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Post by ladymarmalade on Apr 12, 2021 19:31:25 GMT -5
I thought I’d share one more cute one. The Maran has already earned the name of Becky, as she reminds me of the bird in Finding Dory of the same name. They definitely have different personalities! It will be fun getting to know them.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Apr 13, 2021 13:21:58 GMT -5
Sooooo cute! Every time I see pics of baby chicks I really want to hold them. (Darn those city restrictions on keeping chickens!)
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Post by mgulfcoastguy on Mar 21, 2022 14:16:45 GMT -5
Younger sister got a rooster for her Rhode Island Reds. It's getting near time for new hens or to let them have chicks. Rudy the rooster isn't red, some type of white rooster. Since he was free I guess it was technically a rooster rescue.
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Post by september on Mar 21, 2022 17:01:51 GMT -5
I thought I’d share one more cute one. The Maran has already earned the name of Becky, as she reminds me of the bird in Finding Dory of the same name. They definitely have different personalities! It will be fun getting to know them. ladymarmalade, how are your chicks/hens doing? I have no idea how long it takes for them to mature, have you eaten any home produced eggs yet?
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Post by ladymarmalade on Mar 21, 2022 17:20:02 GMT -5
ladymarmalade, how are your chicks/hens doing? I have no idea how long it takes for them to mature, have you eaten any home produced eggs yet? They're doing great! We started getting eggs sometime in September and while we had a little break in the action between Christmas and Valentine's Day, we've been getting eggs consistently. One of these days when they are all out I'll snap a picture of all of them, they are so big and pretty. They also are no longer mine. My husband, much to my bemusement, seems to have adopted them as his pets. He'll spend time in the coop just hanging out with them and holding them, throwing them some treats and talking to them, etc. Works for me, as he also does all their care and my time is super limited right now. He's planning to build them a chicken tractor this spring so he can haul them around the yard to snack on fresh grass and bugs. If we weren't limited to four chickens by the village we're living in, I can guarantee we'd be adding at least two more to the flock. It's probably good that we're limited because we already get way more eggs than we can use. We've been sharing quite often with friends, family, and the occasional little family that walks by.
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Post by september on Mar 21, 2022 18:44:15 GMT -5
ladymarmalade , sounds like the ideal chicken experience! Pet chickens can be so sweet! And manure for the garden too.
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Post by mgulfcoastguy on Jun 21, 2022 11:56:08 GMT -5
The second batch of chicks from my sister's new rooster Rudy and his Rhode Island Red harem are about to come out of the incubator. We have no idea what type of rooster Rudy was other than free but his chicks look like him rather than his harem.
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Post by september on Jun 21, 2022 13:27:41 GMT -5
Lucky chickens, enjoying watermelons! Do the chicks get put back with the hens once they are stronger? I suppose using an incubator means the hens don't treat them as their responsibility?
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Post by mgulfcoastguy on Jun 21, 2022 14:20:09 GMT -5
The chicks are being transferred to new coops at their daughter and sons houses, at least the first dozen or so. Rudy likes to stand on the watermelon rind which is naturally wobbling like a teeter toter. That or stand on any tall item to survey his harem.
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Post by brownrexx on Jun 21, 2022 19:27:56 GMT -5
I just cut up a watermelon today and gave the rind to the chickens.They love that.
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Jun 21, 2022 21:46:58 GMT -5
Sooooo cute! Every time I see pics of baby chicks I really want to hold them. (Darn those city restrictions on keeping chickens!) Try Cortunix quail. They are going to be the new mini chicken. Wait and see.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jun 23, 2022 11:11:20 GMT -5
hairymooseknuckles, the problem is that after the cute chick stage you have adult birds to take care of (or give away, or slaughter to eat). The city would consider quail to be livestock, not pets, so they would be subject to the same city restrictions as chickens. Since quail are small and quiet, I might have a better chance of getting away with keeping them, but I would still get fined if one of my neighbors turned me in. Also, tiny little quail eggs and carcasses are fiddly and time-consuming to deal with. I will leave eating quail to the fine dining crowd.
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Post by mgulfcoastguy on Jun 27, 2022 22:36:44 GMT -5
Since these chicks weren't sorted there will probably be at least two roosters in each batch of 5. I wonder what my niece will do, the brothers have to go before breeding age. Anyhow the first batch are with my niece and her husband, he had some ancient grandma hens and they didn't mind the chicks being around. It might have been different if they were young and fertile hens. Nephew is still in the process of building his coop. I won't participate, I can't use very many eggs.
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Post by mgulfcoastguy on Jul 8, 2022 18:39:32 GMT -5
How is this for a coop?
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Jul 8, 2022 19:51:48 GMT -5
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jul 11, 2022 12:33:16 GMT -5
Ha! If only that would really work, right?
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Post by mgulfcoastguy on Oct 16, 2022 14:20:37 GMT -5
My older nephew has 4 chickens of different types that lay 4 different types of eggs. He said that the "purchasing department" said that they had to be "cute" chickens. Anyhow the small dark brown egg comes from a black chicken.
