I Built A Bridge!

[MistyMountain]

This gives you an idea of Magnus' size the other two are his hatchmates and Reese is no pip squeak. That handsome devil in the back is Ike and behind him is one of my Red Star boys, Ike continues to be super tolerant of the cockerels. Fingers crossed that that continues The REd Star boys have not started crowing but I expect it any day.

Magnus looks very similar to my frosty!! Sadly, with Cielo in the picture, frosty will need to find a new home. It would be nice to see if Willie's super duper hawk fighting skills run in the family, though!

Introducing...the newest assisted hatch chick here on the bridge.....

So Cute!

So that she does not feel left out, wanna-be mumma:






Anyway, moving on ....

"Gardening? Did someone mention gardening? Lucky for you mum, gardening is our area of expertise"



"Lunch? Did someone mention lunch? Lucky for you mum that we are here to help you eat your lunch"



"Is that a bug?"

Teila, I also got a mini egg the other day!! My poor welsummer (I think, though the mini egg was white…) is having a hard time getting her little egg laying system going. To date, I have gotten one totally naked egg, 4 rubber eggs, and this one. I have free choice oyster shell out and all. She also lays at night. I'm assuming it is her because I still get an egg from each of my older girls and she is the only one with a noticeable red comb and waddles.

Still a Blondie fan here too! Pretty girl. I get a kick out of little Lulu and the way that those feathers curl around her head. She reminds me of a little turtle!

Here are some pics:


Everyone still perky in the short nest:

Beautiful pics, liz! Have I mentioned how great it is to have you back? You were missed!!

Operation Baby Bean > Update

As of 04:00pm Australian Eastern Standard Time, 1st September 2014, Operation Baby Bean was officially under way.

3 little ones did not make the cut due to age restrictions and while making the cut, little BV23 was found to have cracked on transfer to mission headquarters. These little ones are on standby to be scrambled shortly.

The remaining little ones reported to mission headquarters under the watchful eye of Platoon Leader Tina who seemed surprised that her little platoon had increased from 2 to 5, but she took the little ones under her wing without question.

Three weeks of boot camp with Platoon Leader Tina all over them and watching them 24/7 has commenced.

Reporting for duty were:
LAV23
White Silkie 23
Gloria24
Identity cannot be revealed and
Gloria26

Edited to Add: I do believe that Dusty laid an egg today after a 5 month hiatus. I am pretty sure it is Dusty's as it does not look like Cilla's or Blondie's and too big to be LuLu's first egg .. way to go Dusty! Welcome Back!

Oh how I chuckled at this one, teila! I call my youngest son, Jacob, Jakey Beans. So much so that he introduces himself as Jakey or Jakey Beans. I also sometimes call him baby bean, LOL!
I love the surprise of not knowing what you will get, how exciting! And way to go Dusty!! You are moving into your spring down there, right?

Not much to report here. The flocks have been merged but still retreat to their respective coops at bed time. Cielo has taken a liking to MJ, so he hangs in the pines with the littles and her a lot. Our dear, dear, Maude has taken to roosting back in the pine tree again after a week of roosting in the big coop with the flock. Crazy girl. Hope an owl doesn't catch on!! Of course, she is a big girl so maybe not a target. I have heard the screech owls a lot behind the house. Funny how they don't real screech, but more of a soothing coo.

We got our load of wood from the family lumber mill in GA, so DH is working hard to replace the railing and support the floor on the deck. What is next? Chicken coop… maybe?

Off to do some laundry, have a great day, all!

 

[tommysgirl]

Good morning Bridge Club

So, the eggs arrived today .. woo hoo

There are 9; nicely packed and all intact; 6 of which I will give her tonight. OK not the total required sitting time but I will take the chance as time is of the essence:
1 laid 21 August which sadly I am not taking a chance on .. today is day 12
2 laid 22 August, again, not taking a chance on those .. today is day 11
3 laid 23 August which I will give her tonight .. risky as day 10 today
1 laid 24 August day 9 today and
2 laid 26 August day 7 so our best hope

The one's laid on the 23rd are marked Lav, BV and White Silkie
The one laid on the 24th is marked Gloria
One of the one's laid on the 26th is not marked and the other one is marked Gloria

I wonder what Gloria is? Surprise! lol

Yay!!! I gave Gracie Belle 3 eggs yesterday too. I am so glad you got the Gloria eggs...they must be super special to be named and the one that is unmarked well that contains a top secret embryo. If it makes you feel any better I "know" people on the Northern CA thread who have incubated fertile grocery store eggs and had some hatch. Those for sure were older, handled more roughly and refrigerated. Tina has way better odds I would think

Awesome, Teila! I'm glad my thoughts could be received and it sounds like you have a great plan.
Things seem to be progressing well here. Lu has a bit of pasty butt - she seemed to get the worst of the fluctuating incubation problems and post-incubation farmer problems. But, at least she's walking well! I've been able to leave the farm for large blocks of time the past few days with nothing more serious to return to than knocked-over water dispensers. I'm enjoying seeing the wings begin to feather, with new colors coming in.
Next step is expanding the nests - I'm nervous about complete integration, not because of the hens, but because of the injured bubbies being potentially targeted by Grace. I'll need to figure out how to make their nest bigger, but out of Grace's way.

