Permsteading.com

I picked up a couple of ladies on craigslist yesterday...


...to friend our remaining silkie (her two other buddies met unfortunate ends, one became something's thanksgiving dinner, the other drowned in the pond). she gets along fine with the others, but i felt she needed some friends her own size, to do short-legged things together.

Also, in all my years of having birds I finally figured out how to keep their water from freezing- this little electric heating stand. who knew?!


and just because, here is calex with manduck

Oh, awesome. I was hoping ManDuck was still around.

So the newbies are a Silkie and an Ameracauna?

I like the waterer. I've been using a little trough with a float valve and heat tape. It works okay, but the supply line does freeze. Your way looks better for the cold winter. Speaking of which, I'm surprised you've had much freezing, it's been practically summer here, my girls haven't stopped laying.

Whatcha going to do about predation? Keep these ones in the coop full time, or what?

Good old ManDuck, he's definitely still around. Going on 5 or 6 now, I believe.

The white chicken is full Silkie, the other is a Silkie-Ameracauna cross. So she's much bigger, but has the fuzzy feet. $15 for both, which I thought was a good deal. Most people around here try to charge $50 for a pair of Silkies. Outrageous!

The water heater is great, I just ran an extension cord from the yard. I also put a light in the coop to get everyone laying again, they've been lazy the last couple of months

I don't worry too much about predation, every so often we lose one but for the most part we do alright. As long as everyone goes in the coop at night it's fine. The little one we lost on Thanksgiving kept trying to sleep outside, and the one night I forgot to get her in, she was gone.
We have seen some coyote droppings in the front yard though, which is concerning. Actually we were discussing this last night- do coyotes "scout" food sources, then come back with friends? I thought so, but the mr. doesn't think they can do that kind of complex thinking.

The coop looks kinda gross in that picture...next time we build one, I'm painting the walls brown.

regarding the coyotes: I think for sure they can, remember, we're talking about a dog hater here! I kid, I kid, but still. Canines are smart! I know for sure any dog I've had could do that kind of cognizant thinking problem, like, see the food and wait for me to be out of sight before trying to steal it. Coyotes are way more tuned in as well, I have no doubt. They are known to use a single scout to lure prey to an ambush by the pack, so I think what you are proposing would be child's play for them.

I figured as much... So we'll see what happens. The fucker pooped pretty much on our front doorstep, so it's a subject of concern for sure. I worry mostly about the cats and ManDuck. I would be devastated if something happened to them. Losing chickens is always a bummer, but not as big of a deal to me.

If you don't have a dog, why don't you try scattering some human urine around near the coop and near wherever the coyote poop was found? Just thinking about what a dog would do.. if the coyotes are wary of people, that might let 'em know that you're around and keeping tabs on them.

And yeah, I've heard stories of coyotes luring guard dogs out by pretending to "play". Same thing with people too, though the humans didn't go for it.

That's a good suggestion- Bill actually does pee around the perimeter of the coop, to "mark his territory".

Earlier tonight I heard something getting into the neighbor's chickens. Bill had me convinced that "the neighborly thing to do" would be to go over and let them know. So I go over to tell them...
"Hi, I'm your neighbor from across the creek, I heard something getting into your chickens..."
His response:
"That was me".
I then apologized too many times, then said something to the effect of "I'm totally cool with that" before slinking away.

Lol. You should have offered to have Bill pee on 'em.