California - Northern

[debs_flock]

Hello all you No. CA people. Just a quickie (can't read the posts from the last almost five months).

I fly home on Sunday, hopefully I'll have time to at least wander out to see my birds when I get home. I'm hoping DH didn't have too much trouble in my absence. If you can believe it, he was missing all the hatching while I was gone and set some eggs with emailed instructions from me. He actually hatched out nine chicks in one of the styrobators all by himself.

I look forward to catching up with everyone.

I'll try to post a few pictures from my travels. In NZ I got to visit a gannet colony, absolutely fell in love with pukeko (they consider them a pest, I'd bring home a breeding pair in a heartbeat) and was amazed by the black swans. Think about going to a public park and being mobbed by geese for bread, now replace those geese with black swans! I stood in one spot by a public lake and counted 200+ of them. All I could think about is how much they cost to buy a pair in the States, yikes!

Oh heck, here's a couple now.

Gannet


Black Swan


Pukeko


Oh, and here's a Red-Legged Partridge I took in the back garden of where I've been living in the UK.



In case you can't tell, I did mostly bird photography while I was gone!

Deb

 

[sewandgrow]

Hello all you No. CA people. Just a quickie (can't read the posts from the last almost five months).

I fly home on Sunday, hopefully I'll have time to at least wander out to see my birds when I get home. I'm hoping DH didn't have too much trouble in my absence. If you can believe it, he was missing all the hatching while I was gone and set some eggs with emailed instructions from me. He actually hatched out nine chicks in one of the styrobators all by himself.

I look forward to catching up with everyone.

I'll try to post a few pictures from my travels. In NZ I got to visit a gannet colony, absolutely fell in love with pukeko (they consider them a pest, I'd bring home a breeding pair in a heartbeat) and was amazed by the black swans. Think about going to a public park and being mobbed by geese for bread, now replace those geese with black swans! I stood in one spot by a public lake and counted 200+ of them. All I could think about is how much they cost to buy a pair in the States, yikes!

Oh heck, here's a couple now.

Gannet


Black Swan


Pukeko


Oh, and here's a Red-Legged Partridge I took in the back garden of where I've been living in the UK.



In case you can't tell, I did mostly bird photography while I was gone!

Deb

Beautiful birds. I don't travel much but the birds in Hawaii were amazing too.
Welcome back.

 

[sewandgrow]

Anyone know who raises bantam RIR and bantam Welsummers. I am not into bantams & have an older gent calling asking for them. He has been retired twice & now wants to play.....................

 

[Happy Chooks]

Hello all you No. CA people. Just a quickie (can't read the posts from the last almost five months).

I fly home on Sunday, hopefully I'll have time to at least wander out to see my birds when I get home. I'm hoping DH didn't have too much trouble in my absence. If you can believe it, he was missing all the hatching while I was gone and set some eggs with emailed instructions from me. He actually hatched out nine chicks in one of the styrobators all by himself.

I look forward to catching up with everyone.

I'll try to post a few pictures from my travels. In NZ I got to visit a gannet colony, absolutely fell in love with pukeko (they consider them a pest, I'd bring home a breeding pair in a heartbeat) and was amazed by the black swans. Think about going to a public park and being mobbed by geese for bread, now replace those geese with black swans! I stood in one spot by a public lake and counted 200+ of them. All I could think about is how much they cost to buy a pair in the States, yikes!

Oh heck, here's a couple now.

Gannet


Black Swan


Pukeko


Oh, and here's a Red-Legged Partridge I took in the back garden of where I've been living in the UK.



In case you can't tell, I did mostly bird photography while I was gone!

Deb

Nice to hear from you Deb! Beautiful pictures! I hope you enjoyed your travels. Welcome home!

 

[OR4-hmom]

So nice of you to share Deb. They are impressive pictures. To funny about hatching in your absence, mine enjoys the chicks also but won't admit it. Have a great trip back.

 

[lawatt]

I didn't see any but I was enjoying the thunder when my cell phone started making this awful sound! It was a duck and cover kind of warning about tornadoes in "my" area. Kind of vague and how did they know exactly where I was?? Hmmmmm?

I ran outside to see if I could see any to see if I really was in any danger, and nope not a single thing, But somehow "they" knew where I was.

your phone gets the message, i'm pretty sure, based on the location of your phone number (i.e. the first three of the seven digits, not the area code) -- i similarly got an automated warning on my cell phone last month during our rainstorm that brought 10" of rain, warning about possible flash floods in Petaluma and Penngrove. I technically live in Penngrove, but am way at the top of Sonoma Mtn, so not in any direct danger of flash floods -- but i got the warning just the same. and glad that such a system exists, although it did startle me at first! quite a few of my students in the area also reported getting the warning.

Wonderful that the little Marans is doing well; and you have so many chicks to love.. What kind of Marans have you hatched? I have one 6 yr. old BCM., who still lays eggs. She gifts me with an egg once week or so.

i have birchen marans, black with silver at the neck -- beautiful birds, and their eggs are pretty dark, although i understand that BCMs are usually the darkest... here's a photo:

one of my birchen girls' eggs in the upper right

 

[PetRock]

Maybe you could give me a few tips. Im really new at this. I'm thinking that Ill have to enclose a section of my yard rather than let them range.

Well, I do know that if you let them free range your fenced backyard, they will effectively defoliate your yard for you! We used to have problems every spring with weeds, ice plant run rampant, and ivy. We no longer have those particular problems and they are busy fertilizing the ground so when and if we ever replant grass, the ground will be ready for it! We have our garden areas fenced in and let the flock roam the rest of the backyard. Our lot is just under 1/3 acre so there is plenty of room for all of us.

 

[lawatt]

Hello all you No. CA people. Just a quickie (can't read the posts from the last almost five months).

I fly home on Sunday, hopefully I'll have time to at least wander out to see my birds when I get home. I'm hoping DH didn't have too much trouble in my absence. If you can believe it, he was missing all the hatching while I was gone and set some eggs with emailed instructions from me. He actually hatched out nine chicks in one of the styrobators all by himself.

I look forward to catching up with everyone.

hooray, so good to hear from you again! beautiful photos -- and welcome home once you're back! I'm currently hatching silver campine chicks, their father is one of the ones i hatched from your eggs... can't wait to see how the little ones grow out!

 

[PetRock]

i have birchen marans, black with silver at the neck -- beautiful birds, and their eggs are pretty dark, although i understand that BCMs are usually the darkest... here's a photo:

one of my birchen girls' eggs in the upper right

Beautiful eggs! Please let us know what breed laid each egg! Inquiring minds want to know!!!

 

[Audio51]

Okay, so deworming the chickens must have been exactly what they needed as they no longer have only watery poops, there's a buildup of regular looking feces in the coop for the first time in a couple weeks. Yay! Healthy chickens! Thank you so much for the advice Now I just have to wait to deworm them again after 10 days, which would be the 2nd/3rd since they were dewormed on the 22nd/23rd. Then I have to wait another 14 days to eat the eggs! It's already driving me crazy knowing I have to use my eggs wisely since I won't get any more usable ones for something like 3 weeks. The chickens don't mind me not being able to eat the eggs, though. I already scrambled up 9 of them and fed them back to them, they really enjoyed it lol

Good to hear they are better!!!