the crooked little chicken house

“I always had to trim one wing on the pullets when they got introduced to the "big pen". Funny watching them try to fly with one wing trimmed.:) After showing them where to roost a couple nights, they got the idea on where to go.”

“There used to be a radio show in NYC that had a chicken that could play tic, tack, toe. They would take this chicken down to the streets and challenge people to play the chicken. Invariably people would lose to the chicken.

Then the losers would make the excuse "well, the chicken plays everyday..". That bit still makes me laugh!”

“Thanks sc, that made me smile, thinking of their early encounters with moving bugs. Real suspicious.:)”

“Makes me miss the little chicken I briefly had. That thing went gangbusters on bugs and earthworms in the yard.”

“the chicken coop is such a destressor...
I have a chair out near the chicken coop (and campfire) and watch the little bastards do their thing. It's almost like watching fish swim, but for the sex...those roosters are quick! lol...”

“I pinned up the dogs and cats and let my chicks roam free for about 4 hrs unattended for the first time. They wandered around eating bugs and when it was time I set their cage next to them and they all ran in!

Good little chickens....”

“Yeah, I try to let mine out for a bit of free range forage but I find I have to drag them out and close the door or they all jump right back in LOL!

Mine are under the covered porch today though, the weather is just too crazy today, I'm afraid for them being outside in case we get more half dollar sized hail again and torrentail rain like this morning.”

“Our chickens are wearing waders today.”

“we're in the process of fencing in the back 40 - though it's really only the back "one" LOL...I bought 8' fence posts, so will have about 5+ feet above ground. First fence layer will be chicken wire, second will be netting to keep them from flying out. No matter how much room they have, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.”

“twigeater, do you get snow where you live? Wood posts?”

“yes to both.”

“Does Twigeater get snow? Rofl!”

“Reason I ask, is I had to put up railroad ties 10' apart with T posts between those, with a top rail to keep the snow from tearing my fence up I built for my dog when he was alive. The fencing is livestock fencing so it would stand up to the Sierra cement as they call it here in CA. The fence is 6' high. The chickpen pen is similar except only has small diameter holes chicken wire which is standing up except for the occasional deer that gets spooked by me and trys to make a hole in the wire.”

“Nothin worse than a spooked deer!

I got my 8x8 house and 12 x 12 pen done!
BAWK BAWK!”

“I'm pretty scary, I killed a small buck on looks alone a few years ago when he ran into the one open end of the chickenpen that I had taken down for some easier access but had not put back up. Poor guy.”

“went to the chick swap at Tractor Supply and added 3 black Cayuga ducks and 3 Indian Runner ducks to the flock.

Also got the kids the cutest little dwarf bunnies.

Lost the bantam rooster to a pig pile that must have occured when the skunk wandered in to steal eggs. Plenty of roosters left though, sigh...”

“The banty had a short life like James Dean?

Do dwarf bunnies bite like the regular ones?”

“I'm up to 29 birds. RI Reds, barred rocks, arocona9SP?) and uhmm...silkys(they have hairy feet!)”

“Oh yeah Strat, them silkies evolved from hobbits.

Hey yawl ! Great to see this thread up again, been awhile! We've gotten 50 babies caged now. 20 silkies straight run, 23 cuckoo marans all gals (really they come to about 90%, the sexed ones), and 6 keets. Stankin' bunch of little rascals tho. Flew back from Italy with 12 fancy Jap eggs to hatch. The name left me for now, I'll have to look in my notes, a rare type that one of my old bonsai buddies there in N Italy raises. Our dearest Featherleg, a f-leg banty, is sitting on 6 and I'm incubating the other 6. But...... Featherleg got fired yesterday, she shayte all over them 2 nights ago, perhaps she's getting old. Out of our whole flock, she's the only one that will go broody. Now however, one of her babies has grown and sits on eggs well, so we're pretty lucky.

Where we ain't lucky is with cats .... one fed a coyote while we were away, and another bit the dust from what must have been liver failure. RIP Crisco and Knuckles! We're down to only one, the dad Fat Jack.

Anyone got connections to a sphinx cattery?”

“I almost had to whack one of my cats(Monkey) for chasing my birds!

Ape, do you segregate the different breeds for breeding? I just free range my whole flock together. None of mine are laying yet.”

“Lol Strat, our Fat Jack loves to stalk a chicken, will for 30 minutes, then leaps out to surprise it, then typically will get chased off by that chicken or another one. It's a hoot to watch.

I don't segregate any of them by breeds, only by age. They all free range together. But I do separate them by age. The chicks are caged together. And I have some half grown, we call them the teenagers, that I'm having to do a run of antibiotics on, due to sneezing, wheezing breathing, and running eyes and noses.

Oh them eggs (or aigs they're called here) that I brought back from Italy are called Tosa Chibi.”

“Strat, yawnt some eggs to hatch?”

“The bantam rooster was with us for a year.
The dwarf bunnies are very cuddly and haven't bitten anyone yet.
Of the four kittens the cat had, we kept four..haha...
Letting the kids watch the birth also meant early bonding, though I must say that I'm guilty as well. I had all four spayed or nuetered for $120 and the vets office picked up and dropped off, awesome deal. Now we're trying to catch mom between nursing and heat so we can get her done. Think it's too late though, sigh...

The little buggers are awesome mole catchers though! The mom got a fairly large star nosed mole and Austin wanted to dissect it. I said yes, so we did and ended up skinning it as well. It's in the freezer right now (nice surprise for his sister who didn't know it was there, LOL) Plan on trying to preserve the pelt.”

