I Built A Bridge!

[ItalyChickie]

Oh no IC! I hope you are feeling much better! Lovely pics and super happy to hear about the adoptive mom there. Way to go Ombretta!! You're right, I only see one row of peas which would make me think pullet. That said, even my pullets had tiny second and third rows of peas. The rooster's pea comb had all three rows that were almost the same size. How old are they?

Oh, I am all better now, thanks!

The Auracanas are 11 weeks old. It's definitely not a straight comb on the blue one though... there are some bumps on the sides though they are too small to show up in the pics. Probably not pea comb though, because even the definite girl has more obvious bumps, though they are much lighter in color.

The definite girl:



The most-likely-boy (no extra blue egg for me, sigh!) with some sort of a combination comb:



Their half-sister with a straight comb:



Same aged banty boy with a straight comb:




But, I have MUCH bigger news!!!!! I guess I didn't remember the exact day I gave Bonnie eggs, or maybe they're early, but this is what I found when I went to check on her earlier, expecting at the most a pip or two:

There's also a light brown one still drying off under there, and at least one unhatched egg, so I'm leaving them alone for now. Better pictures tomorrow!

 

[ItalyChickie]

Quickie update: there are 5, plus one unhatched and unpipped egg (I'll let Bonnie decide whether it's viable, she seems to be getting a bit restless, but not giving up yet).

 

[lizgarf]

But, I have MUCH bigger news!!!!! I guess I didn't remember the exact day I gave Bonnie eggs, or maybe they're early, but this is what I found when I went to check on her earlier, expecting at the most a pip or two:

There's also a light brown one still drying off under there, and at least one unhatched egg, so I'm leaving them alone for now. Better pictures tomorrow!

Those pictures are amazing!! Congratulations!!!!!!!!!
What breed are they? So precious!
I also love the coloring in the half-sister.

So, this is sort of interesting: I didn't check the nest after 4:30 yesterday, because I was busy and figured it would be too late for Jan to lay again. But, this morning, when I checked the nest, there was a sage egg on the preferred side of the divided nest box, and all of the chick poop was on the other side. I'm guessing this means that Rousseau saw the egg last night and chose the other side, so as not to let the babies mess with it! I can't think of any other explanation for her choosing the much-less desirable side of the nest! Or, maybe Jan was in there when they settled down. Not sure, but it was a welcome surprise!

 

[tommysgirl]

Quickie update: there are 5, plus one unhatched and unpipped egg (I'll let Bonnie decide whether it's viable, she seems to be getting a bit restless, but not giving up yet).

These are great pics and it is such exciting news! Does Bonnie have a crest? Her comb looks different too. What breed is she. She is a looker for sure!

Those pictures are amazing!! Congratulations!!!!!!!!!
What breed are they? So precious!
I also love the coloring in the half-sister.

So, this is sort of interesting: I didn't check the nest after 4:30 yesterday, because I was busy and figured it would be too late for Jan to lay again. But, this morning, when I checked the nest, there was a sage egg on the preferred side of the divided nest box, and all of the chick poop was on the other side. I'm guessing this means that Rousseau saw the egg last night and chose the other side, so as not to let the babies mess with it! I can't think of any other explanation for her choosing the much-less desirable side of the nest! Or, maybe Jan was in there when they settled down. Not sure, but it was a welcome surprise!

I have seen the Jan egg pics and I am so happy not only for the first egg but for all the ones that have come after! I knew she would eventually lay an egg. How old is she? My EE Rosie is my least reliable layer. About 3 a week and 0 when the heat puts her off but she lays a nice big egg when she lays one.

