13

alnilam

I don't have hens yet but we will soon, we were thinking of a p-funk theme
Boksy Collins
Dr Cluckenstein
...
That's all we have so far

# ¿ Apr 19, 2016 21:18

alnilam

nice save

# ¿ Apr 20, 2016 03:38

alnilam

bok update :ducksiren:

i got a coop :peanut:

next steps: build a run, get feed, straw, and water
next next step: get some teenage hens (i.e. sexed and past incubation but maybe just pre-laying age or just entering laying age)

what kinda hens should I get?! so many choices!
I want ones who are chill and not mean, to humans, because I intend to hang out with them
good eggs are a plus
i live in PA so hot summers and cold winters
umm
and I'm planning on getting 3 and maybe 1 of them can be a silky cause they real cool but I'd prefer mostly good layers (silkies are just okay layers I think)

any tipps?

_{ty manifisto}

# ¿ Jun 11, 2016 02:50

alnilam

Piso Mojado posted:

it's common practice and considerred good luck to name your boks after famous third reich politicians and/or Squaresoft characters.

g�bbels is more of a turkey name than a bok name

cloud, however, is a primo silky name

_{ty manifisto}

# ¿ Jun 11, 2016 04:03

alnilam

it's a good saturday, think i'll build a bok run

_{ty manifisto}

# ¿ Jun 25, 2016 18:51

alnilam

I did it, I got boks

2 for now, rhode island reds about 4 months old - they're living outside and taking care of themselves but they still make cheep cheep noises :3:

they should start laying in about 2 months

they're very social they walk around the yard together as a bok squad and when one of them gets distracted by something and then notices she's gotten far away from the other she runs over really fast to rejoin her sis again :kimchi:

no name yet but one is sweet and docile and the other is feisty in a fun way, any name thoughts?

also we're going to get a therd berd as soon as we can find a silkie

_{ty manifisto}

# ¿ Aug 4, 2016 02:55

alnilam

Zyla posted:

im jealous i want some boks

but i'd be a bad bok dad

bad bok dad is a good username

also I bet you'd be fine they're not that much work beyond the initial setup, and they're so fun to watch you'll find yourself hanging out with them a lot anyway

# ¿ Aug 6, 2016 16:00

alnilam

Really good, they love wandering around my yard and they don't seem interested in the veggies we grow so that's a relief. Also they know the run and the coop are their safe zone now and go into the coop on their own at night :3:

yesterday a helicopter flew overhead and they ran all the way across the yard into the coop so they must feel pretty familiar with the place already

# ¿ Aug 6, 2016 16:50

alnilam

we're naming the feisty one Pepper because she's a spicy gal

still thinking about the docile one

# ¿ Aug 10, 2016 00:08

alnilam

they're inseparable it's so cute

also when the sun gets low they get antsy and start cheeping a lot but they're not quite sure if they want to go to bed yet... at this time they get extremely cuddly i think bc they're slightly afraid of the dark
evidence:

# ¿ Aug 10, 2016 00:18

alnilam

also i just farted and they scrambled back into their coop lol

_{ty manifisto}

# ¿ Aug 10, 2016 00:19

alnilam

gently caress i just noticed one of the hens in the op is named pepper, but it was my housemate's idea so i didn't steal it!!

_{ty manifisto}

# ¿ Aug 10, 2016 00:26

alnilam

City of Glompton posted:

alnilam I have name suggestions for chill bok if she still needs one

Persephone (Persi for short) or maybe Penelope (Penny)

I like penelope, persephone is pretty but persephone got abducted by hades and i don'twant to curse my hens to being abducted

luvcow's Minerva suggestion is good too but iirc it's also a brand of IUD and my fiancee is a doctor so it might be weird for her...

_{ty manifisto}

# ¿ Aug 14, 2016 17:02

alnilam

Day 22: The boks appear to have accepted me as their leader. When I let them out of their run in the evening while i'm home, any time I walk to a place in the garden to gather veggies or something, they rush after me and then hang out hunting bugs/weeds in my vicinity. If I walk to another part of the garden, they follow again. If I go inside, they go back to doing their own thing. Pepper, who is the leader while I am away, appears to be as loyal as Penelope. But I must keep a careful eye on her - a bok as clever as she is never content being second-leader for long...

_{ty manifisto}

# ¿ Aug 26, 2016 00:16

alnilam

Afro Doug posted:

i hope you don't got no redtails around. they gotta habit of makin chickens suddenly burst up out inta tha great beyond. my prayers go out to you and your chichkens

there are hawks and peregrines around sometimes, that's why i only let them out of their totally meshed-in run under supervision :ohdear:

# ¿ Aug 26, 2016 20:32

alnilam

Luvcow posted:

*chicken explodes into a ball of feathers behind you as you hit post*

# ¿ Aug 26, 2016 22:46

alnilam

Really though I live in the city and hawk and falcon sightings are rare enough that I generally feel okay letting them out. Plus every time I come near their run they beg to be let out, so clearly it adds to their quality of life. So it's a risk yes but one that i feel is outweighed by their enjoyment.

