Comments

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  Susan October 7, 2009 at 6:44pm

  Krissy,
  I just posted to your blog but what is going on? Do you need me to keep your girls until you get settled again? Hope all is well! Send me an update when you get a chance!
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  Vanessa Rice September 17, 2009 at 10:57am

  Hi Krissy did you find homes for all of your girls yet?
  
  Vanessa
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  Susan August 8, 2009 at 8:27am

  hi Krissy,
  I am loving the cooler mornings! Got up this morning at 5:30 and there was a chill in the pool. It was nice. Tried to walk my dogs who haven't been out of the house in a year and most likely not on a walk for several years...I'm terrible! Now trying to do the 'healthy' thing and get them out too. They are big and very unsocialized. My coop d ville is just hopping with action. We treated the 3 new babies with antibiotics as they all had an upper respitory and eye infections. Now they are in the little hutch inside the coop and the 5 adolescents are out with the 4 big girls. Only two are laying eggs still. Dixie is about 4 months and Phyllis is about 6 months. Not sure when polish bantams lay eggs but I'm curious to see what they will look like. The squash bugs ruin everything left worth anything this year so I cleaned out my garden last weekend and threw what compost I had on it and covered it with a layer of straw. I don't even know what the next step is but have been looking at the planting calendar to see what I'm suppose to be planting and it's getting close to doing the winter garden already! I wish I had a truck to get a load of Ken Singh's compost accross town. All the chickens loooove the misters and they have been a life saver and stress reliever for sure! I can't wait to have a larger egg production! Hope your summer is finally cooling off and your chickens are doing well...It really has been an experience and I'm so glad I've had you to share it with.
  Take care,
  Susan
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  Susan July 13, 2009 at 6:46pm

  HI!!!
  I came home Friday to Louise (Ameraucana) down with heat exhaustion. She even laid an egg that day! She couldn't get up, was limp and panting really hard. I was FREAKED out to say the least. I set up the emergency triage in our master bathroom and gave her a sitz bath in cool water. She recovered in about an hour. I went out and hosed down the rest of the flock then let them out to cool off in the yard. Saturday, we went to Water and Ice and bought 3 large blocks and stuck them in the coops under the two fans. Then my husband went to Lowes and bought a $29 mister set. We stuck it on the long 'sun' side of the coop (though there are shade covers). I can't tell you how well it works! The coop is 5 X 10. The front side (2 1/2 X 10) stays a bit wet and cool but that's ok because the other side stays dry and cool. It's a perfect set up! They loooooove it! It's so cool in there that I moved the 5 two week old chicks out into the hutch which is still inside. My husband caught the chicken bug and built a cool green corregated roof top a few weeks ago. Then this weekend he built a matching double nest box with a hinged lid! It has a little green roof at an angle so I have it on the 'wet' side where it's cooler and Thelma and Louise have both used it today! I'm sure it's much better then those old plastic boxes they had before! So then we put a tree pole in about a foot or so off the ground in the back with a fan that blows the length of the pole so they can get up off the ground for a cool breeze. I've also been feeding them frozen bananas, chilled cucumbers and tomatoes from the garden in the morning to hydrate them as Rachel suggested. I think I've turned it into the neighborhood Aviary Resort because every time I go out there to check on things, all the sparrows and doves are chilling out taking dust baths! I even love being in there!
  I'm on vacation this week so I can make sure the coop-d-ville is top notch before I head back to work! I hope your girls are doing good. I highly recommend a mister if you can fit it into your coop design. Let me know what you think, Susan
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  Susan June 22, 2009 at 10:52pm

  Hi Krissy!
  I have three roosters out of the 4 chicks. Phillis is still on the fence. We don't know if it's Phillip yet. I am so dissapointed! At least we get to pick out and have more baby chicks. That was soooo fun! The 'boys' are crowing every morning, or trying to crow. There's one that even crows at night. My neighbors aren't compaining yet but I'm sure they may soon. I wish I had more eggs. We maybe get about 10 a week and we all love eggs. I can't believe you are getting 2 1/2 dozen! That is great! I'm jealous! My neighbor read the article in the paper about backyard chickens and is thinkin about raising meat birds. I may go in with him...not sure yet if it would be worth it.....what do you think?
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  Susan June 9, 2009 at 10:02am

  My neighbor behind me wants to eat the roosters. He wants to try an experiment to see if it is too hard to process them. He saw the article in the paper on backyard chickens and wants to get 50 or so chickens and raise them for meat. He is the one that got me turned on to gardening. I don't really know if he's serious and that would just kill the kids! I am going to talk to the gal that gave me the chicks to see if she wants them back first as she's a softy. I would probably give 'Phil' to her too as they are free range and he/she would have a great life and I'd be able to check in on him/her. Then that would give me some openings in the Johnson Coop for some new additions. I would only have 3 girls and room for at least two more. I am kind of excited because I loved raising the babies. My neighbors all know about the chickens and they are great neighbors. We don't have an HOA so I'm safe for sure. My coop is 100'ds of feet away from the nearest house or 'bedroom'. The Tempe code's are very evasive I'm sure for a reason. I'm only a few streets away from rural farming anyway and can hear roosters in the am..and now from my back yard. I heard what I thought was a crow, then went out there and sure enough, one of the black chickens was stretching his neck up for a err-a-err-a-errrrr! He did this about 4 times. We are planning to get up early and have breakfast out by the coop so we can watch the action and see who else is crowing. Another one tried to chime in and I couldn't tell if it was Phillis or a brown chick. I thought it was Phyllis..and come to think of it..she acts like the boy chickens, trying to spar and she's always been kinda bossy...but she/he, doesn't have tail feathers and is now 4 months old. I'm so confused!!! Take pics of your freaky eggs! I want to see all three sizes together!!
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  Susan June 9, 2009 at 6:30am

  OMGosh! I heard 2 of my 5 unknowns crowing this morning! Phillis may be a Phil! One of the black chicks was crowing like a big guy!
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  Susan June 8, 2009 at 4:58pm

  3-4 eggs! that is fantastic! I wish I knew if mine were girls or boys...maybe you can take a peek at the pics and give me your best guess. I have two black ones that seem to spar all the time but the only all black chickens from the farm are all girls. no roosters. There is also two brown ones and one has a bigger comb, red...but there are also brown chickens with big combs at the farm...I may have 3 roosters...how and when will I be able to tell for sure?? Congrats on your newly painted coop. Can't wait to see the pics. I have tennis elbow from tearing up newspaper for my compost!
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  Susan June 6, 2009 at 5:01pm

  Hi Krissy!
  I hope your chicken is ok after laying those big eggs! It is crazy that she lays big and then normal..Keep me posted. Went to the saturday tour this morning and am planning to go to the Bee house tour tomorrow. Do you have a garden too? Do you use your chicken drops in your compost? I have started composting the drops but don't know how long they have to hot compost before they are cool enough for dressing veggies....any ideas?
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  Michelle May 20, 2009 at 2:55pm

  Oh, I am so sorry that must have been hard for you and your son. I wont trust any of my dogs, not because they aren't all really good dogs, just because they are dogs. I think that most have an instinctive, and strong hunting instinct that gets the better of them whether they like it or not. Perhaps if you raise a small puppy and chickens together it might be different, I am not sure. Anyway, I will do all I can to keep the dogs away totally because I couldn't bear for anything to happen.