Absolutely lovely! How did it taste? On another note, silkies sold yesterday but I still have breeder delawares--they are lovely birds. Talk to you tonight.Here's a little something I did with some local eggs. Egg yolks in the the German chocolate frosting and, of course, eggs in the cake. Such a difference! I can't wait to play with meringue for fresh berry pavlovasand some Italian meringue buttercream!
Wow, wish my integrations went so smoothly! Where did you get your FBC Marans? I have 4 6 week olds, sold all but 1 roo and 3 hens. Love em!The move from brooder to grow-out coop to the "big run" has gone very smoothly so far for my 4 BCM chicks that just turned 8 weeks. Yeah!! They were 2 weeks old when I got them, so brooder time seemed very short compared to starting with day-olds. They spent a couple of weeks in look-don't-touch with the big girls (grow-out is in enclosed run where the big girls have their sleeping coop and nest boxes), and were let out yesterday. The big girls spent most of their time checking out the greens I tossed them before letting out the babies, and really took little notice of the youngsters.
The only issue was when the one BCM that I'm pretty sure is a cockerel (he's going to need to go away, as no crowing allowed in town) challenged one of the barred rocks. She put him in his place VERY quickly and efficiently with no more harm than a few pulled feathers. He gives her a wide berth now.
When I checked on everyone last night at bedtime and to close everything up for the night, 3 of the 4 BCMs had gone back into the grow-out coop to sleep. I got concerned that the 4th didn't make it in, and prepared for a hunt. The big girls roost on top of the peaked roof of their sleeping coop as often as in it when the weather is good (it's not very tall, so easy to get on and off), so it was easy to check on them before I went looking for the missing baby. Surprise! There she was, tucked under my little BO girl that is very inclined to broodiness. Peanut is very small for her breed, so she looked pretty funny trying to straddle the rather large chick. She had her wings out protectively over and around the baby, and seemed very content. I hated to move her adoptee, but there seemed to be too much opportunity for problems overnight if I left it. Imagine 7 hens in a row, with the smallest one in the middle on top of an 8-week-old chick. I'll have to bring my phone out with me tonight and see if they do it again so I can get a picture.
This morning when I let everyone out, no issues or squabbles. The babies pretty much hang out together, and the big girls do their thing with very little concern about what the babies are doing. I put out extra drinking stations and make sure there's plenty of feed. Everyone is free-ranging happily outside of the run (but in a fenced area). The babies spend about half their time in the run and half out in the fenced chicken yard. So far, so good!
I got 4 BCM babies because they were straight run, and wanted to increase my chances of 1 or 2 girls. I know the cockerel will go, but now I have the hard task of deciding which of the remaining 3 will have to also find a new home. (sigh) I have to keep my numbers at a certain level while keeping space for the 1 or 2 cream legbars that I'm hoping to add some time later this year. Reality bites! The next door neighbor kids that ADORE my chickens really wanted to name the babies, but I made it clear that probably only 2 of them were going to stay. Looks like I have Charlie, Princess, Shimmer and Sparkle. Gotta love 4 and 6 yr old kids, lol.
That was a sidebar, lol. I just wanted to share how happy I am at the so-far success of my first addition of youngsters to my little flock.
Hope everyone had a great Easter weekend!
Yeah, I was pretty certain.
