The first tractor and chick pics!

Berine,friends,
Thank you for the sweet and kind words I think I will keep up with you all because this would make my Birthday specail and I would
never forget it ...
Tracey

My sister, (the one who was killed in an auto accident two thanksgivings ago) worked at the pottery. Her friend was a daughter of the owner, or some such. We have not been there in awhile.

I think we will stay home, cook something she likes and enjoy the nature in the back yard. I will of course ask her if she need/wants more but to me this a perfect day.

There is so much right here.

'Chele - I can't believe you use these for chickens.

We all need chickens like that in the yard ..... too much fun!

Al, will you just behave yourself?? LOL

I had to look up that word, I found beehive and misbehave, but that was it. ;)~

Trouble with a capital T I tell ya!

LOL, how funny! Jazz looks like she's struttin her stuff in there :~)

Lana

Bad
where did you get the idea for the tractor cage thingy. i read throught the thread maybe i missed it if you already posted the info on it ? so i will apologize now lol :)
how many kids "oops or um " i mean chickens can you keep in the pen you have ?
looks neat
i can't wait to get our farm . TRying to sell the house first , ugh.
how many eggs do you get a day ?
bigcityal you crack me up
sue

Hi Sue,

I did lots of Google searching and showed hubby some different pictures. He just sort of flew with it from there.

We still have 46 chickens in there. We get them out and let them run around the yard when we can and move it every 4-5 days so they get to either have fresh grass or dirt baths.

We still need to build them another one. They've all been getting along and eating plenty of veggies. They still like to pick at each other from time to time but nothing bad. I really think they are establishing order.

Today some of them came out in the front yard with the kids and me and got to eat some bugs, grubs and worms. The kids kept finding them worms and ewwing at the same time.

They are only about 11 weeks old so no eggs yet.

Do sell your house first!! I bought the farm first (hmm, sounds about right! LOL) and we are still trying to sell our other house. Sigh...

Badseed,
Do you have baby silkies???
Eufaula has anew born silkie and it moves its wings and scots around on its belly is their something wrong with the silkie????
Tracey

Tracey, we have six silkies. I have no idea what sex they are. I've not seen any of my birds actually "scoot" but most of them do dig holes and lay in them and I assume they are trying to keep cool. It's been in the high 80s and 90s here and I would think the weather is about the same in GA (isn't that where Eufala is?). I've also seen them scratch the ground then lay on their bellies or sides. It freaks me out but they jump right back up. I'm certainly no chicken expert but it seems to be normal behavior at least for mine and we spend a lot of time with them.

Do you know I cannot open this thread from home STILL .... I have no clue why . It's just too weird.

Mine love the bugs, if I could just get them to "pick" only the bugs off my plants and not the leaves too....lol.

~Julie =0)

Julie, could it be all the pictures? I can start a new thread so you can pop in. :)

Mine love corn on the cob more than anything. Other than it's driving us to the poor house, can too much corn hurt them? They dearly love it! They are getting lots of lettuce too.

They would do perfectly fine on leftover veggies from your family and a grower feed. Mine are just on grass and grower with veggies occasionally.

Lana

Thanks badseed I think I've fond my answer and it
is to tie the legs together..
Tracey

LOL Julie! I didn't quite catch what you said before. That would be so cool if you could get them to debug the plants, deflea the animals, use them for pest removal in the house.....hmmmm, wanna bet they'd make a mess?!?!

Tracey, who's legs are you tying together?? The silkie??

I posted a thread on how to treat splay leg in chicks on another thread for someone with an issue. I haven't done it myself but the thread/link has great pics for step by step.

No it's not the pics, ususally that will cause me to stall but this goes to an error that says page not found if I recall...lol, I'm at work.

I'm taking an early break as I am exhausted already.. I stopped at the gas station to fill my motorcycle and went inside to pay and decided to pick up the newspaper as well. The gal rang me up and said that will be $6.66. She went nuts saying OMG OMG OMG please be careful when you pull out of the station OMG OMG... on and on. Well I laughed and said I'll be fine thanks.

Put my key in the ignition, my lights come on and "pop" OMG I've just blown something and I am dead in the water. I walk inside and tell the cashier who now KNOWS it was because of the $6.66 and says you should have bought a candy bar.

I then push my bike the rest of the way to work so I could open up and catch my breath before digging into it. Pulled all my fuses and checked my connections.... turned out to be a loose wire. THANK GAWD an easy fix!!!!!!!! But I'm hot and sweaty and beat from just pushing that little bit. I forget how much the old gal weighs when you have to move it. It's not like a car where you can push down the locks and walk away. Glad I don't ride a fulldresser...lol

The chickens, ducks, turkeys, guineas.... guess I should say the flock had the following for breakfast before I left.

Feeders full up with game bird starter. Scratch mix ( I make my own combo with extra goodies in it) a half loaf of jalapeno bread, 4 cabbage leaves, a snow shovel full of of grass clippings, several ears of corn on the cob left over from last nights dinner.

Last night before bed they got a cantaloupe as the main treat.... they were on sale so I bought an extra just for the flock...lol.

Ya'll have a good day !!!!!!

