Sorry about the failure message! At times I get a notice that my monthly bandwidth has been exceeded, maybe that was it. Try this one (should be the home page) and PLEASE let me know if it works or not:

http://home.earthlink.net/~velvetsparrow/VSChick.htm

I'm going to be revamping the chicken site after school starts in September and I have time to breathe. :) It should cure all the problems, look better, have more info (it's full right now) and more photos.

Why house your roo separate from the hens, though? My boys stay with their girls 24/7 and I've never had a problem...

As to table scraps, chickens are omnivores (eat everything) just like you and I. And what is healthy for you is healthy for them. No raw meat (can carry parasites) and no chocolate (they cannot digest it properly so it is toxic). Avoid things like onions and garlic in large doses as it can sometimes flavor the eggs. Common sense stuff like no doughnuts, etc. :)

I think that tossing your flock the scrapings off your plate or the last couple of bites from your cheeseburger is perfectly OK--it stimulates their natural competitiveness as they chase each other around for the tidbits (chicken fun!) and it's instinctual for them to chase down moving food--mine are having a great time these days chasing June Bugs and grasshoppers. Also the table scraps round out their diet, providing a bit of fat, protein, etc. Mine get a regular chicken food daily ration on top of this, room to roam and forage, green grass to eat and fresh water. If you want to treat them, get some live mealworms or crickets for them to chase and eat.

I always clip my youngsters wings (also new adults to the flock) because they are all enthusiasm, wing and horsepower, with few brains and no weight. :) The combination of ditzty youngsters and flying equals a chicken inadvertently over the fence. So they get clipped the first time--after they have grown up, learned where they live, get some weight on them and settle down, they molt and new feathers grow in. After that they seem to be fine.

Velvet ~:>

Jae--

This morning I cut up a wonderful canteloupe and tossed the rinds in to my hens -- they were in seventh heaven! Some of them went for the seeds, others for all the nice orange flesh that was left on the rinds.

It's really fun to see what things they get excited about. My hens absolutely LOVE bananas! If I walk into the coop with a banana they go crazy trying to get to me.

Experiment some, you'll have fun.

--Johanna

PS, Egglebert stays with his hens 24/7 also. I think everyone is calmer when he's in the vicinity.

wow, thanks for the info, for some reason I had it in my head that roo needed to be kept separate at night. Last night everybody except one hen put themselves to bed. Even the roo went into his own pen instead of with the girls like he wants. I put some cornflakes in there that my son thought he wanted, they went crazy, they loved it, so it convinced me and I made a bowl of scraps, veggies, fruits and such and threw that out, then pulled up a seat to watch. Velvet, thank you for the link. This one worked, but a few pages say failure to connect, but I did get to read the majority of it.

Glad you chickies are having fun with the goodies, soon you won't be able to walk outside without them begging from you! :)

I don't know what is going on with the chicken site...you might try what I did: clear your cache on your browser and try the pages again. That's what I did to check it, and everything seems to work fine. The cache is the section of memory on your computer that holds in reserve info on pages you previously visited so that they load faster when you visit them again. Usually it's under 'Tools' and/or 'Options'. I'm still going to relocate the site next month though, to solve the 'bandwidth exceeded' problem.

Anyone else getting any error messages for my site?

Velvet ~:>

Velvet, since you twisted my arm ;)

I checked out your site, all the links up top worked great, and yes I got sucked in AGAIN to your lovely meet my flock page, this time (unlike last time) I managed to hold back the tears while visiting your passed on tribute page :) Your site is wonderful!

Jae, welcome and good luck with your new chicks!

-Sheila

thank you velvet and yes, cleared browser hx and now all of your site pops up. I have googled and read tons of info, and read several hundred posts here and have to say, I sure wish I'd found you sooner. I was given an incubator last week, know next to nothing, just what I have read on your site, and know I am not ready for that yet, plus, my son and I really are enjoying the hens (and roo) we have. My son is 8 and can imitate the chicken noises so perfectly that the girls talk back and forth to him. Sets me in stitches. I gave them the last banana and some mango this afternoon, and sure enough, they see me and come running. Thanks again Jae

Good! Glad the site works. :) Thanks so much for checking it for me, I appreciate it.

Unfortunately, I have to update it...I've lost several more hens: Elizabeth died of old age two weeks ago, her daughter, Rita, died mysteriously the month before...all in all, I've lost 9 birds since I created the site. :( Some to old age, two to proventriculitis (a blockage of the proventriculus), one to a fungal infection called Favus, one to egg binding and the rest to sudden illness.

One of the hazards of having a large flock that are getting older, I guess. I also have new birds to add to the page, such as the two baby chicks I raised together last Christmas: Betty, the Buff Orpington and Fuzz, the Silkie. We got Betty because I'd always wanted a Buff Orp, and the feed store gave us Fuzz because she was suffering from a head boink and had the crookneck thing going--couldn't raise her head and ran around backwards, dragging her head and peeping. We gave her the Selenium/Vitamin E treatment and she recovered perfectly. :) Now Betty is the biggest hen in the yard and hangs out with Fuzz, one of the smallest. It's a hoot.

Velvet ~:>

Velvet, so sorry to hear of your recent losses :( I was amazed at how old several of your chickens have lived to be. I wonder how long my girls will live sometimes, my oldest is only 2.5, I've read hatchery birds average life span is only 4 years but I'm not sure how true that is.

Good news about your new chicks, I know you've mentioned your interest in buff orps. in the past, glad you are enjoying one now and that she has a little fuzzy friend too :)

Jae, the chicken imitations flow in our house too! both my kids love to talk chicken, we are a crazy house :)

-Sheila