Josh, you want to give away that sweetie? what'd he do? I'd take 'em, but that's a long way to ship :-)
Both my dog's are 'rescues'. Rottie jumper, car chaser who has been cured; and Shiba Inu digger, chewer who will never change. I don't care - dig & chew on all the sticks ya want (think he's deaf too - great at ignoring everyone); like a kid - hears only when he wants to....lol I have a way of forcing him to hear without yelling.
Am chicken (lol) don't let them near the birds. Rottie ignores them, but the other one chases. Can't take the chance & can't be there 100% of time. 2 together get in trouble.. so, only when on lead & with me.
Cheryl ~ Pea
Chicken Chat # 3
Thanks all, yes i have been thinking of the next ones name and i will be part of harry potter movie. They have to mate and lay eggs 1st tho. We got some nests built yesterday and every one wants in them. Going to take some chicks up to moms today.
Well the CF strikes again. I am going to pick up 7 hens, a rooster, 3 pullets (2months), and 3 chicks. All Cuckoo Marans. I am getting the whole lot for $60. I thought that was an eggcellant price (pun intended).
Sheila
Yea for you Shelia. That is a good price.
oooh, you guys have me going now. Been trying so hard not to get more birds. Well not too hard. Okay, I want turkeys and geese before I start breeding next year. $25 a pair for the geese. Wonder how they will do with dogs, cats and goats if they are already mature?
Sheila- sounds like a great price to me. I'd be doing a happy dance...
Yesterday, I learned that my rescued track greyhound, Stickley, is completely and utterly terrified of the chickens. He is also scared of box elder bugs, but I knew that already. I had not yet introduced him to the chickens. I was worried what he might do. Yesterday on our walkies, on leash of course, I strolled him by the Eglu with the 3 girls in it. They started letting out alarming clucks and rushing about, and his eyes got huge, and he ran the other way with this look of complete terror. It was hilarious. I tried to get him to go close again and he would not budge. He's 87 lbs so it's hard to get him to move in a direction he doesn't want to go. Big chicken dog.... LOL!!!
Now, would everybody please go and check out my egg thread from yesterday, post some fun egg pictures, and answer my questions about my eggs and double yolks. Pretty please (with the ice cream on top...)
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/894952/
OK. I have to get a camera now. Went out to check the menagerie and my youngest roo (who graduated himself to the wide, wide world this morning) was perched atop his new friend Molly, the goat. Tooo cute. All the goats were resting in little goaty piles and for some reason it was too much for him and up he climbed I guess. The chicks enclosure is on the opposite side of the shed from the does, so this has to have been their first meeting. At least they hit it off.
Congrats! Where are you going to get your RN Luvs2? Are you working on prereqs or straight into the program. D-Mail me if you ever have any questions, although I'm sure you'll meet plenty of other stressed out nursing students ready to lend a hand. It's in our nature, lol : ) You go girl!!!
pathcouli, that was ladybug-Christy going to school. luvs2 is still a chicken slave LOL...
grownut, the chicken_fairy thread has some geese listed as rescues, LOTS of them. i got my geese fully mature, and they took right to the place. best to get a flock together since they are very family-oriented birds...
Claire, i have been reading your egg thread. i just can't bear to post right now. all my eggs go straight into the cartons to be saved, they are contaminated, and i am waiting on instructions from FARAD on how to dispose of them properly... so talking about eggs turns my stomach a bit... five more weeks, minimum...
sheila, you got yourself a BAR-GUN!!! good for you gal! ;-)
cheryl, you are just too nice to keep those guys around...
josh, i understood you to see your doggie needs a friend. is there a rewscue place around you? he looks like a nice guy!
tf
OK, today was, in a word, exhausting.
We started out this morning by finishing up the coop. That took until 2 pm. We then went out to pick up a wood stove that Kelly found on Craig's List for heating the shop this winter. Then, we went to pick up the chickens from my colleague who is moving to Colorado. We only managed to wrangle about 6 of them, and that was a labor of love, let me tell you! We ran ourselves ragged chasing them with a fishing net, and they did NOT want to be caught. I think there are 6 or 8 more to get, but they went AWOL and we didn't have the energy to keep looking for them on 38 acres.
So, we brought back 6 girls - 4 are light brahmas, 2 of which have feathered feet. They are cute! And big! But one of them has basically no back feathers. I think the roo has been after her big time. Another I have no idea of the kind, and another is a chocolate brown barred rock type, like Diana.