Here are some pics:


Everyone still perky in the short nest:

Love the leg feathers! Such cute family scenes. Lu's legs look great! Add Chick PT to your resume'


Originally Posted by Teila

Magnus looks very similar to my frosty!! Sadly, with Cielo in the picture, frosty will need to find a new home. It would be nice to see if Willie's super duper hawk fighting skills run in the family, though!

Oh how I chuckled at this one, teila! I call my youngest son, Jacob, Jakey Beans. So much so that he introduces himself as Jakey or Jakey Beans. I also sometimes call him baby bean, LOL!
I love the surprise of not knowing what you will get, how exciting! And way to go Dusty!! You are moving into your spring down there, right?

We got our load of wood from the family lumber mill in GA, so DH is working hard to replace the railing and support the floor on the deck. What is next? Chicken coop… maybe?

Off to do some laundry, have a great day, all!

I have a thing for patterned birds in black white and silver which gives Magnus a considerable edge in the "Is he a keeper" dept. Remember the little white Marans chick?


Well he has grown up to be a beautiful little silver and black cockerel. I would like to keep him too maybe just long enough to get him to father some Marans chicks.

My daughter Kathleen is "Leen Bean"

Have fun with the laundry...by that I mean I hoe you get the same sense of satisfaction look at a laundry basket that is no longer overflowing that I do.

@lizgarf How many eggs a week does Lucy lay when she is laying? I would love to see a pic of your egg basket.

Actually I would love to see everyone's egg basket. I think I am as addicted to the eggs as I am to the chickens.

 

[lizgarf]

@lizgarf How many eggs a week does Lucy lay when she is laying? I would love to see a pic of your egg basket.

Actually I would love to see everyone's egg basket. I think I am as addicted to the eggs as I am to the chickens.

Lucy is not a particularly productive layer - she seems to lay only a little more often than the hens that are 2 years older than her. I'd say she lays 3-4 days in a row at her peak, and is laying 1-2 days in a row right now.
Lucy has been hanging around the short nest quite a lot lately! She seems more interested in them than the other nest - could it be she knows they're hers? I feel a little sorry for her these days, because she seems closer to the broodies than the big girls and is a little left out of the social circles at the moment. The big girls and all sleep on the far roost and Lucy hasn't joined them. I guess that's the symptom of being the only hen from her clutch.
As for keeping your marans roo - why not? Desi is a pretty loud crower, but a total sweetheart and gentleman (especially now that he's growing up), which I hear is typical of marans roosters.

 

[Teila]

Good morning Bridge Club

Bean appears to be a popular term of endearment

MM tee hee, LuLu is Joel’s little turtle; she can make her head totally disappear in all those feathers; turns into a headless chicken and looks so funny!

Yep, spring is on the way here in Aus and I am loving the sunny days. The gals have already gone from 5pm bedtime to 05:45pm and during summer this will stretch out to around 7pm.

Aaaw at Cielo and MJ; love is grand

TG wow, we definitely are sharing hatches at the same time; even due on the same day; I like that!

Thank you for the encouraging words also; all we can do is wait and see

Speaking of eggs, I started keeping an egg spreadsheet 3 months ago when they actually started laying again.

Tina’s is interesting to see 5 in a row then Broody and she is now sitting on 5 eggs!

Tina Cilla Blondie

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Before the spreadsheet I never really noticed a laying pattern; Cilla generally lays 2 days and then has a day off; over the past 3 months she has only broken that pattern 7 times. Blondie generally lays 3 days and then has a day off.

Probably very boring for anyone else but interesting for me

 

[MistyMountain]

Yay!!! I gave Gracie Belle 3 eggs yesterday too. I am so glad you got the Gloria eggs...they must be super special to be named and the one that is unmarked well that contains a top secret embryo. If it makes you feel any better I "know" people on the Northern CA thread who have incubated fertile grocery store eggs and had some hatch. Those for sure were older, handled more roughly and refrigerated. Tina has way better odds I would think

Love the leg feathers! Such cute family scenes. Lu's legs look great! Add Chick PT to your resume'


Originally Posted by Teila

OK weird but I I was thinking about Dusty's long egg laying break this morning and wondering if/when it would end. Atta girl Dusty!!