“LMAO Twig, I love you and your family sooo much! If I put something like that in the freezer I'd never hear the end of it! Then again, I have deer legs in there, and I have no idea what to do with them.”

“Give them to the dog, TB!

Ape, That would be awesome but I'm not quit ready this year for hatch'n. I rekun I need to get an incubator first. I plan to get one before next spring. Rain check?”

“Actually that's kind of how I got them in the first place. My neighbor goes deer (and other critter) hunting because she feeds her 2 big dogs raw diets. I offered them back several times, but...”

“thank you treebait!

Make a lamp stand out of them - or a coat hook rack, LOL. A friend of mine has a moose leg lamp he had made from the moose he got. His family won't let him put it in his new dream retirement home and I can't wait to get my hands on it!”

“LMAO!
last edited: 7/26/11 1:53:09 PM”

“Strat, rain check works for me, you'll just have to remind me tho. Craigslist is a good place. One thang tho, don't bother buying them egg-turners, the little driver motors go out in them all the time, they're not worth the money. Just put an x on one side and every morning and every evening turn them over. Not that difficult, considering you're going to be doing it anyway, after your egg-turner schytes out.

Our babies are growing. Those fancy Jap eggs my buddy gave me that we brought back from Italy ...... none were fertile, dangit. So outa that batch the only that hatched was mine.

Just got 42+ guinea eggs off ebay, and am looking to get some french black copper marans too, shortly.

Twigs that is too funny about your little Austin! We have one too, but ours is Amelia, a huge lover of bones, in fact Santa brought her an ostrich skull. Says she's going to be a forensic pathologist, hehe, she prolly will too. When I have too many roosters, that's what we do with them, dissect them before going into the freezer. But before that they get to go thru a little gun schooling so that they can "hunt" them, with a little bolt-action .22 rifle. Oh, our little pathologist has a large tank of them dermisted beetles, and she LOVES sticking things in there for them to eat.”

“we did owl puke one year, it was cool to see the kids get into it, even my prissy little niece. All the kids that hike out to Big Rock on the family farm end up going home with treasures of cow bones, LOL.

We dissected a hen that was killed by a fox, that was really cool!”

“oh and I would LOVE to have some of those beetles thjat clean a carcass!”

“Apparently there are drakes among our ducks...

This weekend is Union fair, and I told Austin if he caught a pig we'd keep it - ugh! We're also looking at goats. I'm ready to dispatch the entire flock, as we have not eggs! Something has to be eating them, but ALL of them?”

“We have 6 layers (out of 8 poults) now. I'm amazed at how much egg those little shells are holding. Looks like a grocery small egg but measures out to contain a large egg. Liking our chickens...now to get a winter coop built. Poor birds can't live in the rabbit hutch forever.”

“I still haven't gotten my first egg but it can't be long. My chicken expert told me that when the hen's comb lays over a little bit, they're ready to start laying.”

“I can only hope that when we move again, I will have enough space for a chicken house.”

“My layers started in around 5-5 1/2 mos laying. Real small eggs the first few days. Size does matter when it comes to combs.”

“It's really cool chili. Me and B'babe go out there every night and feed them bread crumbs and just chill. They are interesting and entertaining.”

“Definately interesting and entertaining. Ducks move together in a wave which is cool.

5 months to eggs and the first few are smaller and more round than oval.”

“Very entertaining...much more so than the stupid Rabbits. I just had a neighbor knocking on my door (at 9:45pm), beacause one of our red hens was asleep on his car! She traveled far. Tomorrow is wing clipping day I guess.”

“Lol...Good luck with that, Sass!”

“Sass, I dont clip wings because I figure if they can fly they can avoid my cats and dogs....”

“Strat, we live in a neighborhood and our birds are technically illegal. The neighbors don't mind them, we asked before we got them, but the City would. We lost a quail when we raised them cause we hadnt clipped their wings. A snow white quail just disappeared....watched it fly off and never found it, lol.”

“the tom turkey is the culprit, I caught him in the act.

off with his head!”

“You need to set it up so the nesting boxes if you use them are only accessable by the chickens. Expansion time.”

“I hear ya Sass, I'd do the same thing. I counted the flock this morning(or was it yesterday?) and I'm down to 26.....there's a couple missing! I guess that chicken hawk must have gotten them....”

“My 42 guinea eggs offa Ebay are beginning to hatch. It's been only 21 days incubation, so they could have begun forming before I actually got them. 2 thus far have been bad.

We have 3 little red bourbone turkeys, man are they particularly stinky!

Today I build a bigger chicken coop. I have to fence mine in, chicken schyte awl over the place has long since gotten old.

I'm going thru some kind of sickness .... coughing, sneezing, sometimes goopy eyes and nostrils. Low food intake. 2 young polish chickens have wasted away, looks like I may lose a couple more before I finish my 2-week run of antibiotics.”

“Bummer Apedood

I think I lost another bird yesterday....”

“Hehehe, I'd said I'm going thru some sickness...... that actually meant my flock of chickens.

Have yawl ever had this? Somehow I've crossed contaminated, guessing it'd be offa the feeders and waterers, I only have 2 sets, sooooo. In April when we did a Flarda trip, we did the craigslist thing on the way back, picked up not only some kewl and rare chix, but some kinda serious chicken sickness. Thought I'd battled it thru ...... but here it is..... again!

My little guineas are popping out now! Have about 8 uv'em now all wabbling about, cute little buggers.”