Minnesota!

[KlopKlop]

Good morning, folks!


Deer...love seeing them, hate hitting them.  My son was driving last winter/spring, it was still cold, and a young one was crossing the road with its momma and we couldn't avoid it.  Sadly, it didn't do anything to the car, but it was broken up pretty bad and had to have the State Trooper from town put it out of its misery.

I swear our dogs could smell it on the car the instant we got in the driveway, they had their noses pressed into every inch of the vehicle where it hit.

 
My good friend had one leap into her windshield on Hwy 52 one more on her early commute to Rochester.  She was pretty lucky she got out uninjured.  


Other critters in the road.... another time coming up from town and son was driving, a fox ran right out in front of us, stopped on the centerline, and turned right back and went under the van, THEN ran off again after tumbling under the vehicle.  I swear it is the luckiest fox!  I see that stupid thing running in front of cars all the time in that same spot.  It is also nasty and mangey looking and needs a big dose of Ivermectin!

Chickens...I have another batch hatching, just a smallish one though, about 50 eggs went in the hatcher.  I was not happy when I candled yesterday though, I didn't get crap for fertility on the batch of 200 I set last week.  The NH were good, but the EEs were less than 50%.  I should still have about a dozen and a half EEs though.  I didn't set any Buckeyes though that time.  Oh well, the next batch is about ready to go in.

Oh man my dogs were on my truck before I even got half way down the drive way. I had to stop and my DW come hold them back so I could pull in. They then gave the whole truck a sniff down.

I did see last night there is a slight bend in my bumper but no damage to the chrome so I should be able to push it back out. A friend has a hydraulic ram I can borrow.

Needless to say I was extra vigilant this AM!

 

[Minniechickmama]

I see them out in the fields in the evenings now, but I don't do a lot of night driving or early morning driving either. I do know where the usual crossing spots are around here and stay alert. Come fall we have them tearing through our yard and through the fields where hunters get them all nervous and on the run. You wouldn't think they would hang around our property, it is pretty open, but we find spots where they bed down in the windbreak and footprints through the gardens in Spring. We had to put a 5' fence around all the new fruit trees to keep them from getting stripped in the winter. We had one Granny Smith that they destroyed overnight one time and it was a 4 or 5 year old tree!

 

[cottonlouie]

Getting 20 chicks on the 14th. I'm very excited. I ordered pullets but I imagine some roosters will emerge. I wouldn't mind a rooster, in fact I would like one. However my chickens free range and I have two 8 pound Chihuahuas who occasionally chase a chicken (briefly and I think the chicken would probably win). Anyway, I'm afraid rooster could seriously hurt or kill my Chihuahuas. So I'm thinking I'll spend a lot of time holding the chicks and having the dogs right with me but in kennels. I'd like the chicks to get so used to the dogs they don't dart away (which is what engages the dog's prey drive and they chase.) I'm doing this in hopes any rooster and all hens raised in the presence of the dogs will disregard the dogs and hence the dogs won't chase because there won't be anything running away.... All my hens except one I got as adults. The one hen who I raised from a chick has been around the dogs since day one and never moves away from the dogs so the dogs never chase her. Think it might work? Am I overly cautious about roosters or could a rooster hurt or kill an 8 pound chihuahua?

 

[KlopKlop]

@Minniechickmama
I'm starting to feel ok about the breed on my Sussex. Their shoulder feathers (don't know the technical name) are coming in and have the tell tale white tips I expect from the Sussex.

They are starting to get skittish when I go by the brooder they run round like mad. All except one. If I put my hand in there she runs over and pecks me gently and then let's me pet her! I will try to get some new photos later

 

[melannrob]

Oh cool! Beautiful chicks! What exactly are ISA browns??

Well can one of you enable me into Pintail ducks and Canada geese?? 

ISA Browns are a hybrid breed not a true chicken breed. The receipt I got said formally known as Gold Star. But they are a hybrid sex link chicken. I had to Google to see what the cross came from but no one seems to know the exact answer.

