the crooked little chicken house

“Holy crap! But I wonder if you could have kept it if you called a game warden...

Since the tracks were all the same, and there were probably three sets of tracks, I'm assuming it was coyotes. You can see where the deer was running and the distance between jumps was 6ft (probably thinking it was safe once it turned into the yard) then it grows to 10-12ft and likely more after that...probably once the deer saw the coyotes come in from the side.”

“I'm looking into getting a trail cam so I can see what goes on in my backyard when I'm not there...”

“I love your thread!!! :)”

“I've thought of getting a camera to see which neighbor dogs mess in my snow paths and lawn in the summer.

Forgot, scared a doe a few years ago too, almost the same result as the buck, at least she jumped the fence after running into the chicken wire. I know I have really scared them when I hear them crossing the creek and rolling rocks in it.”

“thanks div!

It's coming up to time to order critters - rabbits in February and chicks in March...

I looked over the poultry breeds books and the available birds from Tractor Supply. Since you have to order in lots of 5 per breed, I ended up with a list of about 65-80 birds. LOL...
No way can I handle that many! I'll probably check around and see if anyone wants to go in on some lots with me.

This year I want more meat chickens and turkeys, and some meat ducks. I'll add some layers, but I need to focus mainly on the coop and run. Without predators, the birds are easy to keep.

Last year I ordered birds from a local place, had to order 6 in a lot, and they sold 3-4 breeds of chickens and 1 type of turkey. I didn't lose any to illness, so the quality was good. I had one mud butt, but I kept it clean and it was fine. Farmer Frank said those are usually culled right off, but mine did okay. Not sure about the quality of Tractor Supply's birds, but I guess I'll find out!”

“My neighbor thought it would be cute to get her son some Easter chicks, since his birthday is also right around Easter. Never mind this is a medium density, HOA prohibitive development they're in. I think they lasted a month. Every one of them turned out to be a rooster. They all went to a local farm.”

“She could have bought ones that had been sexed and been pretty sure she had hens. More expensive though...I also read that the reason birds are sold in lots is to prevent that type of buying...

The poor rooster - his comb got frost bit and the spikes that turned black are falling off. That won't be good when we get new birds.
Next birds I'll cover the comb with petroleum jelly, see how that works. If I can get close enough to do it!”

“Petroleum jelly works well for that. Applying this is a task best left for a lady. I wouldn't want to be the guy who was spotted sneaking up on his chickens with a jar of vaseline.”

“LOL...”

“All this thread needs now are boobs and beer. ;-)


beer can chickens with cooked breasts”

“So the rooster needs a comb-over.... :D

She bought the chicks at Tractor Supply.”

“LOL twig, you gonna pick up a couple of birds, huh?

We just bought 2 female Americaunas Monday, they are the Easter egg layers. Our only female (only 1 outa 11 young Americaunas we bought this summer) is giving us almost a light blue egg a day now. Hardboiled some last week so the kids could show their classmates an Americauna egg.

The 2 female Americaunas we just bought should be laying within the month. Hopefully the weather will improve after this weekend, we have some roosters that have a date with destiny (destiny being the freezer).

HikerD, toted a deer up into the woods a mile?!! What tha?!! I hope you toted it up'air to dress it out!”

“yeah, we'll see how many I actually get...

I'm looking at a dome type coop/run because of the predators...and I really need to get one of those cameras - there are about a million tracks around my house. Always has been, but I never thought of getting a trail cam for the back yard. A couple of friends of mine have been sharing their pics and they are awesome.

Judy was sitting on the porch next to the front door last night - she really wants to come in the house - especially today when it is really cold out. Yesterday she was shivering and the kids asked where her coat was, LOL...I told them she got it off one day, stomped it on the ground, and now it's all covered with poop...”

“ape, I want a couple of those birds...the kids would love it. We got a kick out of how the eggs progessed from when the birds laid their first small round egg to the eggs they lay now.”

“Yesterday some old lady in a red truck pulled into the dooryard and yelled at the trees...LOL...

I assume the birds were in the road...”

“Noun 1. dooryard - a yard outside the front or rear door of a house”

“Is that eastern speak or old west lingo?:)”

“pfffft!

:)”

“I have just spent the last hour reading this thread from the beginning.....totally enjoyed it.......and I can relate having many of the same thoughts and experiences and a crooked little chicken house of my own!

I keep only hens for the eggs and the fertilizer and garden work they do. I have lost hens to hawks and racoons mostly out here in the woods by the river. So, I have spent many weekends making modifications and additions and all kinds of rigs to the original moveable coop I built from pallets a couple of years ago. Now, they freerange only when I am at home and weekends. I have netting over the run and the coop is moved around inside a 5ft fence that encloses my large garden area.
It seems the hawks love to go for chickens in the summer and the racoon activity increases in the winter.

