Hatching with 2 broodies

[tommysgirl]

Howdy n’ Hugs Team Broody!




“Don't think for a minute that the obsessing process only lasts 3 weeks! Look at us, still at it 6 weeks later!” Lol Liz, yep, again you hit the nail on the head! Are they getting enough to eat? Should I switch them to pullet grower soon? Are they boys or girls? Why is that one quieter than the others; is it sick? How am I going to find the boys good homes? Blah, blah, yaaada, yaaada lol.
But, worth every grey hair and stress line!
What did we do with our time before chickens?

Hello TG, nice to catch up with you again! “My girl was so obsessed with setting she settled right down on the golf ball and tucked it under her so she only complained for a couple of seconds. “ Once more you have come through with some good advice and I have learnt something new reading your post, thank you. “I have another who is making broody attempts so I am going to give her some eggs if I can't discourage her. We may have a hatch along “ Woo hoo TG; I reckon we should start a running tally on how many Team Broody bubbies we have.
“Babies have been out ranging with Beakface all day...they stay pretty much under the orange tree and hedge but one was buried in the jasmine plan all you could see was little feet scratching and dirt flying. She is teaching them to be good foragers!” Aaaw, that sounds so cute. Mr Crow is still hanging around and even though he would probably have trouble lifting my overgrown pom poms off the ground, I am going to leave it until this weekend to let them out for a supervised free range. I bought this cool collapsible dog play pen that I am going to put on the grass for them and pop them into it for a while. I will get some pictures. Meanwhile, each evening, I sit with them and feed them grass I have plucked from the garden. They have lots of dirt in the run to dig and bath in but no grass.



Cilla is back to laying every day or two but Dusty has stopped laying, 3 or 4 days now.

Hugs all round for Team Broody .. you rock!

With every change you make to your flock...regardless of its size it seems like there are unforseen ripples that lead to questions and solutions and reasons to talk about our littles

Hope Dusty is fine and that she produces some lovely eggs for you soon...like today

We do have the hawks to worry about but my babies are quite camouflaged not white like yours and she keeps a really close eye on them. One of my roos was also keeping watch yesterday and it was cute. Roos are the best for that! Sounds like you are giving them a close to ranging experience and keeping them safe!

Prayers today if you have the inclination. My daughter works as a barn manager and a horse got out and was found in the pool dead this morning. It is awful. I don't know anything else. But if you could wing some positive energy towards NJ I would appreciate it.

 

[lizgarf]

Welcome back, Teila! We missed you. Glad to hear everyone is ok.
Sorry to hear about your daughter's trouble, TG. That sounds very hard, indeed. I hope she's doing ok.
Everyone is fine here. At six weeks old, the chicks still have not settled on a clear gender. Very appropriate for California chicks, I suppose. And, like a California grandma, I still love them and their little a-gender selves.
Today, they had me a little concerned because they insisted on foraging in the front, including in the area where Stella had gotten killed by the dog. I had a bit of a flashback and was nervous, but eventually got them back up into the coop, safe and sound. I am beginning to plan a run that will connect the coop to the relatively safe backyard. Yesterday, I cleared out the blackberry brambles and planted some good foraging seeds along that side of the house. Once I get the fall/winter planting done in the rest of the yard, I'll start constructing the run. Should make things a lot easier for all of us, if it works out.

 

[texgardengal]

Awww. So sorry to hear about the horse. Prayers your way. What a heartbreaker.
Thanks Teila. Is nice to meet you too. Yes, Molly is a handful. She was before. She moved in and just took over. She bosses everybody around. I think they might appreciate the break with her on the nest. I know Sassy is glad to get a break from her bossyness. The roosters just kind of take her in stride. They put up with her and are very sweet. Roosters are just adorable such protectors!! I think I lucked out with my roosters. We started out with just the two of them, spoiled them rotten.
I have no idea what breeds they are...they all "match" if that makes any sense. I know a guy in town, he was hatching so many roosters that he had to keep killing them?? He asked me if I wanted a couple roosters and I said sure!! That's how my chicken keeping started. We did great and a few months later I got a call that one of his hens was getting pushed around by the others (not Molly!) and did I want her. Sure!! But as I already had two roosters Molly came along too, as to not overwelm Sassy with two very lonely roosters. The two roosters are the same color but one has a very big "hat" and one has a little cushion "hat" a comb? I guess. and their neck feathers are different. Here are their pics.

George

Bart

George, Sassy and Bart

 

[tommysgirl]

Thanks for the condolences all. It was awful. Two horses broke through a fence and one ended up walking out onto the pool cover and going through it. So horrible. My daughter's boss leases half of her barn to another trainer and it was one of her clients horse. Very traumatic all around. We skyped with our daughter tonight and all is well with her. She is still sad of course but she is better than she was this morning.

Liz it sounds like you have a great piece of land. What all do you plant? I would love to have a list of what is in your edible landscape.

tgg...those are some lovely birds. It is my goal to one day have a red white blue black silver and grey flock and those would fit right in. I am no help re breed but generally different combs means different breeds. The body shape on your boys is very different too. The one with the rose comb might be an ameraucauna but what do I know.

 

[lizgarf]

Liz it sounds like you have a great piece of land. What all do you plant? I would love to have a list of what is in your edible landscape.

Thanks, TG! It's kind of a crazy piece of land. A quarter acre on a super steep slope with a tiny house in the middle and a small creek running through the bottom. The creek area used to be dominated by a gorgeous giant oak, technically on my neighbor's lot, which very sadly came crashing down in the middle of the night during a storm a couple years ago. I awoke to see it falling right toward my bedroom window, where it landed, resting right up against the house. I miss that tree something awful (and I see way too much of my neighbors without it), but it's still a fun yard. I don't think I could give you a full list of the edible plants - maybe someday, but it'll be a long list! There are at least 22 young fruit trees which I planted in the last 4 years, plus dozens of volunteer wild plums and a couple old meyer lemons. Lots of veggies and fruiting shrubs and vines on top of that, plus flowers, and native plants and trees too, including a couple sequoias and another oak, and plenty of ivy, blackberries, and other weeds. I'm trying to propigate more plants from seed, but I still keep buying plants too, and have a few dozen of them to get into the ground, now that we're finally getting some rain. It's a bit of an addiction. I'm still more in the planting stage than the harvesting stage, but my harvests are growing each year, and there's also lots of other fruit trees and blackberry bushes in the neighborhood to raid in the summer. I'm also hosting two bee hives for a local honey producer, but he's a bit flaky, and I only got half the honey I was promised. Still probably worth it to not have to deal with the bees myself.

But, speaking of my yard, guess who was in the front to greet me when I came home today? A big honking deer, who had just taken a poop in the path and munched on some plants and stared at me a good long while before walking on off to my neighbor's yard. (Teila, american deer look just like kangaroos from the neck up, but they're way bigger!) The chicks and their moms were duly impressed.

 

[Teila]

Hello Team Broody!

TG, I also am sorry to hear your bad news .. my thoughts are with you, your daughter and the owner of the horse. Such a tragic and freak accident that you really would not envisage

Thank you Sgt Liz, it is good to be back to our routine and able to keep in touch with my broody-friends
Tee hee at "I still love them and their little a-gender selves". Way to go, not pigeon-holing them too soon
The run to the back yard sounds like a great idea. Look forward to seeing the pictures!
Your little piece of paradise sounds awesome. Congratulations on all you have done and plan to do! I love spending time in my garden but it is not a patch on yours, just your average suburban plot but still my little piece of paradise also.
I am jealous, how lovely to come home to a deer in your yard; it sounds so idyllic and tranquil. I would be interested to see what my girls would think if they saw a deer; I am sure my cats would freak! lol

Texgardengal, you chickens are beautiful!
It looks like you have an excellent area for them, lots of room to forage!

So turns out I was wrong on 3 counts yesterday .....

Quote: "Cilla is back to laying every day or two but Dusty has stopped laying, 3 or 4 days now. She is not showing signs of being broody or any sickness and I am a little concerned that she may be going down the same path as Britney; I so hope not"
Bzzzt! Wrong! (happily wrong I might add); two eggs today, one from Cilla and one from Dusty, woo hooo. She must have just been taking a break or TG's best wishes reached all the way to Aus!

Quote re Dusty v Dove: "might not see that one again!"
Bzzt! Wrong! The dove came back today for more seed.

Quote re Dusty v Dove: "when the dove took off it did so with probably two remaining tail feathers!"
Bzzzt! Wrong! Make that NO tail feathers! lol. It is now one strange looking dove; not sure how it is managing to fly!

The overgrown pom-poms are as adorable as ever and grew some more today while I was away. They still cuddle up to mumma at nighttime but I beginning to think that they are now cuddling her, not the other way around

 

[lizgarf]

Thanks, Teila. My yard is too steep and unruly to be considered paradise by many gardeners, I suppose, but I do love it here, and I'm very fortunate to have such a large and green spot of land so near the city.
TexGG, I agree with TG that George might be an Ameraucana, with that beard. I wonder if Bart is a cochin? Feathered feet, big round fluffy body, and a single comb . . . I don't know much about roosters, though! Maybe George's babies will lay blue eggs someday!
As of today, Daisy is so much bigger than Ida, and her comb and wattles are so much pinker and larger, and she's more outgoing, I'm beginning to think maybe these are genuine gender differences and I should consider some name changes. It would be ironic, since the wing-feather-tests came out opposite (which is why I picked "Ida" - so she could be easily transformed to Idaho). They still otherwise look the same, though, so it is not pigeonholing time yet.

Happy Thanksgivingikah, everybody!

 

[tommysgirl]

Daisy can become Desi

 

[lizgarf]

Daisy can become Desi

Haha!! That's a great rooster name! Maybe even better than Idaho.

For what it's worth, little Ida appears to be sleeping on the roost with mama Frida tonight, while Daisy/Desi is still in the nest with mama Rousseau. Also, I saw Daisy/Desi giving Frida a staredown today and a little peck on the head. She is almost as big as Frida already - not sure what's going on with all of that.
I know, I need to get some new pictures.

 

[texgardengal]

Hi everybody. We are rocking along OK. Thanks for helping me try to figure out what kind of kids I have out here, maybe. He told me they were Amaraucanas... did I spell that right? But I agree the roosters look totally different. I figured it was all about color. But since I've been paying attention to pictures/types of breeds lately I can see there is way more to it than just color.
Quote: Liz? how to you have all this on a quarter acre? wow...I'm movin in. I'll wait till the babies get here though. It sounds amazing. I moved here...a year ago and i planted a garden but it was completely destroyed by grasshoppers. but I cant let the chickens go to town on the grasshoppers. Teila...
Quote: they would agree... and lots and lots of grass hoppers, but, I keep them in their coop... and in their yard. we have a neighbor dog...he looks like a skinny tall pit bull mix. Anyway, he has already killed several chickens in the neighborhood. I dont know who's?? His owner keeps coming to my house with this horrible look on his face; apologizing for his dog killing my chickens. I run out in a panic to find, nope...not my chicken. He has done this 3 times now. no kidding. At least the last couple of times he didnt scare the crap out of me but I'm completely paranoid now.
Quote: Haaaaa ha ha that cracked me up!!!! That's one dumb dove. U gotta get a picture of the tail..less dumb dove.
Miss Molly...doing her thing.