In other egg news, Stella laid her first perfect little pullet egg yesterday. She hatched 4/19 so she is about 24 weeks old! She squatted for me yesterday morning for the first time and when I got home there was her egg. She wins the contest for my 2014 girls. Since she is half silkie I imagine she will decide to be a mama soon...like tomorrow

Still waiting on Cass my red star who is 4 weeks younger. My hatchery RS started laying at about 18 weeks but Cass is home bred. She is much heavier than my first RS girls and her markings are different. Clearly there is something else in the woodpile at the hatchery, leghorn probably. Cass' daddy was a hatchery New Hampshire but her mama is a breeder quality Delaware and she was getting pinker and wattleiscious but she seems to have hit a plateau. Any day now though. I wonder if her egg will look like my other RS eggs even though she doesn't.

I assume that all of my younger girls probably won't lay until after the first of the year since they hatched in June and July and September. I look forward to getting those Marans and Ameraucana eggs for their color as well as the rest of the brown ones just because it is fun to have oodles of eggs. What I really want is to NEED an egg basket for gathering.

I know it is early buy I think I can count on the Petunia chick being a pullet. She is virtually combless at this point. I will try to find time to get some pics.

@Misty Mountain @Teila @16 paws

Love your pics! I am glad that lost birds are found, little birds are frizzled, new birds are laying and none of us seem to have much drama in our coops

I think your hands are perfect mama/farmer hands MM!

Cosmo continues to be put out of the pen every morning. He doesn't like it but the little girls in his pen do. The 3 mamas allow their babies to come up to us and climb on our feet and hands. They have the coop to themselves since they are out of control as a team...mama mob mentality takes over and my more mild mannered girls don't know what hit em!

Ike continues to tolerate Cosmo until he mounts one of the pullets then Ike speeds toward him, bashes into him and sends him sailing. No sparring so I am grateful. Little Cosmo wouldn't stand a chance.

 

[16 paws]

MistyMountain,

Bonnie and company are toooooo adorable. Those pictures you got on the first day are my favorite, Bonnie is so pretty and she looks so happy with her new crew! LOVE LOVE LOVE

 

[Teila]

Howdy Bridge Club

MM Maude is a very naughty chicken for giving you a scare but I am so happy that she is OK!

IC sorry to hear that you were unwell and glad that you are better now. Beautiful pictures of Ombretta and her family; she is a good girl!

I am definitely not an expert when it comes to Araucana’s but agree that the combs definitely look different.

Congratulations on the bubbies! What a beautiful surprise; those pips you were expecting were peeps lol. Great pictures

Liz I love how close all your girls are and your stories of Auntie Marsha; such a sweetheart.

TG woo hoo Stella! Lolz on tomorrow being broody; if it wasn’t half true it would be funny.

I checked back on the spreadsheet and Tina laid her very first egg on the 5th August and 11 eggs later went broody of the 26th!

I have news also! I am 90% convinced that ‘Spot’ is feathering out Frizzle!! I can’t wait to see the colouring ‘Spot’ turns out to be; I have no idea at the moment what colour. ‘Gloria’ is beautiful but I am starting to have my suspicions that ‘Gloria’ may be ‘George’. Very early days yet but just making a prediction.

Blondie has just finished Day 9 and going strong. When I let her out for her supervised free range this afternoon Dusty attacked her, giving her a fairly hard peck to the neck. Blondie seems OK and no blood but she did let out a bit of a cry which, of course, nearly bought me to tears; my poor little girl! Not long after that Blondie decided to pick on LuLu. Dusty was fine after her initial angst and was OK with Blondie while she was out. Going to have to be more careful when letting them out together now.

Spring is definitely here. I was taking the second picture to show you the beautiful colouring of the bushes next to our gazebo when I spotted this:



They have built their nest under the carport guttering in a metal bracket which used to support the pergola timbers. It backs onto a brick wall, is protected by the drain from the top, the piece of timber on the right used to hold the spotlight but gives her great protection and the gazebo protects her from the front and pretty much from the side also .. clever little doves!

Makes a change from chicken pictures … hopefully baby dove pictures soon!

The bushes I was originally taking a picture of:



The brick wall on the left is where she has her nest; nice view!

