I Built A Bridge!

[tommysgirl]

Good morning Bridge Club

Just as I was saying to Joel that the suspense is killing me, in her best peacock impersonation Tina announced that she was off the nest having a stretch and a bite to eat. I do believe I beat my own PB at getting from the house to the coop!

WE HAVE A PIP!!!

Whooodeeehoooodeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@Teila , very exciting!!!!

@tommysgirl , woohoo Banana Slugs!!! Really, all this time you heard me talking about Bettina and you didn't suspect a thing!?! I started at UCSC in 1989- what a welcome with the earthquake! I took my women studies classes from 92-93, and didn't take any of the classes you mentioned. Did you take anything with Donna Haraway and Wendy Brown? Wendy was my favorite, but that's my cousin's name, so no chickies named it yet.

I was away from the farm most of the day today, and was sad to come home to a new peck wound on Frankie's little head! Just when I thought that the broodzillas weren't actually interested in hurting them! I'm not happy, but I'm telling myself that the fact that it wasn't worse is actually really significant. Someone must have protected her in the end, because it's just one smallish wound. Good thing I still have the liquid bandage handy.
I've also noticed that Brian the Brahma is a bit of a bully, as a couple times I've caught him giving long/hard/feather-pulling pecks on the other chicks. I do not like these developments at all!

You are so I right...seems like I would have caught on sooner . I guess because I have heard the name before it didn't seem weird to be hearing it again. The first Bettina I heard of is featured in a book from like 1917 that was my grandmothers titled A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband, with Bettina's Best Recipes. It's a kick and a primary source guide for what was expected from new brides in the early 20th century. The irony of the juxtaposition of that with Bettina A is pretty hysterical.

Sorry about Frankie's run in with a meany

.

Hey Liz I do not blame you for not being happy; poor little Frankie; the Frankie fan club is not happy either!

Brian is ‘just a very naughty boy’ .. sorry, couldn’t help myself; Monty Python is a favourite of mine

I saw a little head peeping out from under Tina!! Sorry, no camera on hand. He/she is absolutely beautiful and looks healthy. Not yellow or white but more of a beige with a darker stripe running down it’s neck and I may have seen a couple of other colour speckles!

Tina is doing well.

I will keep you posted!

Edited to add: Tina booted out an empty egg shell ... it was marked '24 Gloria' which would have been the one given to her 9 days after being laid!

That gives me a little bit more hope for the 2 that were at 7 days.

I knew those Gloria eggs were special! Congrats!

Had the quickest of looks ... only one bubby still but saw a definite pip in one of the other eggs; not sure about the others, did not want to upset Tina

Gooooo baby 2!!!

Okey doke; it is 4pm so last update for today; do not want to annoy Tina more than necessary.

Still only one bubby who I got a good look at; very pale yellow/beige with black splotches! One other egg is pipped and peeping and the other three do not appear to be pipped. Hopefully the second little one will be able to break out and not so sure about the three that have not pipped but you never know, tomorrow will tell.

Edited to add:

In other news, Blondie is determined and I am weak! I have just ordered her own little brooder and just about to finalise and pay an order for 6 mixed bantam eggs to be shipped tomorrow!

I believe I need an intervention! lolz

In my defence, it looks like Tina's hatch may be only 2, if that, so, combined, they are just the same as one hatch!

No need to defend yourself. Blondie has a way of getting what she wants. You are powerless to resist. And to boot you do get an A in chicken math for your exact figuring of this difficult equation.

Also I am hoping you get something out of the frizzled egg and the mystery egg! Goooo Tina!


I will snap a picture later but currently I have 4 babies being shared equally and happily by 3 mamas. So sweet. Have you heard of such a thing??

 

[MistyMountain]

Sorry bout your sick kids. You take really great shots...The tricky rooster against the green backdrop is really pretty. My Delawares are disgustingly grubby. Was going to bathe them over the weekend but didn't make time for it I want a photo shop type program but don't know where to start and with what. Suggestions for Mac?

Thank you, TG. I try, but most of them are blurry. I am secretly embarrassed about how many pics of the chickens I have on my phone… people would be in a big surprise if they broke the "don't swipe left, don't swipe right" rule when I hand them my phone with a picture on it!!
You know, I use Mac, but have never used anything other than Photoshop. Even then, being and artist and in front of the computer all day long… I find very little time to edit photos or be creative for myself… sad. Maybe one day.

MistyMountain,

Hope your kiddies are feeling better soon. I remember sitting beside my sons bed many times when he was small, my hubby and I took turns. He had asthma real bad when he got sick and had a real hard time breathing as well. They had him on 9 different meds at one time to control it. The good news is that he outgrew it. I bet yours will too.

Thank you, Marie. This is kiddo #2 on the nebulizer. I guess it is kinda nice that I already had all the stuff at home to do the job. This seems to hit them when they get sick too, and mostly dry winter time. I hope we can make it through basketball! I feel positive that they will outgrow it, too. Until then, I will lug this thing and my little bag of medicine on every trip. Glad to hear that your son outgrew it!

Couple pictures...

Remember little Antie Emm? The chick that had all the ants in the shell? Here she is little miss Brabanter. I love her black mohawk!

And here are my 2 Russian Orloffs. Gotta love those muffs!


Marie

Emm is ADORABLE!!! Love those poofy faces on the orloffs

Ha, I really don't know how I keep track of them, but I do, somehow! I totally count the chickens in the evening before closing the coop, and that's getting harder and harder! As for broodies and nest boxes, I've basically been filling up some plastic boxes with bedding and using those as nest boxes - they are very portable, much quicker, and they seem to prefer them, so who am I to argue!

Your Cielo, Anna, Elsa and the rest are absolutely gorgeous and all grown up!

It sounds like we are in a very similar line of work! Except I'd have to say InDesign is my main tool, but Illustrator and Photoshop are close behind.


Hmm, I am so used to Photoshop I get annoyed with anything else... there was a more basic version at some point, Photoshop Elements, not sure if that's still around. Then there's gimp, which is open source, people swear it can do all the same things. I have no idea as I never tried it, but since it's free, it might be a good starting point?

I'm guilty of counting chickens at bedtime too. It was easy when they were all different sizes. 9 big ones, 9 teenagers, 9 momma and littles. now I just count big heads on the roost in the coop. And heads up in the pine tree.

Very cool, IC! I design T-shirt, banner, embroidery, and ad specialty artwork along with some logo development. I have InDesign, but have NEVER used it! I should really open it up and see what it does! I have always used Illustrator, and took some minor classes in photoshop in college. I had to take another non-art related class using Quark Express (does that exist anymore?). I struggled with it because it was too limited. I kept thinking… if I could just grab this and do that and then…

TG, I agree with IC's suggestions!!

Good evening everyone, sorry but took a couple more pix of part of the gang free ranging this evening. it cooled off here today and the weather is back to gorgeous!

Beautiful place!! Looks like you have such happy chickens!

I'm hoping he's right about early pink pea combs not always being a cockerel trait. At this point, it's looking feasible that I have one of each in my brahma/BCM crosses, with one's comb extra pink and being ever-so-slightly bigger than the other. But, I really can't claim to know. It's pretty hard to distinguish them otherwise, but pinker-comb seems slightly more roosterish in behavior. I have made an optimistic early guess of 6 girls and 3 boys and have named everyone, at least temporarily (alla Daisy/Desi), but it could very easily go 5/4 or even 3/6. Though I still have Frankie in the girl count, I'm a littler nervous by her suddenly noticeable and slightly pink comb. It's still a lot smaller than the marans' combs, but it has gotten my attention, and Lucy has the biggest comb of the hens, so her chicks don't provide a good comparison point.

For the ricotta-gelato curious, here's the recipe link, but I made so many changes, it's not very accurate. http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2014/08/ricotta-ice-cream-gelato-recipe/. I cut the sugar in half, used 3 yolks instead of 5, only used 1 cup of ricotta and upped the cream/milk accordingly, and subbed a little lemon zest for candied lemon, and skipped the ice bath part. My main advice would be to only use high-quality ricotta, or better yet, make your own! I have a local producer I like to use - it's almost as good as I can get in Italy, IC!

Picture time!
Decided maybe I should get pictures of Desi and Lucy for possible future rehoming (of him or his chicks):

(I need a good picture of Lucy in the sun before her molt really gets going. Her blue/green/purple-tinged feathers are quite stunning in the sun.)

