Fox Field Farm Flock

[GitaBooks]

So sad to read about your chick. I think it's safe to say that you tried everything you could to help this little creature.

You have a beautiful flock!

Thank you.

In the end the only thing we can do is try our best.

 

[GitaBooks]

While we got the numbers down to the correct amount for 2017, things haven't been going perfectly smoothly. Bobbi is showing signs of Progressive Paralysis and can't use her right foot. She is in the basement in a crate with one of our cats. Also, last night I lost poor little Moriarty to a predator. I think I locked him outside the chicken room, as his feathers were found outside the door, as if he were waiting. I feel really bad and set a trap so hopefully it won't happen again. In this last month we've already caught two HUGE opossum, so I'm wondering how many I have to go through before I stop loosing chickens. I also lost Kayden, his sister, to the opossums as well as Daquain, Possibility, and Tad.

RIP guys, sorry you couldn't enjoy a full life.

 

[GitaBooks]

Two new babies, both happily under their mother (a first timer) Tempest.

Here is a little bantam mix name Celest


The little Dalmatian bantam Rica

 

[MollySunshine]

How precious are they! I miss having littles around.

 

[GitaBooks]

I need some updated photos of my little ones, as Celest and Reeka are doing well. They are feathering out early because of the cold and growing fast. I even let them out into the larger broody-hen run. My only worry is if they get separated from their mother (which happens fairly often in such a large barn) then they will freeze, so until they are fully feathered out they spend a lot of their time in the broody pen where they have food, water, and their mother all close by.

The egg in the incubator, which I thought was dead, hatched! Little Bugaby (or Bug-A-Bee), another dalmatian. Not sure if its a boy or a girl yet, but for now I just call him "he".



Anyways, this little guy was far too small to brave the cold weather so his mother, Princess, was moved into the basement in a crate after Bugaby bonded to her (took only 2 hours or so, as Princess was getting impatient for her eggs to hatch). She loves him and was doing well, but a few days after hatching Bugaby managed to slip out of a hole in his crate and get separated from her. I found him nearly frozen to death, lifeless on the ground. When I picked him up he chirped, but couldn't move or open his eyes, so I rushed him upstairs to the fireplace and held him close to it, cupped in my hands, breathing warm air on him. I dipped his feet in warm water, and it only took about 10-20 minutes for him to be able to stand again.
I brought Bugaby back down to his eager, stressed mother and slipped him under her. He chirped the sickie chirp for a little while, but she kept him warm. He continues to do well, but I'm thinking the poor guy had some sort of breakdown because now he gives the scared chirp when his mother is a mere inches away. If she calls him for food he freaks out and screams for her, all the while eating happily. When he snuggles under her and talks non-stop in a stressed manner. Physically he is fine, so it must just be he has a psychological issues. It must be an only-child sort of issue.

 

[GitaBooks]

Today one of my beautiful Dalmatian hens, Dark Beak, passed away from unknown causes. She got really sick and began to get paralyzed, possibly from lead paint on the barn (the barn is so old I'm guessing it is lead paint). I just lost Dodie to the same disease, she was one of my favorite hens and only a few years old. I also just lost Sapphire, my blue silkie mix hen, to a skunk. Not a great couple weeks as far as chickens are going.

However, I will say Shayera is broody and has some nice eggs developing. She's a feisty little girl, one of my smallest if not my smallest chickens but determined to cover all the eggs the other hens slip into her nest. I have to remove the extras every day by candling.

 

[GitaBooks]

I just lost one of my favorite and oldest hens, Maroon, to a disease. She died in my arms. I buried her in the field but I miss her and I'm sure Dominator does as well. Not only that, but today I found Velvet, my black OEGB, dead in the "Milk Shed" (what we call our brick shed) in the rafters. I'm not sure how long she has been there because she would hide at night to perch and was all over the place during the day so sometimes I would go a while without seeing her. I'm not sure what took her, but it seems to be related to what took Maroon.

I just keep loosing chickens, it's making me paranoid, and sad too. Velvet was only a year old. : (

 

[GitaBooks]

Some update pictures I took today. I tried using my phone, but the camera on it has a bad zoom, so not the best photos, but our camera doesn't work very well.

Here is Bugaby, enjoying outside!





Reeka and Resa standing next to each other with Celeste in the backround


Liberty might be getting old, but she still follows Dominator everywhere




Dominator in the front and my broody hen in the back (you can see her tail is fanned in the typical broody hen fashion)


Kord my splash Rosecomb dude


All hoping for food


Eagle is the Easter Egger and then the little fluffy blue girl is Shayera. She broke-up and abandoned her eggs after she kept getting kicked off by the other hens, so her eggs are in the incubator right now. She was a tough momma, she fought every time I took the extra eggs they laid under her, but I guess it got to be too much.


Celeste, my pretty silkie mix. Reminds me of Roshashannah, the hen I lost to the coyotes.

 

[GitaBooks]

Baby season time!! Four chicks so far, all doing well. My broody hens are/were Shayera, Mumbles, Leopold, Craigen, Nastalgia, Key, and Goldie. However, Shayera and Mumbles broke up. I never found Mumbles' nest, but Shayera's eggs were still alive so I put them in an incubator and her babies ended up going to Goldie and Key. Key also hatched one of her own eggs, the rest were sloshing and very rotten, probably an old nest as it was hidden in the rafters. Craigen is on a nest of 6 in a hidden room so none of the other hens are bothering her. Leopold is in the main chicken room, nesting on the ground, so we'll see how long she lasts. Nastalgia is in the shed in the rafters, like Key was, but I haven't checked her eggs yet because I don't want to scare her away.

This is Luminosity (aka Lulu) Goldie's first chick.


Goldie also except, a day or so later, a second baby, April's Enigma.


Two chicks that I haven't downloaded the pictures for yet are Whisper (Key's tiny little white baby that hatched last night) and Harmony, the beautiful black and white baby that is also Key's and her first baby ever. She is a first time mother, and Nastalgia, Leopold and Craigen will all be first-timers as well. Shayera and Mumbles would have been, but Mumbles' eggs I think might have broken, as she had broken eggs on her belly more than once and I think she must have been on an old nest in the shed rafters.

 

[MollySunshine]

Congratulations on your new chickies! They are beautiful!