I have only one hen at the moment who is a prolific layer..and I have to laugh when you relate the worrying about your Judy being cold and making her a coat and all. LOL...I am laughing at myself too... We got some very low temps here in N. Fla. For 12 days in a row it got below freezing...and on the nights it got in the low 20's and 18 and 11.....(don't laugh...that is harsh for we florida natives!) anyway, I brought my chicken into the bathroom on those frigid nights. She has no other hens to huddle up with after all! I have a clawfoot tub and I filled it with straw and put a roost board across the tub and she stayed in all night. I tried uploading the pic i took to put here, but the photo upload is not working here right now, so I couldnt put it on here....I never thought about making her a coat!...but now, when she is freeranging over the weekends, she comes up to the door and wants to come in!...one day the door was open and she went into the tub and layed an egg...since there was no straw or anything..it cracked when she layed it on the cast iron bottom! I guess she got spoiled...I make her a salad everyday and put flax seeds and sunflower seeds in there and grapes...she gets layena mixed with an organic feed I get....Hey...those eggs are awesome (course, she also eats bugs,worms and maggots...heh)....

I need to make some changes (again) to the coop nest boxes, but I will be getting three more pullets pretty soon!

this is a wonderful thread...thank you for sharing your musings....now i have to check in more often to read the next episode!

gosh...this is long....ha...don't get me started on the chicken talk! sorry”

“Amazing she learned to come back to the house. I've had hens sit on my leg while I feed them or come up onto the steps while I was sitting there, they are trained easily with treats, then come to expect it.:)”

“No Judy fix today, twiggy?

Judy Judy Judy Judy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-XpF5w7uAU”

“Here ya go stovie. I had to flat out kick the bejeezus outa Brad Pitt and Number 2, they were both standing on top of my tiny little rooster Buck (that's what he cost), pecking him pretty good and making him scream. They were just around the coop and didn't see me approach when I sent'em flying.

Number 2 is going to a new home tho, he's just too dang pretty to eat, and Brad Pitt should settle down without his evil twin.

Has anyone tried pine straw in their nesting boxes? I just tried this evening, everything else and they just pick out and fling everywhere. Seems like my gals prefer to squat their eggs straight onto wood! Anyway, I'll let ya know how the pine straw works out.”

“I used wood shavings from a local sawmill. Worked pretty good. When I cleaned everything out, it went on the compost pile and later to the garden.”

“Pine straw is what was abundant and what we used way back when, ape.

I never did like reaching into those boxes to gather the eggs. I hated chicken snakes.

We had one that outsmarted himself. He crawled into the chicken pen thru the fence, ate a chicken, then couldn't fit back out the fence.
RIP snakey.”

“I chopped a snake up with my riding mower 2 years ago, right when I was passing by the chicken yard. The mower shot the pieces through the poultry fence right at the chickens. Man, they attacked those bits of bloody mess like there was no tomorrow. They also follow right behind the roto tiller looking for worms.”

“A good show will be on the History channel Monday Feb. 8 at 6 PM called "The Egg." It's one of the Modern Marvel series. I watched it last week and found it interesting.”

“That'un ud be good for the kids, thanx Rich.
LOL at the poor chicken snake. Stovie even chicken snakes need love.”

“what the heck is "pine straw?"

that's a riot om...laying an egg in the tub...LOL...cool that you let her in!

When it's 20 or so, I consider it warm enough for the birds...actually when the temps are around 30, the chickens don't bed down in the coop until after dark.

I use wood savings for the coop and nesting boxes, but the birds do seem to dig down to bare wood to lay their eggs. The other night the two who aren't allowed on the roost seemed to have thrown shavings all over - they were digging down to the bare floor to settle in. In the summer I use grass clippings as well.

Judy has been coming up the stairs, all three did a one point. She can actually get back down on her own though. Today we decided to let her in - hoping she'd hold in her turkey sized poops until she got back outside. She looked around a little bit, but I was too worried she'd poop, so we shooed her back outside. I can just picture her sitting on the couch with me, watching tv while I scratch her neck. I imagine this summer we'll watch the sun set together again - just gotto train her not to pull my hair anymore! :)”

“The fallen needles (leaves) of pine trees deposited on the ground are called pine straw.


last edited: 2/07/10 2:19:12 PM”

“in what language?

In the Pine Tree State, we call 'em "pine needles"

LOL...”

