Eva’s Friends

[N F C]

I'm so sorry to read about Helen.

 

[Callender Girl]

I am so sorry to learn about Helen's death. Your memorial at her grave is lovely and so clearly heartfelt.

I empathize with going to the Muddy Run and taking a few seconds to realize she's gone. I've had similar experiences. Helen's life was too short, but you did your best to take excellent care of her.

I hope that Matilda, once she's done with the duck eggs, is okay without Helen.

Lockdown sounds like the right move; you've had so many predators around lately. A mink killed three of my first four chickens and one of my original ducks. After that, I was beyond paranoid; I imagined every outdoor sound was something attacking my poultry, and they all stayed cooped for days.

You need some good news, so here's to a successful hatch from Jenny tomorrow. It won't make up for losing Helen, but new little lives are still worth celebrating. I'll look forward to photos of the wee ones!

 

[Evadig]

I couldn't wait till Wednesday...they came a day early!

@Debbie292d
@N F C
@Callender Girl
Come see!

Found the one in the second picture on the floor of the run. The chickies (Faith and Co.) didn't even realize it was there. It was cold, poor thing, got it back under mummy right away.

Then we saw the second little one. So two out of six eggs hatched!!!


Jenny took to them immediately. It's so cute to see them disappear into her feathers. She actually pecked at me (gently!) when I put the first little bugger under her. She's a good mom.

Here are the parents:

Stanislaus (Twentse?)

Wilhelmina (Cream Legbar)

 

[Debbie292d]

I couldn't wait till Wednesday...they came a day early!

@Debbie292d
@N F C
@Callender Girl
Come see!

Found the one in the second picture on the floor of the run. The chickies (Faith and Co.) didn't even realize it was there. It was cold, poor thing, got it back under mummy right away.

Then we saw the second little one. So two out of six eggs hatched!!!


Jenny took to them immediately. It's so cute to see them disappear into her feathers. She actually pecked at me (gently!) when I put the first little bugger under her. She's a good mom.

View attachment 3845400View attachment 3845401View attachment 3845403View attachment 3845404


Here are the parents:

Stanislaus (Twentse?)
View attachment 3845409

Wilhelmina (Cream Legbar)
View attachment 3845410

Gorgeous pictures and gorgeous chickens/chicks! So congrats you got two beauties! Are more possible?

 

[Evadig]

Gorgeous pictures and gorgeous chickens/chicks! So congrats you got two beauties! Are more possible?

Thank you!

I don't think so. Three were definitely duds, and the fourth looked like it was dead. I left it in there just to be on the safe side, but...

 

[Callender Girl]

ADORABLE! Congrats to you, Jenny, Stanislaus and Wilhelmina!!

 

[N F C]

Beautiful babies, congratulations!

 

[Evadig]

Good evening and good morning (it's both somewhere...)! I didn't post Wednesday because I posted Monday.

Jenny and her buggers are doing good. They share the run with the chickies, who quickly learned to leave the littles alone. When Annie Beth came sauntering by (outside the pen), Jenny went into full attack mode and flew at her like a rooster. But she didn't mind Eva, as long as Eva didn't get too close...

The buggers are already growing in their wing feathers. I think there is something to be had in the theory that chicks raised outside feather faster.

There are now five subflocks:

• Hens
• Biddies
• Lil 'n' Lu
• Chickies
• Buggers

I don't know what to name them. I'd like to name them something in honor of Memorial Day (day they hatched) but I can't think of anything.

Matilda is still sitting, along with Winnie, and Hilda joined them too. I think, though, that she only went broody to get away from Henry! They are sitting on a total of about twenty duck eggs . I don't even know what I'll do with them all when they hatch. I don't have room nor resources (though I do mean to keep a couple).

One duck egg somehow got moved from the house into the rubber bin that serves as a pond for Henry. I wish I knew how it got there. Anyway, it was cracked so I opened it and there was a duckling inside. It was fully formed (except for the beak) and even starting to grow fluff. But it was dead. At least I know what inside of a duck egg looks like at around 16 days incubation.

I am in the planning stages of building yet another chicken coop. I am tired of having to wait till pitch darkness to collect the eggs in Winston's pen. Besides, I will need a place to put Jen's chicks. I'm pretty sure they're both females, because they both are very chipmunk striped like Minna was. And Minna is autosexing.

I also found out for certain what breed Stan is. He is a Silver Duckwing Yokohama. Why I didn't think of posting him on the breed/gender thread before, I'll never know. So Jen's chicks are part Cream Legbar and part Silver Duckwing Yokohama.

I hope you enjoy the pictures. I wanted to upload a video but I don't want to make a Youtube account just for that.

Matilda and Hilda on the nest. Hilda is yawning.

Look at how big Faith is next to Eva! (Also, Eva's dubious expression )

Jenny and her babies

Henry - he spends most of the day in this tub since he's got nothing better to do.

Brianna was taking a nap...

The Buggers

Jen in bed with the children

Another picture of Henry - don't ducks look like they're perpetually smiling?

 

[N F C]

As always @Evadig, your photos are wonderful!

I was thinking of words associated with Memorial Day, and these come to mind: Honor, Poppy, Brave, Thanks, Freedom, Peace, Liberty.

Love the picture of Faith and Eva

 

[Evadig]

Good morning! This time it really is morning - it's almost 1 in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

I candled duck eggs today, and it appears I'm going to have a staggered hatch. Not exactly what I wanted, but oh well.

The Buggers learned to go upstairs into the nesting box finally. For a week I had to pick them up and put them up there at night. Jen tried to show them but they didn't get it.

There was a dead mouse in Henry's swimming pool . Then the next day there was a frog .

Frank has been unfaithful to his wife as of late; he leaves Rita honking in the yard and goes to hang out with the Canadian geese. Neither Matt nor George take much interest in Rita, though Matt does like her, but I don't think she returns his affection.

I bought wood for the new coop, and drew out the plans. I think I went above my abilities, but it's the only design I can think of that will work with the hardware fabric I have on hand. Somehow I'll need to figure out how to do rafters though.

I'm getting awfully tired so I think that's all for now.

Jen and the Buggers

They are sharing this one big nest, and so tightly crammed that Winnie is sitting under Matilda's wing

Nothing cuter than a chick under momma!

Hope

Faith

Charity

Patience

The plans of the new coop

Miss Rose