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Thursday, May 22nd, 2008
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9:20a
So this last weekend we managed to get our new chicken enclosure built. So far, so good. We just need to convince the chickens that they really want to stay inside the fence until we get it completely finished off this weekend. There are only two or three that are insisting on getting out.
The quail are still in their box, but have been moved outside under the deck. We're going to have to redo the inside of that coop. Muck it out, move out the laying box, put chicken wire EVERYWHERE because these little guys are squishy and small. We ended up with 25 all told. I know at least one is a cock. The rest? Well...I have no idea. They need a nesting box type place to lay there eggs in and get into at night. I finally came up with an idea for that. Go me.
In my latest venture in feeding chickens, I have stumbled upon the bright idea of meal worms. Apparently they are easy to grow and farm, chickens will eat both the mealworms and the beetles they turn into and I can grow them for about a dime per 1000, since I jsut paid $18 for 1000...well, that's cheap. http://www.nyworms.com this place also has roaches. Not your typical cockroaches, but the tropical kind that supposedly don't fly. I considered it for about 2 seconds then my skin started crawling and just..no. In addition to the mealworms, we're looking at growing night crawlers or redworms (which are also great for composting). Also...I'm having a dandelion bed. I know. Laugh. It's okay. But I am. I have five packages of seeds and I'm stealing them from all the going to seed dandelions in ours and the neighbors yard. The chickens *love* dandelions and they're pretty and they're useful. My neighbors will LOVE us more than they already do for our loud birds and crowing roosters.
Speaking of roosters, two weeks ago we did away with our Turken rooster. He was literaly fucking our hens featherless. And he was loud. And he crowed...ALL DAY. So he went away to the great hen house in the clouds. Which left us with two roosters. Our Buttercup, who is a lovely gorgeous boy with a high pitched, but quite crow and our Buff Orpington, also a lovely boy with a quite crow. Something's happend to the Buff though. He won't put any weight on one foot. We've checked him a couple of times and he lets us manipulate his leg, I can't see any injury, but he won't put weight on it. The sad thing is, even one legged, it took Smeg and I three tries to catch him. We're considering taking him to a vet, which is a little pricey, but probaby cheaper than buying another one, waiting for him to mature, which means buying pullets again this year. So, today I'll call local vets and see what they charge to see a chicken.
This weekend is the big garden put in. Yay. I may be dead on Tuesday.
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