the crooked little chicken house

“yeah sticks, you and tom cruise......

Duane I'd thawt that was an urban legend, but thanx for the heads up stix.”

“hens stop laying around 18-24 months...and dont lay while molting.”

“MOLTING!?!?!!! hold up, nobody ever mentioned molting. Wtf is molting? When do they molt? How do they molt? Why do they molt? How long do they molt? How do i know when they are molting? Di thu all molt?This is bogus, I've heard of crabs molting. Snakes molt, what do I do? I'm freekin out now!”

“They should moult in the Fall before it gets too cold. An annual thing for birds.”

“This is fall, are they doing it now. They aren't loosing any feathers that I've noticed”

“Could happen in the spring too. They will get pretty scruffy looking and you'll start seeing feathers laying around everywhere. You will know and they don't necessarily all do it at the exact same time.”

“http://www.chickenkeepingsecrets.com/chicken-health/molting-time-in-the-northern-hemisphere/

There are lots of feathers in my yard, but there also ducks in the freezer, LOL.

speaking of ducks - I got 3 duck eggs today!
pale green, can't wait to try them!”

“That's a cool site, Twigs. Are you a member?”

“yeah..tell us more about that website. Very good article re molting.”

“Kinda scares me that they might molt right when it gets really cold. It'd be a good time to eat one though. No plucking necessary, lol!”

“That's pretty cool twig, thanx. I was browsing there and saw some info on dawgs and chickens. How I taught mine to like chickens was by using chicks. Worse case scenario is you lose a few cheap chicks, but after that, the chicks (the ones that survive) grow up with the dawgs, and the dawgs never bother any kind of chickens after that. We've raised two turkeys too, and a benefit I'd not considered is that our dawgs now don't chase off our wild turkeys, something that had bothered me considerably.”

“Ape, are they heritage turkeys that you raised? Ive heard the chickens can make turkeys sick, but not always”

“They're red bourbons, run around with the chickens, dawgs, cats, and kids. I've had no prollems with them, other than predators enjoying themselves quite well with them.

Last night the guineas decided to leave the coop again for sleeping out under the stars high up in the hemlock tree. Well......... the dumazzes lost another, either sometime during the night, or early this morning. Another white gal, gone out for breakfast, never to return.

If them idiots try to roost in that tree again tonight, I might shoot them outa there with a beebee gun. We'll see.”

“Squirt bottle dude, trust me....

Red Bourbons, wow that sounds awesome!”

“I'm not a member. I barely notice when my chickens molt. Sometimes one will look a little shaggy.”

“I hardly notice mine molting too, they seem to do it quick. Our head rooster, Brad Pitt, looks like a mean mofo right now tho, with his scraggly looking mostly molted neck.

Strat I cain't hardly imagine a squirt bottle reaching way up in a hemlock.

Oh, update: the guineas decided that they'll nity-nite in the coop after all.

I'm on the prowl for a good night-vision thingy, mono or goggle or scope, whatever is pretty great quality without breaking the bank (ye rite that exists). I plan to cook me up some coon sometime. Strat, know anything about that? Night vision that is, not coon cookin'.”

“Lol, yeah. Check out The Sportsman Guide. They have some monos that I'd call reasonably priced. Those hemlocks must be huge, I wouldn't know. Wouldn't a good flashlight do the trick?
I'll post my coon-on-a-shingle recipe later.....”

“i have a reasonably priced mono...some russian stuff. works like it was reasonably priced if you know what I mean. ;)

That site wouldnt let me look around w/out becoming a member.”

“Dang sass, sorry i forgot about that. My boy is a member so I guess I'm spoiled. We've gotten a TON of stuff from them. They send a different catalog about every week. Mostly hunting and camping stuff, camo clothing , hiking boots, lots of shooting accessories. Boy bought a crossbow and compound bow there too. Good prices.”

“Yeah, we've used them before. I'm just saying you get what you pay for w/ the night vision.”

“Ye that's what I keep hearing Sass, I want awesome, but I ain't ready and willing to lay out that kinda buckage.”

“over a foot of snow and the birds are out wading around in it...crazee!”

“Holy crap! Don't they need little sweaters or something?”

“it's not that cold, I'm still going out in shorts and flip flops. Last night I noticed a rooster and what must be "his" women roosting out front. I thought it might be a bit cold for them at night, but guess not. The ducks sort of swim in the snow...at first they appeared to be bathing in it, quite like they do in water.”

“Bet thoseducks wish they'd flown south for the winter, lol. I just went out for firewood in my slippers so I guess it's not too cold here either.”

“I had 6 wild turkeys walk thru my yard Friday AM, within 10 feet of the house, then on Saturday AM, a spike buck was nibbling on the trimmings from my fruit trees that I had pruned on Friday. No fear of me whatsoever and I even had to go from the garage back to the house for a key.
Duane”

“I'm guessing you don't have twin dogs that are half Rotty, half Geeman Shepard like mine...”

“uh huh, gotta G-man dawg, I thawt you was part of the govmint”

“I guess I was a bad momma to the ducks, since I didn't teach them to fly south...
:(
oh well, more eggs for me! :)”

“Ape, shush, that's classified....

I got 7 eggs yesterday! New record.... Till my lovely wife tripped on a log and dropped 2 of them....the chickens gobbled them up. DOH!”

“I got 3 yesterday, that was a record for me too ...... a record low. Be time soon to put out a light I rekin.”

“I've been runnin a light till 8 or 9.

Got 11 eggs today!”

“We have 5 dozen eggs in the fridge...I keep thinking we should start selling them, but we keep giving them away.”

