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  1. #76
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    As noted in another thread, the Isaan weather has suddenly changed as the cool winter season has passed into the hot as hell season.

    This usually seems to happen some time in February and we've had a longer cool season than normal this year so should be thankful I guess.

    I always used to lose a few chickens at this time of year with the sudden temperature increase... until I invented the chicken fan.



    This is the Mk II version installed within a cage. The MK I was more basic but took out a few sparrows until I added the safety cage feature.


  2. #77
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    Mendip
    I was wondering what the original use was meant to be for that imposing structure you now use as a chicken house?
    It is too massively built to have been just for chickens.

    At my place things are same as usual nothing out of the ordinary to report.
    Have 1 hen with an infection in her foot (bumblefoot) that I am treating but it is proving a little difficult to get rid of.

    I like the fan idea but bloody hell your chickens are spoiled.

  3. #78
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    ^ A happy chicken lays lots of eggs!

    The wall down the middle was a previous perimeter wall and an original chicken run just got bigger and bigger after we acquired additional land.

    We need the 'imposing' structure, not so much to keep the chickens in but to keep the dogs out. Build once properly and then no maintenance for ever after!

  4. #79
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    Have you trained them to poop outside? From the pix it looks like a mud floor with no splatter...so I had to ask!

  5. #80
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    Well spotted Grumpy... in fact I'm very proud of my chicken toilet system.

    It's a little known fact that chickens do 70% of their business while roosting at night... that hasn't even made it to Tomcat's thread.

    In view of this I lay down food catering trays, plastic panels and any other receptacle I can find underneath the perches every evening around 5pm, before the chickens go to bed.



    In the morning they look like this.



    Every morning I clean them out and remove the 'toilets'. All the droppings get scraped into the green compost bin.



    When I finish up I leave the 'toilets' stacked in the sun all day to dry up and hopefully sterilise to some degree all the left over shite. The plastic bin has the bottom cut off, so when it's full I can raise it a bit to shovel out the rotted compost. You have to leave chicken compost some time as it's just too strong for plants without being left to break down. I have to put the cage around the bin to stop the dogs eating chicken shit... despite the wonderful food they get fed every day.



    And periodically I dig trenches in the raised vegetable beds and add the rotted compost.



    Occasionally it goes wrong. This week I had a couple of hens that started to roost above one of the food stations. No problem, I blocked off the roost above with a big piece of wood and all is good again.


  6. #81
    A Cockless Wonder
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mendip View Post
    underneath the perches
    I did not know they could balance on those little poles while they were sleeping. Clever.

    KGBGF used to keep these weird looking silkies but they used to sleep sitting on the floor of the hen coup bedroom which was an enclosed box raised up and accessed via a ramp so I knew they liked to be off the ground.

    My Splendid Cock-img_0588-jpg

  7. #82
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    Quote Originally Posted by ootai View Post
    I like the fan idea but bloody hell your chickens are spoiled.
    Yeah, but 17 eggs today Ootai!



    But a disaster... today the chicken fan stopped working. After a lot of investigation it turns out the problem is the cable... about 20 metres long and passing under a paved pathway.

    Bugger... that's tomorrow taken care of.

  8. #83
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mendip View Post
    Yeah, but 17 eggs today Ootai!
    Bloody hell if you have nearly 40 hens then there are a lot of freeloaders or unhappy hens!

    I have 5 hens and 3 pullets and got 5 eggs today. Should get 8 per day when the pullets start laying.

    I actually thought of you today, I was "dithering" in the garden/yard and lost at least 2 kilos so dithering seems to work, for me at least.
    How's your weight going now days since you are back on the grog and eating your home style cooking?

  9. #84
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    Ootai, we have around 45 hens total at last census.

    One is a cockerel so I guess he's off the hook.

    Four are still young and not yet laying.

    Two or three of the wild hens are broody and not laying.