I have a thing for patterned birds in black white and silver which gives Magnus a considerable edge in the "Is he a keeper" dept. Remember the little white Marans chick?


Well he has grown up to be a beautiful little silver and black cockerel. I would like to keep him too maybe just long enough to get him to father some Marans chicks.

My daughter Kathleen is "Leen Bean"

Have fun with the laundry...by that I mean I hoe you get the same sense of satisfaction look at a laundry basket that is no longer overflowing that I do.

@lizgarf How many eggs a week does Lucy lay when she is laying? I would love to see a pic of your egg basket.

Actually I would love to see everyone's egg basket. I think I am as addicted to the eggs as I am to the chickens.

Oooo what does he look like now? Laundry was… well… unproductive. I am guilty of folding and leaving in laundry baskets until it is worn again… only to repeat the cycle. I lazed around all day with the boys, not doing much at all but collecting eggs every now and then. Someone broke one yesterday and I didn't want to give them a chance to do that again.

Your request for egg basket pics will follow this post.

Teila, I used to keep a tally on mine as well. Yours is much nicer than a couple slashes on the calendar. 7pm is bedtime at the latest point in the summer? It will stay light out until 9 here in July. Crazy how different things are! It's something I guess I never really think about having never travelled outside the USA.

 

[MistyMountain]

Here is the mini egg from a few days ago. Doesn't even make the scale move!! It had a super tiny yolk in it.

And here is my egg basket today. Not as full as it could be. I can not wait to add more shades of brown to the mix!!!

Bed time was interesting tonight. I went in the big coop and counted heads. There should have been 17 (Maude is in the tree) but I kept coming up with 18. It took me a bit to figure out that white chicken under Cielo's wing was MJ. I guess it is official. The not so little littles are on their own!!

 

[lizgarf]

Aw, I wish I had some of your blue eggs, MM! My egg basket is a bit too dull at the moment to take a picture of, sorry TG. All of the bantams are raising chicks, so I just have two XL cream-colored eggs and Lucy's large marans eggs. Bettina's eggs often have some pretty purple spots and Lucy's eggs are definitely varied and pretty, but it's a lot nicer when I have the variety from the bantams. If only Jan joined in the fun and gave us some blue eggs!

I took down the barriers between the popular kids and the rest of the coop today. It went pretty well, though not perfectly. The big hens aren't bothering the chicks, but Grace is too aggressively protective at the moment - at least with Marsha and Lucy. I hope she relaxes a bit, because she barely let the others get a drink of water. Not Bettina, though. Everyone, including the bubbies, seemed to understand that Bettina is a gentle giant and couldn't pose a threat if she tried.
The next step will be integrating Rousseau and her bubbies, who now have a bigger, expanded, nest, within the coop, but are still separated by wire. Grace is the main fear at the moment. Not surprising, I have a Broodzilla on my hands! I want Frankie to be as normal-looking as possible before I try. Lu and Cy are well on their way to being flock-ready, but Frankie is still a runt with a funny head (and a feather-challenged, submissive, broody mama).

It was nice to get the chance to spend time today with the bubbies without all that wire between us. I haven't handled the popular kids at all, but they know me as the treat-barer and are not scared of me unless I make a sudden motion. Just sitting with them for awhile, they'd run over my feet and sit really close. They'll eat yogurt off my fingers. I'm hoping for more cuddles from this clutch.

I'm starting to get a little worried about what it'll be like when these 9 chicks really get growing! We have managed to more-than double my flock! I'm not planning on keeping any of the boys, but even while they're growing up, it's going to be crowded in there, by my standards. After 2 years of responsible chicken-keeping, I have finally succumbed to chicken math! Help!!

 

[Teila]

Good evening Bridge Club

Another work day comes to an end; 4 little chookies all in a row on their roost and 1 little chookie snuggled up to her bubbies-in-egg-shell-pyjamas.

MM my washing gets folded as it comes off the line, straight inside and put away but then I do not have a busy house to run with young children. I confess to a very mild case of OCD; everything has it’s place and I like it to be there. I am not totally fanatical about it but my Ex always used to joke that he could go to the fridge in the middle of the night without the light working and still be able to go straight to what he wanted lol. I am not that bad! I would just like to be able to reach for the scissors because I know where they are; doesn’t happen! They are usually out on the BBQ table, Joel’s office, anywhere but where they should be.

Queensland does not take part in Daylight Savings, even though the rest of the East Coast does; very annoying being an hour behind clients we deal with all the time, means an earlier start for us. Anyways, being closer to the equator than you gals and no daylight savings means summer bed time for chookies is around the 7pm mark (5pm in winter).