Auntie Bettina helping Rousseau show the bubbies the best dust-bathing spot, under the lemon tree (note Frankie's little pink comb, next to the marans. Mama Frida has a rose comb. It's looking like Lu (middle) could be pullet, compared to Cy's bigger/pinker comb, but still too soon to tell):


Grace teaching Brian(?) the Brahma to dig - I love the size comparison here, between broody mom and her 26-day-old chick!


And, of course, the chicks are in the Lemon tree! (note, these lemons are very small, meyer lemons):

From left to right, Cindy, Alice, Madeline, and Diego. I'm feeling pretty sure about Cindy and Madeline and no reason to doubt Alice so far. Virtual ricotta gelato for whomever guesses which Madeline I named her after! The rest should be relatively obvious.

I can agree with the bold statement above… MJ had a super pink comb from the start. That could just have been because she was white, therefore making her comb appear more red than it actually was. If you recall, her original name was Spiderman!

For the record… I did buy 3 mini sea salt caramel cups of gelato from the grocery store… I have one left, which I will enjoy this afternoon. I have decided that after last week, I have earned it!

Beautiful pics! Love the lemon tree!

And speaking of not cutting the apron strings here is Norma with her boys at 10 weeks!!!. I took the girl and put her with my other July hatched pullets so she could form friendships and also I was afraid something would happen to her. Norma had 6 and was down to 5 so I wasn't taking chances with Topaz

Love this pic! Reminds me of the top ladies in my flock. Curly, Marge, Chica and Cleo. They roost outside every morning. Pretty tree in the background, too!

Speaking of names I don't know what to call my marans or my red star.

Googled french names… How about Adele? Dory?
Red Star.. hmm Starla?

 

[MistyMountain]

Okey doke; it is 4pm so last update for today; do not want to annoy Tina more than necessary.

Still only one bubby who I got a good look at; very pale yellow/beige with black splotches! One other egg is pipped and peeping and the other three do not appear to be pipped. Hopefully the second little one will be able to break out and not so sure about the three that have not pipped but you never know, tomorrow will tell.

Edited to add:

In other news, Blondie is determined and I am weak! I have just ordered her own little brooder and just about to finalise and pay an order for 6 mixed bantam eggs to be shipped tomorrow!

I believe I need an intervention! lolz

In my defence, it looks like Tina's hatch may be only 2, if that, so, combined, they are just the same as one hatch!

Teila, WOOOO HOOO on the chickie!! Been thinking about you a lot lately! You know… there is Gloria Estefan… perhaps that was a sign!!

I can not wait to see pictures!! Don't worry, no judging here… I feel that a broodzilla impression that perfect requires a reward. Keep that Blondie happy!!

 

[MistyMountain]

And now.. a bit about what's going on here.

The boys are much better. Breathing treatments are over and oldest is almost halfway done with his antibiotics. I've been really lucky, to be honest. I can count on one hand the number of times my boys have been on antibiotics. I think the oldest had and ear infection once. Still some loose coughing going on, but they are both ready to run. I hope to get outside and play a little soccer with them. I have no clue how to play soccer… but we try. In fact, I am just now realizing how much of a contact sport it is… even for 6 year olds.

The chickens are good. I will post a few pics in a bit. Maude is back up in the tree. She has convinced the two cockerels and one pullet from MJ's hatch to join her. I wander back down the hill each morning hoping I don't find one of them on the ground. We have heard some owls in the area.

As of yesterday, Lucky is back to laying… and bigger eggs too. She took about 2 weeks off. Everyone is looking a bit scraggly, but I get anywhere from 3-7 eggs a day still. That random brown egg that I found must have been from chica, though it was different shaped and quite speckled. Wendy the Wellie is squatting and looks like any day now. Everyone else is weeks if not months off. I'll post a few pics of them playing on their new jungle gym (aka the bradford pear tree we had to cut down by the road). They can have some temporary fun until it gets cut and stacked to season for winter burning.

I have been useless today. I got up, let the chickens out, let the dog out, made breakfast, and then napped in the recliner for about 30 minutes. I am a bit burned out from this last week. 2 trips to the Dr for two different boys (an hour drive), taking cupcakes to one school for a cake walk, taking tea to another school for Grandparent's day and running all around the house for the boys. Work in between it all. I am drained! I suppose I will put up some laundry and straighten up some bedrooms so we are ready for the week. DH will call from outside any minute for help burying the well pump wire in plastic pipe. Oh wait, I was going to go outside and play soccer… priorities… soccer it is!

