Most of you know ZZ's sent me eight modern game birds, they are wonderful. She also sent me four seramas, actually three seramas, and one MONSTER. The MONSTER is named Murphy. I put the four in a very nice large waterer made for cattle, it is four ft x 4 ft which is ample for 5 regular chickens. Murphy was unhappy and did not hesitate to let me know it by demanding she wanted out. So I built a very nice large pen for Murphy and her three normal friends. ten foot long x three ft wide. Murphy was unhappy and created unrest for all. Murphy is about 1/2 lb serama. Murphy I would like to announce is finally happy. What did it take you ask? A 16 x 16 foot shed that once housed sixty birds. It is now called Murphy's world. I sat out there with Murph and her friends and Murph has settled down nicely. Who I their right mind would ever believe ZZ's would do this to me. Thank the good Lord there is only one Murph. If you think you have problems, would you like to baby set Murph for a week-end? If so just let me know. Haystack
Murphy's World:
That's hilarious! Thanks Haystack, you are a gem.
I'll bet Henrietta corrupted Murphy when she was at ZZ's place!
Oh listen to him.. LOL
I trained her well.. she is a California chicken for cryin out loud.. high maintenance! Who fell in love with that darling lil song of hers?? Who takes her to the computer with him??? HUMMM?
Stick her in a water bucket and expect her to thrive? No one could see her then!!!
Better be nice.. I can still send Chuckie you know.. LOL He has a nice crow! Oh yeah.. that's right.. YOU said she would lay! Chuckie needs regular fluffing for those puffy feathers to stay nice.. and a bowl of warm mash would be nice for breakfast..
gotcha!
Who would ever guess a half pound bird could have a fifty lb attitude??LOL
Yeah you got me alright. Hi Honey. I love Murph!
Are Seramas the Chihuahuas of chickens?
{smile}
Hi Catmad: I think you hit the nail on the head. I go out and sit with them at least two hours every day, and murph will either be on my lap, shoulders or on my straw hat which she loves to peck and destroy. I have some really cute pic's of her, but they are on my wifes camera so hopfully I can post them by tomorrow. I have seen and sold an aful lot of birds but Murph takes the cake. If she doesn't get her way, she creates havoc for all the rest.
ZZ's I have put the eight game birds in with the seramas, they get along just fine. I watched them all day yesterday up til 11:00 pm and then this morning and they get along just fine. What do you think? Howie
They will get along probably... with no roos that is..
Dot is the head roo.. but he is not mean. Just so you know.. Dot likes his comb rubbed.. and his chest... Oh man.. I know I just opened a gate there.. but it's true.
Booker is second cookie.. but you will come to love him too.. he cocks his tail to the side when you talk to him.. like he is embarrassed. tooo cute!
I hope they all get along when the boyz come home.. :)
I'm so tickled Murphy gets to keep her standard of living.. and some. LOL Doesn't she have a pretty voice?? It is very different than any of the others.. when she is happy, she sings.. softly.
Have you noticed how gently the Modern Games eat from your hand? They are so delicate.. I love it.
The modern game are just so incredible: I can't hardly believe how much they like being handled, I am just in awe of them, they leave me speechless. I have never seen anything like them. I love murph, she loves to set up on my shoulder and she just sings away. She is an incredible girl. The other three are so sweet also, but there is none like murph, she is in a class of her own, and she know's it too. She is so stinking happy in this huge room, she glides around the place like she's the home comming Queen. Thats two hundred square feet for a dinky little Serama. It wouldn't be so bad but she expects it. LOL Howie
My Modern Game Roo (Superman) Kicked me! Like whammo.. but he missed. I laughed so hard.. it looked like he was trying to whack me in the shins.. then he does his lil sideways dance.. wonder if he thought that would make up for kicking me? LOL
They are incredibly funny.. I love them soooo much.
