SUMMER UPDATE

Here we are in the second half of July. The weather is definitely livable as opposed to the winter months but it goes by so fast.

Who passed away this year? Little Lumpy, my hope for a pure white rooster,

Chester, my new acquisition and hope for bigger chests in my American Seramas, and he left no genes behind. Ms. Apple who came with Chester, she left no genes behind either. My little blackish rooster, sweet, father of Black Betty, and my hope for a totally black rooster. The last of my lovely laying leghorn ladies, Ms. Gray, My young, small, blue laced golden cocopop.rooster, hope for better chickens in the future, who actually left one, just one chick behind. He was killed by raccoons that also got five other roosters, along with the hawks who got two.

Who is new? A Black silkie pair, Lucy and Capt. Midnight. Happy, a really good type hen, lone survivor of four newly purchased chickens, and two very large frizzled roosters who are definitely leaving genes behind, and soon to be added, a silkie hen and white rooster with barring.

What is new? Well, since the predator attacks, I don't like to let my chickens out unless I can watch them all day. So I decided to plant wheat grass, oat grass and clover and also herbs and flowers that the chickens might like to eat in small rectangular planters and I take these planters to them in their yard. Chickens really like to eat grass and other greens, so they really enjoy these, even though they practically demolish them.  Then I haul the planters out at the end of the day and try to restore them for a week or two, until I can put them back in the pens.

I also purchased a new incubator as my oldest one no longer kept a reliable temperature.  I purchased a R-com King Suro 20, with automatic temperature and humidity. It works great; I had doubts about the humidity, but no problems with the incubator. These incubators are made in Korea and the web site for these is not usable for Americans, yet.  I thought I would have problems with parts and service but I purchased this incubator on e-bay, and the seller is great. The cradle for turning had problems right away and finally broke about two months after use. I can't access any web site and no telephone numbers are furnished in the user' s manual, but the sellers are really helpful. I couldn't ask for more. They are sending a part right away. I also considered getting a Brinsea 20, but I found that this company has terrible customer service and so I avoid buying their products, even though I think they are very good. I have two Brinsea mini advance incubators and they are chugging away after three years.

I have lots of chicks now for my small hobby farm, about 40, with about 40 more to come, and that is more than enough for me to sort out and take care of.

I hope the rest of the summer is enjoyable for you. Try to get some sun and some fun!

THE LAST STRAW (of the season)

I   have been thinking of writing about my own personal experience with sick chickens. Chickens tend to get sick during the very wet ,cold, and windy winter and spring in this area. Especially now that the rainfall here seems to be heavier even though it doesn't rain longer, so that there is always standing water in the chicken yard. I finally took to laying straw down in the chicken yards to soak up the water and lessen the contact with mud. Why did it take me so long to think of this? I'm just getting old I guess and it takes me longer to find simple solutions. Putting straw down works out so well. The eggs are clean, my boots stay much cleaner, and I believe it helps with the health of the chickens. The last straw for the winter was just laid down. Doesn't the yard look nice?

  

The first time I went to a poultry show with chickens to enter, I took both the hens to a vet before taking them to the show. They were both healthy and tested negative for any disease. When I brought them back from the show I noticed that Blondie was making little gurring noises. I thought that was cute. Like she was telling me that she didn't approve of whatever I was doing. I took her to the vet again because i wanted to check her fertility.  And the vet said, well she has a cold, can't you hear that? (gurring!)  So we need to treat her cold and then test her fertility. I felt kind of stupid, she did not look sick or even act sick really. So chickens can be sick without looking like the traditional sick bird sitting all hunched up and not eating etc. So the vet prescribed  Baytril  - one drop every day for seven days. This did not help.

She remained sick until I read on a blog by a vet that raised Seramas that Baytril should be given for 14 days or longer in tablet form until the chicken is well. And that really messes up their fertility for quite a while. Blondies eggs came out with bad shells and funny shapes. At the end of the season I got one fertile egg from Blonde but it did not hatch. (Her problem with fertility was that she was very feathery - soft feathers is the term- and when I trimmed the feathers away from her vent she did get a fertile egg.

Shows are very stressing for the chicken. Some people give antibiotics both before and after a show. There are other products available to give a chicken at a show that can boost their immunity and lessen the effects of stress. Pay close attention when you are observing your chickens and when they act differently - check it out. 

CHESTER, THE NEW YARD ROOSTER

The roosters that I have bred, while I like their looks a lot, don't have quite enough chest to be winners (except for one that I bred and discovered early this spring, which surprised me. He'll go to the show for sure). So I purchased a rooster late last fall that I think will help with the chest problem. Hence the name Chester. And this is his picture. Today, after giving him a bath and cleaning him all up for introduction to the ladies , he had his first day out in the sunshine with thirty hens.

Now I have a problem here for those that might be interested in purchasing eggs; roosters can only take care of so many hens, and I only have so many pens, which at this time are filled with roosters. So I am hoping that within the next two weeks the weather will permit me to clear out some cages so that I can see that Chester has a place to be with about six hens (experts say ten but why push it?) Also it takes about two weeks for the hens to accept a new rooster, and to produce fertile eggs.