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Post by brownrexx on Oct 16, 2022 17:36:23 GMT -5
They taste the same but I love the colored eggs.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Oct 17, 2022 10:05:03 GMT -5
The colored eggs are pretty, but egg color is going to be down the priority list when I move to the new place and get chickens. My current thought is that getting breeds that thrive - rather than struggle - in the heat will be top of the priority list. Then general health, temperament, consistent egg laying, and egg size. Aesthetics come after all of those. At least I don't have to worry about getting a breed that can tolerate cold winters.
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Post by brownrexx on Oct 17, 2022 10:24:06 GMT -5
Laura_in_FL , I like pretty chickens and the Easter egger chickens that lay the blue eggs are generally pretty. I no longer have any of these and our 5 current hens lay brown eggs. I just prefer the colored ones and would not have hens that laid white ones no matter how reliable they were. Excess heat can be difficult for chickens. I would suggest picking a shady spot for your future coop. Our coop also has screened windows that remain open all summer. We also allow our chickens to free range and during the day and they sit under the holly tree or under the bushes during the hot part of the day. There is also an electrolyte solution that you can add to their water in the summer and this is supposed to help. My grandmother always had brown eggs and my Mom always had white. I thought that brown eggs were just the coolest thing when I was little. Grandmom also always gave us dairy chocolate milk and Mom made chocolate milk with white milk and syrup. I though that Grandmom just had the BEST food!
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Oct 17, 2022 11:11:05 GMT -5
Sounds like great advice. I do plan to save some of the existing large trees. I am still unsure whether I will have a permanent coop or a tractor, but I'll keep shade in consideration. My Granny had her chicken coop under the shade of a BIG mulberry tree. I am sure the tree loved all of the free fertilizer, and of course the chickens loved it when the tree dropped berries right in their coop.
Funnily enough, I just read about the electrolyte solution earlier this morning. Until then, I didn't know there was "gatorade" for chickens.
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Post by brownrexx on Oct 17, 2022 11:23:42 GMT -5
Laura_in_FL, We don't have a tractor coop but with Hubby's Cub Cadet tractor we are able to move our coop about once a year and allow the grass to regenerate and give the chickens new ground in their outside pen. Our outdoor pen is also easily moveable and we move that to another side of the coop a couple of times a year. We have cut outs in the wire at the bottom of their coop and we just bend the wire up to make a new doorway to the outside pen. My egg access doors are on the side of the coop. Another suggestion that I highly recommend is having a raised coop. They love sitting in the straw under their coop during the day. It's a lot cooler but the main reason I love this set up is that I do not need to bend down to access the coop. If I lived in FL I would probably include a screen door to allow more air flow. It gets pretty hot in the upstairs of the coop. DSC00290 by Brownrexx, on Flickr
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Oct 20, 2022 11:40:21 GMT -5
Those are excellent suggestions. Yes, there will need to be a lot of ventilation. Ideally there would be some cross-ventilation in the upstairs of the coop. Even if the coop is kept in the shade, in the summertime the inside of the coop will get really stifling due to the high humidity. But I would need to design some way to close off the ventilation during cold/windy/wet weather, so the chickens stay warm and dry in winter. But no matter how good the ventilation in the coop is, I bet the chickens would appreciate (and spend a lot of time in) a shady area under an elevated coop. There are lots of things to think about when designing a chicken coop! I found a website, backyardchickens.com, that has pages and pages of coop designs that people have posted and talked about their pros and cons, and what they would do different if they were building a coop again. So that is giving me a lot of food for thought. This coop design doesn't seem practical to me, but it cracked me up: www.backyardchickens.com/articles/a-ufo-chicken-spaceship-coop-that-is-out-of-this-world.73235/
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Post by brownrexx on Oct 20, 2022 12:17:40 GMT -5
Laura_in_FL, I think that coop is from Area 51. LOL Even in the coldest part of winter I have to leave a window partly open for ventilation. Don't forget that chickens are birds and used to living outside. When I first had them I thought that I needed to heat the coop but they hunker down on their roost and their feather cover their feet just like wild birds, no supplemental heat is needed. Your humidity is something I am not familiar with. We get humid days but not for months. Backyard chickens is a great resource.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jan 17, 2023 16:43:33 GMT -5
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Post by brownrexx on Jan 18, 2023 9:53:55 GMT -5
Euuu. No thanks.
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Jan 18, 2023 11:17:53 GMT -5
When you find youself in danger, When you're threatened by a stranger, When it looks like you will take a lickin', (bok, bok, bok, bok) There is someone waiting, Who will hurry up and rescue you, Just Call for Super Chicken! (Bok ack!)
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Post by stratcat on Jan 18, 2023 13:39:17 GMT -5
hairymooseknuckles , is that Chickenman on AM radio out of Chicago in the 6Os? 🐓 Chicken Mannnn. He's everywhere. He's everywhere.
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Post by hairymooseknuckles on Jan 18, 2023 15:28:47 GMT -5
Its Super Chicken. It’s a cartoon from my era in the 60’s.
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Post by mgulfcoastguy on May 8, 2023 11:20:58 GMT -5
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