Haystack - Can I come see the Seramas? They sound so cute.
ya Hay, how about some photos?
here are some of the birdsZZ's sent to us. The white roo is booker the looker, and the little black one is dot. They both are so sweet.
some more of ZZ's babiez, Murph is the black with white dots, cinnamon is brownish red, cocoa is two tone brown, and Joy is blackish.
Our new family:
A good looking group. Booker also seems to be a talker! And I see Murphy is trying to pretend to be just one of the girls. But we're not fooled...
Hi Porkpal: They are such a cute bunch and you are so right, booker, and dot are both quite the talkers. Dot is so tiny and he is so friendly, I could immediately see why ZZ's was so crazy about them. Haystack
I had to come see just before I'm leaving.
Haystack, you know how much I thank you for this, or at least I hope you do! They have a wonderful new home. This gives me such a big smile.
You can't imagine how soothing it is to see them so happy... like nothing happened!
Enjoy your new flock! I love the names.. I knew who was who just by the names!
I will be waiting to see pics of your first egg.
PS.. Karen, if you go out to see Dot in flip flops, be ready for him to do a dance and peck your toes.. it doesn't hurt, so don't kick him all the way back to California! LOL
ZZ's Karen and I both love you so much!!! We are praying for your good success. Go get em honey!!!. WE also are looking for their first eggs and of course finally some fertile eggs to hatch. Dot is the charmer of charmers. Not only is he handsome but he loves to flirt with all the girls. But then I must say that booker really is a looker. He likes the girls around here also. I have a very small brown banty and she is setting a clutch and he keeps trying to get in the nest with her, but, she won't have any of that so she gives him a friendly peck and he gets the message. She is twice his size so I think he has a thing for large women. LOL Haystack
Haystack, is that you? I pictured you as a tall skinny man, but you are BIG GUY! Wow!
- Or else that is a VERY small chicken,
Yes LFJesus: It's me darling, all 5'7" and 212 lbs. Thats a lot of Hay sweetie. Your expression had me rolling. You are so funny, and I appreciate you a lot.
Now for your comment Porkpal: You just had to add your two cents didn't you. I don't know who's comment made me laugh the most. But this I can tell you, you both are great and I feel you are really a wonderful addition to Daves Garden. This is why I can't go away. You kids alway's keep me laughing. Haystack
These are going into my incubator tomorrow. Wish me luck.
Luckluckluckluckluckluckluck and more luck. It's a good thing you don't live anywhere near me, I'd be tempted to burgle you for those beauties.......
I don't need to do that until spring. Lets see, if I grab my backpack (the car won't make it) leave now, maybe I could be there by then....
What kind of chickens lay such pretty eggs? On my monitor they look like purple plums, are they really that color?
on my monitor they look like dark chocolate truffles....
They are very pretty.
Yes they are very pretty. My guess is they are marans.
I learned that here on DG. They look like dark chocolate. When I think about selling eggs, I think if I ever did try that, I'd get some marans. Such gorgeous eggs.
Where did you get them Haystack?
Every day I am thinking about building a new chicken coop.
Comon LFJesus!!! You know where they come from! Actually they are a very dark chocolate, almost black. I you could see them with the naked eye you would see they are very speckled but don't show up very good in pictures. These are from black copper Marans, which lays the darkest of all marans eggs. They come from a lady friend in Arkansas. I have been working with her for the last three or four months. I also have my own blackcopper roosters, and pullets, plus one wheaten marans that should be laying in about four months. If you'd like I'll share some pic's of the roosters. The pullets are pretty plain, but the Roosters are a knock out.
OH MY GOODNESS!!!
Hey Catmad: Your always welcome and We'll leave the light on. Hay
But if you leave the light on you'll see me absconding with your eggs....
I promise not to take the hens, but if you have an extra roo, maybe designated for an inglorious end, could you put a sign on him? "Take me" would work, and with the light on I'll get the right one....
:))
those are gorgeous eggs. I'm going to have to do some research on black copper marans. I planed to get some salmon favorelles and some silver dorkings in the spring but maybe I'll have to get black copper marans instead of one of the 2. I'd love to see pics of the rooster hay! And by the way, your coop set up is very intriguing, why the small cages within the bigger coop?