It's like letting a cat spend some of its time outside. Sure it might be more likely to get hit by a car, but if the cat absolutely loves being outside then you might consider it a fair risk.

# ¿ Aug 26, 2016 22:48

alnilam

poverty goat posted:

I'd love to get some boks but i've been told that a dog is guaranteed to eat them sooner or later and I have one of those already

not necessarily! Depebds on the dog, with many dogs you can get them used to each other under supervision, and keep them separate when not under supervision if necessary

I know a few chickens in my neighborhood who share a backyard with a friendly yet watchful german shepherd :3:

# ¿ Oct 17, 2016 18:27

alnilam

Something magical happened this week 🐔🥚🍳

# ¿ Dec 3, 2016 20:39

alnilam

City of Glompton posted:

awesome! was it a cute itty bitty sized egg?

No it's quite remarkable, i was expecting a few crap eggs and a slow pace at first but they've gone from zero to hero, since the first egg 5 days ago I'm finding 1-2 good eggs / day

# ¿ Dec 3, 2016 21:41

alnilam

Zyla posted:

i feel silly asking this but do the hens just lay eggs no matter what or only after a visit from mr rooster

No matter what. You can think of it kinda like menstruation but not as regular like they can slow down or even stop when conditions aren't good (winter, molting, stress)

if a rooster has, um, visited recently then the egg comes out fertile, if not the egg is infertile, that's the only difference

# ¿ Dec 4, 2016 00:03

alnilam

Extremely common question btw you're not dumb

# ¿ Dec 4, 2016 00:03

alnilam

hamjobs posted:

hey al, when you get a chance, will you post your boks? no rush, i just love your chickens. and every chicken.

every chook is sacred.

Will do! There is a pic or two of them if you look through my posts earlier itt but they're much bigger now so I'll post one soon

Fresh eggs from well kept hens (who eat lots of good garden food) are sooo much better than even fancy store bought ones omg, they were more filling too i think

# ¿ Dec 4, 2016 06:29

alnilam

Splatmaster posted:

EVERYTHING YOU THOUGHT YOU KNEW ABOUT CHICKENS AND KITTENS IS WRONG

one of my fav weird al songs

# ¿ Dec 4, 2016 20:09

alnilam

they grow up so fast :')

_{ty manifisto}

# ¿ Dec 5, 2016 13:34

alnilam

penny has the bigger comb now but pepper is still the alpha bok

_{ty manifisto}

# ¿ Dec 5, 2016 13:35

alnilam

I just buy the bulk stuff from my local feed store, idk the brand but the ingredient list is good

I do highly recommend "Crazy 8" scratch which might be a mixture invented by the feed store. It's got all the good stuff in it - cracked corn, barley, sunflower seeds - and they really do go Crazy for it (tm)

# ¿ Dec 5, 2016 16:56

alnilam

so my water strategy as it gets cold has been to bring their auto dispensing water thingy inside at night and back out in the morning bc room temp water takes a long time to freeze even when the air is below freeze

wed night i didn't because it looked like it was going to stay above freezing all the next day

but then it actually went down all night and reached freezing an hour before sunrise and i didn't have time to check it on my way out in the morning so i didn't realize any of this until i was on the train to work :ohdear:

and what's worse is they went to bed before my wife or i could get home, so i don't know if they had water all day, though i do think from the temperature logs that it was maybe not frozen yet for an hour or two after they woke up. but it was definitely frozen solid when i got home!

and last night it was in the 20s and and a body doesn't handle cold as well when it's under-hydrated :ohdear:

so last night i was worried so i boiled a pot of water and wrapped it with the lid on in a crappy old airplane blanket and placed it in their coop
one of them shuffled to make a 180 without leaving the roost so she could take a look at the weird new object, i closed the hatch and listened a little longer and after some confused noises they quieted down :3:

I thought the pot might give them extra heat for maybe a few hours tops but this morning it was not only still liquid, it was still lukewarm! Combined with their body heat and the decomposition of their litter it probably kept their coop a balmy 35 degrees all night

This morning before sunrise when their night light was on (more on this later) i heard them in their coop making lots of confused noises probably at the weird alien spacecraft that had appeared in their house :3:

and when i let them out they seemed right as rain, though they did go for the water soon after eating some scratch

sorry for the water fuckup chickens

# ¿ Dec 9, 2016 14:44

alnilam

oh i also added some boiled water to the cold water in their water thing so the water would start off being maybe 65 instead of 50 and last a little longer on this 20 degree day

# ¿ Dec 9, 2016 14:45

alnilam

the night light thing is this:
when winter comes they lay less, and it's apparently more of a light thing than a temperature thing

So i kinda sorta extended the day a few hours by installing a lil night light in their coop and it's on a timer to go on about 2 hours before sunrise

and when it goes on the door from their coop to their run is still closed and their nesting box is in there so they're kind of a captive audience :twisted: