Gamma's Bearded Babies Adventure

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

Mango and Vanilli began their romance in October 2021...their courtship so stinkin cute! Mango has hardly ever been rough with his girl! Polish...thankfully being rehomed before Mango took lessons from him really helped!
Mango would do his dance...find treats and call Vanilli over and always let her have first dibs...on well everything!
I've felt bad for Milli always being left out but she seems to not mind it at all! Milli has nothing to do with lil man...nor me for that matter!
A little video of their courtship!

 

[AngBantamLuv]

Mango and Vanilli began their romance in October 2021...their courtship so stinkin cute! Mango has hardly ever been rough with his girl! Polish...thankfully being rehomed before Mango took lessons from him really helped!
Mango would do his dance...find treats and call Vanilli over and always let her have first dibs...on well everything!
I've felt bad for Milli always being left out but she seems to not mind it at all! Milli has nothing to do with lil man...nor me for that matter!
A little video of their courtship!

They are so so adorable!! How is mango noise wise (crowing)? (I keep polling everyone to increase my hope my paint silkie roo will be a quiet one).

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

They are so so adorable!! How is mango noise wise (crowing)? (I keep polling everyone to increase my hope my paint silkie roo will be a quiet one).

He's fairly loud...and it also echos off the house beside us. So yeah...u can hear him atleast a block a way.
Hopefully yours will be quieter!

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

Well today ended a sweet chapter but a beautiful adventure that I am absolutely in LUV with...I found Mango, Milli and Vanilli a new home all together on a farm nearby.
I am beyond thankful God has sent 3 really nice, chicken-luvin people the past three times I have rehomed. This adventure continues to blossom and grow!
Hopefully this nice man will keep in touch and send pics as the other two have with Polish n the 4 babies (3 of Vanilli n Mango's).
Milli and Vanilli have been broody ALL week long so hadn't had any eggs. If I had known I was going to go down this change in path I would have kept one of their babies!
God also blessed me with something I never dreamed would happen! Vanilli has always been a really good and consistent layer. Milli is definitely hit or miss! She will go weeks with no egg...then 3 or 4 eggs then nothing. She has only gone broody once before this week. I have kept them both locked out if the coop trying to break their broodiness. I look out the kitchen window this afternoon and see Milli has made a nest out if straw in the run and it sitting. I never saw anything in it though. I let Mango out one last time to run around and play and just enjoy him and he immediately goes over to the little nest and uncovers an egg! Milli left me one egg!!! I've been wanting one of her eggs especially because she is a light splash ...in hopes if a pretty blue baby!
You see Mango has not done the "do" with Milli at all until last week (that I've seen anyway!) I'm praying this one will be a sweet little pullet to remember them by!!!
Thank you 3 fluff balls for an amazing adventure that continues to surprise me and excite me even in the darkest of days!!!

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

More on Polish when he was few weeks old!
Thread 'Meet the Lil Cockrels...' https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/meet-the-lil-cockrels.1483589/

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

At times I feel I am my own worst enemy...more ways than one!
Everything going so well with the babies, gorgeous sunny spring-like weather and I get an idea! Or as my DH likes to call it "a hair-brained idea!"
Weather is amazing and I can do this...I'm gonna level up that unlevel run! Asked DH if he had any kind of "jack" I could use to do each of the metal posts on the low side of the run. He did! A hydrolic jack! He said "do not spend any $"...so I dug through garage and got every scrap piece wood I could find. Several 2x6 that would help support the frame if I attached them to the bottom post. We had a few large landscaping blocks...I did buy bout $10 for cinderblocks to help give me the "umph" I needed for support underneath the posts!
Got the jack to work once! DH had gone hiking...so YouTube to my rescue. Doing everything just like they showed - no idea why it worked once then not again!
DH comes back and says "you broke my jack!" How on earth could ya break a hydrolic jack!? He fanangled around til he got it to somewhat work so long as you pulled the lift part up manually E A C H time!
I did! And got that thing jacked up and as level as it could get with my lack of skills and strength!
Rain setting in the next couple days so put the tarps back on to keep the run dry since I had worked so hard to get it all good and dry and nice for the babies!
Get up the next morning after heavy rains all night...ugh! The run was so level that the tarps were acting as a swimming pool containing all the water! My 10x20 metal frame was bending. Dreaded telling DH...he knew when I said I got a problem it had to do with the babies...again.
He said to just brace it up with scrap 1x3...I knew that wouldn't work but figured the 1x6 I had might!
I get inside the run...definitely worse than I thought from inside the house looking out...the hardware cloth had come apart from the seams where the zip ties had broken and the only thing holding all this water back was the tarp!
So I crawled I side and got to the back of the run near the coop and as soon as I touched the 1x6 to the metal posts the entire thing came crashing down on the inside of the run! I went to the ground thankful for the couple inches space I had to scoot back in order to prop the wood in my attempt to save the structure. But it was a complete loss. The posts and all were bent and broke in every area except the 4 corners!
So I crawled out and tried to drain the water off the tarp still thinking it was all salvageable. Nearly 100 gallons or so of water gushed into the dry run...after I got over initial shock of watching all that water go into the run i had worked so hard on...I grabbed a 6 gallon galvanized can and started trying to catch the water but it was filling up faster and pouring out wider than the can! So after emptying it 10-12 times...I crawled back out and resorted to major frustration at myself. I knew I would hear the "I told u so" from DH...but I was so mad at myself and frustrated at my "hair-brained ideas" he didn't have to sat a thing.

