I Built A Bridge!

[tommysgirl]

Good morning Club

Thank you all so much for your lovely comments; I will pass them on to Tina

I have no idea how she stays so white either! She rolls in the dirt like everyone else and ends up so dirty but then a couple of hours later, sparkling white again

You all know that I love my gals and I do remember saying that I do not have a favourite but there is something about a broody on a nest that just tugs on the heart strings!

You know how they say that women have a ‘glow’ when they are pregnant; I wonder if the same goes for a broody hen … how could you not love that sweet face?

Liz lolz at “blue makeup” .. just cos a gal is broody does not mean she can’t look her best on the nest

Woo hooo .. let's get this Friday over and done with and bring on the weekend!!!

Maybe our girl Tina stays so white because of her silkie feathers. My Delawares look horrible right now. I actually think I am going to bathe them both this weekend.

She is a lovely broody and so photogenic. I like that you can still see her head and neck. Gracie and Julie look like piles of feathers in those nest boxes.

I would suspect it's from someone else. Wellsummers lay dark, terracotta, eggs - much darker than either of those. Enjoy the abundance, regardless!

Unless she's hiding them (unlikely), Marsha hasn't laid in 3 days. She might be on strike until Broodzilla calms down, or she might be doing an early molt, or a combination of both. Sigh.
Grace and Rousseau have been sparring between the wire separating the short nest. I want to integrate them tomorrow - those bubbies have been waiting a long time while the popular kids run amok. I'm nervous about it, wish us luck!

Best of luck with the integration liz! Frankie's noggin must be looking better. Someone told me to toss treats into the area where I would be integrating so that there are more attractive options than being a mean girl and also to make sure there is more than one food/water station. You probably already know this but wanted to share incase you hadn't heard it

This chica egg from yesterday on the left looks quite different than this brown egg found in the nest box today. Hmmm... Is a wellie contributing to the egg basket?

I do not know but like @16 paws says apparently they were listening when you said you wanted more brown in your basket.

Speaking of baskets thanks for posting yours here is mine:

I have 17 layers right now - 4 raising or sitting or about to begin sitting so I should be getting more but I think heat plays a role. I have had a couple of 12 egg days though and new Olive Egger, the 2 Marans and 2 Ameraucauna should add some nice color once they are laying. I also have Stella who should lay a lovely little cream egg and Aster and Garnet and Topaz and my 2 New Hampshire girls who, when they start laying with add more brown.

And yes don't think anyone is necessarily keeping track besides me but my girl Beak Face is back on the nest. So I have GB and JT with eggs BF waiting for some and Norma Ray...still hanging in with those babies who are 7 weeks old today!! Gracie Belle hung out with Garnet even longer. Laid 2 or 3 eggs then went broody again

I have contacted a breeder here on BYC who has Blue Barred Plymouth Rock. I hope to get her eggs unless I can find some others close by with breeds that I want.

I have also had contact with a woman who lives in Chico, 2 hours away, who has two Bantam Cochin pullets one of which carries the frizzle gene...I am very tempted to pick them up but haven't decided yet for sure...on the one hand I would be getting known pullets and eliminating the guess work of hatching...on the other hand...I want to hatch them and get them to love me from day 1. On the third hand getting over to Chico will be a pain in the butt now that school is in session again as I won't want to take the time after work or on one of my precious weekends to get over there.

Finally, I have a mystery in the coop. I found a partial egg shell in Gracie Belle's nest on Tues. There was no egg goo or anything just the small end of an egg shell. I had given her 3 eggs on Sunday but only two remained.

I looked under Julie but it wasn't there either. Weird. But I candled Gracie's remaining two eggs last night. and am relieved to report that there is veining in both. I love candling white eggs you can see so much!!!

I hope hope hope that I can get those Plymouth Rock eggs!

I hope you all have great weekends!

 

[Teila]

Tee hee Ark, I am glad someone does! I am trying very hard not to get my hopes up with this hatch.

OK, cement dudes should be here shortly, inside chores done .. I am ready to have some fun in the sun!!

Enjoy your day, afternoon, evening etc.

Oh yeah, be warned, I will have the camera with me

 

[arkansas55]

Tee hee Ark, I am glad someone does! I am trying very hard not to get my hopes up with this hatch.

OK, cement dudes should be here shortly, inside chores done .. I am ready to have some fun in the sun!!

Enjoy your day, afternoon, evening etc.