    I guess that leaves 37, from which we got 17 eggs today. So yeah, we do have lot of retirees who probably only lay once or so a week... but it's nice to give them a retirement. That's what it's all about for me... helps me to sleep easy. Five hours a night no problem.

    My weight's not going exactly as planned but coming down slowly I reckon. I'm drinking much less and not eating a lot, but exercise is the problem. I think I've torn an old hernia jumping on those damn inflatables in the pool with my daughter so have been taking things carefully for a week or so, but will have to go and see a doc at some point. If I need another op I'll be out of action for a month at least and that pisses me off.

  10. #85
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    Despite my advanced chicken toilet system I still like to change out the soil in the chicken run once a year. There's a lot of chickens in an enclosed space and the soil will go sour after a while.

    There's no building going on around our way just now so I've had to wait ages for a load of soil. Usually I can waylay a truck that's dumping soil to raise land and get the driver to drop a load off by our house. I'm sure that the money goes straight into his pocket.

    Anyway, our load of soil suddenly arrived last night. Not the best soil and certainly not the black rice paddy soil I was promised, but at least it's not too clayey so will break down with a bit of water and a hoe.

    First job is to scrape off the top few inches of dirty soil in the chicken run to remove by wheel barrow. I would strongly advise anyone building a chicken run to make the door wide enough for a wheel barrow to fit through, or of course get a thin wheel barrow. This blue one just fits through the door at an angle so not only did I keep dropping dirt at the doorway, I also took the skin off my knuckles.



    This sour, dirty soil is dumped a way from the house... it really smells bad after rain (... sorry neighbours...).



    Then on the return journey a load of fresh soil was picked up...



    ... and dumped in the chicken run. The chickens love scraping away at this.

    I had to give up around 2pm... it was 38 degrees and I was close to passing out. I used to be able to dig all day but now I find the heat just too much. I started at 9am and was completely fukked by 9:15. The rest of the time was just pure purgatory.

    I reckon another 30 or so barrow loads of new soil will be needed tomorrow, but at least all the bad soil is removed.



    In another thread I mentioned that you just seem to find dead things all the time in Isaan. Well, there was a dead cat in my load of soil.

    I dug a grave for it and gave it a good Christian burial.


  11. #86
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    Fork me you like doing shit the hard way don't you!
    There must be an easier way, besides getting rid of the chickens. Maybe get the "gardener" involved?
    If I had to do that once a year I would give up having the buggers.

    Anyway my egg production has increased since I wrote 2 days ago. Yesterday and today I got 6 eggs so at least 1 of the pullets is laying now, Yippee!

  12. #87
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    ^ If the chickens run loose the dogs will nail them... and it's only once a year. Besides, I haven't got my gym yet and it's good exercise... stops me dithering!

  13. #88
    A Cockless Wonder
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    Respect Mendip but it looks like a lot of work for some eggs.

    This was KGBGF's coup in the background. I had the job of dragging it a few metres once a week so that the shitty area was relocated regularly and no cleanup was required as 1 week of shit is just grass fertiliser.

    My Splendid Cock-p4080176-jpg


    She used to get several eggs a day from 6 chickens. The silkies eggs were small but the other 4 hens used to lay good sized eggs.

    3 month old kitten learning to hunt.

    My Splendid Cock-p4080116-jpg


    The silkies were scared of her but the top pecking order hen took no shit and used to chase the cat away from the other hens.

    My Splendid Cock-p4080158-jpg


    My Splendid Cock-p4080155-jpg

  14. #89
    Thailand Expat Saint Willy's Avatar
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    Nice looking chcikens

  15. #90
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    Looper does indeed appear to have the bigger, smoother, plumper and all around more splendid cock here.

  16. #91
    Isle of discombobulation Joe 90's Avatar
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    I bought four supposedly egg laying hens from a car boot sale years ago for a fiver each.

    6 months later the noise was horrendous, the fighting also.

    Turns out I'd bought four cocks!

    Trouble was they all had names and the kids even had a funky chicken party.