 

[Minniechickmama]

@Minniechickmama
I'm starting to feel ok about the breed on my Sussex. Their shoulder feathers (don't know the technical name) are coming in and have the tell tale white tips I expect from the Sussex.

They are starting to get skittish when I go by the brooder they run round like mad. All except one. If I put my hand in there she runs over and pecks me gently and then let's me pet her! I will try to get some new photos later

You know, I gotta tell ya, ya make me laugh.

I don't mean to make you nervous, but those who reach for the hand and are bold, are usually cockerels.
Also, even my Buckeyes as chicks have specks on their wing tips. You can can't go by chick color to determine their adult color unless it is a solid black or white.
I would hope they didn't screw it up, but stranger things have happened. If that is what you ordered though and they do look a lot alike as chicks, there is no reason to worry or let me get you second guessing. Just enjoy the ride and hope they got them sexed right

I will say this though, my neighbor ordered all Red Production from Welp one year. They sent them all Dark Cornish. That was how I started with chickens, I got 8 pullets from her that summer.

 

[Minniechickmama]

Getting 20 chicks on the 14th. I'm very excited. I ordered pullets but I imagine some roosters will emerge. I wouldn't mind a rooster, in fact I would like one. However my chickens free range and I have two 8 pound Chihuahuas who occasionally chase a chicken (briefly and I think the chicken would probably win). Anyway, I'm afraid rooster could seriously hurt or kill my Chihuahuas. So I'm thinking I'll spend a lot of time holding the chicks and having the dogs right with me but in kennels. I'd like the chicks to get so used to the dogs they don't dart away (which is what engages the dog's prey drive and they chase.) I'm doing this in hopes any rooster and all hens raised in the presence of the dogs will disregard the dogs and hence the dogs won't chase because there won't be anything running away.... All my hens except one I got as adults. The one hen who I raised from a chick has been around the dogs since day one and never moves away from the dogs so the dogs never chase her. Think it might work? Am I overly cautious about roosters or could a rooster hurt or kill an 8 pound chihuahua?

I do think an aggressive rooster who thought he had to protect his flock would at least cause serious harm to a small dog. The trick is get roosters (cough cough Buckeyes cough cough) who are calm and non-aggressive from a breeder who selects for calm birds.
Then again, it is really the individual bird's temperament on how protective of the flock it may be. My old Dark Cornish rooster was a great flock protector and at 13 pounds could do some damage, as I found out sticking my hand in passed the nest boxes one time and he hit it so hard I couldn't move my hand for two hours. That was okay until he decided to protect them from me. He could have killed a small dog.

 

[Minniechickmama]

ISA Browns are a hybrid breed not a true chicken breed. The receipt I got said formally known as Gold Star. But they are a hybrid sex link chicken. I had to Google to see what the cross came from but no one seems to know the exact answer.

From Wiki:
The ISA Brown is a hybrid type of Sex Link chicken,[3] Is thought to originally been the result of crossing Rhode Island Reds and Rhode Island Whites, but now contains genetics from a wide range of breeds.The list of which is a closely guarded secret.[4][5] The a ISA Brown is a hybrid, not a true breed, developed by breeding unrelated "dam" and "sire" lines together until the final ISA Brown result. It is known for its high egg production of approximately 300 eggs per hen in the first year of laying.[6]

 

[athalia17]

ISA Browns are a hybrid breed not a true chicken breed. The receipt I got said formally known as Gold Star. But they are a hybrid sex link chicken. I had to Google to see what the cross came from but no one seems to know the exact answer.

Yes... mystery. Interesting link on them:http://www.isapoultry.com/en/products/isa/isa-brown/

 

[KlopKlop]

Here are my sussex getting all grown up!


Here you can see the white tipped feathers on the shoulders



They graduated to the 'Big Girl' feeders today haha they were scratching all the feed off the trays into the bedding and not eating it!