 

[MistyMountain]

And some pics before I disappear until next weekend LOL!

Most of the flock, minus the youngsters. They hang out under the pine tree or raid the big coop and run when the adults are free ranging.

Wendy Wellie and Mable Orpington. Maude, the tree roosting outcast is in the background.

Here is one of the Cuckoo Marans. They are so big and super soft!

 

[tommysgirl]

Teila, WOOOO HOOO on the chickie!! Been thinking about you a lot lately! You know… there is Gloria Estefan… perhaps that was a sign!!

I just deleted ooodles of chicken pictures from my phone...like seriously over 200!

What about Gloria Gaynor, I will survive!!

Teila Babies!!!!!!!

 

[Teila]

Hey Club

Real quick update as work has been frantic and this is my 30 minute lunch break.

Final tally:

She has 2 which were 10 days when given to her, marked Lav and White Silkie ... ... sadly these two did not develop.
1 which was 9 days when given to her, marked Gloria (no idea what Gloria is! lol) ... ... this little one hatched yesterday and doing well.
2 which were 7 days when given to her, one is not marked and the other was also marked Gloria ... .. the second Gloria did not make it but the unmarked one hatched this morning, doing OK!


So, I have a Gloria and a total unknown, one from 7 days and one from 9. I played a hunch that the three remaining eggs she was sitting on had not developed, no pips, and the hunch was right. Hopefully now the eggs have gone she will take the bubbies out to explore and also have something to eat herself.

I will get some pictures this afternoon and check out everyone's posts this evening when I have more time

 

[lizgarf]

So, I have a Gloria and a total unknown, one from 7 days and one from 9. I played a hunch that the three remaining eggs she was sitting on had not developed, no pips, and the hunch was right. Hopefully now the eggs have gone she will take the bubbies out to explore and also have something to eat herself.

I will get some pictures this afternoon and check out everyone's posts this evening when I have more time

Congrats on the bubbies! Two sounds great! Can't wait to meet them!

 

[tommysgirl]

Hey Club

Real quick update as work has been frantic and this is my 30 minute lunch break.

Final tally:

She has 2 which were 10 days when given to her, marked Lav and White Silkie ... ... sadly these two did not develop.
1 which was 9 days when given to her, marked Gloria (no idea what Gloria is! lol) ... ... this little one hatched yesterday and doing well.
2 which were 7 days when given to her, one is not marked and the other was also marked Gloria ... .. the second Gloria did not make it but the unmarked one hatched this morning, doing OK!


So, I have a Gloria and a total unknown, one from 7 days and one from 9. I played a hunch that the three remaining eggs she was sitting on had not developed, no pips, and the hunch was right. Hopefully now the eggs have gone she will take the bubbies out to explore and also have something to eat herself.

I will get some pictures this afternoon and check out everyone's posts this evening when I have more time

Yay!!! Two is a very good number as it means you can give more eggs to Blondie

 

[Teila]

Hello again Bridge Club

Have I mentioned lately I hate Mondays?!!

TG looking forward to the multi broody pictures

MM good to read that the little guys are doing better. Reading your activities made me tired! I think I need a nap now!

Beautiful pictures!

Thank you all for the congratulations; it is so very exciting.

As mentioned earlier, at lunch time today I removed the plastic box that Tina, eggs and bubbies were in. The reason for this is that if they jump out, they may not be able to get back in so we now just have a nice thick layer of straw that they can climb.

If bubby #1 is a keeper, she will definitely be Gloria!

The reason I sort of feel bad giving eggs to Blondie is that if I get to keep one of Tina’s bubbies I will not be able to keep any of Blondies

Zoning laws (6 chickens) and the fact that I do not think it would be fair to have more than 6 bantams in my current set-up dictates that I will be at my maximum. While I could extend some more I really do not want to push my luck with the neighbours and Council. Also, I think 6 is a nice number to keep.

Is it wrong to hatch out more chickens that I cannot keep? Is that similar to those people who have heaps of unwanted litters of puppies and kittens?

Anyways without further delay, I give you Tina bubbies!

'Gloria':