Oh yeah, be warned, I will have the camera with me

you go girl,can't wait for the pic's,its 99 degree's here,so i wont be going out till about 7:30 but i'll be thinking of you,have fun

 

[lizgarf]

Hello, hello!
First day of full integration could have been worse and could have been better. No one got seriously hurt, but there sure was a lot of huffing and puffing and aerial chest-bumping. After spending most of 2 hours inside the coop (anyone remember Birdman from the 80's? That was me, sitting inside the coop), I finally decided to close the short nest back off again so I could go about my business. Sigh. Mainly it was Grace trying to pick fights with Rousseau, and occasionally Frida doing the same (and giving at least one peck to Lu or Cy), and then the chicks trying it out with each other (could all the popular kids be boys?). When the aunties and Desi came back in after ranging, there was new hullabaloo, with Desi trying to dominate Grace and the aunties checking out the short nest. In the end, like I said, no one hurt and it could have been worse, but I had hoped for better. We'll try again tomorrow.

In other news, I was sad to see the main nest empty, after Marsha had spent a good deal of time in it. Here's hoping Lucy doesn't do a molt this year, as she may be my only relatively-steady layer until spring. All of you with your lovely and full egg baskets, enjoy!

 

[16 paws]

Maybe our girl Tina stays so white because of her silkie feathers. My Delawares look horrible right now. I actually think I am going to bathe them both this weekend.

She is a lovely broody and so photogenic. I like that you can still see her head and neck. Gracie and Julie look like piles of feathers in those nest boxes.

Best of luck with the integration liz! Frankie's noggin must be looking better. Someone told me to toss treats into the area where I would be integrating so that there are more attractive options than being a mean girl and also to make sure there is more than one food/water station. You probably already know this but wanted to share incase you hadn't heard it

I do not know but like @16 paws says apparently they were listening when you said you wanted more brown in your basket.

Speaking of baskets thanks for posting yours here is mine:

I have 17 layers right now - 4 raising or sitting or about to begin sitting so I should be getting more but I think heat plays a role. I have had a couple of 12 egg days though and new Olive Egger, the 2 Marans and 2 Ameraucauna should add some nice color once they are laying. I also have Stella who should lay a lovely little cream egg and Aster and Garnet and Topaz and my 2 New Hampshire girls who, when they start laying with add more brown.

And yes don't think anyone is necessarily keeping track besides me but my girl Beak Face is back on the nest. So I have GB and JT with eggs BF waiting for some and Norma Ray...still hanging in with those babies who are 7 weeks old today!! Gracie Belle hung out with Garnet even longer. Laid 2 or 3 eggs then went broody again

I have contacted a breeder here on BYC who has Blue Barred Plymouth Rock. I hope to get her eggs unless I can find some others close by with breeds that I want.

I have also had contact with a woman who lives in Chico, 2 hours away, who has two Bantam Cochin pullets one of which carries the frizzle gene...I am very tempted to pick them up but haven't decided yet for sure...on the one hand I would be getting known pullets and eliminating the guess work of hatching...on the other hand...I want to hatch them and get them to love me from day 1. On the third hand getting over to Chico will be a pain in the butt now that school is in session again as I won't want to take the time after work or on one of my precious weekends to get over there.

Finally, I have a mystery in the coop. I found a partial egg shell in Gracie Belle's nest on Tues. There was no egg goo or anything just the small end of an egg shell. I had given her 3 eggs on Sunday but only two remained.

I looked under Julie but it wasn't there either. Weird. But I candled Gracie's remaining two eggs last night. and am relieved to report that there is veining in both. I love candling white eggs you can see so much!!!

I hope hope hope that I can get those Plymouth Rock eggs!

I hope you all have great weekends!

Hi Tommysgirl,

Beautiful egg basket. Nice assortment of colors too. I was reading your post about the bantam cochin pullets and wonder, how do you tell if they carry the frizzle gene? I have quite a few bantam cochins and wonder if any may be frizzle.

That is strange about the missing egg with a partial shell. I have had many missing eggs from the nest and never did figure out what happened. The shell being there is a new one for me. Humm

Good luck on the plymouth eggs!
great weekend to you as well

Marie

 

[Teila]

Gooood morning Bridge Club

TG hhhm, I am not sure if Silkie feathers just have a knack for staying white. I know for sure that it is not because nothing sticks to them, poop sticks to Silkie feathers very well! Lol.

Beautiful egg basket TG!

I vote ‘Yes’ for picking up the Bantam Cochins but you should not be surprised, I reckon you all know by now that I love the Cochins.

Fingers crossed that you get those Plymouth Rock eggs.

Liz “integration could have been worse and could have been better”. Yep, it could have been better in that everyone was instantly one big happy family but we know our chookies better than that

I hope the next attempt is smoother and looking forward to hearing how it went.

