Hatching with 2 broodies

[Teila]

16 paws, that is such wonderful news!

Now that the danger appears to be over, I can crack a joke .... It is a good job you do not drink, alcohol is a fire enhancer! lolz

The news of the fires spread as far as Down Under; I heard them mentioned on the radio earlier.

And, your welcome hon xoxo

Yep, I have seen those portable misters. We have to be careful with misters here; being sub tropical, the added humidity creates a haven for germs and subsequent respiratory issues. Having said that, I have a mister which I use when it is just too darn hot.

I have used the food/iced water treat on hot days also. I took some cold water from the fridge and added frozen peas and corn .. the lady who suggested it to me also commented that playing in the water and bobbing for their treats would also take theirs minds off the heat

Another good coolant is watermelon, not only yummy for them but it also helps keep them hydrated.

 

[chickencrazy999]

nice setup! I only have 3 hens and 1 rooster in the silkies department! You got so many fluff balls!

Hahaha Yes and more on there way soon

Good morning Team Broody .. TGIF (for some of us) 

Thank you for being Blondie fans and also your support of my new flock name .. now all I need is a Lotto win so I can move out of town and breed lots and lots of Blondie’s lol.

MM, thank you for your sweet offer to paint me a sign; it is a shame we do not live closer.  While I am sure it will not be anywhere near as good as yours (Artistic, I am not) but you have given me an idea to maybe have a go at doing one myself
Chuckling at your description of the egg-laying-queue.
The schoolhouse looks really good, kudos to you and hubby.  Looking forward to the pictures of the finished product, complete with ‘students’ 

DeborahOBE, Marmalade is adorable.  Actually all your chickens are adorable and I love the names; in particular, Domino which is a very cute name.
Sorry to read that Marmalade is giving you a hard time, he looks so sweet in his picture.
Like 16 paws, I wonder if you are a professional photographer?  Your pictures sure do put my blurry, phone snaps to shame; beautiful!
Looking forward to more Team Broody bubbies; good luck with the hatch.

16 paws, while a SoE is not a good thing per say, it is good to know that your fire fighters now have additional support.  Good to read that you are safe for now also and that you are now home for a couple of days and ready to roll if need be.  You are all still so very much in my thoughts and we will all be relieved when you can let us know that the danger has passed and everyone is safe. 
Freckles and Taffy are so sweet!  At the risk of sounding like a broken record, once again, the determination and love of a broody hen will never cease to tug at the ole heart strings; they are amazing!

TG, oooh, yet another broody .. hoping Sweet T sticks for you and of course, more bubbies for us! Lolz

Welcome ShelbyCoral and congratulations on the hatch.

CC999, your Silkies are lovely.  I especially like that last picture, she (I am guessing she) definitely looks like she means business and you need to get that camera out of her face 

IC, I definitely agree with you on using the ‘remove from nest’ method to break a broody.  I could not bring myself to lock one of my girls in a wire cage or repeatedly dunking her in cold water baths.  While the ‘remove from nest’ method is a bit more effort and time consuming on our part, I do believe it is so much kinder for them.  I am sure Cilla hated me when I stopped her from going into the nest box but I am sure she would hate me more if a put her in jail or dunked her in ice water!
The bubbies are growing so much and are adorable!  Love the colours/markings on Isabel.
I did miss the little copy cat statue and I am definitely going back for a look as soon as I have posted this

No news of note from Bambrook Bantams; all cruising along nicely which is a good thing for sure.  Cilla is still hanging onto the final threads of protection detail but Blondie is tugging on them and moving away more and more.  Blondie was spotted socialising with LuLu this morning and Cilla was nowhere to be seen

Time to slip into work-mode and get this last day of the working week done and dusted! 

Edited to add: IC, I do see him!  How cute!! I thought he was her tail! lolz 

Thank you and yes that is Milly and she is so sassy guarding her chicks that are about sixths weeks old now but she does not do the little peek peek peek noise any more when there is food although they are still tiny she seems to be drifting more and more apart from. Them but I think she still sleeps with them at night and looks out for them most of the time.

@chickencrazy999
[COLOR=333333]I have never seen or even thought of a pregnant guinea pig before! How absolutely adorable

And those silkie chicks *swoon* what gorgeous colouring![/COLOR]

[COLOR=333333]@16 paws
[/COLOR] I am so very sorry I can't even imagine how terrifying it must be for you right now. It may be innapropriate but I wanted to add that your property is gorgeous!