~Julie =0)

Oh Julie, Poor Baby!!! All I can say is
" Calgon take me Awayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!"

You have been put through the Wringer! Hopefully your night will go a lot smoother!!!

Glad to hear the bike was not in worse shape!

I'm also happy to hear about the chick diet. LOL I've not given mine any kind of bread or meat, just sticking to what they might possibly find in the wild or the yard. I had also steered clear of anything with butter or seasonings.

They are getting cantaloupe rinds today and they just dearly love their corn. How can I not buy it?? chuckle.

Mine are getting HUGE! We definitely need to speed up the schedule for more space. They've been very well behaved though. We had a slight financial issue and it should be ironed out this in the next few days. Then hubby is going to bust away on more coop space and more free space.

Our birds are SO friendly. They love the contact with us and stay close in the yard when we let them out.

Once a week I give mine table scaps! Especially when we have had a lot of veggies and rice! They also get any meat scraps that occur! I figure if they eat worms they eat meat!

Years ago I worked in a feed store making ground feed for animals & poultry. Chicken feed always had meat scrapes & bone meal added. They are processed, so not sure if things from table are same. Of course chickens running loose are going to eat most anything. They probably won't eat something that would hurt them.
Chele, are any of these birds going to your freezer ?

I bet the extra space is going to be nice.
Bernie

OH! That brings me to a question. I saw something about someone feeding theirs rice. Is that only cooked rice? The way I had read it, I thought it was not cooked and I thought that was dangerous?? You know the whole "Don't throw rice at weddings because birds eat it and it puff up in their bellies.". We've not fed ours any rice.

I kind of have to chuckle about table scraps. You all do realize I have six kids???

I didn't think about that Bernie! I bet all kinds of stuff goes into animal food! I have let mine eat worms and bugs and even fed them some. ;)

I can't answer on the freezer part. I don't think I could kill one and I don't think the kids would want to or let me kill one IF they knew about it. Now you know why I've not been in a hurry to get any larger animals. LOL

Honestly the birds are still doing well in that small setup. As soon as it starts getting dark, they all pile into the coop together and make very quiet chirping sounds. When we go out at dark to close it, they are all laying in there together. We are still building another. We've been in a bit of a financial crisis and the birds have been getting along so we've not killed ourselves. We do know we need to build another and should have the funds this coming week.

For cooked rice,, I gave some left over to the chickens before. They love it. I don't feed them the uncooked rice. I give them few times not often. But they love leftover vegetables/fruits. Every mornings, I feed my hen (hen stratch) and in the evening, I feed mix hen stratch and the .... i forget that help them to lay eggs! LOL..

'Chele, you know dang well none of those chicks will ever end up in your freezer! You said it yourself!

ROTFLOL I meant I haven't given the chickens leftovers with people stuff on them! LOL

Personally, I like backed or grilled chicken. And as I rule, I don't eat anything I've named or fed!! I'm going to make one heck of a farmer, huh??? :)

OK, trhink i saw a Buckeye chick!

I'll haave to read through this whole thread when i get a chance...

Hey cool i was looking for this thread too
for tractors
thanks TF
sue

Badseed, I loved all your pictures, I almost bought my chickens like you did. But chose not to, but to buy pullets and one rooster for each. Maybe i'll be able to identify them when their all grown a bit, Their suppose to be in next week.

I really like your chicken tractor , seems easy enough to put together too.

Are all your chicks new? they seem pretty big for new borns. I thought it was really neat that you got somany replies on helping to id them all.

Hi Kathy Ann!

We bought day olds and they were about a month old when we moved them to the tractor. It was fun raising them up from babies. They are almost a year old now.

The tractor was not bad to build at all. A lot of it was stuff we had here. I told hubby what I wanted and showed him some pics. We would use smaller wood for the bottom if we built another.

Ha! I didn't realize you first posted that thread, in may of 07 LOL

Giggle I wondered if you noticed that. Most of the hens are about 6-7 pounds now except for the silkies. They are still tiny little things.

LOL< I'm so behind in the times these days. Some of the posts on this forum, are from way back when LOL

OK, think i'm all caugth up. Badseed, did you ever have a problem with those chicks eating eggs? The one someone thought was a RIR i thought wa a buckeye. But i have never had a RIR chick, so they could look alike till they are bigger...

I actually feed mine eggs. If they got too cold for us to eat, or i cull them from the incubator. Or from the store, or whatever. The cats come to get in on it too. And yet they have never eaten any in the henhouse that they lay. Even a couple that were laid with no shell. Once one was broken in the box, guess it got too crowded LOL

Poor Julie and the '666' bike!

A hoophouse was my original plan for a chicken tractor. Now hubby is leaning towards A-frames, to make them collapsable when not in use. [and when would i NOT be using them?]

Anyhow, good to catch up with you! You are still too funny, and too busy!

to cute TF he is a good looking boy you all got thar .
tell DH , A frames are hard to get in and out of. Maybe that will help. :)

yeah right!, hey dmail me that date/time!

I got chicks this yr too! they're out in their pen in the barn now but I did have them in a big "bucket" when we started LOL

What cuties! Ours started life in a 55 gallon plastic tote. ;)

what a gorgeous group!