Wednesday, during our IT Team Meeting, I found out that this weekend is a long weekend; lol, I had no idea! So right now I am pretty happy to know I have the next 3 days off!

 

[ItalyChickie]

Those pictures are amazing!! Congratulations!!!!!!!!!
What breed are they? So precious!
I also love the coloring in the half-sister.

So, this is sort of interesting: I didn't check the nest after 4:30 yesterday, because I was busy and figured it would be too late for Jan to lay again. But, this morning, when I checked the nest, there was a sage egg on the preferred side of the divided nest box, and all of the chick poop was on the other side. I'm guessing this means that Rousseau saw the egg last night and chose the other side, so as not to let the babies mess with it! I can't think of any other explanation for her choosing the much-less desirable side of the nest! Or, maybe Jan was in there when they settled down. Not sure, but it was a welcome surprise!

Yay for the less desirable side of the nest being used! See, sometimes they do give us nice surprises too! (As opposed the "Oh no, she is broody AGAIN!" kind, or the "What, still no egg?" kind.)

Thank you for the compliments on the chicks' pics! They are all mixes - the eggs were from the Red Stars, and a red star mix, Dora (besides my leghorn, these were the only ones laying at the time - everyone else was either raising chicks or setting on eggs). The dads were likely my boys from the first hatch this year, so also mixes with some silkie blood. Could also be the pure silkie, but it doesn't seem like it - the chicks have very little or no leg feathering. It's amazing the variations I get even with the same parents though... For example, Dora (below) has the same parents as Bonnie, my broody, and they are nothing alike.

Here's Dora with one of potential dads, and the silkie grandpa.



This is another potential dad - older picture, as he's one of the boys that went to a neighbor (tried to take a pic over the fence, but he was too far).

These are great pics and it is such exciting news! Does Bonnie have a crest? Her comb looks different too. What breed is she. She is a looker for sure!

I have seen the Jan egg pics and I am so happy not only for the first egg but for all the ones that have come after! I knew she would eventually lay an egg. How old is she? My EE Rosie is my least reliable layer. About 3 a week and 0 when the heat puts her off but she lays a nice big egg when she lays one.

In other egg news, Stella laid her first perfect little pullet egg yesterday. She hatched 4/19 so she is about 24 weeks old! She squatted for me yesterday morning for the first time and when I got home there was her egg. She wins the contest for my 2014 girls. Since she is half silkie I imagine she will decide to be a mama soon...like tomorrow

Still waiting on Cass my red star who is 4 weeks younger. My hatchery RS started laying at about 18 weeks but Cass is home bred. She is much heavier than my first RS girls and her markings are different. Clearly there is something else in the woodpile at the hatchery, leghorn probably. Cass' daddy was a hatchery New Hampshire but her mama is a breeder quality Delaware and she was getting pinker and wattleiscious but she seems to have hit a plateau. Any day now though. I wonder if her egg will look like my other RS eggs even though she doesn't.

I assume that all of my younger girls probably won't lay until after the first of the year since they hatched in June and July and September. I look forward to getting those Marans and Ameraucana eggs for their color as well as the rest of the brown ones just because it is fun to have oodles of eggs. What I really want is to NEED an egg basket for gathering.

I know it is early buy I think I can count on the Petunia chick being a pullet. She is virtually combless at this point. I will try to find time to get some pics.


Cosmo continues to be put out of the pen every morning. He doesn't like it but the little girls in his pen do. The 3 mamas allow their babies to come up to us and climb on our feet and hands. They have the coop to themselves since they are out of control as a team...mama mob mentality takes over and my more mild mannered girls don't know what hit em!

Ike continues to tolerate Cosmo until he mounts one of the pullets then Ike speeds toward him, bashes into him and sends him sailing. No sparring so I am grateful. Little Cosmo wouldn't stand a chance.

Thanks! Yes, Bonnie has a crest which is soft and looks like brown hair, and that comb can pass for a red bow on top of her head.