@tommysgirl
 if my husband heard you say I needed more chickens he would have a heart attack LOL He had put his foot down about chicks/eggs but I somehow managed to get around that. I'm still unsure how and amazed really lol

@Teila
  Thank you for the warm welcome  That is indeed Banty sitting on her eggs! She is the only one who lets me pick her up and snuggle so if she wants to be a Mommy she gets to be a Momma lol What breed is Blondie?


So update here... I candled the eggs this morning because I couldn't wait anymore 3 of the silkie eggs and the one milles fleur are definitely good right now. 2 silkie eggs (one of them is the white one ) are very questionable Actually I was kind of taken by surprise by the milles fleur one. It seems very far along in comparison to the other eggs which makes me think that the hen it came from had been already sitting on it somewhere hiding. I say hiding because they had no eggs for days. The second someone layed the lady called me. So it is very odd! 

Also I found tiny ants in Bantys nesting box. I freaked out ...I'm not going to lie. I have carbyryl powder that I bought in the fall but was never brave enough to use and dusted some of that in while Banty was out eating. By the time she got back there they were all dead. I didnt put much but I am still freaking out about having put it in there :s

I made a much bigger dusting area for them all today and to thank me Dot stood there sqwuaking for a good 10 minutes at me. Hopefully she will come to see it as a good thing :s

I also went and picked up some mason jars at the second hand store here. They are very hard to find around here because we are the "Salmon capitol of the world" and people can it like crazy (I cant even bring myself to try that! eww) So they have been washed and I will be commencing project FF very shortly. Thank you so much Teila for sharing how much you feed! I think I will start with 2 cups and see how that goes?

Thank you Yes they sure are cute and are ever so loving!

 

[ShelbyCoral]

Another update on the fires.

It looks real good tonight.

I think we are going to be OK.

Whew! I never want to go thru that again.
Talk about high stress levels the last few days.

Good thing I don't drink or I sure would of been. LOL

Love love love you guys. I can not thank you enough for the thoughtful wishes and prayers you sent this way.

It was about 105 here today and I was very worried about the girls getting baked so to speak, so I got one of those portable misters on a twisted stand. Do you guys know what I am talking about?
Well it works great and all of the girls gathered around it and let that fine mist cool them down for hours! I also got a big baking pan and filled it full of treats like peas, strawberries, spinach, mango and bread, then I filled the whole thing full of ice cubes. That worked great also, some of them were stepping right in it to get to the treats. Another great way to cool them off. It is about 30 degrees hotter here than it normally is this time of year. If any of you get hot summers you may want to try either or both.

Welcome to all the newbies and I look forward to hearing some more humorous stories of your crazy broody girls! Thanks again everyone!
Marie

Wow, I thought it was hot here! Its not normally hot here for us either, and I live in Ohio. All my chicks were going to fry.
What we did for our girls was take a hose a let it run water in the run. We have a huge run! Its on a hill so its like a river for them. They love it! I throw small shrimp into the water for them to get n cool down! Reached almost 95 for us. That's to high for spring!
Glad the fire didn't get to you!

 

[ShelbyCoral]

Thanks everyone! I will post pictures of what my two broody hens and my mama hen.

 

[DeborahOBE]

16 paws- I'm so glad to hear that the fires are moving away and that your home is unaffected- that's really good news. Yes, I'm a photographer. I mainly do stock photography, weddings and portraits. Since getting the chickens I have done quite a lot of chicken photography too! Trouble is they don't stay still for long. I do the photography part time as I have 4 children to look after. The Mr & Mrs are Lavender pekins- I love the breed- so cute and fluffy. It's the little fluffy feet that get me . Your broodys are so lovely- especially the frizzly, ginger one. She's adorable
Tommy's girl- Brownie & Toffee are buff laced wyandottes I think. Those two are pretty much bottom of the pecking order in my chicken kingdom but I have a soft spot for them. How's Theresa doing today? Still sitting?
Deb

 

[ShelbyCoral]

Talking to her newly hatched chick.


talking to her oldest chick


she really like her oldest


mama and DD broody... Silkies, i tell ya...

