Fairy Tail Farms English Orpingtons

[ColtHandorf]

Still no eggs from anyone other than the BBS pen, random pullets, Seramas and the ducks. I may set a batch of Serama eggs tonight. I'm desperately hoping the geese hold out until I get them some shelters built after pay day. I'm not in the mood to deal with flooded nests, or hand turning goose eggs for a month. lol

 

[ColtHandorf]

So it rained all weekend, but I did set a few duck eggs just to check fertility from the Khaki Campbells, some Serama eggs, and...drum roll please... *pause for effect*

Some F1 Blue Silver-laced eggs. I found the nestbox the clever girl had been using and she'd tucked four eggs in there. I think I set five total. I'm sure they won't be either of the Silver-laced roosters' chicks, but I can at least test fertility.

I also grabbed some Chocolate Orpington pictures which I will post from the phone in a bit.

 

[ColtHandorf]

So here are the Chocy Orpingtons.

I suddenly have the urge to make a baby Yoda meme with them. Lol

What’s the expression? Happier than a pig in mud? Well what about a duck?

We got a ton of rain this weekend, and more on the way...

 

[ColtHandorf]

Woot! I got home from work yesterday and trudged out in my mud boots and low and behold, the White Orpingtons laid their first egg of the year! Now if the rest of them would all start I'd be in the chick business again. lol

 

[ColtHandorf]

Update after the Polar Vortex/SNOVID Apocalypse Texas and the other southern states just experienced...

It could have been much worse at my house. I managed to keep the pipes from bursting so we had water up until the city shut it off due to breaks in water mains. So I was bucketing water out to everyone multiple times a day. The lowest it got here was -9 degrees Fahrenheit.

I lost some juvenile Orpingtons despite them being under heat lamps. I also lost Derek, my only White Orpington male. I moved all the girls back into the Silver-laced pen in the hopes that Hollywood does carry the Recessive White gene and I can produce some more Whites. It's going to set me back a whole year, and I have such a big waitlist on them. I have about 14 white eggs I'm going to set tonight after work. All the chicken eggs hatched in the incubator, including an egg that was a week late. The duck eggs didn't fare as well and I hatched one duckling. It is a complete pest, at the moment. It has some more siblings due at the end of the week and after candling I think six eggs are still good. I also lost some more Seramas, so I'm down to two trios. All the younger birds died even with heat on them and the adults. I also lost one of my older Silver-laced hens. I'm hoping that I don't lose anymore.

We lost water for four days so that was a huge pain in the rear. Power was inconsistent for about 24 hours due to rolling black outs. I know I should be grateful I didn't lose tons of birds like some of my friends who lost power and as a result lost all their chicks and eggs. But it is really a setback and frustrates me. It was so nice getting to water them with a hose yesterday. I'm preemptively medicating everyone due to the amount of wild birds that were swarming the fresh water and feed I was giving my birds. After that, they are all going to get treated for lice and mites, including the entire barn.

I'll post some pretty pictures of the snow in a bit.

 

[ColtHandorf]

 

[rayrose]

Late to this thread, but Agatha is a beautiful bird.

 

[ColtHandorf]

Late to this thread, but Agatha is a beautiful bird.

Thank you. SHe's very pretty now that she's finished her molt.

 

[rayrose]

If it's not too much to ask, could you post another pic of her.

 

[ColtHandorf]

If it's not too much to ask, could you post another pic of her.

I'll have to get some when it's drier. They are a mess after the snow storm followed by the thunder storms Texas got. You do mean the Blue hen, right?