Cruella

Morning  to all, 

A couple of days ago we discovered that "Cruella" our polish chicken has discovered she is a HE. So now he is starting to "crow" in the mornings and it sounds so funny. He is a dark and light gray color and his top not is white and has black strips on each side of his head,  the name of Cruella just fits him. 

The other hens have pecked his head feathers off, I have got a medical spray that I use every little bit to keep it "dark" so the hens don't see "red" which I have found out, chickens go after anything red and they will peck it apart. So poor Cruella is having a time with his top not or head feathers that all Polish hens have, I am in hopes that it will regrow and be pretty again, I do see a lot of pin feathers coming in, so have to keep it sprayed with the purple stuff to help him grow them back in. 

UPDATE: Cruella got her neck snapped during nighttime in the shed, found her dead the next morning. Not sure what happened.

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

Chicken Tray

Today it or last night it snowed 1/2 inch of snow, it should melt away today, the ground is not frozen yet, it is muddy on the path to chickens. 

Today we have a friend coming to make a shelf of sorts to put under where the chickens roost at night, this will catch all "poo" and keep things much cleaner for me and the chickens. 

Gonna use cat litter to fill the trey and I will then put just a small amount of cedar chips to cover the cat litter so the chickens don't think it is a spot to take a bath. 

It will be a quick and much cleaner clean-up for me and all will stay healthier because of it. The free fertilizer will be placed all over the place to help green things up in the spring from the garden to shrubs and trees to just greener grass. 

Pic to come later on when done. 

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

 

  

                         Lucky and Speckles                                    Inside of covered pen

Nesting boxes                                         Heat lamp & tray area

Shed & covered area 

Guineas and Chickens

Morning everyone, 

Do have to keep chickens and guineas closed up until we get the top netting for their pen, the guineas are flying up and over the fence and we are having to catch them up each night and put them into the shed for safety. The netting should be here in the next few days or so. Once done we can turn them all loose again in their larger run area. 

I am tired already of chasing birds to put back into the pen area, the guineas get the chickens to going and then they also go over the fence. The guineas were on top of the shed last night and we had one chicken join them, so far now, they are being detained inside their plastic-covered area. 

Will have some pics to share when they are outside again. Will come back and post the pics on this page when we are done with it all. 

UPDATE: 

Later on, we got the netting and got it spread over the huge chicken area. Much safer for the birds, and it was larger than we thought, so now we have a huge extranet, could be used on an outdoor aviary. 

Love and Prayers, 

Margo

                           

SNOWING

Morning all, 

It is or was raining out now turned to SNOW and it is sticking. When I let the chickens out this morning, it was raining and they did not like that too much, but when it turned to snow, they all began to run to get inside the covered area of pen or under bushes. There first good rain, then snow for them, this will be their first winter. 

Lucky laid a double yoka egg yesterday that is her 4th egg like that. and she is not even one year old yet. 

Love and Prayers,

Margo

Fall time clean up & Chicken chores

Morning to all, hope you are having a wonderful day. 

Today we started bringing in the outside plants that come in for wintertime. I have cut way back some of my trees that come in this year, just too large to handle in small spaces for the winter. I am just letting go of many others as they are old and leggy, need to just get new ones in spring. 

Then it is out to the chicken pen and clean up the wet soggy straw, and new plastic on the sides of the pen and then put in new dry straw which will stay that way once we get it wrapped in plastic.  Better for the hens also, lets the sunlight in and blocks the cold wind. This next week we should be getting the fencing put up so the chickens can have their room to run around and be free until dusk and time to return to the safety of the pen and then shed as night falls. 

We are gonna be egg-poor when they all start laying. We will sell fresh eggs, gonna put up a chicken sign for next year when we have extra eggs to sell. 

Pics will follow after the pen is cleaned up and the new fence is done. 

Love and Prayers, 

Margo