Oh no; please, please, please do not let all the popular kids be boys!

Oh dear, also hoping you are not steaming full on into another egg drought, I remember you have already had your fair share of egg drought last year!

We had a great day yesterday and once I get all the housework done this morning, hopefully some more fun in the sun this afternoon.

Tina is still sitting tight on the eggs. I also believe LuLu is very close to that first egg .. found her lurking in the nest box yesterday; testing it out.

I did not get a heap of good photos yesterday but have a few to share. Of course, I will be armed with the camera again this afternoon

The driveway was prepped and ready for the mixer:



The mixer arrived:



All done!



Dusty appears to have switched from a gal who I could not get a good picture of to Little-Miss-Photogenic:



I love this one of LuLu; talk about randomly sticking a chicken head on a pile of feathers lol! Check out the nice red comb. Over the last two weeks I swear you could nearly watch it grow!



And to finish, after lots of posy head shots, a fun butt shot of Cilla and Blondie trying to bury the paved path:

 

[tommysgirl]

Hi Tommysgirl,

Beautiful egg basket. Nice assortment of colors too. I was reading your post about the bantam cochin pullets and wonder, how do you tell if they carry the frizzle gene? I have quite a few bantam cochins and wonder if any may be frizzle.

That is strange about the missing egg with a partial shell. I have had many missing eggs from the nest and never did figure out what happened. The shell being there is a new one for me. Humm

Good luck on the plymouth eggs!
great weekend to you as well

Marie

Well shoot, turns out Beakface was only teasing so I am not going to be ordering those eggs this weekend for sure. I will be sure to let you know when she gets her next set though. Re your frizzle question, The breeder has a bantam pen with smooth and frizzled cochins in it. Apparently the mother of this one is frizzled so she has the gene but she herself is not frizzled. Half of her offspring should be. I was reading up on frizzles and you are not supposed to breed frizzled to frizzled b/c bad things happen with a double dose of the gene. Not sure what happens when you breed friz to friz carrier but I think that is OK.

I know the missing egg thing is bizarre. I am thinking maybe a squirrel took it but why was part of the shell still there and no goo.

Gooood morning Bridge Club

TG hhhm, I am not sure if Silkie feathers just have a knack for staying white. I know for sure that it is not because nothing sticks to them, poop sticks to Silkie feathers very well! Lol.

Beautiful egg basket TG!

I vote ‘Yes’ for picking up the Bantam Cochins but you should not be surprised, I reckon you all know by now that I love the Cochins.

Fingers crossed that you get those Plymouth Rock eggs.

Liz “integration could have been worse and could have been better”. Yep, it could have been better in that everyone was instantly one big happy family but we know our chookies better than that

I hope the next attempt is smoother and looking forward to hearing how it went.

Oh no; please, please, please do not let all the popular kids be boys!

Oh dear, also hoping you are not steaming full on into another egg drought, I remember you have already had your fair share of egg drought last year!

We had a great day yesterday and once I get all the housework done this morning, hopefully some more fun in the sun this afternoon.

Tina is still sitting tight on the eggs. I also believe LuLu is very close to that first egg .. found her lurking in the nest box yesterday; testing it out.

I did not get a heap of good photos yesterday but have a few to share. Of course, I will be armed with the camera again this afternoon

The driveway was prepped and ready for the mixer:



The mixer arrived:



All done!



Dusty appears to have switched from a gal who I could not get a good picture of to Little-Miss-Photogenic:



I love this one of LuLu; talk about randomly sticking a chicken head on a pile of feathers lol! Check out the nice red comb. Over the last two weeks I swear you could nearly watch it grow!



And to finish, after lots of posy head shots, a fun butt shot of Cilla and Blondie trying to bury the paved path:

Hee hee nice shorts on that one guy! They must where them shorter there than they do here Love your pics!


@lizgarf it will be better but it is stressful for sure. I am moving my littles in with the bigs this week too. Hope your next attempt is like silk!

 

[Teila]

Well shoot, turns out Beakface was only teasing so I am not going to be ordering those eggs this weekend for sure. I will be sure to let you know when she gets her next set though.


Hee hee nice shorts on that one guy! They must where them shorter there than they do here Love your pics!

Aaaw, that is a downer TG!

