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Helps to make sure that there are places the smaller chicks can get to that the bigger ones cannot get to them in. Little hidey holes as it were. Lean and secure something leaning against the fence that they can get behind or in, or even a box of sorts. We had great success using small doghouses...the littler ones could get in and the big ones couldn't. Gives them a place to go when feeling threatened, and the big ones can't get them. As they get bigger and can hold their own, it won't be as needed. Least that is how we always did it.
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Jul 5, 2011 00:33
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A flying piece of posted:My young rooster died... I have no idea what happened. There's no marks on him, he didn't/doesn't appear to be sickly. Sometimes they drop dead  I have had that happen once or twice...my vet said nothing was really wrong, he suspected heart attack.If you had heavy firworks/noise that might contribute too. If they have never heard it before he might literally have been scared to death. It's a possibility I am sorry for your loss...it's always hard when one dies. At least he was in a good place and had a good life with you while he was alive.
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Jul 5, 2011 13:25
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Fluffy Bunnies posted:How do you guys feel about black australorps for a beginner? My Oprah and Beaker are the best birds  Big happy girls with gorgeous black feathers that shine greenish in the sun, and inquisitive as all get out. They are very sweet, and if you hand raise them they are extremely friendly. For first birds, I highly recommend, Australorpes, Orpingtons, Barred Rocks, and Plymouths. All of them I have hand raised and had very lovey birds who even at older ages still loved to sit on my lap and get cuddled.
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Jul 11, 2011 22:35
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Actually they sleep on roosts. Perches, like parrots use, are too round for them to sit on...their toes don't wrap around the same way. Some smaller chickens can use thick tree branches, but dowels are going to be way too small to have them sit on, even if you used large broom handles. They would do better using the flat side of a 2x4(for example)to support their weight. Just FYI
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Jul 12, 2011 05:27
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A flying piece of posted:There was actually a story last night on Baltimore's local news about urban backyard chickens. Positive story about how the number of people keeping them is going way up. Oh yes Wonderful no?Seattle raised its limit from 3 backyard hens to 8 this week!!! Viva La Revolucion!! Hopefully more major cities and towns as well as smaller areas will get off this "Chickens are farm animals!!" kick and see that having your own personal flock is a time honored tradition. Go Seattle!! /cheer
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Jul 14, 2011 05:56
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Hey, A flying piece of, nice coop and run. However, some advice? And you probably already know but eh... The chicken wire on the runs are great for keeping the birds in. Keeping critters out tho? Not so great. Might want to look into replacing with hardware cloth, and replacing or overcovering the existing wire, and then securing the hardware cloth to the wood very very well. Not 100% foolproof mind you...but I know from sad experience that chicken wire can be gotten thru by dogs, and that coons can easily make short work of the run material unless fortified. And both attacks were in the middle of the day as well, and we were both home. Again, you probably already had heard it, but it never hurts to mention again just in case. Almost anything is better than coming out to see a headless bird that has been yanked partially thru a chicken wire run and eaten...or even worse seeing all your birds massacred and left around the yard as play toys cos SOMEONE thought it would be fun to let their dogs out. Disco Salmon fucked around with this message at 20:51 on Jul 25, 2011 |
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Jul 25, 2011 16:22
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Alterian posted:You let your chickens eat chicken meat? Hell they even know they taste good. As my grandad used to say..."Chickens don't get mad chicken disease! Leave a dead cow in the field and the cows will avoid it...leave a dead chicken in the run and all the rest of the birds will get forks,knives and wet napkins and a picnic blanket and go to town." They are omnivores and eat practically ANYTHING. I remember seeing a whole flock of birds on my grandad's farm go RACING across the field. I mean their little legs were a blur form the sheer speed as they ran across to the far corner of the pasture. We were on the horses so we went to go see what caught their attention, and it was a dead deer some poacher left at the pasture line. They went absolutely nuts like the little dinosaurs that they are. If you suddenly went unconscious in the coop they would taste you. If you woke up...sweet! If not, well, they would eat you too :P We give our birds everything...unless it is high in salt or highly seasoned. They get eggs fed back to them in scrambled form with veggies mixed in, they get turkey and chicken carcasses to fight over. It's really quite interesting to watch if you give them a mix of foods at the same time... most of the birds will go for the meat first. Its kind of funny to me that there are birds sold as "vegetarian fed and free ranging" cos I know drat well that they are eating bugs, small birds, frogs, snakes, carrion etc that they find and last I saw, that isn't vegetarian. Lyz posted:
ugh please don't give them moldy bread...they can get sick from it like you or I. Veggies past their prime are fine, and stale bread...but if its moldy etc its not good for them.