“Ive been trading eggs, like yesterday I bartered 2 dozen for a sweet disc golf putter.

The chicken hawk came back yesterday and nailed one of my smaller birds. My wife saw it happen and came to get me but the hawk finally flew off. The chicken looked to be a goner and I thought we were going to have to eat it but it just kind of shook it off and rejoined the flock. As I watched the hawk defiantly glide in the thermals, the words of Bugs Bunny poped into my head: Of corse you know, this means war...”

“I got a homemade partridge pie in exchange for eggs once. I love partridge, but for some reason, the person who made it used frozen mixed vegetables, which I don't like. (not to mention seems a bit sacriligious...) I've also gotten blueberries, apples, peaches.

Mostly I give eggs to the family, those that will eat fresh eggs anyway.”

“This hawks cleanin me out , I'm gonna keep the chickens in the pen untill I can figure something out. This sucks”

“what about inexpensive nylon netting? i've seen it like chicken wire and considered covering the pen with it. also could try plastic owls or streamers.”

“If they were penned up, I've heard of stringing fishing line over the top.
Duane”

“I'm reluctant to try the owl because we have lots of great horned owls and I don't want the chickens to become desensitized to them. I need a stuffed Puma!
I really really don't want to stop freeranging them in the long run, mainly because the pen of enclosure will accumulate poop and smell bad. I've had these things for nine months or so and the hen house and pen doesn't even stink too bad because they don't spend their day in there.
A buddy at work suggested live trapping and relocating the hawk but I'm pretty sure a bird has built in GPS and could easily find his way back here from 3 counties over. Migratory birds do it....
I honestly don't want to harm the hawk, maybe a 410 with rock salt.....
Quandary... I'm havin a quandary up in here...”

“I had a couple of friends that raised free-range chickens. The eggs were out of this world, with dark, meaty yolks. Unfortunately they don't do it any more. One had his coop beside a tree and he used it to string nylon netting.

The other one only let them out when he was round (every afternoon).

Then again, I don't think we have chicken hawks up here.”

“Yes the eggs are the bomb. I've looked this guy up and believe it to be a Red Shouldered Hawk. He's a bigun! Not scared of me one bit. I just don't see how any kind of string or netting would help much because the chickens roam around so much. I'm just gonna sit by the coop in full camo with a few dozen bottle rockets and a 12 pack this weekend. It's on like Donkey Kong in a thong....”

“A bb gun would work strat, it don't hurt'em too badly. Only pump it about 3 times and naturally stay away from it's head and neck area. Same goes for the privates area too, just to be safe. I "encouraged" a red-tail to move along just after leaf-drop. It flies way overhead still, but it no longer drops to our treetops (at least while I'm home anyhow).”

“Heck Yeah Ape! That's my new master pan.

Hey check your e-mail , buddy”

“A totem pole made from coffee cans and carved up detergent bottles...

we made one of these a few years ago (I love it!) and my plan is to add a "face" to each of the fence posts, with streamers etc. Course I'll probably have more fun making them than they are worth, but it'll be cool!

I noticed the skunk moved in under one of the chicken coops.”

“think "Wilson"...
:)”

“Lol, Willlllsonnnnnnnn!

I've been thinking about making a totem pole out of one of these dead oak trees. I reckon I'd have to use a chainsaw for carving and I don't really know how. I'll be out cuttin firewood today and I'm keeping the BB gun close by.
Time to clean the coop too, BLECK! Dirty birds! I'm up to a solid 7 egg/day average.... I've been getting some blue ones but haven't figured out which hen is laying them. I've asked them but they won't tell me....”

“I always wanted a friend like Wilson, LOL...

those birds do poop A LOT!”

“Do you folks find this article to be accurate?

Chickens and Cold Weather
10/8/2010 3:38:38 PM
By Robert Plamondon

Tags: chickens, cold
I’d rather not heat my chicken coop unless I have to. How cold is too cold for my hens?

Chickens can handle very cold temperatures. Some experts say chickens don’t really start suffering until the temperature inside their coop falls to minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit. They’ll start suffering earlier if it’s damp inside the chicken house, or if they haven’t become inured to the cold (which is why some people think using heat lamps for hens is a bad idea unless it gets incredibly cold).

The lowest temperature we’ve had at my place is 8 degrees. My chickens didn’t mind this low temperature at all, and they live in wide-open, tumbledown coops, with all feeding and watering done outdoors.

Even if your chickens are all right in the cold, you need to make sure they have access to water in below-freezing temperatures. As for waterers, if your coop has electricity, I’d suggest getting a couple of galvanized feed pans and using them for waterers on top of a heated stand. If they freeze up, swap in a replacement and take the frozen one inside to thaw. Open pans get messier than real waterers and have to be dumped out all the time, but they’re the best choice in freezing weather.

The other problem with open pans is that the chickens can flip the water all over the place and soak their combs and wattles, which will get frostbite if this happens. One possible fix is to create a wooden float that floats on top of the water pan. Put a bunch of 1-inch holes in the float. This keeps the water-flipping to a minimum and helps insulate the pan. I’ve never tried this personally, but it’s mentioned in several old-time poultry books as a proven trick.

— Robert Plamondon, www.plamondon.com”

“This is my first winter with them but that's consistent with everything I've read and heard. I am running a ought on a timer from disc to about 9:30 but that's because I read it will increase egg production during the short winter days. My coop is very insulated. So far, I've been to break the ice in my waterers. It hasn't gotten cold enough yet to freeze solid. I'm not sure what I'll do then.”

“They make heaters, or use a dog dish heater.
Duane”