[Dog_Obsessed]

Because we often get off-topic, I though it would be good to have a topic unrelated to dog food to talk about other things, dog related or non-dog related. Please keep it friendly and appropriate. 🙂

Mine is: I’m going camping this week! I will not be on the forums from Tuesday till Friday.

[Chris R]

Hope you’re enjoying camping!!

I’m taking hubby to the movies tomorrow to see Fury.

[Akari_32]

Oh I love camping! I’ll be drowning in homework for my online classes this weekend. Want to trade??

[theBCnut]

I’ll be doing what I’m always doing, taking my aunt out to lunch. On the bright side, I’ve eaten at a lot of nice restaurants lately. Today, it’s Longhorn Steakhouse. French Onion Soup and Shaved Prime Rib Sandwich. YUMM!!

[pugmomsandy]

I’m finally getting some pale blue eggs from my adopted chickens! I’m trying to get them a new area to live in. I’ve been letting them live in the dog run but I would like the dogs to have their run back this coming wet season.

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u651/pugmomsandy/pictures%20for%20posting/IMG_7754_zpsbf3b7431.jpg

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u651/pugmomsandy/pictures%20for%20posting/IMG_7753_zps20aeb632.jpg

[theBCnut]

I only saw one chicken in your picture that should be laying blue eggs. How many chickens do you have?

[pugmomsandy]

I originally had 6 but 1 died (the Americana?) and I adopted 2 more Americanas a month ago. The photo is from April think. So right now I have 7.

[theBCnut]

Mine are molting right now, so we are getting about 1 egg a day, and I have about 35 chickens.

[pugmomsandy]

LOL! I did adopt the new ones while they were molting.

[theBCnut]

That’s probably best since moving stresses them and makes them stop laying.

[pugmomsandy]

Do you do anything special for them during winter? I was looking at some weather screens to wrap around their yard.

[aquariangt]

I have my chicken area blocked so that there is no wind. It seems like they don’t mind the cold so much as long as they don’t get too windy or wet. During certain really aggressive snows/rain I have some sidewalls from a tent that i have repurposed a bit and forced into service as chicken walls

Do you even get winter down there in texas? 😉

[pugmomsandy]

A rare snowy winter maybe once every five years! Sometimes it’s actually cold too! We just had a front come through last week that blew down one fence.

[theBCnut]

We have short freezes about 5 times a year. My hen house is a 3 sided shed. The open side is towards east, which is the direction we least frequently get cold or wet weather from. I don’t have to do anything different for them in winter, most days are still in the low 80s.

If I put lights on them, they would supposedly lay more eggs over the winter, but I think they haved earned their break.

[Akari_32]

You guys are making me miss my chickens! 🙁 I used to have the most adorable silki hen! She had an attitude to rival a bull elephant, too LOL

We always just have our guys extra hay and paper shreds in the winter. They had a dog house that we’d pack full and they loved nesting it.

[theBCnut]

I used to have a pet frizzle. Their feathers are useless for insulation, so they need extra care in the winter.

[Cyndi]

Totally unrelated to chickens, I wanted to share a pic of my Bailey’s new collar, for those of you who aren’t my facebook friends and haven’t seen it.

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u182/Sidney0805/2014-10-24_13-11-01_927.jpg

Why does it have to look so smooshed? Lol! You can click on the pic and it looks better…

• This reply was modified 10 years, 2 months ago by Cyndi.

[Cyndi]

Ok nut, I have to ask, although I should just google it like you taught me, What the heck is a Frizzle?? Anything like a Fraggle?? Lmao!!

[Akari_32]

I had to look those up, Patty. OMG they look so funny! Like little poodle birds XD

Cindi, you totally need to do a google image search! So worth it LOL

[Bobby dog]

I want one of those chickens! 🙂

Cyndi: I got Bobby a new collar a few days ago, but he has his Halloween collar (it has candy corns) on now so he has to wait until November to wear it. lol She looks very beautiful modeling her new collar!

• This reply was modified 10 years, 2 months ago by Bobby dog.

