Hector's World: Adventures and Mayhem at Mountain View Poultry (or Sequel to The Evolution of Atlas

[speckledhen]

I was coming back from the back 40 after placing my StealthCam down there to leave for a couple of weeks and had my camera with me so I snapped some pics of Hector's crew that came running when they saw me, including the King of the Goobers. Note that Thea and Wendy are not there. Wendy stays away from Hector and Thea stays away from his new girls.
Found a picture of June, Georgie and poor old Alice that I had not posted, plus I was trying to get my panorama feature on the camera to work, pointed down the mountain at the bottom lot we had cleaned up a bit, and man, that ain't easy to make work right, but here's what I got there as well.

 

[getaclue]

Great pics, beautiful birds.

 

[1muttsfan]

That Jane is a good looking girl.

 

[speckledhen]

That Jane is a good looking girl.

Thanks, yes, she is. She's still not at her full weight after her molt like Maddie is, but she's getting there and she's super sweet. Maddie looks so much like her mother that I have a hard time discerning which is which without a second or third glance. Jane's larger comb, thanks to dear old Dad, makes her much easier to spot.

 

[speckledhen]

Hector's daughters, Jane and Maddie today, the only young birds we have here now.

 

[getaclue]

Hector doesn't have the dwarf gene, if I remember correctly. Maybe you could put him over Jane, and Maddie, to preserve the line.

 

[speckledhen]

They run with him all the time, but I really don't want any more chickens. If I was going to breed anything, I wish I could preserve the Stukel line because the hens are so much larger than Jane and Maddie, but the only one left that is pure is Dru. She rarely ever lays at 9 years old and Hector would be too much for her anyway. I need to just let go all ideas of preserving anything. Can't do this breeding thing any longer.

 

[getaclue]

Yes, the Stukel line would be the one to preserve. I understand too, when it becomes too difficult to preserve a line. I've got to get busy this year, and work on my BA's, or I too will lose the line. I hate to.

 

[getaclue]

Dd #2 came over early yesterday morning. We dispatched 2 roosters. Not a pleasant task, but I put it off as long as I could. I need the space for all these chicks, and the duckling. It helps (emotionally) having Dd #2 with me.

Did I mention that Dd # 3 witnessed a mama duck, and all her ducklings get hit, and killed by a car, except for 1 duckling? She scooped it up, and called Dd #2. Dd #2 went over to her sister's place, and they decided it was very young, and neither of them had what would be needed to care for it. Of course, Mom can do it, right? So here comes Dd #2 with this duckling for me to take care of. I set up a separate brooder for it, a waterer, and I had plenty of raiser/grower feed, which worked fine in a pinch. I found out that ducklings need lower protein, so the next day, I got a bag of layer feed. They need a little bit of additional niacin. Dh gets niacin to take with his BP medicine, so I crushed one up, and mixed a pinch of that in with the feed. With ducklings, a shallow bowl works better for water, than a waterer. I just happened to have a few heavy, flat bottom, small and medium bowls like that. We used them for my daughter's pet rabbit. It seems to be doing just fine.

I had everything figured out about where I was going to put the 2 sets of chicks, when it came time to put them in the coop, but the duckling threw that off, so I had to re-figure it all.

We finished off 2 more sections in wire mesh. I've got enough to do 2 more sections, but we'll finish them in a few days. We got tired, and it got hot out.

 

[speckledhen]

Great scramble, Cheryl! Good for your daughters, both of them. I sort of want ducks, then I sort of don't. They so funny, though. I loved seeing Ladyhawk's ducks years ago when I visited and how they responded to her "Bad ducks! BAAAAD DUCKS!" when they'd waddle across the road and she'd call them back that way. Cracked me up. I'll never forget it.