BYC Café

[CapricornFarm]

Good morning Café.
26F this morning and that white stuff is on the ground.

Everyone have a great day!

Hi DL. So glad I don't live in NY any more. I grew up there, then spent 20 some years in NS. Enough snow already!

 

[N F C]

Morning Cafe folks!

Shad, Dobie, hope the white stuff doesn't get in the way of anything you wanted to do today.

Cap, nice work on the Spidey quilt! Is that a present for someone?

Penny, let me know when the Dungeness crab cook is ready...love those things!

 

[Mtn Margie]

Morning! High's in the '50s for the next three days and our snow is melting. Of course on Monday, we get another round of icy drizzle. Not sure what is up with that...
One more week and then HS wrestling starts across most of the nation. LOL!
Maybe I will have time to quilt when, who knows... that looks very nice, Cap!
I love crab, maybe trade for some Rocky Mountain Oysters?
Alright, have a great day / night and go get into some trouble, the good kind.

 

[CapricornFarm]

Morning Cafe folks!

Shad, Dobie, hope the white stuff doesn't get in the way of anything you wanted to do today.

Cap, nice work on the Spidey quilt! Is that a present for someone?

Penny, let me know when the Dungeness crab cook is ready...love those things!

I generally make my kids wedding quilts, my youngest has not tied the knot , but has a 6 month old daughter. So I asked what type of quilt they wanted....some kids never grow up!

 

[ronott1]

Just about done. I need to get a new picture once I wash it.
View attachment 1954254
Old photo of the top.

Very nice!

 

[Meg-in-MT]

Very cool, Cap!

@N F C How was your birthday?

Anyone have big plans for the weekend? It's supposed to start snowing on Sunday, so going to try and get something accomplished tomorrow. Says it'll be 53°...hopefully that's with sunshine and without wind

A lot of you are as cold or colder than we are! Stay warm!

 

[pennyJo1960]

Morning Cafe! We need a good hard freeze here not going to get it payed the bills went in for a blood draw hate the fasting thing but Morton has great lab same gal has drawn mine like 4 times now Doc will have results later today coffee was on the way home

 

[Shadrach]

I seem to have a tribe again.
Mel while not driving the chicks away was mainly off mum duties. She ate with them and socialised with them but spent a lot of time being close to Cillin.
Treacle has moved in closer to the tribe now he doesn't have to travel to check on his wards.
I would love to know how this works. All the junior roosters here with extended family get the job of looking after the new chicks. It's not obvious, you have to watch for it. For Cillin the new additions may as well not exist. He rarely pecks at them and Mels chicks which are still small will go under Cillins body, be that looking for food, or protection. If the chicks wander off it's Treacles job to keep an eye on them. I just don't know how this works, or why. Cillin's priority given no one is laying eggs has been Fat Bird; Fudge and Tackle tend to stick with him. Now Hurry and Ruffles are back. At least one of Mel's chicks is female, maybe two. Cillin won't try to respond to to all six or seven come the new laying season.
I'll be interested to see how Treacle goes about getting his mating done.
Today has also been a record for me. I've never had this many chicks make it back to their tribes coop before. I can't say it's getting better every generation because the number of chicks each year is different. What I see is less predation chances. Be that because the mums are learning, or the chicks are watching other tribe members the overall impression I get is they are all putting themselves at risk less.
With a possible two roosters a tribe (assuming they don't fight seriously) hen escorting will have better cover next year. In theory this should give fewer hens getting killed going to and from nest sites.
It looks a bit crowded in Tribe 1's coop now. The chicks went up the ramp tonight with a bit of herding and a couple of bum pushes. It went a lot better than I expected. Coop stayed quiet when they went in which is another good sign. Sometimes if the chick is relatively mature when it gets taken home it tries to perch next to mum straight away and that isn't tolerated well by the seniors. When I looked in last Mel's three were in one of the nest boxes out of the way, Hurry was on the floor opposite her mum Ruffles who had taken the other nest box. Fat Bird was on the lower perch with Tackle. Fat Birds too old to be doing with all that I'm on the boss perch stuff. She knows she's the boss. She's going to be 10 next year.

 

[DobieLover]

I seem to have a tribe again.
Mel while not driving the chicks away was mainly off mum duties. She ate with them and socialised with them but spent a lot of time being close to Cillin.
Treacle has moved in closer to the tribe now he doesn't have to travel to check on his wards.
I would love to know how this works. All the junior roosters here with extended family get the job of looking after the new chicks. It's not obvious, you have to watch for it. For Cillin the new additions may as well not exist. He rarely pecks at them and Mels chicks which are still small will go under Cillins body, be that looking for food, or protection. If the chicks wander off it's Treacles job to keep an eye on them. I just don't know how this works, or why. Cillin's priority given no one is laying eggs has been Fat Bird; Fudge and Tackle tend to stick with him. Now Hurry and Ruffles are back. At least one of Mel's chicks is female, maybe two. Cillin won't try to respond to to all six or seven come the new laying season.
I'll be interested to see how Treacle goes about getting his mating done.
Today has also been a record for me. I've never had this many chicks make it back to their tribes coop before. I can't say it's getting better every generation because the number of chicks each year is different. What I see is less predation chances. Be that because the mums are learning, or the chicks are watching other tribe members the overall impression I get is they are all putting themselves at risk less.
With a possible two roosters a tribe (assuming they don't fight seriously) hen escorting will have better cover next year. In theory this should give fewer hens getting killed going to and from nest sites.
It looks a bit crowded in Tribe 1's coop now. The chicks went up the ramp tonight with a bit of herding and a couple of bum pushes. It went a lot better than I expected. Coop stayed quiet when they went in which is another good sign. Sometimes if the chick is relatively mature when it gets taken home it tries to perch next to mum straight away and that isn't tolerated well by the seniors. When I looked in last Mel's three were in one of the nest boxes out of the way, Hurry was on the floor opposite her mum Ruffles who had taken the other nest box. Fat Bird was on the lower perch with Tackle. Fat Birds too old to be doing with all that I'm on the boss perch stuff. She knows she's the boss. She's going to be 10 next year.

Your stories, as always, interest me. They are giving me things to look for as my flock develops.
The only bird I allow to sleep in a nest box ATM is Draco and only because she's half naked. She gave up on that sleeping on the roost with the others nonsense after the one night she tried. I think she realizes it's just too cold for her right now.

 

[DobieLover]

Good morning, Café.
Much accumulation ? We got the temperatures but missed the snow. Tuesday is looking like a day of snow accumulation here.

Maybe an inch. Not much. Flurries off and on all day. Not a one of the chickens ventured out of the run. I didn't have time to go out and bribe them. Once I do that a few times, they come out on their own.

Hi DL. So glad I don't live in NY any more. I grew up there, then spent 20 some years in NS. Enough snow already!

I still like it.
I enjoy physical labor because it's good for me and far more productive than going to the gym.

Shad, Dobie, hope the white stuff doesn't get in the way of anything you wanted to do today.

It didn't for me. I managed to get the seedling heat mats installed in the nest box, the heater installed in the waterer inside the coop (but not before the vertical nipples froze... oops) and I put another bag of compressed pine shavings in the coop. I just left the block in there and the chickens had a fine time scratching it apart until they went to roost.