So that's where we are now. waiting ....................

AN ASSESSMENT

At the beginning of each year, or at the end of the last one, it is a a natural thing to do to ask yourself to sort of assess the old year before the new one moves on. It is February now and I find myself analyzing my Serama chicken project.

Even though I enjoy going to poultry shows and try to breed good type Serama chickens, that is not my main pleasure. I just enjoy my chickens, mostly my favorites: Queenie. Ms. Chockolatte, and Blondie. Those are my favorite hens. I don't have any favorite roosters though, but I especially care about the ones I use for breeding. The problem is that my breeding project is getting in the way of my pleasure.

When I started, my goal was to breed good type chickens and very small ones. I guess that is still my goal and this year I find I have some really good roosters, about four that are show quality, and some very small ones all of good type too! I have some small hens A type, and one hen I consider show quality. So perhaps my original goal is being met, but is it too much work and not enough pleasure? At the end of this year, I might have an answer.

MY PLEASURES

The Andrew Sisters - my retired Laying Leghorn Ladies - there are non better!

Miss Chocolatte REALLY loves her fountain.

My favorite Seramas, Blondie and Black Betty and Bug, the rooster in their soon to be upgraded summer home.

Mother Nature Wins & Hawk Has Serama Dinner

We had a series of high winds come through here before I got the tie downs I ordered. I would read the ten day weather report to see if there were any more high winds expected, and if there were I would take the tarp off the pen. If not, the tarp would stay on. But a high wind warning, I found out, can only be given a few hours before the wind hits, so reading the weather report didn't help. So when a high wind warning would come through I would run out and disconnect the tarp covering three sides of the rooster pen and leave it attached in the back, and throw big rocks on the tarp to keep it from blowing. Then when the wind was gone I would pull the tarp back over the pen and attach it with zip ties. The tarp was to protect the roosters from the heavy rains which came with the winds so what this meant was that there was no protection for the roosters from the heavy rain when the wind came. I got tired of attaching and disconnecting the tarp. You have to get a picture in your minds eye of the muddy slop you're feet would sink into after these heavy rains. Clear up to your ankles!

Reattaching the top meant dragging a ladder around the pen and pulling the tarp over the top, attaching with new zip ties. Then I thought I had found a good solution. I attached the top with bungee cords - they were easier to disconnect and reconnect, and I tied a long piece of poly twine which came off the straw bales I buy, through the middle tarp grommet and tied this down with plenty of length and then I could pull the top over the pen by placing the ladder in just one place. This worked well the first time, It was so much easier to put the ladder in front of the pen, pull the twine which brought the tarp back over the top and then refasten with the bungee cords. In fact it worked so well I attached more twine to the grommets at each end

of the tarp, and tied the long end pieces of the twine to the pen so the twine wouldn't blow over the top.

The wind is really frightening. It sounds like a freight train is heading right for your house, getting louder and louder, during the night you listen for sounds of your house coming apart and trees falling, stove pipes blowing away, etc. The first year we lived here the wind pulled off the twelve by fifty foot patio roof and tossed it up in the air and it came down on our house and through the roof. That is why there is a nice skylight in our bathroom!

The next high wind warning I was ready, and went out and disconnected the bungee cords. I went to bed not worrying. The wind would blow the tarp over and off the pen, and according to my plan, when the wind was gone I would go out and pull the twine to get the tarp back on. In the morning when I looked out the bedroom window, I thought Oh! Oh! I couldn't see the top of the pen sticking up from behind the fence, so I went out and the whole pen was trashed and the roosters were happily wandering around the yard. A red tailed hawk nabbed one as I was contemplating the scene.

What had happened was the wind tangled the bungee cords with the the twine which was tied to the front of the pen and the wind had blown the tarp which had pulled the whole thing over and really broke the back aluminum kennel rail in about five places. It was a tangled mess.

The little hutches never moved though, they were really heavy and close to the ground, and the roosters were dry and happy!

The next day my tie downs arrived and the wind apparently was through for a while. So my broken pen is tied down awaiting repair!

The roosters are still in there wishing they could be out! I wish they could too!

Roosters, Roosters, everywhere!

When breeding chickens, the problem is what to do with the roosters. Assuming that you get about as many roosters as hens, people, whether breeding for show or pets, mostly want hens. This year I have had a super abundance of chickens but managed to sell almost all of my hens, which leaves the roosters. Because roosters fight, and I have rescued several very bloody losers, I realized that I had to keep the roosters separate. In the past I have tried to sell all the roosters off after the spring show. Those that I can't sell at the show, Craig's list, or my web site: sunsetseramas.com, I take to auction. But last year, after the fall show, and after posting some on Craig's list, I didn't want to take the roosters that remained to the auction because in the fall they don't sell well to the general population. I hate to keep chickens in cages inside my shop, but that is the only place that I have to keep the roosters separate. And so they lived through the winter in my shop.