 

[ItalyChickie]

Aww what sweet pics they are so cute some of them defiantly look like they have the white silkie in them
Ella

Thanks Ella! Yes, they all do have the white silkie in them (some as dad and others as grandpa), and I see lots of fluffy feathers underneath... they look like they're wearing underskirts from behind!

Not sure if that will stay though.

IC, I definitely agree with you on using the ‘remove from nest’ method to break a broody. I could not bring myself to lock one of my girls in a wire cage or repeatedly dunking her in cold water baths. While the ‘remove from nest’ method is a bit more effort and time consuming on our part, I do believe it is so much kinder for them. I am sure Cilla hated me when I stopped her from going into the nest box but I am sure she would hate me more if a put her in jail or dunked her in ice water!
The bubbies are growing so much and are adorable! Love the colours/markings on Isabel.
I did miss the little copy cat statue and I am definitely going back for a look as soon as I have posted this

No news of note from Bambrook Bantams; all cruising along nicely which is a good thing for sure. Cilla is still hanging onto the final threads of protection detail but Blondie is tugging on them and moving away more and more. Blondie was spotted socialising with LuLu this morning and Cilla was nowhere to be seen


Edited to add: IC, I do see him! How cute!! I thought he was her tail! lolz

Yeah, I feel awful every time I do break a broody as it is, I don't think I could bring myself to use the harsher methods. Honestly, if it was up to me and if space/weather/timing were not an issue, they'd just get to be mums whenever they want to! (Ok, that potential chicken math formula is making my head hurt... I bet I would have way more chickens than I can handle, in any case.)

Good to hear all is cruising along nicely! As they say, no news is good news!

Cenere is still hanging out with Ombretta and the kiddos during the day, but also just roaming by herself at times, and she was also seen checking out the nest boxes this morning (helped by Gandalf to pick the best one by demonstrating how comfy it is... that roo cracks me up, he is always showing them the best nesting places... sometimes will just get in there by himself and chatter away while the girls move on to something else). I think a Cenere egg is on the horizon! Wait... I probably shouldn't tell you that, what with the egg drought... sorry!

Glad you spotted the little copycat! Lol, I knew he was hard to spot, but didn't realize everyone would miss him... I should probably repost that at a bigger size.

If Isabel ever lets me take a decent picture of her, I'll post it. She's still so shy and skittish, I would have thought she'd be used to the new place after two months... very unlike her little friend Pallina who follows me wherever I go and pecks at my feet if I stand still and take pictures of others.

Here she is:

"What breed is Blondie?" Good question; I get confused as to the correct name and it appears to depend on who you talking to and where they come from. But in my understanding she is a Bantam Cochin but other trains of thought are that she is a Pekin or should that be Pekin Cochin? Or we could even go with Bantam Pekin Cochin lolz.

I think those are just the names for the same breed used in different countries. Pekin in UK/Australia, Bantam Cochin in the US (apparently Italy copies US, because here they say Cocincina Nana - you can borrow that name if you prefer).

Another update on the fires.

It looks real good tonight.

I think we are going to be OK.

Whew! I never want to go thru that again.
Talk about high stress levels the last few days.

Good thing I don't drink or I sure would of been. LOL

Love love love you guys. I can not thank you enough for the thoughtful wishes and prayers you sent this way.

It was about 105 here today and I was very worried about the girls getting baked so to speak, so I got one of those portable misters on a twisted stand. Do you guys know what I am talking about?
Well it works great and all of the girls gathered around it and let that fine mist cool them down for hours! I also got a big baking pan and filled it full of treats like peas, strawberries, spinach, mango and bread, then I filled the whole thing full of ice cubes. That worked great also, some of them were stepping right in it to get to the treats. Another great way to cool them off. It is about 30 degrees hotter here than it normally is this time of year. If any of you get hot summers you may want to try either or both.

Welcome to all the newbies and I look forward to hearing some more humorous stories of your crazy broody girls! Thanks again everyone!
Marie

SO happy to hear this update Marie! Hope you get some time to relax and chill out with the chickens over the weekend - one of the best stress relieving methods, IMO.

We get very hot summers too, I tend to go with very cold watermelon treats - they absolutely love it! The portable mister sounds great, have to see if they have those here in preparation for the summer.