Tee hee, yep, they are called 'Stubbies'. I wondered when I posted if anyone would comment lol. They were 'all the rage' a few years ago but the trend for the guys now seems to be longer leg. Having said that, there are quite a few Tradies around who are reluctant to part with their 'Stubbies'

 

[lizgarf]

Thanks ladies!
I just closed up the short nest for the evening, after spending most of the day in the coop. I even brought a transcript in with me to read. It was debatable as to whether I was ever a crazy cat lady, but I am definitely a crazy chicken lady!
I guess today was better, in that integration was longer, but Grace and Frida are both just crazy, and I can't really leave them all alone together yet. At one point, I was working nearby in the yard and heard a hullabaloo, and rushed to find Frida had cornered poor Frankie in the crate. No damage was done, but I don't know if I could have said the same if I wasn't nearby. I don't know what's wrong with the broodies this year! The aunties and Desi are getting along great with Rousseau and all the littles, but Grace and Frida are just being psycho. It's like they're trying to take over the whole coop for their brood. The aunties are even protecting Rousseau and her babies a bit, but they're mostly hanging out in the run or in the back so as not to deal with the Broodzillas at all.

So, I guess my strategy is supervised mingling over a period of several days until hopefully everyone calms down or the littles are a little less vulnerable.

But, I did learn a fun game today: after putting yogurt on my fingers for a few days and having the littles lick my fingers, I moved the cup on my lap and got a few of them to sit on my lap to eat it! So, that's good progress on the cuddly-chick front! If they all survive the warzone they're currently living in unscarred, they should be sweet chickens!

Oh, and a couple of them are already jumping up into the roost! Not even two weeks old, most of them! Definitely a high-flying bunch.

Hope you're not too disappointed about the lack of a broody, TG! At this point, I'd be happy to never have a hen go broody again!

May things continue to go smoothly for you, Teila. I agree with TG, that Lulu is looking ready to lay! Such a pretty girl! I was looking at some pictures from last year's hatch, and Rousseau almost looked like Lulu, rather than the poor feather-worn mess she is now. (Actually, I've heard that dual frizzles can wind up feather-challenged, maybe the way Rousseau is now. Not sure if there are other consequences.) Frankie and maybe one of the other chicks should have the frizzle gene, but I don't know if they'll be frizzles. (I'm not 100% sure there were 2 Rousseau eggs, as Frida and her lay similar eggs.) Does anyone know when the frizzle feathers start coming in?
And thanks for the well-wishes on the egg front. Bettina and Lucy both laid today (though Lucy had to fight her way to the nest). Marsha may be done for awhile. TG, you have some older hens, don't you? Have many of them stopped laying or slowed way, way down?

 

[Teila]

Liz, gives a whole new meaning to cooped up with work doesn’t it? Not crazy in my eyes; makes total sense to me!

I wonder what is going on with Grace and Frida; they sure sound like they are laying the Broodzilla on a bit thick! Your strategy sounds like a good plan. Hopefully a couple more supervised integrations is all it will take.

I like your sweet chickens plan also.

Wow, jumping on the roost so young is adventurous!

I had also heard that breeding a Frizzle to a Frizzle could lead to major feather issues. As you know, I am definitely far from an expert on Frizzles but all the reading I have done points towards the bubs actually feathering out with frizzle feathers. So, if the feathers they are getting now are not frizzled, they will not be Frizzles. As I said though, just what I have read and I could be wrong and happy to be told so if anyone else chimes in

Funny you should mention Lucy having to fight her way to the nest; chickenalities made for an interesting today here also.

The gals have two large nests which, up until today, they have shared without issue:



Cilla and Dusty lay next to each other, Blondie and Cilla, Blondie and Dusty; no dramas! OK, there may be some jostling for their favourite nest box of the two, but quite happy to lay side by side.

Well, throw in chickenality and not so smooth today; Blondie did not want LuLu to lay next to her! Talk about chicken wars, screeching and pecking etc. Poor little LuLu just wanted to lay her first egg. Mum to the rescue..........



Amazing what you can do with a beer carton and a pair of scissors in an emergency! LuLu's first egg arrived not much later

We all said she was close and we were right

Then mum set to with the hand-saw and the back of an old cupboard to fix something more stable .. ah, chickenality; makes every day interesting!



Then it was time for our special Sunday treat-time when everyone gets to share a slice of cheese, including Tina who got hers special delivery to the nest.

They love their Sunday Cheese. People reckon chickens are not too smart but if I call "cheese" they come running and like you Liz I have chickens sitting on my legs and jostling for best position. They get a small piece each in turn until it has gone but that does not stop them pinching each others. Each little piece they get I say their name as they take it; maybe I am crazy but I believe my gals know their names!

Anyways, chicken breakfast to prepare and then time to psych myself up that tomorrow is Monday! Eeew!

Take care gals and happy chickens!