To get them outside this winter, I purchased several small chicken tractors, or pens from Craig's list. But that only took care of about five roosters, ( these small tractors did work out for breeding pairs and broody hens though). Then I read that you could put roosters together and they wouldn't fight if there were no hens around. So I thought I would try that. The picture above shows my "Rooster Yard", and its true, the roosters don't fight. So all the roosters went into that pen. Then the roosters that I wanted to keep I put in another tractor. And then there were some roosters that were raised apart from the others and they went into another tractor. And I have some in the shop also; a new rooster I bought, and the rest were my "best" roosters, that I didn't want to lose in case of terribly inclement weather, or accidents, etc.

After putting together my "rooster yard" I was ready to put the roosters in it the coming weekend. Before that happened we had a terrible windstorm with very high winds which picked up the ten by sixteen foot rooster yard, spun it up in the air and crashed it about forty feet away in the corner of my lot and trashed the whole thing into a crumpled mess. The tarp was still attached and filled up with water as we had

an almost record rainfall that twenty-four hour period.

That was really discouraging. My son came and helped me cut the tarp loose and straighten out the bent pipe and we placed it back in the same location and put it together again. Why the same location you ask? That is the only place I have that is somewhat sheltered from the winds, and high winds like that are not uncommon, but I did not expect the whole thing to blow. I ordered some shed tie downs that I am hoping will help keep the pen in place but I think that the tarp will act like a sail, and the tie downs will not help. The only thing I can think of is to tie the tarp to another set of tie downs in the ground, instead of to the pen. and then if the high winds come just the tarp will blow and not the pen. The wind is always a problem here. That is the one thing I don't like about living in this beautiful place.

The chicken tractors have been moved into the natural shrubbery and were not affected by the wind. The one that is placed out into the windy area is a great pen and I wish I could get someone to build another one for me (I tried to find someone but no one is interested). You can see that it is covered by a clear tarp and it is very warm inside, sort of like a green house, and the tarp sort of clings to the shape of the pen, it is tied down with zip ties. There is a roost and a nest box in the back.

The roosters in this pen seem very satisfied.

I wish I could let my roosters roam but I have two terrier type dogs that are always intent on getting the chickens, and there are always owls and hawks, so unfortunately the roosters have to be caged.

King George stays home!

Another poultry show - my second, at Stevenson, Washington. This is the first time I have been able to go in the fall, because they moved the date up from November to October. In November there is usually black ice or snow or some other weather problem in the coast range that I have to drive through to get to Stevenson. I don't drive in hazardous conditions anymore. I just stay home.

The problem with October though, is that the chickens, not just mine but most, were molting, and so the chickens that I had picked out to put in the show were in no condition to go

.

The one beautiful hen that I thought I would enter appeared in the yard about two weeks before the show with a baby chick. That was a surprise. I thought I might separate her from the chick in time for the show but she screamed so hard when I tried to remove her from the cage that you would think I was torturing her by pulling off her appendages, so I gave up. To this day both she and her chick have labeled me as THE ENEMY. So she stayed home. I picked out a superb rooster, but he was crazy afraid of me when I brought him in and put him in a cage, also he was heavy, or 19.2 ounces, which is the maximum weight. But I thought I could tame him down and maybe bring his weight down. But that didn't happen. So I thought I would bring Bug, my little golden rooster, who is semi-tame but then I remembered he was too small and didn't weigh enough. The bottom weight for acceptance is 12.8 for a rooster. So again, about three days before the show I went out in the yard and found a small black and red young rooster and I thought I would take him. He was remarkably tame. But he was still in the process of growing out new neck feathers. And I also took Honey, my hen that was tame, for the Table Top contest because I knew she would not fly away. I also picked up a hen from the yard after deciding she might just be the right shape. She was in the right weight range. I did not have any great expectations.

At this show was a real Serama judge, and TableTop Judging. Most of us Serama owners were not familiar with the judging process for our chickens and it was a real learning experience. It was also fun. There were a lot of beautiful Serama there.

The cage judging is for ABA. The judge looks at all the chickens in the cages and if they come in from first to fifth, he writes the number on the card attached to their cages. White earlobes mean disqualification, as do over or under weights, green legs. wry tails, and etc. you can check with your ABA book. Some things like wrinkled ear lobes or squirrel tail are defects but not disqualification. I thought white earlobes meant the white enamel ones on some chickens but it only means a little or a lot of white on a red earlobe. So my rooster and my hen Honey were disqualified right away! Surprise! But the other hen received a mark of 4, which I thought was very good since there were so many chickens there and lots that didn't get any number at all.

For Table Top judging the only disqualification is over or under weight. So that meant I could put Honey in as I had planned. Table Top Judging is where the judge sits at a table with a little piece of carpet in front of him. You come up to the table with your chicken and when the judge is ready you toss your chicken in the air just a little bit so she has to flap her wings twice before she lands on the table. Usually this puts the chicken on alert and it can show its form better.

To qualify for the finals your chicken has to earn 70 or more points. I decided not to enter Honey and entered the other hen that came in fourth in ABA. She earned a 71 in TableTop and qualified for the finals but did not make it to the top in the finals.

So I have to say it was really worth going, I learned a lot, talked to a lot of people, sold a few chickens, traded one for two. I enjoyed myself and was glad I went.