Now, here is the difficulty. Two of them were setting on eggs. There are about 30 eggs between them. I brought the eggs and put them in the nesting boxes. I put the girls on their eggs. They immediately went up to the roosting bars and are staying there. What should I do?
I get a 'bator tomorrow. Will the eggs be OK overnight? Even without them sitting on them? Will they all die? I will be so bummed out. I don't know how to "force" them to sit on their eggs. They were broody when I got them today and pecked at me a lot while I moved them. Is there any hope?
BTW, no pics of hens or coop because it is too dark and I am too tired. Tomorrow.
Claire
don't let the eggs get chilled... do you know how long they were setting on them? you need to candle and cull first thing, find the links for that and start practicing...
once you get your bator, you have to clean it, then set it up. may take 24 hours to get the temp stable.
so.... if you are still up, i would bring them in for the night if you have a warm place for them. they will not die overnight if kept over say 80 degrees. but then tomorrow morning you need a way to start warming them up again...
i would be on that bator fast! good luck, we are here for you!\
p.s. i love brahmas!
No, I don't know how long they were setting on them.
I brought the eggs in. I put a damp towel in the bottom of a styrofoam box (from a shipment of cheese from igourmet.com!). I put paper towels on top of that. Then I put the eggs on the paper towels. I put a goose-neck desk lamp over the edge of the box to shine on them and make it warm. I put a towel over the top to keep the heat in. And the moisture. There are 29 eggs. I tried candling with a high intensity LED flashlight as I moved them. Most of the blue ones I could not see anything except a small air pocket in one end. When we were moving them earlier, one egg broke because the mom freaked out on us. There was a large chick inside. I am wondering if they are too big now for the candling to show anything.
The brown eggs I can see inside some of them. Some don't seem to show much at all. Some show some veins. Some show a shadowy shape.
I am sure they will be over 80 degrees overnight. When I get home from work, the bator should be here. I will be on it asap. It is a brand new Rcom20 which does the humidity and temps for you, so supposedly easy. But, I got a set of 20 mixed hatching eggs on BYC website that should arrive Wednesday. BUT, I got another 'bator (LG bator) and turner and thermo/hygro meter coming also. I got the whole lot on BYC for $60. It takes 40 eggs. I will do my best for them but I don't know how to cull.
Going to bed now, but will leave them all overnight in the makeshift box!
Claire
great job!
first theing when you get up, turn all the eggs over... mark if necessary to see who has been turned... they need that a minimume of every 8 hours...
since they were pretty much feral birds, they have laid, and set, and laid some more. so the chicks will be at different stages of development.
the most crucial culling before you put them i the incubator is bloodrings... they will ooze out bacteria that will cause early death in pips and chicks...
the Little Giant will take 24 hours minimum to get stable before you can put the eggs in...
how many eggs does the other hold?
study mcamden's thread, and one by maineiac about TACs... you will get those in your BYC eggs...
it would so be swell if those hens are still broody and clucking for their eggs in the A.M.
meanwhile, make sure and bump up the hatching 101 thread for following your latest "chicken adoption drama". the chicken fairy must be proud [lots of new folks here who just don't get the abbrev. LOL]
candling photos:
http://shilala.homestead.com/candling.html
care and incubation:
http://www.msstate.edu/dept/poultry/hatch.htm
very good and necessary info and photos of embryos:
http://animalscience.ucdavis.edu/Avian/pfs32.htm
Raising chicks without their mum:
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/BRKRaisingChicks.html
now take a deep breath, and...
keeping fingers crossed for you Claire, that would be so neat to have 30 new babies.
Thanks TF!!!
The other 'bator is the R-Com 20 and it holds only 20 eggs, so that's the max I can put in today, if the 'bator gets up to speed before I go to bed tonight. It's digital so maybe it will be quick?
Sorry - still new - what does TAC stand for?
I am going to take some egg pictures and candling pictures. Maybe you can help.
The new girls are all growling this morning and not wanting to come out of the coop and into the run. Crazy birds. Nobody is in a nest box, so presuming no broodiness.
Claire
OK, posted candling pics in the hatching 101 thread. The candling photos are interesting but not too helpful at this stage. None of them look a whole lot like what I'm seeing.
Am leaving eggs in improvised 'bator for the day while I go to work, and hoping UPS delivers today like they said they would.
Claire
CMoxon-
I replied on the hatching thread on the pics.
