California - Northern

[capayvalleychick]

Quote:
Not being familiar with drakes, and never having heard of that, I googled it for images. Wow, I had no idea. I assumed that they were similar to roosters.

 

[Happy Chooks]

I have to share the most embarrassing/hilarious incident that I have had, when people have wandered onto my property. WARNING- this is kind of graphic farm type humor.

I live in a rural area at the end of a road. I put up a sign that says private road, but people still come up to ask directions or they simply want to tour a farm or ask questions. I usually either hear people driving up or the dogs let me know or stop them at the gate.

On this particular day, I did not hear anything. I had my horse tied to the hitching rail and had been giving him a bath. Those of you with geldings know that part of their necessary grooming includes cleaning of the sheath. For anybody that doesn't know, the sheath is a kind of tubular pocket that contains the male horse part. All kinds of grungy gunk builds up in there and it can cause health problems.

My gelding hates this procedure. He's like a turtle retreating into his shell. The part that I need to clean goes way up where it's hard to reach and impossible to clean. Most geldings will "drop" for cleaning, but not this guy. I have to get up in there to do the job.

So, I have my back to my driveway.... I'm on my knees next to my horse with my arm inside him, all the way up to my elbow. I tried sweet talking him to get him to relax... nope.... I decide to try singing to him.... and I hear someone clear their throat behind me.
I turn my head, arm still in position, and see a total stranger with a rather horrified look on his face.

He stammers that he's lost and needs directions to get back to the highway. I withdrew my arm and jumped to my feet, probably turned as red faced as the visitor. Gave him his directions and he walked back to his car rather briskly.

I can imagine the story he must tell about what country girls really do with their horses!

 

[UrbanChickenSF]

Ducks actually have some of the most sophisticated penises and vaginas of the animal kingdom. There is a great Radiolab episode called "Sperm" that talks about it in more detail than I'll give here. Essentially, male ducks rape the females. Female ducks have adapted to this by evolving a tree-like vagina that they can somewhat control with muscle contractions. If she is approached by a duck that she does not want to court with, she can contract portions of her vagina upwards to send the duck's penis down a dead-end.

Here is a video showing the complex navigation of a duck penis -

 

[tommysgirl]

BigDaddy'sMom sorry, still haven't figured out when someone is quoting I guess

We have feral peacocks who become enamored with their own reflection in our truck bumper every spring. This year though we have Boom Boom Ray Mancini...aka Ray the rooster and he has not patience for any peacocks around his girls so we will see what happens.

capayvalleychick your story is hysterical!

 

[WaterKat]

I had forgotten how annoying strangers at the door can be. When I lived in a non-gated apartment I started saying "I worship Satan (not true), and if you don't leave NOW I'll prove it to you the hard way." Worked on proselytizers and salespeople.

In Woodland we get door to door salesmen. One time I told a guy that I was not interested. He was miffed and said he had not gotten to give me his sales pitch! I told him that he did not have a right to force me to listen to him on my private property. You should have heard him cuss as he walked away. Nearly as bad as the teen agers showing up wanting me to buy candy from them to keep them away from a life of crime.....

I'm such a baaad child!

Jan

 

[Deerling]

Those signs are great!! Our landlord actually got back to me (he really cares about the kid's safety, I think that's what got him) and said he would put a chain and sign up this weekend. He may not follow though, but if he doesn't we can do it, knowing he is fine with that. I think most of the time people are lost, but like so many of you are saying, the driveway goes right by the house and up to the barn. It's just weird! I think I want a sign that says "No Trespassing by Order of the King" or "No Trespassing On Pain of Death". I told my husband I want a shotgun to match my "what the f*ck are you doing here" face.

I love that goose story! How sweet. I really do love animals so much. And LOL about the duck. Oh man, my kids are going to get quite an education growing up on our little farm.

I went to the feed store today to get cat food and birdseed and came away with four new chicks. I couldn't help it! They had puffy heads. I assume they're all polish. I haven't done much research, but these are my guesses:





These (above) are both the same chick, Buff Laced Polish? She has clean legs.

Standard Sultan making friends with our McMurray chicks

Silver Laced Polish?

Gold Laced Polish?

We have the ducks, big girls and little girls (and boys) all out in the garden. It's so much fun! The ducks are swimming and the big girls are dust bathing and the little girls are pecking around and eating their first worms.



Not a very good picture, but my babies are growing up so fast! They're getting lovely feathers.

Happy (HUGE) ducks



My handsome boys working on the coop this past Sunday


Mark and Miss Clementine

 

[OR4-hmom]

I had been watching what I assume was respiration in the wrong way egg and it seemed to be waining. I covered everything with a damp paper towel and took it out to see what I could see. Air cell is allright but this chick is rolled around the center of the egg. I took some of the shell off around the pip, don't want to do to much since I can't see veins and it hasn't been 24 hours. It's laying flat in the egg carton. The beak is right at the pip so it will get plenty of air. It's back in so we'll see what happens.

 

[Happy Chooks]

For all you hatch-a-holics here..............you will want to enter this contest!

Broodies and their babies!

Who doesn’t love seeing a mother hen with her chicks? Show us your best pictures of your Broody Hen and her babies.​

The Prize:
One Dozen “Rarest of the Rare” day old chicks
donated by Greenfire Farms
​

To enter, see here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...long-contest-6-broodies-and-their-babies/0_50

 

[ronott1]

I had been watching what I assume was respiration in the wrong way egg and it seemed to be waining. I covered everything with a damp paper towel and took it out to see what I could see. Air cell is allright but this chick is rolled around the center of the egg. I took some of the shell off around the pip, don't want to do to much since I can't see veins and it hasn't been 24 hours. It's laying flat in the egg carton. The beak is right at the pip so it will get plenty of air. It's back in so we'll see what happens.

Good Job so far! Hopefully the others will have hatched at the 24 hour mark and you can see about getting the wrong way chick out.

 

[chickee]

We had a power outage today for no apparent reason!!! I wrapped foil around my incubator, and when the power didn't come back on I took it outside and set it in the sun. Nice thing about the Octagon 20 advance ex (auto humidity) having no water wells and being an easy size to move around. The power was out for more than an hour, and when it came on I quickly plugged back in the incubator and it read 91 degrees. Hopefully the eggs will just hatch a little late

In answer to the question about what accessories the Octagon 20 comes with~ yes it comes with the metal, moveable rails and the spongey inserts.