[theBCnut]

If a frizzle has one gene for it, they have slightly narrow feathers with a slight curl to them, and don’t have any trouble with FL cold. If they have 2 genes for it, they have very narrow feathers with a tight curl, and can’t handle the cold. Definitely google it. A fraggle is a silkie, right?

[Bobby dog]

What did you do for her when it was cold? Did you bring her in your house?

[theBCnut]

She started out in the house, as a baby, but once she went out, she stayed out. Chicken poop is nasty. She went in the tackroom with a heat lamp. And since I have a nicely insulated tackroom, it’s just like being in the house, only smaller, so less drafty. She lived to be about 8 years old. I had other frizzles, cochens, and silkies at the same time, but she was just more special than the others. Her name was…Chicken Little.

[Bobby dog]

Sounds like she had quite the life! I have seen people with pet chickens use diapers. lol You are right chicken poop is nasty. I had a chicken that someone dropped off in my neighborhood for a couple of months. He was really cool and let me carry him around like a football. When not carried he would run as fast as he could to follow me. But, he had his moments. I finally found a home for him. Would love to have some chickens at some point.

[Dog_Obsessed]

I’m back! 😀 The trip was awesome!

[Cyndi]

Welcome back Dog Obsessed.

Thanks Bobby dog! 🙂

No nut, these are Fraggles. (see below) LOL! They are from Fraggle Rock. A tv show from a while back. Sorry, I was just trying to be funny. I failed, lol!

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u182/Sidney0805/Fragglefive.jpg

[theBCnut]

Hi Cyndi

Maybe you should google fraggle chickens. I think you’ll see the joke is on you. Fraggle is a nickname for silkies, because of their resemblance to the Fraggle Rock characters. Some nuttie people even dye them to make them look even more like the Fraggle Rock characters. I saw a picture today where they even had neckwear.

[Cyndi]

Oh My gosh!!! That is way too funny! I was just reminded of fraggles when you said frizzie or whatever it was. That is so funny that there are actual fraggle chickens. I’m gonna go google them now, both of them. LOL!!

[Cyndi]

Awww, they are both too cute!! LOL! I love chickens. My friend Anne has them, only like 20 of them though because a fox keeps taking them, but they are adorable. She is who I get my fresh eggs from. I don’t think she has any Frizzies or Fraggles or anything like that. Lol!

[theBCnut]

After you google frizzle chickens and fraggle chickens, google polish chickens and serama chickens. You will have an evening of laughter!!

[Dori]

Oh my gosh. Just googled them all. So funny but somehow also quite beautiful. Never saw chickens like any of them. Of course I’ve lived in cities for so long that I wouldn’t have. When I lived on Cape Cod I only ever saw regular looking chickens. I love the fraggles and silkies. Are chickens hard to care for?

• This reply was modified 10 years, 2 months ago by Dori.

[Akari_32]

Chickens are easy! Chicks are a bit hard, in my experience, but we could have had bad stock for all i know. We kept our chickens in a 10×20 run we originally built for the dogs, but they learned how to open the gate and get out (darn labs!). Had a bowl full of feed and two bowls of water, both replaced daily. Also gave them stake crackers and non-sugary stale cereals. They loved Cheerios! They would hunt moths in the grass for whatever protein they needed on top of their feed, as well. A chicken stalking a bug has got to be the greatest thing anyone can ever see LOL basically, once adults, chickens are pretty low maintanence, and make really interesting pets. Plus you gets eggs, and who can’t use eggs??

[theBCnut]

If you want 6 chickens and you buy 6 chicks, you can guarantee 2 will die. If you want 6 chickens and you buy 9 chicks because you already know that 1 out of 3 dies, they will all live.

I always raise chicks in the house because they don’t thermoregulate at all, but once they are old enough to go outside, they are one of the easiest pets. And they are true omnivores. They love all the table scraps that I won’t feed the dogs. They love just about all fruits and veggies. They eat all manner of nasty bugs, including ticks!!!

