BYC Café

[sourland]

Good morning Café. Well done Bella and DL.

 

[Shadrach]

Good morning, Cafe. Thanks for the coffee, Shad. I'll have two cups. One from the pot on each stove!!
Most of the Texans have left NY and we are down to 30F this morning. Expecting a high in the mid-40s. Still unseasonably warm but at least not that extreme. But I did thoroughly enjoy the little mid-winter respite.

Yeah, yeah, alright. I nerfed it.

 

[007Sean]

Good morning Cafe!

Thanks for the coffee.
Thick fog this morning...can't see nutt'en!

Everyone make it a great day!

 

[Shadrach]

The couple who wanted a male and female pair from me contacted me yesterday saying they had changed their mind.
They are going to get a pair of Catalans instead. They've been asking questions and learning. They decided that they are not really prepared for free ranging and flighty birds.
They've picked a pair from a guy I've not met yet who keeps Catalans a bit past the nearest major town here. He has a two acre fenced plot and his birds (about forty I'm told) semi free range there. The Catalans will take to the trees but they are nothing like as feral as the lot I have here. The couple have a bit over an acre of fenced land next to a village over to the West of here.
While it's a bit inconvenient , given their circumstances I think they've made the right choice.

 

[Shadrach]

Going round to Bucket Boy's place.

 

[Shadrach]

Making themselves at home in Bucket Boy's place.

 

[Mtn Margie]

Good morning! Thanks for the coffee. DL, I am so happy for you and Bella! That is a great turnaround.
I have hay envy and also baby Highlander envy, Meg! Probably a case of barn envy too. Sigh...
I will go out into the cold and feed my non-lambing sheepies their tolerable hay, lol.
It sounds like the people will be back when they gain more experience with chickens, Shad.
We all know how this works.
Let the Day begin and have a great one you All!

 

[ValerieJ]

Good morning, Cafe folks! I'll have a cup of that jo, Shadrach! Thanks!

I'm managing cockerels these days. I have two, and I only have 10 hens and pullets. Not sure how this will work out in the end, but I really love them both and want to keep them.

Pippi Longshot was a single hatch from 13 BO hatching eggs that were mishandled by the post office. Not wanting him to come into the world all alone, I bought 3 LO straight run chicks to cheer him on. And they did. I could hear him cheeping through the crack in his egg, and then I could hear one of the LOs cheeping back to him. When he finally got out, and wandered over to the teddy bear and mirror, he knew immediately that was not where the cheeping was coming from. He looked up at me through the incubator glass, stood on his tippy toes, and cheeped until he fell over backward, time and again, saying "let me out...where's that cheeping coming from? I know it's not this bear!"

I thought I had 2 LO cockerels and 1 pullet. Pippi was a mystery in the beginning. It turned out I have a cockerel in each color. Perfect. Mad Hatter, Abby and Alice are the LOs.

At 21 weeks, Mad has taken the lead, and was really always in the lead. To keep the peace, and to give Pippi a better cockerel experience, I've begun moving him into the pen with my 8 hens each day. The girls are teaching him some manners, and he is learning his cockerel skills. All is well until bed time when he starts looking for a hole in the fence to get back to Mad's safe house, and I have to herd him around to the gate...in the freezing rain. Pippi finally tried to crow yesterday. Too funny. Mad has been crowing for a long time, and is quite a vocal guy actually.

Having 2 cockerels in that hormonal crazy stage is a handful! I am prepared to have a bachelor pad if I need to, but I'm hoping eventually all my chickens will live together in harmony. Perhaps that will happen when we have our new walk in coop. I don't know. What do you think? Will I have to raise more pullets to make this work? I'm hoping to never raise chicks again myself. I want my hens to do that. Wishful thinking?

 

[Shadrach]

Good morning, Cafe folks! I'll have a cup of that jo, Shadrach! Thanks!

I'm managing cockerels these days. I have two, and I only have 10 hens and pullets. Not sure how this will work out in the end, but I really love them both and want to keep them.

Pippi Longshot was a single hatch from 13 BO hatching eggs that were mishandled by the post office. Not wanting him to come into the world all alone, I bought 3 LO straight run chicks to cheer him on. And they did. I could hear him cheeping through the crack in his egg, and then I could hear one of the LOs cheeping back to him. When he finally got out, and wandered over to the teddy bear and mirror, he knew immediately that was not where the cheeping was coming from. He looked up at me through the incubator glass, stood on his tippy toes, and cheeped until he fell over backward, time and again, saying "let me out...where's that cheeping coming from? I know it's not this bear!"

I thought I had 2 LO cockerels and 1 pullet. Pippi was a mystery in the beginning. It turned out I have a cockerel in each color. Perfect. Mad Hatter, Abby and Alice are the LOs.

At 21 weeks, Mad has taken the lead, and was really always in the lead. To keep the peace, and to give Pippi a better cockerel experience, I've begun moving him into the pen with my 8 hens each day. The girls are teaching him some manners, and he is learning his cockerel skills. All is well until bed time when he starts looking for a hole in the fence to get back to Mad's safe house, and I have to herd him around to the gate...in the freezing rain. Pippi finally tried to crow yesterday. Too funny. Mad has been crowing for a long time, and is quite a vocal guy actually.

Having 2 cockerels in that hormonal crazy stage is a handful! I am prepared to have a bachelor pad if I need to, but I'm hoping eventually all my chickens will live together in harmony. Perhaps that will happen when we have our new walk in coop. I don't know. What do you think? Will I have to raise more pullets to make this work? I'm hoping to never raise chicks again myself. I want my hens to do that. Wishful thinking?

Yup, fraid so, probably wishful thinking.
You would be better off housing two groups separately, each with a few hens.

 

[FortCluck]

Good morning Cafe!

Thanks for the coffee.
Thick fog this morning...can't see nutt'en!

Everyone make it a great day!

Same way here. I feel like I'm in a Sci-fi movie and some weirdness is going to come out of the fog