When you have clinical depression on top of chronic health problems it doesn't take much to frustrate one...much less send them spiraling.
DH never said the words "I told u so." In fact he said we'll fix it and make it better than before. Call and get quotes to see what it will cost to put up a wooden covered run.
I was still so angry at myself I couldn't even ponder anything else. All that was on my mind was the screwed up mess I had made...again. And how I had wasted those gorgeous spring-like days I could have been spending with the babies in the nice run I had! But no I had to go and jack it all up...pun intended.
DH understands the depth of despair that can send me spiraling so he wanted to help.
But I was ungrateful and didn't deserve a thing! I had messed up everything he had done to try and make me happy with these babies that I said were "less work and money than a dog or cat!" I didn't want him to fix this. I deserved what I got and I and the babies would have to pay for it by not having a place now.
Each day that passed the windows revealed my stupidity and stubbornness as I walked by the disaster of a mess I had made! I was literally sick.
DH got up Saturday and said let's get this cleaned up so they can come build the run. He gave me a much needed pep talk...still never saying "I told u so."
We got the mangled mess all up. It's amazing how you can take something down so fast but it takes a week to put it up! 10x20 metal structure with 3 rolls hardware cloth holding it together with zip ties...i never wanna see a ziptie again! LOL
Got 2 estimates...2 were no shows and last estimate was a friend of a friend so he started the build on Tuesday! DH reduced the size of the run due to the increased price of wood yet again. But I'm not gonna complain! 10x12 will be more than enough!!!
And hear we are one day into the build.
Super excited and praying I do not get any more "hair-brained ideas"!!!
I share this so you know how dangerous those tarps can be...especially with water that can collect on them rather quickly!

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

I don't know why...but he truly loves me!
My husband never ceases to amaze me!
He even hung out in the new run with the babies by HIMSELF yesterday for a while!!!
Might be a "chicken man" in there after all!

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

I know it must have been hard to rehome Polish; I've only had to do that once. This spring one of my Bantam boys turned out to be a gorgeous Booted bully with a bad attitude toward me and the Cochin Bantam roo.

I LOVED it when you said you thought it would be "cheap" to have chickens. I once had that delusion myself. For such small creatures with an initially inexpensive cash outlay, it's amazing how quickly they rack up the bills!

BUT, they are totally worth it -- as you well know. Enjoyed your photos and story.

I'm learning as I go but would love to try breeding for specific colors and feathering! Which means finding good homes as I go cause I can't keep em all!
Thank you...I'm sure there will be more stories and pics along this journey!

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

Adventures continue with the first hatch by incubator in November 2021.
I had thought Vanilli was broody...she was but she abandoned her collection of eggs at 13 days. So I brought em inside to incubate. She had collected 7 eggs...3 of which were growing strong!
I just happened to also order fertile eggs from Fielder Farms in Alabama. I luv the look of the satin silkies! Like a mixture of both worlds fluff and feathers!
So 5 out of 6 of those hatched as well as the 3 from Mango and Vanilli!
I have no idea how yall with sooooo many babies keep up with em!
TN 3
AL 5
Hatch #1 2021
Only had to assist one that got somewhat stuck halfway through hatch. But it ended up being just fine!

 

[Bakbuk]

Adventures continue with the first hatch by incubator in November 2021.
I had thought Vanilli was broody...she was but she abandoned her collection of eggs at 13 days. So I brought em inside to incubate. She had collected 7 eggs...3 of which were growing strong!
I just happened to also order fertile eggs from Fielder Farms in Alabama. I luv the look of the satin silkies! Like a mixture of both worlds fluff and feathers!
So 5 out of 6 of those hatched as well as the 3 from Mango and Vanilli!
I have no idea how yall with sooooo many babies keep up with em!
TN 3
AL 5
Hatch #1 2021
Only had to assist one that got somewhat stuck halfway through hatch. But it ended up being just fine!

AWWWW look at da widdle babies!!