Colorado

[Latestarter]

Well, no doubt in my mediocre mind now that my BA is indeed brooding!

I put a small bowl of food in the nest box with her this morning because I felt so bad that she won't leave. I checked this afternoon when I got home, she was still in there & ate 1/2 of it, there were 2 new egg additions (which I removed), the original 6 (3 BA and 3 NH) are still there and intact. She makes the cutest purring/cooing sounds when I open the nest box and reach in to move her. She's very friendly and doesn't attack or complain at all, but she stays all crunched up in her setting pose even as I try to lift her. She left the nest for a couple minutes, and then climbed right back in.

I placed another bowl of food and small bowl of water in there with her this evening. I hope she'll drink some. She was nibbling at the food when I left. One of the roosters saw me put the food in and was standing in front of the box making the food call, which drew all the hens over and one tried to climb in. I swatted her away and then went and got a board and placed it between the step out front of the box and the box entrance so no one gets in or out. I'll remove it twice a day, morning and evening so she can stretch her legs a little (I'll push her out of the nest box twice a day so she'll have no choice).

this is rather eggciting!

 

[uzisuzuki]

I still LOVE that crazy hairdo the chick has Uzi. Cool the little one has a bodyguard. What kind are you getting from Trst? I hope you get to feeling better soon. There is a nasty cold going around. PM me if you are needing some metal roofing for the coop I may be able to help you out there.

COChix,
Congrats on the upcoming hatching. Hoping all goes well with the little goomers.

Tracy,
I am sure you will find a home for those handsome ducks. I wish I could take them in but I am not set up for ducks and DH says no to waterfowl.

Those feathers just keep getting bigger & more hilarious. Although, it turns out that my big dog is allergic to bird dander. So, these 4 & the 2 from Trst (1 D'Uccle and 1 D'Anver) will be my last chicks of the year. I finally put in the cancellation request on my order with My Pet Chicken. I'm kinda sad I'm not getting any EEs now, but 6 chicks will be enough to more than double my little flock & will keep me busy. There's always later when I'll (hopefully) be more capable of getting things built. I hope I do, also! I have a Dr appointment tomorrow. I've had concussion-like pain in my head all week & had a rather large bump behind my ear show up for seemingly no reason. I'm hoping it's not something else the hospitals missed after my car accident. Don't think I could deal with 1 more thing going wrong!

 

[suncatcher]

I worry about my broodies too, I usually feed a boiled egg and make sure the broody gets most of it, of course everyone else is interested as well........ she will get off the nest at least once a day. I worried my one hen was not getting off, but then one day saw her out with everyone, checked the eggs, and they were still warm, then she was back on them. They know what they are doing better than we do! Also, since you have an attentive rooster, he may also be feeding her.

We had rain tonight, well kinda like rain/snow, hope the sun comes up full force the end of this week, will really make things green in a hurry!

So eggcited on those who are hatching, also a big WELCOME to the newbies!!!!

 

[Ashdoes]

Those feathers just keep getting bigger & more hilarious. Although, it turns out that my big dog is allergic to bird dander. So, these 4 & the 2 from Trst (1 D'Uccle and 1 D'Anver) will be my last chicks of the year. I finally put in the cancellation request on my order with My Pet Chicken. I'm kinda sad I'm not getting any EEs now, but 6 chicks will be enough to more than double my little flock & will keep me busy. There's always later when I'll (hopefully) be more capable of getting things built. I hope I do, also! I have a Dr appointment tomorrow. I've had concussion-like pain in my head all week & had a rather large bump behind my ear show up for seemingly no reason. I'm hoping it's not something else the hospitals missed after my car accident. Don't think I could deal with 1 more thing going wrong!

We also discovered Waffle, my avatar, is allergic to the chicks in the house. He's always had breathing issues, snoring and reverse sneezing when it's too cold, but with the chicks in the house he has full on asthma episodes. We won't be doing anymore chicks after this last group, and I'm sure Waffle will appreciate that.
Turns out the hatchery didn't send the whole order of Cinnamon Queens, so we decided to pass on buying chicks from Trsturself. I want too happy about it, but I know better then to buy chicks, just cause. So, we're sticking with what we've got.
I'll miss having chicks in the house though, they get super excited whenever we walk in the room.

 

[uzisuzuki]

We also discovered Waffle, my avatar, is allergic to the chicks in the house. He's always had breathing issues, snoring and reverse sneezing when it's too cold, but with the chicks in the house he has full on asthma episodes. We won't be doing anymore chicks after this last group, and I'm sure Waffle will appreciate that.
Turns out the hatchery didn't send the whole order of Cinnamon Queens, so we decided to pass on buying chicks from Trsturself. I want too happy about it, but I know better then to buy chicks, just cause. So, we're sticking with what we've got.
I'll miss having chicks in the house though, they get super excited whenever we walk in the room.

I keep trying to get Toki to quit sticking his nose directly into the air holes to huff the chicks like some kind of addict because I'm sure that's got to be making it worse, but he refuses thus far.