Beautiful egg basket MM!!

Sorry TG not sharing my egg basket either; more like an egg-cup! I did get two today though, one from Cilla and one from Blondie. I have 11 eggs in the fridge; time to boil some!

Liz I would love to know if Lucy knew they were hers! ‘Experts’ would probably laugh at the thought but the only true experts are the chickens and sadly they can’t tell us.

Even with the slight technicalities you mentioned, good to read that day 1 of integration went reasonably smoothly. Leaving the special kids a bit longer sounds like a good plan.

Prior to giving Tina her eggs I would have described her as submissive .. not so much now! While not full on Broodzilla she is nowhere near as passive as Cilla is on eggs. I have been pecked a few times now and when she is in her little run, if any of the other gals come near she shrieks at them. The only way to describe it is similar to the noise a peacock makes!

Also great to read that the littlies are bonding with you. It is so nice to be able to just pick up the gals and not have them afraid of you.

I hear you call for “Help!!” regarding the chicken-math but on this occasion, I am helpless! I have a severe case of chicken-math myself

We have a tree out the front, on the Council side, whose roots have started to crack and lift our driveway. I have no idea what it is but so far I have been told it is an Australian Jackaranda and a Leopard Tree. Anyway, this tree is protected and the Council will not let anyone touch it but them. So, the contractors came out today and removed the cracked, raised driveway. Very proud of my gals not freaking out while the jackhammer was going for the majority of the day. The Council Tree Doctor showed up after the driveway was broken up and lifted and has sprayed the offending roots pink. Thursday the Council dudes are going to fix up those roots, Friday the contractors come back and prepare for new concrete and Saturday the concrete gets poured. One week after that, our driveway is OK to use.

I love trees but I have to chuckle at 'protected'. This tree has widespread, low lying branches which hang over the road, every small van or truck that goes past, cleans up a few branches, including the Council garbage truck

Time to get chookie breakfast prepared and then hit the recliner with a cup of Caramel Latte and zone out in front of the television. Actually, probably not zone out, we have a few series that we have really gotten into and have some catching up to do from the recorder.

 

[MistyMountain]

Liz, It sounds like we should do a swap… well maybe once your broodies get back in business, LOL! I love the blue eggs, but really want more brown. I hopefully have all shades covered with the upcoming cuckoo marans, welsummers, buff orphs, and cochins. I have successfully all but wiped out my white eggs from my basket, though the white little might contribute back to that department a bit. I have heard from so many people around here that people just don't want the blue or green eggs. I guess new things are a bit scary, but I think they are so cool. I also think that when they are hard-boiled they peel better, no matter how fresh they are. Hmm maybe with some testing that could become part of my marketing plan? Speaking of marketing, I have my first real customer that is not family or neighbors!! Wooo!

Teila, I too am guilty of mild OCD in some departments. If someone other than myself loads the dishwasher, I rearrange it before it runs. If someone other than DH or me cooks in my kitchen, everything gets stripped down and cleaned--- after they leave, of course. Dish and hand towels especially. I can relate about the scissors. I tend to put things in places for a reason, and if they are not there I only need to look as far as the three boys that I share my house with!
Thank you for the geography lesson, Teila! We probably would have learned about some of that in school but our teacher had a photographic memory and we spent many hours calling out a random page number in our text books for him to tell us exactly what was on that page right down to the clothes on the person in the picture. If he was wrong, we got a tootsie roll. In the middle of winter, dusk is quite close to 5 here as well. I remember when I was younger how much fun it was to play in the snow in the dark.
The Council, I assume, is your city government? That is pretty cool that they take care of that for you. You don't have to pay for the concrete, do you? My sister had a similar situation with the sidewalk in front of her house. Only similar because of the tree root. In her case, the city required her to repair the sidewalk and her driveway, at her cost (thousands of dollars).
Back to school today for my oldest, and my little one starts preschool tomorrow. Between school and soccer, our lives suddenly became busy again!

 

[arkansas55]

Good Morning Bridge Club
It's a rainy kinda day,great for coffee and chicken tv,our's are out foraging enjoying the gentle rain,buzzard's(aka Buzzy) is doing better,her eye is healing and today it's open and looks good,baby was overly huggy today,she's been on us all morning,miss peck's alot has been a good girl now for several days,no pecking ppl or chicken's,wooooooooohooooo,guess chicken jail changed her attitude.
All is well on our little farm today,their coop has been mucked out,feeder filled and water filled,fresh tomatoe's for a treat!But of course they perfer the rain and foraging,lol,seem's like they are having a good day,me too!!!!!!!!!!!
Wishing everyone an awesome day and hugs too