[Akari_32]

We kept ours in a large laundry basket with a heat lamp until the rooster started to crow LOL they were probably half grown (rooster was as small as the silki hen) when they got booted out to the yard.

And let me tell you, that rooster was lucky he didn’t become dinner! Little sucker had an attitude and attacked everyone! Just imagine a little 8 inch tall bird trying to gouge out a 6 foot tall persons eyes with its spur– and then just know that it happened on a daily basis! He made my silki hen look tame LOL The hen just didn’t want you to take her eggs, the rooster flat out wanted every dead. I tend to get all the crazy animals, for some reason lol

I think we bought 6 or 7 chicks, and ended up with three. Really two, in the end, because our second hen (some really big egg layer-type hen– the thing was almost turkey-size, seriously!) eventually died of what I can only assume was a blockage because she never gave us eggs, even while the silki was laying daily. Either that or a heart attack because she litterally laid next to the food bowl so she could eat and never have to move. It was all very strange. Then at one point we got a game hen. Worst. Decision. Ever. Had to build a screen roof over the run to keep her in, after chasing her down the street the first day we brought her home lol

[theBCnut]

I had silkie roosters that were exactly like that!! I ended up keeping them caged, because my kids were a lot shorted then, and one of them gouged a hole in Chicken Little’s side. That was NOT OK!!

It sounds like your really big one was actually a meat breed. They are bred to reach market weight in 49 days, so they do grow too big to be healthy and die young. They walk like sumo wrestlers, if they can walk at all. Disgusting and sad.

[Akari_32]

I don’t know what kind of rooster her was, other than a bratty one LOL At least Im not the only one that’s had grumpy-chicken problems XD Some did say that he was a type of fighting rooster, once. I could see it! That stupid attitude of his… Lol

That would make sence, actually. Once she got to be a coupons pounds, she found her spot by the food bowl, and just stayed there. It’s things like that that make people so upset about gene manipulation and selective breeding. At least we kept her happy and loved and fed while she was with us.

[Bobby dog]

The rooster I had for a short while got completely nuts if I came anywhere near the food bowl if he happened to be near it. I figured it out after I walked by a few times and he would attack me. lol I just moved the food bowl to the other side of the garden and made sure Bobby didn’t walk by if the rooster was near his food.

He held a grudge too. If we had any type of a disagreement just before bedtime he would peck at me when I walked by his perch. Since he was a stray I didn’t have a safe place other then in my shed at night on a perch I made for him. Sometimes I had to put him to bed early because I wasn’t going to be home until way after dark. That did not go over well with him; he was just like a kid. lol

[Dori]

Wow! I didn’t realize chickens could be so crazy! I guess I liked the idea of fresh eggs but I think I’ve got enough on my plate at the moment without bringing chickens into the mix. My neighbors, not to mention my husband, would kill me anyway.

BC Where in your house do you keep chickens? How do you keep the dogs away from them or vice versa?

[theBCnut]

Ummm, the diningroom table… The dogs are never a problem, the cats, however,… The chicks are kept in a guinea pig crate when they are in the house. If one of the cats starts to fixate on them, the chicks get cardboard all the way around and a light on top. So far, it has pretty much been a nonissue. I kept them on a card table once. For some reason that was a bigger issue. I guess the noise they make was different on the flimsy table. Or the cats and dogs all believe in the wrath of God if they mess with the diningroom table. IDK.

[Dori]

Very funny. Where oh where or when do you ever get a moment to yourself? Or do you? I’m sure I couldn’t do what you do. You’re my hero. Dogs, cats, chickens, horses, other animals. Wow! I can barely keep up with husband, three dogs and myself.

[theBCnut]

Time to myself? What’s that? And my husband may suffer, but for the most part, he’s game, and a great help. Right now, my aunt takes up the biggest chunk of my time, so there really is no time for myself. And on another note, my ancient ferret died today. We’ve been expecting it for some time now just because of his age. He’s been pretty healthy, except that he can’t keep weight on any more, but today he just went. He laid down for a nap and didn’t wake up. Wish we could all go that way.

