2018 Newbie Chat!

[llombardo]

I do hope this is it for snow. It's going to be 50 today so everything should melt.

They all came out when I opened the coop. It was funny watching them tip toe on the snow. A couple of them jump/flew from point A to point B

 

[No More Empty Nest]

Our snow is all gone! Yay! Melted pretty fast. Makes me happy

 

[llombardo]

Our snow is all gone! Yay! Melted pretty fast. Makes me happy

The way it's going it may snow in June.

Ours is almost gone I got some areas that are still covered. One of my shepherds keeps moving to where the snow is to lay down. Last I looked he was right up against the fence laying in the snow.

Surprisingly the run absorbed all the water. The wood chips are not even wet.

 

[llombardo]

Now we are getting rain, rain and more rain. I've been keeping the younger girls in the coop during the day and letting them out a couple hours at night so they don't get soaked. I was in the run and I heard a smooshing water sound coming from where there isn't water, well the ducks made their own pond. They were covered in mud from top to bottom. I did not have the heart to fill their duck made pond, do they will have it for a little longer.

I did notice 2 of the girls sneezing, otherwise acting normal. I put some ACV in the water--is there anything else I should do? I feel guilty because I'm not convinced it's warm enough for them even with their feathers.

They all officially have names now

Silver Polish- little One
Crested polish--Alina
Cinnamon Queen--Cinnamon and it fits
EE without the Muffs(I think that is what they are called)--Autumn
EE with muffs--Maple
(Both Ees remind me of fall)
Jersey Giant--Raven

Last two not sure which one is what breed but I think
Sapphire Gem--Sweet Pea
Oliver Egger--Willow

 

[Anna Ranieri]

So far so good with the snow. It's coming down, about another 3 hours. I go out, shake the net, get soaking wet and repeat every half hour. I don't even dry off in between..lol. The electric fence went down so I was out there with scissors cutting any grass and melting built up snow--got it up and running again.

I went and bought umbrellas for the run. It looks absolutely ridicioulous but will give nice coverage with the rain that is coming. I'll take a picture later.

The little ones are doing fine in the coop and the ducks are doing ok in the run. They are pretty wet.

View attachment 1754407

Awwwwwww bless them

 

[Anna Ranieri]

Now we are getting rain, rain and more rain. I've been keeping the younger girls in the coop during the day and letting them out a couple hours at night so they don't get soaked. I was in the run and I heard a smooshing water sound coming from where there isn't water, well the ducks made their own pond. They were covered in mud from top to bottom. I did not have the heart to fill their duck made pond, do they will have it for a little longer.

I did notice 2 of the girls sneezing, otherwise acting normal. I put some ACV in the water--is there anything else I should do? I feel guilty because I'm not convinced it's warm enough for them even with their feathers.

They all officially have names now

Silver Polish- little One
Crested polish--Alina
Cinnamon Queen--Cinnamon and it fits
EE without the Muffs(I think that is what they are called)--Autumn
EE with muffs--Maple
(Both Ees remind me of fall)
Jersey Giant--Raven

Last two not sure which one is what breed but I think
Sapphire Gem--Sweet Pea
Oliver Egger--Willow

Great name choices

 

[No More Empty Nest]

Now we are getting rain, rain and more rain. I've been keeping the younger girls in the coop during the day and letting them out a couple hours at night so they don't get soaked. I was in the run and I heard a smooshing water sound coming from where there isn't water, well the ducks made their own pond. They were covered in mud from top to bottom. I did not have the heart to fill their duck made pond, do they will have it for a little longer.

I did notice 2 of the girls sneezing, otherwise acting normal. I put some ACV in the water--is there anything else I should do? I feel guilty because I'm not convinced it's warm enough for them even with their feathers.

They all officially have names now

Silver Polish- little One
Crested polish--Alina
Cinnamon Queen--Cinnamon and it fits
EE without the Muffs(I think that is what they are called)--Autumn
EE with muffs--Maple
(Both Ees remind me of fall)
Jersey Giant--Raven

Last two not sure which one is what breed but I think
Sapphire Gem--Sweet Pea
Oliver Egger--Willow

Love the names!

 

[CannedMonster]

Mitzi’s eggs are hatching!!


I picked her up to check underneath her for eggs the other girls will lay in her box and two eggs were pipped!
That was in the early afternoon.
Then Pippin kept disturbing her because she wanted to lay her egg in Mitzi’s box.
She even stepped on Mitzi’s back and head!
Mitzi stayed put to protect her eggs.
I realized I had to move Mitzi right away.
I couldn’t wait for night to come when she would be calm.
I got the nest ready in the tiny coop and picked up Mitzi’s box with her and her 4 eggs and took her over to it.
I had to pick her up and hold her while I gingerly took each egg and put it in the new box in the tiny coop.
One egg wasn’t pipped yet but I could hear the chick peeping as I moved it’s egg.
Then I put Mitzi in the box.
She got right back out making alarm calls.
I shut the door and locked her in.
I prayed she’d calm down and go back to the eggs.
She kept up the alarm calls and unfortunately Oliver heard her and started doing it too.
He was making it worse!
DH chased Oliver to the other side of his yard and he finally shut up.
I waited for a while and checked her and she still hadn’t gotten on the eggs again.
I was afraid the hatching chicks might get shrink wrapped or something.
I made myself go into the house for a while before I checked on her again.
Finally! She got back on the eggs and I could hear her softly “talking” to the babies; encouraging them as they struggled out of their shells.

I have left them all alone today and won’t check to see if all babies hatched until tomorrow morning.
I’ll give another update after that.

So now Itsy and her 2 black chicks don’t have a coop because I gave hers to Mitzi.

 

[CannedMonster]

Apparently, last night, I wrote the whole above post and never actually posted it!

Boy if my head wasn’t screwed on...

So this morning I went out to check and lo and behold! Four new black chicks!


Mitzi is a fierce protective Mama.
It’s hard to take photos of chicks while holding down an angry broody lol.

All four were fathered by Oliver, my black Australorp.
Two chicks hatched out of Taka’s large blue/green eggs so they are BA/EE mixes.
One chick came from Charlotte, my Jersey Giant.
One chick came from ?? egg...it was either one of my Silver Penciled Rocks or my Partridge Rock or even my Speckled Sussex, Elsie or Sumi my only BA female.
I’m pretty sure I took all 4 eggs from Ollie’s girls because I had already rehomed Angus.

 

[llombardo]

I put Dorothy and Blanche with the younger girls today. They are not attacking them but have put the younger ones in their place if they tried challenging them. Right now they are in the sandbox and the younger ones are hanging out in the coop coming out occasionally.

It would be great if all the girls would get along but I can't trust my two oldest bullies, not even a little bit.