Hi batflower: Well because chickens live on the floor, anything about about 18 inches becomes wasted air space. I wanted to increase my flock and come up with the idea of using that wasted air space. It has allowed me to double my flock by building two pens and not having to build another three - four thousand dollar coop. Thirty five hundred is what it cost me to build the original 16x16x16 coop. The two pens cost seventy five dollars each. Also I use the pens as mating pens, and after I am through with that is use them as brooders. I can have up to a hundred birds in this one coop at any given time. That was til Murph and Dot took over. Right now I have modern gamehens in one pen and thirty four week old in the other pen. The game hens are mating in the pen, and the seramas are just beganing to mate one the floor and the broodies are just now really feathering out nicely. I have twelve black copper pullets to pick up next monday and I have one more doz of black copper eggs comming next week also. Black copper eggs sell from a hundred to two hundred bucks a doz. I don't like that so hopefully by next spring I'll have enough producing my own eggs I will be able to sell them for around thirty five bucks plus shipping and shipping is generally around fifteen bucks. Hay
Thanks for the info! I've been thinking about building new coops above my existing ones to double my space. Nice to see it works before spending the $$
I've been on the computer all morning researching BCMs and I really must find a source. None of the rare breed hatcheries in Canada seem to carry them. I found one lady on kijiji who had a roo for sale. I e-mailed to see if she would have eggs or chicks in the future and she told me they lay the same color eggs as her brown eggers but she would sell me a pair and I could selective breed my way to hens that lay dark eggs. So, since the color results from a recessive gene, does this mean they're mixed with something? or do BCMs lay different color eggs?
This message was edited Sep 15, 2009 7:38 PM
Ouch, three or four thousand dollars for a coop. I better try and make my own. I was surprised to see how much money I spent for just my little 4X8, 3 feet high coop here at my house. Someday, if I am ever brave, I'll post a picture of it. I enclosed 3 feet of one end like a box, and with the other 5 feet length enclosed with hardware cloth. It was supposed to be a chicken tractor that could be moved around, but it's too heavy for that.
The people on this site were so helpful and encouraging. I wouldn't have been able to do it without them.
I really enjoyed building it too. I had never built anything in my life, so I'm sure I was funny. It still doesn't have a roof on it. The top is just plywood on one end and hardware cloth on the other. I bought a tarp for a shade for the summer, when I wasn't here to let them out in the morning, which was rare. I'm almost always here
I like the chickens, and I think the chickens like me. At least they haven't complained yet or written any letters to the editor.
My coop so far has $125 in it.. its 3/4 of the way done.. & its 6x8 with a 7 ft roof. if all goes right.. i'll have $250 total in the coop at the end.. but in no way does it look like Hays... mine is very simple bc i've never built anything before. If it ever stops raining.. i'll finish it.
Aww, Greykitten, that is really awesome. Seven foot roof, you've done great.
My horse lot has some old building on it, covered in tin. I can't decide what to do out there. I really want a place for my roosters to run around and enjoy themselves. The problem, of course, is predators, and I'm not out there like I am here. So I'm wanting a place enclosed I suppose, but also outdoorsey. If not enclosed, at least safe for them. I can't be out there to open the door in the morning and shut them up at night. So their entire area needs to be safe. So, I'm thinking, do I dig.., by myself that will take a LOT of effort and time, and may never get done. yikes. Some have mentioned some type of skirt, but I am unclear on how that works.
I'm also thinking, laying chicken wire or wire fencing on the ground would work too. That might be the better solution for me.
As you can see, I am totally befuddled :D but I'm sure it will all work out. Life always does, one way or the other.
Just had to come look at the pics again! Very limited time on the computer right now..
HI to all and I miss you so much!
I will get a internet card soon so I can get a better connection and not take 5 minutes to load a page.
Survived day 2 and thinking of YOU!!!!!