Colorado

[21hens-incharge]

So very tiny when next to the other chick. Mine are dwarfed by everyone in the brooder except the Iowa's that are more than a week younger. Mine would try and get under the BA as though she was mama. Very sad really. Lately they have been hanging with the BO's that are so calm and mellow. Oh I just HAD to have the polish.
Really I did.

Not a breed type that I would normally choose.

Did she have sores on her hocks too? All of mine had red sores on their hocks that now are healed but left a bump that I am sure is not normal looking hock.
They wont let me get pics tonight but I will try again when I get home tomorrow.

 

[chixinrox]

Ditto on the gardening! Gardener for years...but yes we are out back far more often now that the chicks are out there...and they have worked wonders for our garden soil! Refencing now so we can h a 've a garden! excited to plant....they can have it back this fall!

 

[samsr]

I had to take a break from the 58 degree heat, planting salad, radishes, turnips and heritage Italian wheat in a raised bed.  I will put the plastic back on after this incoming moisture leaves us.    
Those are some cute chicks! My broody is sitting tight so hopefully, within a month, I get to see some fluffies. 

I know the feeling on the gardening. I have been planting and constructing raise off the ground beds in the two story greenhouse / shel that i have been building fir the past year and a half. I finally ordered the steel roof for it last week. I have copious amounts of plant starts in there already. I am especially looking forward to the dicon radishes. If it will post. Here are a couple pictures of starts and the bed i am building at the moment.

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[samsr]

The egg i removed from under my broody hatched sometime this morning. Best i can tell it is a brahma/cochin cross. My wife called it a broachin. So that will be it name.
I will be putting about 24 more eggs on lockdown this afternoon. This is the test hatch in the large incubator that i built. It does seem to be working. It is holding temp and humidity is at 58%. I do not increase humidity for lockdown. Just personel prefference i guess. I dont seem to have a problem as long as the door stays shut. I am hoping for some silkies from this hatch as i found my silkie female dead last weekend. She was in the bucket of water that is in the run area for the geese. I still have no idea how she got in there as the bucket opening is only large enough for the gooses heads to get in there. Oh well. From death comes life i guess. The next generation is on its way. I just wont have silkie eggs for a while. I have plenty of other hens that like to go broody.

 

[COChix]

Here's my new garden area. We threw BOSS out yesterday, trying to get some of the weeds roughed up, because we're going to dig out about a foot, then lay paper then cover with compost and soil. Weed prevention is the best use I've found for the mountain of paper bags I bring home from commissary shopping. I think my two cherry trees, which we planted last fall, are dead. So, I'll have to dig them up and have the nursery replace them. That stinks.

Wow what a huge garden area that looks like and how exciting. I am planning out our garden now.

Here's my landscaping crew hard at work. They must be union birds. They would work for about 15 minutes than go find a shady spot and have a cigarette break.

Love it!

So cute.

21hens... How are your polish growing? As you know I only got two, first she picked out a medium and small one but I had her put the small one back and grab one of the bigger ones. The big one is growing like a weed, and is TWICE the size of the small one! It's bothering me because now the small one is literally 1/4 the size of the big chicks and they really push her around. The big one is just fine. Little one is super spunky, but I wish she would grow. I don't think she's grown at all since I got her! Look at her tiny little legs!

Amazing the size difference and Polish babies are super cute.

So, I'm not sure if it was the nice weather or if my mom was more upset by my car accident than she let me see these past months, but this weekend she told me that if we could swing it legally that I could build a house on her and my dad's land. This would be awesome because then I wouldn't have to worry about trying to find a house with enough land for my chickens and dogs and my petsitters would be my neighbors (not that it hasn't been nice that I had family to live with after my accident). However, that means my 1 large coop plans are out the window again. LOL It's a good thing my memory is pretty much trashed now or all this flip-flopping of plans would start to wear me out! My granny and I are planning on making separate coops for each flock out of pallets (free) and whatever else I'll need to buy in the way of hardware cloth, hinges, paint, etc. I'm making my granny help me since she's the one who found Odysseus on her front porch and "made" me take him home. I'm sure we can rope in my mom, dad and grandpa to help. The plan is to start next month after I get paid, and to make the coops and pens sturdy enough to last through the summer and possibly next winter, depending on the home build process. The 1 big coop plan probably won't be revisited until I find out if we can build and then after I build. I possibly should have gotten into a more lucrative career, considering how much things I want to do cost. I kind of get carried away with big projects now, so it's a little disappointing to reeling it back in and start small after all my planning and designing. I just remind myself that it's the welfare of the chickens and having a secure place for any chicks that make it through the hatch to grow in that's more important than my artist's ego right now. I can let my delusions of grandeur out later on.

How exciting for you about the land and a house. Check out Pinterest for some pallett coop ideas, there are a lot of them.