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Aug 6, 2011 17:43
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coyo7e posted:A thing I noticed reading through this thread, is that there seems to be a general lack of discussion/awareness about the birds' crop. Impacted crop or "crop bound" problems (someone mentioned that primarily grass-fed birds can get this) can be easily prevented by providing grit and small stones for the birds. Oyster grit is useful for this and also provides calcium to keep eggs from breaking when hens attempt to roll them around while setting on their nest. Many times the grass fed birds get this because the grass is too long and just balls up. Best way to prevent this is to cut the grass short so its not long strands AND provide plenty of grit. If the birds are allowed to pluck their own grass, they tend to rip it into manageable pieces. The crop impaction due to grass seems to happen more when people mow the lawn and throw long clippings in for the birds.They can't tear it off into beak size bits so they cram it all in, and it gets impacted. Crop surgery is not fun btw ugh...nasty. But at least it's not that hard to do. Chido posted:
A question all women have comtemplated since time began.... Disco Salmon fucked around with this message at 18:08 on Aug 20, 2011 |
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Aug 20, 2011 18:05
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Chido posted:I was told in backyardchickens.com that my pullets look like game fowl or a gamefowl mix. I found out that this breed doesn't get too big, so I'd like to get a hen that weighs about 6-7 pounds for Roostroyer, but I only found roosters in petfinder Orpington, Australorps, EE, Plymouth Rocks, Barred Rock...basically any standard size chicken breed will be around 6 lbs or so. In my flock atm, all my girls are about 7 lbs each at the low side. The bigger girls are closer to 10. I have Easter Eggers <EE>, Black Australorps, Buff Orpingtons, Plymouth Rocks, and in the past I have had the Barred Rocks, Rhode Island Reds, and Cochins. Orps/Australorps are pretty close to being the same thing. The Australorp breed was developed in Austrailia from Orpington lines, so they are very similar. They are sweet happy curious birds with a tendency to get beat up and be lower on the pecking order. They are gorgeous birds tho...mine have wonderful personalities. Rocks in general tend to be VERY gregarious lol I love them they are funny personalitied birds who tend to be higher up on the pecking order in mixed flocks from my experience. EE are a mixed grab bag...I have had several that were the BEST layers I have ever had, and fantastic personalities. In fact the head hen for my flock is Mercedes, a EE. She has kept everyone in line for several years now. But I have also had EE that are flighty and scaredy cat birds...literally chicken. Silver is that way in my flock. She is almost 4 and still runs screaming in terror when I put something new in the pen, and won't come out of the coop for a good 30 minutes or so. They do lay pretty eggs tho!! They lay all colours of eggs depending on the genes they have. They are supposed to lay eggs ranging from green to aqua blue to olive. I however, have had one or two EE mutts who had a defective blue egg gene and gave me brown eggs Rhode Island Reds are good all around hens, quiet and usually sweet tempered. Again, they tend to be bullied by the flock so they are lower on average in pecking order in mixed flocks. Cochin are great birds...but they can have issues with the feathers getting in the way for breeding. They also might have more issues with the heat temperatures. Mine did ok, but they were some of the first of my flock to kick off, so I can't say much more than that. They did have a nice temperament however, but they did get bullied a bit and were prone to being overweight too...at least the ones I had were.
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Aug 21, 2011 17:49
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geez get what you want lol they REALLY don't care for the most part. The only time I have seen issues when they were all raised from chicks is when the other birds tried to pull the feathers off the top of my polish's topknot. They really don't care about what the other chickens look like, if they are raised together it wont really be an issue from what I have seen. and really? unless you are interested in breeding true breeds? It wont matter what is in your flock for the most part. So rainbow breed away! Get whatever ones you want...i have 5 different breeds in my flock atm and they are all fine together.
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Aug 21, 2011 23:32
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Greycious posted:Sweet, glad to know they aren't going to destroy each other if I get a rainbow-flock like I want oh ya order waht you like lol Just remember about the birds with fancy crests tho like the Polish. For some reason it is just so much fun for the other birds to pull at them. Granted it doesn't happen often but it still is a strong possibility. Enjoy your chickies!! I cannot wait to get more I wish i could now but I am at 7 atm... don't want to piss off the neighbors by adding more. So far they don't seem to mind the Ladies, but I don't want to press my luck.
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Aug 22, 2011 06:22
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DrPain posted:Sup chicken thread, been a great read but I've got some questions that I think haven't been addressed: 1) My hens drink on average here in Seattle area about 1/3 to 3/4 cup of water a day...more if hot. Course our hot is NOT your hot lol we only get to 100 or so every once in a while. Hottest i have ever seen here was 107 a couple of years back. We rarely get the hot hot heat waves like they do in other places. Easter Washington tho gets hot!! 2) We give scratch in the pen, and it is a large modified dog kennel with deer netting and steel fencing w/hardware cloth over the top to prevent hawks and other predators. The holes on the side of the pen are not big enough to really let the other birds in except for the occasional little robin etc but they go in at their own risk. My girls LOVE fresh little bird meat. We let the girls out in the back garden for an hour or so in the late afternoon when we get home from work so we can watch them. We have too many hawks in the area to trust them during the day on their own not being penned up. And daytime racoons 
Disco Salmon fucked around with this message at 01:47 on Aug 23, 2011 |
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Aug 23, 2011 01:45
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They are social critters. They are meant to be with other chickens, but I have heard of some solo ones that did ok. I have heard the minimum is 3 for chickens. 2 is not quite enough to give them the "flock mentiality" and 3 seems to be just right. But again, I have heard of a few single hens that were house chickens, and got interaction that way by adopting dogs/people etc as a substitute flock. I personally wouldn't want one on its own. Seems a bit sad to me
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Aug 25, 2011 04:23
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