[Dori]

Oh BC. I’m so sorry. I love ferrets, they are so cute, funny, sweet. Just have to protect your ankles at all times. We had two at one time, they were brothers. At the end they couldn’t keep weight on either and one lost all his hair. So sad. Yep! Both, at different times, just laid down for naps and didn’t wake up. I’d love to go that way. We all wish that for ourselves and our loved ones. How old was your ferret? Just curious.

[Cyndi]

Awwww, poor little guy! I’m so sorry nut! I miss my ferrets I had so much. I thought about getting a couple more. They were the funnest little pets I have ever had.

I’m curious how old your ferret was too. I’ve heard they only live about 7 years or so?

Dori, B*r*o*t*h*e*r*s! LOL!

• This reply was modified 10 years, 2 months ago by Cyndi.

[Dori]

Oh Jeesh Cyndi. I keep forgetting about the whole b*r*o*t*h*e*r*s thing! Very annoying.

Ferrets life span is approx. 7 – 8 years. One of ours lived to almost 13 years of age. That was Bandit who lost all his hair. Vet just couldn’t believe he was still alive anytime I would bring him in. His brother Smokey died at 11. I agree with you about their being funny little guys but such ankle biters. Not really biting, just kinda nipping. They would love to pop out from under neath the couch when you were least expecting it and nip at your ankles and, oh my gosh, I just remembered the toe nipping which at times actually hurt. Then they’d jump on our shoulders and want to be carried around. Miss them but would never do it again. They were always disappearing on us and we were constantly up ending all the furniture in a panic in fear that one or both got out of the house.

[Dog_Obsessed]

I’m so sorry for your loss BCnut. 🙁

About the b*r*o*t*h*e*r*s thing, what actually happened? I know there was some event with a troll on in the comments thread for the food, but what how did that lead to the word being banned? If this is forbidden to talk about you don’t have to answer this.

[theBCnut]

Thanks everyone. I got him as a rescue, the owner had died, 7 1/2 years ago. He was full grown when I got him, but not very old, so I think he was about 8-8 1/2 years old. He had IBS, so I always had to watch his health, but did pretty well, except that he was always a bit thin.

They are a riot. I love having ferrets and he was my seventh ferret, but if I ever get another one, it won’t be for a while.

Hi Dog Obsessed, the Bro***** thing wasn’t just a one time thing. Someone was coming on every single time it was mentioned, no matter the circumstances. We think we know why and who, but it involves some private stuff, so I really can’t explain it. It’s enough to say that the guy is a creep of the highest order, the highest order. Thinking that maybe it had blown over, Dr Mike tried lifting the ban a few weeks back, but the troll imediately jumped on it, so obviously he isn’t in jail, bummer, and the ban is back in place. Dr Mike is not giving the guy space to spread poison, and while it is a pain, I’m glad he took that stand.

[Dog_Obsessed]

Wow, that sounds pretty intense. It definitely sounds like banning the word was the only way to go.

[Akari_32]

Sorry to hear about your ferret, Patty! They are such funny little guys! Not for me, though. They’d drive me nuts lol My moms friends used to live with us for a while and they had two ferrets, Flea and Pip. Pip would get up in the Christmas tree, in a bald spot about eye level and just watch everyone walk by, and Flea had a tunnel going through the stuffing of the couch *rolls eyes* But they pooped EVERYWHERE! They had their cage open all the time but they didn’t care. They’d pick the nearest corner, back in and lift their tails. Naughty little brats! Not sure whatever happened to them…

[aquariangt]

Roosters are such a pain. The last rooster I had…well we’ll leave it at “dog food”

I don’t particulalry like eggs, so it’s wierd that I’ve kept chickens for so many years. Dogs get some, give them away constantly it seems, and occasionally eat them. I wonder if it’s worth the effort some days, though they aren’t too tough to deal with

[theBCnut]

They eat all the bugs that are trying to find their way into your house. To me, they are worth it for that alone!!!

[Author]

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