3 raised beds have been built, 10 yards of fertilized super soil delivered and in built and sealed beds ready for planting our cold crops (in anticipation of at least a frost if not a snow) are now done as of this morning! What i changed this hatch was i only used the janoel and put it in the Styrofoam bottom it was shipped in. I set 30 eggs, 5 were iffy on fertility. 17 have hatched. I only used the hovabator to move chicks over to dry out. It also looks like i may have accidentally hatched pure bean line ac eggs too!! As a couple chicks are black black black saturated color wise, no white at all. But my silly phone won't upload pictures atm gah! I have 32 eggs ready to set as soon as i clean out the incubator. Happy chicken mama dance! I might end up keeping a few of the chicks i hatched out of this batch. Does anyone have any nice cayuga ducks? I'd love to try my hand at hatching duck eggs and cayuga are on my short list, but I only want really nice quality cayuga that lay black eggs.

Jealous of your beds, we are trying to get going, but a bit difficult with me being on restrictions still.

I had to take a break from the 58 degree heat, planting salad, radishes, turnips and heritage Italian wheat in a raised bed. I will put the plastic back on after this incoming moisture leaves us. Those are some cute chicks! My broody is sitting tight so hopefully, within a month, I get to see some fluffies.

Jealous of the garden work you got done. Have you grown the italian wheat before? Is it hard to grow?

Yay to all the Coloradans raising chickens! I'm in Roxborough and just finished our first year. We have 6 hens and we love them too! 2 Buff Orpington, 1Rhode island white, silver and a gold laced wyandtte, blue copper Maran! Anyone who thinks loving chickens is crazy have never experienced it. Not in a good way, I suppose. They are funny...Sweet...feed us..the dogs and themselves! What's not to love about that! Peace fellow peep keepers and enjoy this amazing colorado sunshine!

Welcome to the board and nice flock you have there.

I really wonder if it has to do with nearly dying during shipping.... The funniest thing is that she seems to be best friends with the EE, who was so mean to her in the beginning. She rarely leaves her side. You can see how small she is in comparison to the other chicks!

Amazing the size difference.

I know the feeling on the gardening. I have been planting and constructing raise off the ground beds in the two story greenhouse / shel that i have been building fir the past year and a half. I finally ordered the steel roof for it last week. I have copious amounts of plant starts in there already. I am especially looking forward to the dicon radishes. If it will post. Here are a couple pictures of starts and the bed i am building at the moment.

[/IMG]

The egg i removed from under my broody hatched sometime this morning. Best i can tell it is a brahma/cochin cross. My wife called it a broachin. So that will be it name. I will be putting about 24 more eggs on lockdown this afternoon. This is the test hatch in the large incubator that i built. It does seem to be working. It is holding temp and humidity is at 58%. I do not increase humidity for lockdown. Just personel prefference i guess. I dont seem to have a problem as long as the door stays shut. I am hoping for some silkies from this hatch as i found my silkie female dead last weekend. She was in the bucket of water that is in the run area for the geese. I still have no idea how she got in there as the bucket opening is only large enough for the gooses heads to get in there. Oh well. From death comes life i guess. The next generation is on its way. I just wont have silkie eggs for a while. I have plenty of other hens that like to go broody.

What was the bator you built, was it a fridge? Also sorry for your loss of you silkie. Nice garden starts. Had another follow up with surgeon and things are going well in recovery. Starting to see bone mineralization. Sadly, still on restrictions, same as before, for another 4 weeks.

 

[uzisuzuki]

@COChix I hope the recovery continues to go well!

 

[samsr]

What was the bator you built, was it a fridge? Also sorry for your loss of you silkie. Nice garden starts.

Had another follow up with surgeon and things are going well in recovery. Starting to see bone mineralization. Sadly, still on restrictions, same as before, for another 4 weeks. [/quote]
The incubator eas built out of a wine refrigerator. It has the glass door on it so that it is easy to look in and check on things. I built another for my neighbor a couple of weekends ago also. His is a bit more streamlined though. They always geat a little better with each one i build. They get built faster too.
Keep healing up and take it easy.

 

[COChix]

What was the bator you built, was it a fridge? Also sorry for your loss of you silkie. Nice garden starts.

Had another follow up with surgeon and things are going well in recovery. Starting to see bone mineralization. Sadly, still on restrictions, same as before, for another 4 weeks.
The incubator eas built out of a wine refrigerator. It has the glass door on it so that it is easy to look in and check on things. I built another for my neighbor a couple of weekends ago also. His is a bit more streamlined though. They always geat a little better with each one i build. They get built faster too.
Keep healing up and take it easy.

Thanks and do you have any pics of your bator?

 

[samsr]

Thanks and do you have any pics of your bator?

I can send you some when i get home. I need to put eggs on lockdown anyway. I have about $100 in it so fat and can hatch 168 eggs at a time if i want. My small one, i can only hatch 42 at a time as it only has room for one turner. It costs about the same to make the small one as it does the big one. The only difference in cost would be egg turners.

 

[suncatcher]

I think the hatchery Iowa Blues must all be small chickens, I had one too, VERY tiny. Hmmm, I may look around for some breeder quality ones next year, they are not the calmest chicken, at least mine wasn't, but great foragers!

Love the green house! Is really coming along.

Hope you continue to heal properly!

Uzi, when do your eggs go on lockdown? Looking forward to seeing some pictures!!!