[TheForge] OT: chickens

Thu Mar 17 13:33:18 EDT 2011

The birds that I have delt with (chickens, Eastern Bronze Turkeys, guineas) all prefer an out of the way place.  Any place that I would likely put a box they (I believe) would not like.

What we did was just sit out with a book in a chair and watch.  Sooner or later, when they thought we weren’t looking, they would go to the nest.  One built a nest in the middle of an unused part of my driveway.  Once we find the nest, we collect eggs for brooding.  Too many critters around that will get ma and the babies otherwise.

If you do find a nest, put a pencil mark on one egg and collect the others.  They don't count very well.  So long as there is 1 egg there, they will continue to visit (usually).  The pencil mark is the sacrifice egg.  The others go into the fridge for the  next hatch.

All the Best

-----Original Message-----
From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Bruce Freeman
Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2011 1:25 PM
To: Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA
Subject: Re: [TheForge] OT: chickens

Would it make any sense to "construct" (assemble, throw together, or
what have you) brooding "boxes" for the hens.  I'm envisioning
something that you could observe without being seen, so the hens would
feel like they're hiding.

This works with gravid cats.  They won't nest where you install them,
but if you set up a box full of towels in a dark closet for them to
find, they're likely to use it.

On Thu, Mar 17, 2011 at 12:27 PM, Saint Phlip <phlip at 99main.com> wrote:
> Ah, chickens. They're a bit of a mystery.
>
> I managed toi keep all 16 guineas through the winter, them lost 3 to
> traffic once the weather broke, but as near as I could tell, not a one
> laid an egg. OTOH, my 4 hens were providing me with an average of 3
> eggs per day, but now that the weather has broken, I'm lucky to get
> one egg per day.
>
> No new peeps this year, at least not from the store, but I'm hoping
> the vanishing eggs means at least one of them is brooding somewhere.
>
> Although I could wish I could catch her/them , and put her/them in a
> nice safe cage. The 4 I have currently I refer to as my legacy
> chickens arrived rather mysteriously.
>
> I had a black hen that vanished. I did catch sight of her
> occasionally, so I figured she was brooding, but she had never been
> very friendly, so there wasn't much I could do about it. One day, as I
> was heading across the yard, I heard an almighty ruckus. It seems
> there was a peep standing on the back step and demanding his
> breakfast. So, I picked him up, and set up a comfortable place for him
> to eat and nest. An hour later, there was another one in the back
> yard. I grabbed that one, too, and put it with the first one. Then two
> more.
>
> At that point, I decided that if my back yard was going to sprout
> chickens, maybe I'd better stick around, in case any more appeared. I
> put them all up, in a new cage I had set up, and waited, but no joy.
> Nor, for that matter, have I ever seen that hen since, so all I can
> figure is that something got her, wherever she was nesting, and the
> babies got hungry and decided to go find something to eat.
>
> Now, this was a very good thing, as far as I was concerned. These
> babies were the last of the blood line of my beloved Cogburn, the
> Rooster with an Attitude. I had thought the line was dead when his
> last surviving daughter had been gotten by the local raccoons, but the
> black hen was his grand daughter. And, we had ordered and received 25
> babies from Murray McMurray, all, of which had died within a week.
> However, the day after all this, the 25 guineas we had ordered
> arrived, We lost a few of them too, but once everybody was stable, I
> put everybody in the same cage, and they have thrived.
>
> However, I really do wish I could figure out where everybody is laying
> and put them someplace safe.
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 17, 2011 at 10:41 AM,  <Grover.Richardson at gtri.gatech.edu> wrote:
>
>> Now back to chickens:  Tractor Supply Company had chick day and the wife got 6.  Now only 4, but doing well.  Almost time to move them out of the brooder in the living room, to the condo on the deck.  Omelets.
>>
>
> --
> Saint Phlip
>
> So, you think your data is safe?
> http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/01/23/schneier.google.hacking/index.html?hpt=T2
>
> Heat it up
> Hit it hard
> Repent as necessary.
>
> Priorities:
>
> It's the smith who makes the tools, not the tools which make the smith.
>
> .I never wanted to see anybody die, but there are a few obituary
> notices I have read with pleasure. -Clarence Darrow
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-- 
Bruce
NJ
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