16 paws- I'm so glad to hear that the fires are moving away and that your home is unaffected- that's really good news. Yes, I'm a photographer. I mainly do stock photography, weddings and portraits. Since getting the chickens I have done quite a lot of chicken photography too! Trouble is they don't stay still for long. I do the photography part time as I have 4 children to look after. The Mr & Mrs are Lavender pekins- I love the breed- so cute and fluffy. It's the little fluffy feet that get me . Your broodys are so lovely- especially the frizzly, ginger one. She's adorable
Tommy's girl- Brownie & Toffee are buff laced wyandottes I think. Those two are pretty much bottom of the pecking order in my chicken kingdom but I have a soft spot for them. How's Theresa doing today? Still sitting?
Deb

Stock photography? I might have used your photos in some project or other without knowing!

(I'm a designer, lots of stock photos in my library.) Love your chicken photos, it looks like you do manage to get them still every now and then.

I love your Lavender pekins, too! Hopefully I'll get the color if not the breed in my upcoming hatch (have a few lavender orpington eggs in the mix).

Talking to her newly hatched chick.


talking to her oldest chick


she really like her oldest


mama and DD broody... Silkies, i tell ya...

Awwww that is so so cute!

Love the expression on the oldest chick's face peeking out, and the protective mom hovering over.



I better get back to work, but not before I post today's pile of chicks photo:


and another version of the Cenere statue (she just really like to be in the center of attention... apparently it's hereditary):

 

[16 paws]

Wow, I thought it was hot here! Its not normally hot here for us either, and I live in Ohio. All my chicks were going to fry.
What we did for our girls was take a hose a let it run water in the run. We have a huge run! Its on a hill so its like a river for them. They love it! I throw small shrimp into the water for them to get n cool down! Reached almost 95 for us. That's to high for spring!
Glad the fire didn't get to you!

That sounds good Shelby, I love shrimp too! Lol
Yes I am very grateful the fires didn't make it to us also. Close call and they are still fighting them today. Lets hope all goes well and they get them out soon. There are still thousands evacuated at this time.
Marie

 

[16 paws]

16 paws- I'm so glad to hear that the fires are moving away and that your home is unaffected- that's really good news. Yes, I'm a photographer. I mainly do stock photography, weddings and portraits. Since getting the chickens I have done quite a lot of chicken photography too! Trouble is they don't stay still for long. I do the photography part time as I have 4 children to look after. The Mr & Mrs are Lavender pekins- I love the breed- so cute and fluffy. It's the little fluffy feet that get me . Your broodys are so lovely- especially the frizzly, ginger one. She's adorable
Tommy's girl- Brownie & Toffee are buff laced wyandottes I think. Those two are pretty much bottom of the pecking order in my chicken kingdom but I have a soft spot for them. How's Theresa doing today? Still sitting?
Deb

Hi Deb,

You have your hands full with 4 children that is for sure. How old are they?

Wish you lived by me, I would have you over to take a few pictures of my flock Lol
Marie

 

[tommysgirl]

16 paws- I'm so glad to hear that the fires are moving away and that your home is unaffected- that's really good news. Yes, I'm a photographer. I mainly do stock photography, weddings and portraits. Since getting the chickens I have done quite a lot of chicken photography too! Trouble is they don't stay still for long. I do the photography part time as I have 4 children to look after. The Mr & Mrs are Lavender pekins- I love the breed- so cute and fluffy. It's the little fluffy feet that get me . Your broodys are so lovely- especially the frizzly, ginger one. She's adorable
Tommy's girl- Brownie & Toffee are buff laced wyandottes I think. Those two are pretty much bottom of the pecking order in my chicken kingdom but I have a soft spot for them. How's Theresa doing today? Still sitting?
Deb

Yep she is still sitting. I will probably give her eggs on Sunday a.m. She has gotten up to rush around as a frenzied speckled ball of PMS...pre mama syndrome... Your buffed lays wys are beautiful. I look forward to a broody hatching blue laced wys in the future

I checked with other chicken people and they said that because hens can't count that as long as they have a couple of their clutch left they are still happy. I had a gal want one of Petunia's chicks but operating on the Ark theory I only sell them by 2s. Petunia is down to two and we are keeping them. I am so happy that all of the boys went to homes. I was a bit worried about that but all is well. They are 4 weeks old now and the two that went yesterday went to a very nice chicken lady one town over. She has Silkies and D'Anvers and large fowl too.