“It's a southern thing. In Virginia they were rake up and used for mulch.”

“Mo of that eastern speak. Pine needles out west.:)”

“Judy and the chickes were under the bedroom window this am - she was pip-pipping and they were clucking away - great alarm clock!”

“wonder how naked apes dispatching went...

Judy was no where to be found this am...I walked out into the field but did not see her anywhere...I wasn't worried though, as she seems to disappear off the face of the earth and then reappear - no idea where she's going these days.

still holding at 4 hens, 1 rooster, 1 turkey...”

“Ever mess with the rooster by grabbing a hen and carry her away? The guy doesn't know who to protect, the other hens or the one you have.:)”

“LOL twigeater! Ain't done the deed yet, been either rainy, or too cold to bother with. Thank I've found a home for #2 tho, he's too pretty to kill. But the others are going into the pot, eventually.

Don't worry, I'll give a TR when we commence to dispatchin'.
Wife says she ain't going to take a bite tho.”

“Make sure you eat everything but the squawk.”

“why won't your wife eat them? I have a friend who won't eat my chickens or their eggs. Something about eating a chicken that someone he knew had raised and killed or whatever...I don't quite get it, but that's okay.

It seems the remaining rooster has taken issue with the fact that there is another adult male on the property. My son is back home, and the rooster has started chasing and attacking him, LOL...
I've yet to see it, but I'd love to video it. :)

Judy is camped out on the porch tonight, not sure why...”

“LOL twig of your jealous rooster! Do try to get video.

My wife hates the fact that the roosters trust me so much, it ain't right for me to kill them. That's aiight tho, me and the kids will eat'em up good. I told my darling she can go downtown and get a bucket of chicken to go! hehe”

“It aint nothin' to set a rogue rooster straight. The key is the initial encounter. It's all about body language. Be confident and dam near aggresive - they'll chicken out, and give you a wide berth from then on.”

“Amazingly tho gojo, not one single rooster of ours is aggressive to me or to the kids. Lemme see, how many we have .... our best of course is Brad Pitt, then there's his evil twin #2(evil in the sense of having to join Brad Pitt when he's with a lady), there's Augustus, the younger Scaredy Twins and their brother No Toe, Big White ..... and lastly our tiny Buck, which cost us a buck and a quarter at a farm auction one time, just cause he's so dang cute.

Up first for the chopping block ... when the weather betters some of course is Big White, #2 (altho he's too pretty to whack), and one of our 2 male guineas George.”

“my son is 6'3" and a little rooster can chase him off...he said he attacks him with his feet - I assume he means the spurs. I've asked him to go stand by the coop, get him to go after him so I can see, but he won't - maybe tomorrow. it's too funny...

Judy is sleeping on the steps out there, wonder what's up with her?”

“Chickens 'one-up' humans in ability to see color, taste delicious

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100216101159.htm”

“Most all birds do colors better than humans, no? Except owls, who are about black and white, aka night vision. Owlses optic nerves are so thick that they cannot move their eyes, hence the spinning head maneuver.

Twigeater -
Maybe the rooster doesn't attack in your presence because you supercede him in the pecking order.”

“Owlses optic nerves are so thick that they cannot move their eyes, hence the spinning head maneuver.

Cool fact, gojo.”

“Twig -
Have the rooster take a picture of you spurring your son. Now THAT I would like to see :)

This topic always reminds me of seeing my three y/o nephew running across the yard with one of our roosters clinched tightly to his hair, wings flapping. I expected Chris to take flight - lol!
last edited: 2/18/10 1:25:11 PM”

“How does a chicken take a picture?
Why would twiggy want to spur her son? ;-)”

“Austin was in a hurry to collect eggs this morning before I took him off to a friend's house. With the warm temps lately, it's quite spring like and mucky, so he slipped and fell full out in the chicken muck. Had to change all his clothes and rinse his sneakers off.

LOL gojo...I've seen the rooster stand on his tippy toes, puff up his neck and flap his wings - but I paid no attention figuring he was just being a rooster. They all run toward me when I go outside, so I don't think anything of that either. I imagine that the rooster would chase whoever ran from him.

Judy is still camped out on the steps, she came in the house today. She also pecks at me when I try to pet her like I used to. I should mention that this new behavior began after she saw me pick up one of her pooped on and frozen broken eggs and smashed it for the chickens to eat. She'd been sitting on it which was different for her.

Some of her feathers are bent or broken - but who knows how that happened since she runs off to who knows where whenever she feels like it.”

“She's adventurous. Ya gotta like that.

Do visitors sometimes find an egg in their car? Better still, have they returned several minutes later to bring a chicken back home?”