    They were very well fed eating all the leftovers from chez Chitty, no surprise there.

    The biggest "Goldie" was 2kilos in weight when he met his maker.

    Sad story.

    Ffs even the RSPCA got involved with the saga, although the officer did comment that the chicken coup aka our Thai beach bungalow was the finest that she had ever seen.

    RIP Goldie and crew.

    Will dig out a pic to prove my cock is the most splendid of all
    Shalom

  17. #92
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dillinger View Post
    Looper does indeed appear to have the bigger, smoother, plumper and all around more splendid cock here.
    It looks to me that it is in fact Looper's 'girlfriend' who has the splendid cock. Looper made no reference of having one himself.

  18. #93
    Thailand Expat Saint Willy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Joe 90 View Post
    Ffs even the RSPCA got involved with the saga,
    Explain...

  19. #94
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    Quote Originally Posted by Joe 90 View Post
    Turns out I'd bought four cocks!
    I think that's George at the back.

    My Splendid Cock-20210318_143519-jpg

  20. #95
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mendip View Post
    It looks to me that it is in fact Looper's 'girlfriend' who has the splendid cock. Looper made no reference of having one himself.
    It was just a bit of bantam

  21. #96
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    Ha ha...

    Why when I start a thread about keeping chickens does it attract crude comments?

    Anyway, I think I mentioned before that my cock passed on while I was away at work these past few months. That was 'Robin Hood', named by my daughter, and we'd only had him around three years. I think he may have died of exhaustion after over-shagging himself... not a way I'm likely to go to be honest.

    My first cock, 'Ziggy Stardust', lasted around six years before fowl cholera got him along with the rest of our flock around three years ago. That was before I started vaccinating the chickens and we haven't lost one to fowl cholera since. Ziggy was named by myself, a great name I thought with his long golden cape... just like David Bowie's creation.

    When I left for work last July we'd just had a few chicks hatch out, and I returned last month to find three adolescent cocks running with the chickens. You can only have one cock, so I kept the pure jungle fowl one. The other two were from a jungle fowl father but a red egg-laying hen mother... Robin Hood was the father of all. Their progeny may well be good egg layers but I like to keep a pure jungle fowl cock. I've been assured that they've gone to a good home at the local Temple but I won't go and check to avoid disappointment.

    So meet 'Austin'. That's what you get when you put your daughter in charge of naming. Austin is only about eight months old and will grow a bit more and fill out. Let's see if he's up to the task.

    The Cock is Dead... Long Live the Cock!

    Looks like Blackie will be lucky tonight.


  22. #97
    A Cockless Wonder
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    ^a resplendent cock Mendip, champion

    Quote Originally Posted by Mendip View Post
    It looks to me that it is in fact Looper's 'girlfriend' who has the splendid cock
    Those photaes are from 2017 and I remain now, as I was then, a cockless wonder in 2 senses:-

    1. the chickens were all female
    2. they all belonged to KGBGF

    I was merely the coup-dragging lawn-shitstain fixer-upper and probably about as much use as your gardener in KGBGF's esteem, although that is mere retrospective speculation

    Quote Originally Posted by Mendip View Post
    My first cock, 'Ziggy Stardust', lasted around six years
    What a life eh? the run of the roost for 6 glorious years. Live fast, die young, like a true Ziggy rock star

  23. #98
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    Quote Originally Posted by Looper View Post
    like a true Ziggy rock star
    Or some cat from Japan..

  24. #99
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    What a perfect excuse...


  25. #100
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    Quote Originally Posted by Looper View Post
    Those photaes are from 2017 and I remain now, as I was then, a cockless wonder in 2 senses:-

    1. the chickens were all female
    2. they all belonged to KGBGF
    Well... get yerself a cock, man. What are you waiting for? You have a nice garden and it doesn't look like you've got any neighbours too close.

    It's best to have a cock you can call your own and not let your girlfriend own it.

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