California - Northern

[AmyPaperlady]

Amypaperlady, hens take a while to get used to new surroundings. If they are feeling scared they like to be in a covered area. SOme of my girls STILL will not venture out after the attack, and like to stay in the coop all day now. If you are worried kick them out in a few days to explore, but they should be fine getting to know the new space slowly.

That's what I figured, but my daughters were horribly disappointed.

 

[chiqita]

Set them at the door with mealworms!

 

[AmyPaperlady]

They've been in the coop several times a day, so I didn't feel too bad

 

[zooweemama]

Zoo, i'm so sorry for your loss. I used to love Betty stories. Sounds like it is time to curtail free ranging until you catch your thief.

It is official, we have broodie soil around here. My new silkie hen, Pepper ( hat trick silkies! ) got here, and went broodie in quarantine. I gave her some chicks this week and they are all happy under her. MY 2 remaining original silke and showgirl hens, roxie and chatty cathy are both sitting too, and one of my jubilees hid 2 dz eggs and was sitting on them until I caught her. Nutmeg is also joining in the fun. Dont they know it is late fall and COLD???

Cackle, if your girl looks litlis its possible she broke the egg inside of herself and thats why she was wet. There is an antibiotic Dr peter Brown recommends to try and save a hen hat does that, but I don't remember what it is. If she stays perky I would think she just sat on something wet rather then broke a shell inside her.

Amypaperlady, hens take a while to get used to new surroundings. If they are feeling scared they like to be in a covered area. SOme of my girls STILL will not venture out after the attack, and like to stay in the coop all day now. If you are worried kick them out in a few days to explore, but they should be fine getting to know the new space slowly.

Chooks, gratz on the hatch! nice job!

Thanks. I ripped up the yard lol. We had let the blackberry vines literally take over behind our pond. It made it so much easier for the bobcat to hide. We let the eucalyptus trees grow unkempt too and they also made a perfect hide. Sadly we made it very easy on the bobcat to get our birds. I demolished the blackberry bushes all the way back to the fence line yesterday- 5 -15 feet in some spots. We completely carved out underneath the trees so that it provides shade but doesn't conceal anything. I located one of my buffs that had been killed, dragged through the thorny vines, gotten stuck (like bad stuck) and the cat chewed the head and butt off. It apparently came back for Betty still hungry and there was nothing left of her. We found one of it's eating spots. Betty's feathers were all over it but nothing left. I think we spooked it for the time being. We also have been patrolling the 9-12am hours it has been hunting. I have one of Betty's babies, Sweetie, still. I am glad I kept her. I gave her sister away and last minute kept this one. Lucky.

Send some broody dust this way. All my broodies were killed. Well Sweetie is a broody but she is not feeling broody right now. LOL I think they are all messed up from the attacks. I have 1 lone viable egg hatching in about 10 days...if it makes it all the way.

 

[zooweemama]

My lone CL girl


One of the zee CL boys


Jessie...our BBLRW X Sizzle roo lol. He's quirky.

Fun stuff! Come on fall!

 

[chicksnthestiks]

I heard a peep I heard a peep I HEARD A PEEP!!!!!e e Then Beakface shushed the peeper...She really did! A low buck buck buck then silence. At work now but maybe going home again at lunch to check it out. DH is there so he can keep me posted...Come on babies!!!!! This is this morning's portrait of mama. I know it looks a lot like last night's

Hooray for Beakface!

Looks like mostly pullets (about time, I've been hatching a ton of cockerels this year). Right now it looks like 10 pullets and 6 cockerels.

Congrats on your hatch!

 

[tommysgirl]

I.....have..... BABIES!!!!!!! One SPW and one that I believe can only be Ozzie and my CA Grey's. Now I need to know if Delaware over a cuckoo pattern with cuckoo patterned parents would produce a sexlink and would the boys have the head spot? Because that is what this is looking like. Plus he is such a BOY...pecking at mama's eyes trampling the little SPW boldy going where no chick has gone before...that sort of thing. I also have a pip in another SPW egg and maybe more but that was all I could see. at the time.


Hoping for a Del Baby and a couple more SPWs but I thought about it last night and decided for me anyway, the excitement and fun of going through a hatch is well worth the 35.00 spent on shipped eggs regardless of the result. I have spent that on an evening at the movies with much less satisfaction. Even if I had ended up with nothing, looking back it was fun just to think about and dream about the potential and there will ALWAYS be more chickens ya know...especially if you spend time on this thread.

I took a juice lid full of scrambled egg out to the coop and settled in to watch. The babies are still too young though but Beakface ate till she was fulll so that made me happy I had done it. The little black one came out from under her for a bit but really didn't know what to do with the egg. I am off tomorrow and headed over to pick up two SGD girls from Kim so happy happiness in my little corner of chicken world and I will be able to watch and wonder at these new babies.

 

[ChickNmamma]

I.....have..... BABIES!!!!!!! One SPW and one that I believe can only be Ozzie and my CA Grey's. Now I need to know if Delaware over a cuckoo pattern with cuckoo patterned parents would produce a sexlink and would the boys have the head spot? Because that is what this is looking like. Plus he is such a BOY...pecking at mama's eyes trampling the little SPW boldy going where no chick has gone before...that sort of thing. I also have a pip in another SPW egg and maybe more but that was all I could see. at the time.


Hoping for a Del Baby and a couple more SPWs but I thought about it last night and decided for me anyway, the excitement and fun of going through a hatch is well worth the 35.00 spent on shipped eggs regardless of the result. I have spent that on an evening at the movies with much less satisfaction. Even if I had ended up with nothing, looking back it was fun just to think about and dream about the potential and there will ALWAYS be more chickens ya know...especially if you spend time on this thread.

I took a juice lid full of scrambled egg out to the coop and settled in to watch. The babies are still too young though but Beakface ate till she was fulll so that made me happy I had done it. The little black one came out from under her for a bit but really didn't know what to do with the egg. I am off tomorrow and headed over to pick up two SGD girls from Kim so happy happiness in my little corner of chicken world and I will be able to watch and wonder at these new babies.

I love watching broodies.

Usually the momma will call them over to eat and makes a high pitched "come and get it" sound. Perhaps they don't need any food yet - and I am sure Beakface was starved because lockdown is 3 days and not moving even to eat or drink.

And yeah, I always have one adventuresome one that likes to sit on momma and pick at momma.. but since these are broody chicks I didn't mark them to find out if they are actually male. One I think was a female - she is still full of sass!

 

[debs_flock]

Yay, so far I've sold fifteen turkeys!

I think this weekend I'll process a couple to cut back the numbers even more. And a duck. I'm really looking forward to roasting a duck next week.

This was the pen I most wanted to cut back the numbers before winter weather sets in.

 

[tommysgirl]

OK Geneticists!!!

I just read this http://www2.ca.uky.edu/smallflocks/sex_linked_crosses.html and it indicated that a Barred girl with a non barred boy would throw black girl babies and barred boy babies. Would the same be true for cuckoo to non cuckoo which is the parentage of my little back baby. I would be thrilled if it were a girl!