Dixie Chicks

[minihorse927]

BC
i think id look around for cayugas and see what you can find. At the worst, you dont find any and you have to wait till the original person has another hatch

 

[vehve]

Sorry to hear about your ducklings.

I had an interesting evening. As I was about to leave for a meeting about our road, I noticed an infernal chirping coming from the coop. Both Emma and Wilma were down in the run, along with two chicks, and the two chicks left in the coop were not at all happy. Luckily a neighbors daughter and her friend showed up to look at Hilma just at the same time, I had them hand me all kinds of dog crates, rakes, plastic boxes and chick feed as I spent half an hour trying to catch two chicks to get them back in the coop. Finally, after 25 minutes of Benny Hill music, the first of them climbed up the 45 degree steps into the coop by itself, shortly followed by it's two mommies. It took me another 10 minutes to try to catch the second chick among a rooster, 4 cockerels and a hen, until finally that chick too decided to climb up. They're surprisingly agile and quick at 3 weeks of age. In a few days I think they will be darting back and forth between the coop and run on their own. Luckily none of the other inhabitants show any animosity towards them. The rooster seems to be slightly protective of them, their biological mother doesn't care about them, and the 17 week old cockerels almost seem to be afraid of them. Or then it's just respect towards their adopted parents.

 

[vehve]

Oh, on the color of the chicks. They're starting to show a bit of color in the feathers on their wings, at first I thought they would all be black, but at least two chicks are getting really dark brown feathers on their wings as well.

 

[vehve]

Snapped some pictures in the coop. The chicks seem to be afraid of the camera though.

Most of the flock:


Two of the cockerels:


Wilma's hedgehog phase is getting worse.


Bad and blurry pics of the chicks:




The wings are mostly black, with some very dark brown in there, and some have some white too. So they will probably be getting very dark Speckled Sussex coloring, with some extra black in there.

 

[hennible]

Felix
The whiter of you two cockerels looks a heck of lot like one of mine.

 

[vehve]

Sam, I've got two of those. One with feathered feet and one without. Wheaten and Cuckoo Marans, probably F2 hybrids.The past couple of weeks they've finally started filling out a bit, so we'll keep them around for as long as possible before we send them to freezer camp.

 

[hennible]

That's what I'm doing
Trying to get them meaty, thankfully the bachelor coop is fairly peaceful... I know they will get big (they're those sex links I hatched). The slightly younger males are chunking a bit faster, random cross breeds, ones a Brahms cross, quite a nice shape to him... Yummy birds...

 

[vehve]

I think these should be pretty tasty too... they've grown mostly on a grain, nut and seed diet... a bit of rape, linseed and peas in there to boost proteins. They should make for some nice roasting.

 

[Amberjem]

I saw the pics of your garden, it's looking very nice, but I haven't seen pics of the garage you're working on in a while, last pics I saw the frame was up and you had covered the roof with blue plastic.

Jem, You are making great progress inside and out! I saw your garden pictures and your plantings look great!
It is spring and there is lots to do and clean up of all types..... and life keeps happening so time runs out quickly. This thread moves too fast for the little bit of time I have to be on the computer. I try to read 30 or so posts when I can but I never catch up and comments would be late for most things....maybe I'll just start reading on the current page and the two previous ones and skip the rest.
Have a great week everyone!

figured things must be getting busy there with spring here glad all is ok, and of coursejump in when your here thats better then any ole up on every post

I saw the pics of your garden, it's looking very nice, but I haven't seen pics of the garage you're working on in a while, last pics I saw the frame was up and you had covered the roof with blue plastic.

not blue plastic it's blue metal roof...will get some pictures the garage door is going up now..think the inspection is tomorrow

Ditto.

hugs hope you know your just fine the way you are and if I am teasing it's just out of a odd sense of humor nothing ment to offend or make you feel uncomfy

 

[Amberjem]

darn since got the ivy cleared out and yanking up a couple more blackberry roots I started setting out my container garden stuff around where I wanna plant it getting an idea and setting things up for the landscaping....boy I Hadnt realized how many container plants I had accumulated hehehe this is just like 3rd of it lol