I'm super excited to pick up my 2 chicks from @trsturself. I had completely forgotten about it, so it was a nice surprise. Also made cancelling my order a little less sucky. I think I'm most disappointed about not getting the EEs & the White Crested Blue Polish the most. I was looking forward to those being a part of the flock. I'm also bummed that I kept missing out on the ACxEE chicks @Double Kindness has been hatching. I would love to get an all black pullet that lays blue/green eggs to bred with Frost to try & keep that partial crest going. Ah, well. Maybe some other time things will work out!

 

[oshun55555]

Well, no doubt in my mediocre mind now that my BA is indeed brooding!

I put a small bowl of food in the nest box with her this morning because I felt so bad that she won't leave. I checked this afternoon when I got home, she was still in there & ate 1/2 of it, there were 2 new egg additions (which I removed), the original 6 (3 BA and 3 NH) are still there and intact. She makes the cutest purring/cooing sounds when I open the nest box and reach in to move her. She's very friendly and doesn't attack or complain at all, but she stays all crunched up in her setting pose even as I try to lift her. She left the nest for a couple minutes, and then climbed right back in.

I placed another bowl of food and small bowl of water in there with her this evening. I hope she'll drink some. She was nibbling at the food when I left. One of the roosters saw me put the food in and was standing in front of the box making the food call, which drew all the hens over and one tried to climb in. I swatted her away and then went and got a board and placed it between the step out front of the box and the box entrance so no one gets in or out. I'll remove it twice a day, morning and evening so she can stretch her legs a little (I'll push her out of the nest box twice a day so she'll have no choice).

this is rather eggciting!

You will love watching a broody raise chicks, I never get tired of watching it, I always let a few hens raise babies for me, mostly I incubate them and when they hatch I graft the chicks onto the broody. She does all the work and I have all the fun.

 

[nate1the1great1]

I also have a lot of eggs in my bator a dozen button quail eggs 4 dozen chicken and a chukar egg becuase someone lost there pair of chukars and I have the female because she can't fly and the male has a hurt foot apbut. Need to catch him first but here's a pix of the egg

 

[DanicaDream]

Wow!! Look at all those eggs!!

I'm having an interesting time of things with the birds I inherited. I think I mentioned when we bought this house, the people living here asked if we would be willing to keep their birds, since they couldn't take theirs with them and they knew I had chickens. I told them we'd probably rehome the geese since the geese were mean, but we'd keep the others. Fast forward two weeks, and the geese aren't that mean, and they're growing on me, so I may go ahead and keep them. But add in another fun? challenge- the geese made a nest and we will probably have goslings in a couple weeks. Today, I realized that there are also chicken eggs in the mix. So I have no idea what I'm getting into! What kind of babies and when... eek! So I'm in totally uncharted territory.

In addition, our new house came with two natural ponds. The previous owners said they'd never allowed the geese and ducks in there because they didn't want them to get diseases from wild birds, but I'm considering trying it. But then, this morning, I noticed two wild ducks in one of the ponds. My friend told me not to put the ducks in there because the wild ducks would "rape" them, so now I really don't know. I feel bad for the ducks and geese only having five gallon buckets of water when we have two lovely ponds. And, because we have so much mud and standing water from last week's snowstorm, I see the geese and ducks playing in that and having a ball, and then I feel even more guilty that I'm not letting them enjoy the ponds.

And if anyone has any tips for the nastiness that has become the coop and run, I'd love to hear it. We're going to move them later this spring, but for now, it's a disgusting, muddy, smelly mess. The previous owners set it up this way, and they thought it was fine, but I'm soooo grossed out walking through the bog of bird poop, and the smell makes me want to die. We had such a different set-up for our birds, and I'm glad we brought ours over, but not only have I not yet mixed the flocks, but our coop and run is too small for the number of birds they have.

Thanks!
Danica
(who is super jealous of all this baby talk. So glad Big R had sold out of their chicks when I was there the other day, because I might have had to bring some home. Like I need more birds right now!)

 

[21hens-incharge]

Not sure how muddy your run is or if you are needing to fix it before the upcoming rain but........... I would take some muck boots in there and start by turning the dirt er mud over to loosen it and help it to drain some. I would also look at straw or hay to put on top of it so they have something cleaner to walk on. You could also perhaps if the water is deep in areas or it is just really soup like ......... take some pallets and to protect the feet of the birds screw some plywood to the top to lay in the run so they have a place to get out of the mud.

I turn the dirt in my run frequently to keep the smell away and they love digging in the freshly turned dirt.
I think the straw/hay would work well for the geese. (Leaning toward grass hay so it is softer on the feet)

 

[Chick_In_The_Burbs]

Nate-

Love the color array in there. You MUST keep us posted.

Danica- I would be super careful letting wild birds cross paths with yours. I had a Polish that picked up something from some pigeons that decided they liked my yard for a few weeks. She ended up dying. Only two symptoms; weight loss and seizures/spasms. It was the weirdest thing. She would walk backwards while rubbing her face into the ground. Poor gal couldn't even straighten up. She was the only one that caught whatever it was, she must have been more susceptible for some reason. I even took her to an avian vet and he was stumped.