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Post by lisaann on Apr 4, 2015 18:19:14 GMT -5
Oh Rexx,
Sorry about Red.............
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Post by oliverman on Apr 11, 2015 0:01:34 GMT -5
Sorry to hear about Rose and Red. Seems that tragedy often befalls the favorite. Around here, we suggest never picking a favorite, because that will become a bad omen for the poor critter.
On the other end of the spectrum, my wife picked up 10 chicks at the farm store today. I will try to remember to take some pictures when I get a chance.
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Post by brownrexx on Apr 11, 2015 7:30:22 GMT -5
Sometimes you just can't help yourself. Red would leave the flock and follow US in the yard. She would run up to us if she was outside without us and we returned. She really had a personality.
Oh well, we don't have any favorites anymore. We like our chickens but they are not so much like pets as Red was.
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Post by ncgarden on Apr 11, 2015 17:31:49 GMT -5
Worked on converting the old hen house to a bee room today - the ladies kept a careful watch on the proceedings
Keeshia, Gloin, Ethel and Dolce
Put a floor into the bee room - using some leftover laminate wood flooring we found in the shed when we bought my daughter's house. Man, this stuff is great. Took about 15-20 minutes to lay the floor!
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Post by brownrexx on Apr 11, 2015 18:49:44 GMT -5
That's a pretty deluxe bee room!
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Post by oliverman on Apr 12, 2015 8:18:12 GMT -5
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Post by ncgarden on Apr 12, 2015 9:24:57 GMT -5
Oh thanks oliverman! I am chick-free this year so I appreciate the photo. There is an entire side of Tractor Supply I have to avoid these days....
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Post by OregonRed on Apr 12, 2015 10:00:48 GMT -5
BABBIESSSS - sooo cute
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Post by brownrexx on Apr 12, 2015 10:15:28 GMT -5
Tractor Supply has baby ducks too and they are absolutely adorable. I almost had to drag hubby away from them. Luckily I was with him in the store or it could have turned out like one other year when I went outside to take a phone call and he came out with a little cardboard box with breathing holes in it and a big grin on his face!
Luckily it was chicks that he just couldn't resist and not ducklings.
No chicks for us this year either and I'd like to keep it that way.
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Post by brownrexx on Apr 12, 2015 18:51:29 GMT -5
I got inside the chicken coop and did the "spring cleaning" today. It was pretty messy after not being given a full cleaning since before the winter. We let the chickens out to run around all day but it must have been egg laying time because every couple of minutes a hen would hop into the coop, see me cleaning and yell at me. I got done as quick as I could and added all fresh straw which really smelled nice. I don't break up the straw I just throw in a chunk and they just have a ball tearing it apart and also eating the seeds.
There was a mad rush to the coop when I got out and even our 5 year old Bantam (Little Brown) laid an egg. She only does this a few times a year.
They got to free range all day, dug up my flower beds, got a clean house with fresh straw and I pulled up a massive bunch of chickweed for them to eat. No hawks visited since we were also free ranging in the yard and gardens all day so it was a good day to be a chicken at my house.
All of the old straw and poo from the box that sits under their roost is now in my compost pile so I am happy too.
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Post by claude on Apr 12, 2015 20:23:41 GMT -5
Sorry about the losses..it's hard when those personalities endear them to you...
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Post by oliverman on Apr 12, 2015 22:56:36 GMT -5
Ducks are nice, but they are the slobs of the poultry world. They make a soggy mess out of any watering area. So much fun, though my wife still insists I don't acquire any more. The two I have will likely meet the stew pot once they finish laying eggs for the summer.
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Post by brownrexx on Apr 13, 2015 8:09:33 GMT -5
We had ducks one year and they really were messy. Yuk, they are super cute but all they do is eat and poop, usually at the same time!
We had a child's plastic swimming pool for them and it was dirty 10 minutes after we cleaned it. Then we got RATS burrowing under the pool. Well that was when the ducks got re-homed to a farm with a pond!
This was real rats, not mice and it was creepy. We have lots of farms in our area so of course there are rats but I definitely don't want them burrowing near my house. I forget how we got rid of them but I found it scary.
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Post by claude on Apr 13, 2015 8:30:12 GMT -5
One year we had an incredible wet winter and spring that raised the water table SO high..water everywhere! We found rats running across the deck. We were sitting, drinking morning coffee and my husband yelled, holy shit! At first he thought it was a cat or possum because it was dusky still..we had an exterminator come because they had burrowed under evergreens..we had to use poison..they never came back. Man oh man, that rat was big! they had been escaping flooded bedding tunnels into higher terrain..and they moved in along with the snow melt? i couldn't believe how intricate they had tunneled. I'm so glad my dogs never found them.
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Post by oliverman on Apr 13, 2015 8:51:30 GMT -5
Yeah, rats seem a common resident of barns and henhouses. I try to make sure cats can get under the henhouse to do patrol. They raid the feeders at night. When it gets bad, I make a cat spend the night with the chickens. Cat once left me nine rats the next morning. In the sheep barn I periodically send the dog under the feed bunks to dig up any near the surface.
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