Alaska Chicken Lover's Soup for the Cold!!

[MissDeb]

Well, I'm still a little miffed that we ALL worked so hard at that thread
and now it's "poof" (They could have moved it here).....didn't seem to matter what the rest of us thought either......Oh well....I had withdrawals....and here I am for a minute or two!

Donna, I never did find it locally (DE)....if anyone needs some and they find it in Anchorage I can pick it up next Monday when I go to town.....

 

[incubatingisfun]

hi

 

[Wolfwoman]

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I'll give a call next time Sam is in Anchorage, I think he said they had it, but I don't know if it was the Food Grade one.

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I did. 2X4 base with 10' PVC pipe bent in between.

 

[Alaska animal lover]

WW, here is that ee coloring thread I was telling you about.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=308323

 

[paulandashia]

Hey Guys! Long time no see!
I'm seriously scared to post now, since I have been gone so long!
I'm afraid of getting an earful! LoL It's ok though. Bring it on! LoL

Anyhow. Few things happened over the past few weeks.

Overall, the hatches turned out OK (for shipped eggs I mean) with the Marans, so I'm happy about that.
The babies are now outside, free-ranging with the big-boys, and having a good ole time.
Turned out I had 2 "surprises" in that batch of Maran eggs. I got me 2 Wheatons! Magically, one looks to be a Hen, and the other a Roo. So that's good.

Rusty has been learning to not be so aggressive after being humiliated in front of the girls a few times.

One of my RIR girls decided to go Broody on me. At first I had her sitting on Fake eggs, and then decided "Heck, if she wants to sit, I'll put 6 real ones under her and see what happens". And instead of taking the 6 eggs laid one day into the house and putting them in the fridge, I took her fake ones out, and put the 6 real ones under her.
Each day, it seemed whenever she wold go out to eat and drink, one of the other girls would lay an additional egg in the nestbox during her momentary absence. So I marked the eggs she was sitting on with a Pencil, and each evening, I would lift her chest and count the eggs, and take out anything additional that did not have a pencil mark.
She sat, and sat, and sat some more, and she was doing real good, until one evening I went out to close up the coop, and some of the other girls decided to lay in nestbox next to hers, and she got confused, and sat on the wrong eggs.!
I was bummed out when I felt the eggs she's been sitting on for almost 2 weeks, they were ice cold. Not just cool. Ice cold!
With a broken heart, I picked her up, and moved her onto her own eggs and took the other 4 she was sitting on out. I was then thinking about taking the eggs out of the box.
Day after day I would look at her sitting there, thinking how disappointed she will be when nothing hatches. And each day, something told me to leave her be...
Until the day before yesterday. I went out to lock up the coop and count her eggs as usual, and was shocked to discover that instead of one of the eggs, a fluffly little Black Peep popped out from under Momma! The next morning another, then another, and another. She had a 100% hatch rate! I was blown away, stunned, amazed, and Very impressed!
One of the 6 babies died right after it hatched and i removed it as soon as I saw it (It wasn't even dry). I am not sure as to why. But she has 5 that are alive and well. Every one is Black, like a Marans baby. The only way I can tell which baby was Tori & Rusty's, is because it has feathered feet. But other than that, they all look like Daddy!
She seems so proud of them and seems to be very good with them. She lets me handle them, and doesn't seem to mind me at all, but heaven forbid any other hens get near her. She goes into Attack mode! She still has not come off the nest-box in 3 days. But I have brought her some water and scrambled eggs. She shared it with the babies. It was SO adorable. She still has one that is wet under her, so I think she is waiting for that one to dry before she takes them out.

Anyhow, I just had to Share.

 

[Wolfwoman]

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Very cool! I'll try to remember and get pics of all mine thru the stages.

Here's the new babies in with the CX brooder

Thanks AAL!!

And the two Blue laced red wyandottes, also from AAL! Who, BTW has a beautiful house and yard!!

 

[Wolfwoman]

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Any ideas on age of the BLRW?? I'm making a chart of ages and names...

 

[Ban seabhag]

WW, I have 4 BLRWs and one is a rooster so if you like these and at some point want more you are welcome to borrow him (of course this is a way down the road) They are beautiful aren't they?
I have Tori's mallard eggs in the incubator for my son.... Need some luck here.

 

[Ban seabhag]

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Well that's cool! I am so glad it turned out so well!. It's good to know they can take that sort of thing now and then and still come through....

 

[Wolfwoman]

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They sure are pretty! I'll have to see come next summer where we're at!