Consolidated Kansas

[chicken danz]

I had a busy day but got nothing impressive done. I did get the sweeter heater hooked up in the hoop coop and moved several young birds out there. I left a light bulb on so they would know where to go for now. I just took all the older birds from the brooder that were feathered in fairly well. I still have a ton left in there. Then I moved a bunch of chicks out of the brooder bins in the house to the brooder house outside.
I had a small hatch today. Maybe 20 birds so at least I had room for those. I have some freeloaders that still are not laying. I've also found a couple of egg eaters. I need to find a better way to trim beaks.
I had to cull a couple birds today that weren't doing well. They had gotten injured and just weren't recovering in spite of all I did. I had to keep apologizing because I felt so bad.

 

[coco mama]

I'm going to try to add a picture of my chickens from last Summer. As I live in town, my rooster had to be rehomed to
the country.

Lovely backyard chickens!! Very pretty picture @spree56

 

[TakenBackBre]

I had a 4ish foot gopher/rat snake in my house. He ate several chicks one night and I knew it had to be a snake but I didn't catch him at it. My husband thought I was nuts lol. But then a couple nights later as I was falling asleep I heard the chicks sounding distressed and jumped up and ran down to find him wrapped around a Cochin chick! He had it halfway down so I went and grabbed a spatula from the kitchen to hold his head down and then I put him in an old cat litter bucket until morning. I released him a mile away but I wanted to kill him haha.

 

[sharol]

I know intellectually that snakes eat mice and are for the most part beneficial.

However, when I run into one, the little girl in me wants to dance in place and start screaming and pulling her hair. The give me the willies.

We have a black snake (color not breed) out by the garden, and he and I have an agreement. He stays out there, and he gets to keep on living. It is the same agreement I've had for 10 years with the wolf spiders who live in the same area.

I just got a text (did you know you can request texts from the post office for package process? I didn't.) that my hatching eggs are at the post office. I'm going to wait for them to call me (for a little while) and then go in. They are supposed to hold them at the PO, but I don't want them to put them on the truck by accident.

 

[spree56]

Thank you for your kind comments. You all were showing your beautiful girls and I hadn't posted a picture of mine yet, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I wasn't sure how to do it, so that was my "test" shot.

I was working out in their yard, so of course they had to be involved too. You see the broom & rake I had been using, but I just had to stop & snap that photo of them using their new favorite perching spots - my newly painted chairs. One goes up, they all go up. And poop happens. Lol

Did you notice my little "tin" hen? She marks the spot where a hawk got my little Polish a couple years ago. She was my buddy & I loved her. So while my girls aren't out there all the time, "Tinny" is. I have visions of THAT hawk breaking its beak as it slams in to her. I know - terrible thought - it should be made of concrete! Ha!

 

[Trish44]

I just hate snakes, ugh I always have. I agree with you sharol they give me the willies. We have lots of them here but I don't see them that often. The little ones are eaten by the cats or birds but we do have big ones here too. As long as they stay out of my way & out of where I need to be I'm OK with them. Last year I saw a huge black snake, probably a rat snake about 6 ft long gliding across the ground. It had just come from the barn where the hay was & I'm sure it was in there eating mice. I don't mind the eating mice but I didn't want it up in my chicken pens.

It's terribly windy here today too danz, I hate wind myself too.

 

[sharol]

Deep breath. I put 20 Silver Campine eggs in the incubator early this morning (shipped eggs, came early yesterday). I filled it out with 6 Breda Fowl eggs, 1 lonely little EE egg (fertilized by a Breda cockerel), and 8 English Orpington eggs. At least 4 of the orps are Jubilee moms and a Jubilee cockerel, so we will see what hatches.

I'm going to be in really big trouble if they all hatch (LOL) since I don't have room for a lot more chickens, but....

With luck I'll have some Breda and Orpington chicks to sell in about 3 - 4 weeks. Then some Campine chicks when they get a little older and can be sexed. The breeder (Wisher1000) says that she had a cockerel crowing at 3 days recently and that they let you know gender early on. I hope that works out. I want to keep a breeding quad of them.

The shipped eggs were packed extremely well with no apparent damage. 2 air cells were detached and 2 air cells were on the sides of the eggs, but that is pretty good for shipped eggs. She was really generous with them, too, so....

Now I have to be good and sit on my hands for 10 days. I'll candle at 10 and then again when I take out the turner on day 19. I'm going to LEAVE THEM ALONE in the meantime. They have been in the incubator 2 whole hours and I'm already pacing. LOL.

 

[spree56]

Sharol, I'm excited for you and look forward to the update in 10 days. & I have fingers crossed for a great hatch.

 

[sharol]

Quote:
This is my first full incubator hatch. Thanks for the good thoughts. I suspect that some of the success may depend on me keeping the incubator closed so it can do its thing undisturbed.

 

[Trish44]

Good luck sharol! Keep your hands off that incubator, lol!

Well I'm off to PT again this morning, at least it's only two days a week now.