As for catching the other chickens, can you wait til they roost at night and then grab them witht he net. We have had the best luck with that
TF- Yes can you say DEAL FO THE CENTURY! The older hens look a little rough around the edges, but thibk he was only feeding them scratch grains.
they looked a little funny at the layer crumbles I offered them. I was supposed to get 3 pullets and he was worried about the older roo getting stressed and dying so he just threw in a cockeral for no charge. While there I noticed he had a buff Orp Cockeral and asked about him. My Buff Orp ladies need a boyfriend! So he just threw him in also.
I felt like I was stealing from him. He was talking about how he used to sell eggs on ebay a couple of years ago and that they had started making sellers ship overnight and that it had killed the business on ebay. He said he thought that they had changed it, but knew the business was still not much. Thought about telling him that Black Copper Maran 1 dozen eggs were going for around $100.00, but figured he wouldn't sell me the chickens then.
I still feel a little guilty, but he should have done his research before listing them. ( that's what I am telling myself, anyhow)
Sheila
100 bucks for a dozen of eggs, are they gold?
luvs -
Actually a dozen went for 176.35 the other day. They are dark brown but not true gold. Maybe fools gold. But I will sell to any fool, LOL.
Sheila
lol that is for sure, I think I will be getting into that business and sell them "golden" eggs. I could stand to make 170 bucks for a dozen eggs.
Two of the light brahmas I got yesterday are essentially naked-backs. They have all their feathers torn out by the roo I guess. I feel bad for them. Their skin is pink and irritated looking. Anything I can do to help them?
I know this sounds crazy, but can chickens sunburn if they have feathers missing??? Maybe their backs are sunburned. Maybe some sunscreen. Heck I don't know.
Sheila
just feed extra protein and fat to hjelp them grow it back in and to prevent further pecking. if the pink doesn't go away soon, try a spray that will protect from further pecking. i am thinking dermagro...
OK, so this morning I found a lady on my Craig's List who wanted some chickens. She wants 4 hens. She only wants eggs and wants them as pets, not for eating birds. I offered her 4 of my chicks. She is going to take them and trade one out if it's a roo. I'm so excited to share!
So, now there is another poster on Craig's List who lives really close to me and she has the following for sale:
Light Sussex ($12)
Speckled Sussex ($9)
Javas ($15 - 20 depending on age)
Creme Brabanters ($10)
Blue Laced Red Wyandottes ($15-20 depending on age)
What should I get? They are all laying.
I was thinking 2 speckled sussex, a java, a creme b, and 2 BLRW. What do you think?
Claire
I think the Chicken Fairy is LIVING in your back yard!
the Javas may not get along with the other birds....
do some research on the breeds, i can't recall the barbanter, but sounds rare enough to me to want it LOL, but the sussex are good natured. wyandottes it depends.
ALWAYS, not matter how excited you get, ask LOTS of wuestions about he birds, age, health, breeding, hatchery of origin, etc...
meanwhile, someone called and is coming to buy some pullets, a roo, and wants my ONLY living silkie [that isn't quarantined].... I REALLY need cash to cover my latest diagnositc expenses, but she is just such a sweet little pet...
if i cave, how much should i charge? i am thinking she is about six weeks. buff colored, sorta like caramel... my ONLY silkie...
Ask for their firstborn. Or hold 'em off until CF sends you one. Luck!
CF is banned from here till further notice LOL... i liekly will talk him into talking my cochins instead.... thought the poor guy wishes they wouldn't lay eggs so he wouldn't have to collect them... he is really in for it! should be here any minute, gonna get some treats out for the chicks!
tf
[grownut, like i want any more human children? ;-)]
I have a Creme Brabanter, very unusual, very gangly and tall. Oh, and sorry for the misreading, I meant LadyBugsAbound. You can blame it on lack of sleep, lol! Anyways, congrats, and like I said earlier D-Mail me if you have any questions about getting your Science degree in nursing, or anything at all! WooHoo : )
TF what is going on at your place. Did someone drop a nuke on you. What diagnostic tests? What did I miss witht he Quarantined?
Sheila
I can answer some for her. Her horrible neighbor sprayed some kind of pesticide and the spray drifted over on most of her birds. Killed alot of them. I so feel sorry for her and her birds.
Aint he perrty
tia, he is very handsome
thanks, here is the "guard" dog, boy he must have had a busy night.
Oh--he is adorable! What is he?
the dog is schnauzer and yorkie
his name is Augustus McCrain, Gus fir short, he will be a yr old in November
This message was edited Aug 26, 2008 10:02 AM
Would that be the awesome Augustus McCrain from the Lonesome dove movies. I love those movies.
Sheila
yup
Was it Tf's neighbor that threatened her livestock with the gun or a different one??