I think she's adorable too. She came from a Red Star egg, and dad was a roo that we sorta borrowed from a friend (when we first decided we wanted chickens, we definitely wanted a roo with them, but we got chicks too, so a friend who has chickens roaming free all over his enormous farm said we could take one of his and give him back if one of the chicks grew up to be a boy) - so I don't really know what breed her dad is, but based on body shape and legs - short and stocky - there's definitely Dorking blood. I am also assuming he is the one who passed on the broodiness gene, as all his daughters are super broody.

Congratulations on Stella egg!!! Those first eggs are so precious. And yeah... silkie crosses... I had one go broody after laying her first 6 eggs last year. I'm hoping Stella waits a bit longer, but realize that there is a very good chance she won't.

I'm with you on the egg basket thing, and waiting for next year, as my oldest girls are from May 30th hatch... can't wait for spring! (although still hoping that someone will surprise me and lay in autumn/winter)

Poor Cosmo... but yeah, I can see how that would be the only solution. Those teenage boys are hard to deal with.

Lol on the mama mob mentality! Hopefully they'll calm down pretty soon.

MistyMountain,

Bonnie and company are toooooo adorable. Those pictures you got on the first day are my favorite, Bonnie is so pretty and she looks so happy with her new crew! LOVE LOVE LOVE

Thanks! (I'm assuming you meant me.)

Those were all first/same day pictures, but I know what you mean, the earlier ones before I moved them, with some just hatched and her super protective. Today they ventured outside for a bit, a couple of times, but I didn't get pics of that - still, I do have some new ones that are coming up.

Howdy Bridge Club

MM Maude is a very naughty chicken for giving you a scare but I am so happy that she is OK!

IC sorry to hear that you were unwell and glad that you are better now. Beautiful pictures of Ombretta and her family; she is a good girl!

I am definitely not an expert when it comes to Araucana’s but agree that the combs definitely look different.

Congratulations on the bubbies! What a beautiful surprise; those pips you were expecting were peeps lol. Great pictures

Liz I love how close all your girls are and your stories of Auntie Marsha; such a sweetheart.

TG woo hoo Stella! Lolz on tomorrow being broody; if it wasn’t half true it would be funny.

I checked back on the spreadsheet and Tina laid her very first egg on the 5th August and 11 eggs later went broody of the 26th!

I have news also! I am 90% convinced that ‘Spot’ is feathering out Frizzle!! I can’t wait to see the colouring ‘Spot’ turns out to be; I have no idea at the moment what colour. ‘Gloria’ is beautiful but I am starting to have my suspicions that ‘Gloria’ may be ‘George’. Very early days yet but just making a prediction.

Blondie has just finished Day 9 and going strong. When I let her out for her supervised free range this afternoon Dusty attacked her, giving her a fairly hard peck to the neck. Blondie seems OK and no blood but she did let out a bit of a cry which, of course, nearly bought me to tears; my poor little girl! Not long after that Blondie decided to pick on LuLu. Dusty was fine after her initial angst and was OK with Blondie while she was out. Going to have to be more careful when letting them out together now.

Spring is definitely here. I was taking the second picture to show you the beautiful colouring of the bushes next to our gazebo when I spotted this:


They have built their nest under the carport guttering in a metal bracket which used to support the pergola timbers. It backs onto a brick wall, is protected by the drain from the top, the piece of timber on the right used to hold the spotlight but gives her great protection and the gazebo protects her from the front and pretty much from the side also .. clever little doves!

Makes a change from chicken pictures … hopefully baby dove pictures soon!

The bushes I was originally taking a picture of:


The brick wall on the left is where she has her nest; nice view!

Wednesday, during our IT Team Meeting, I found out that this weekend is a long weekend; lol, I had no idea! So right now I am pretty happy to know I have the next 3 days off!

Thanks Teila! And yeah, I got peeps instead of pips! Lol! Can you believe I've been so completely relaxed that I didn't check daily and didn't notice the pips the day before? Crazy I tell you!

I MUST see pictures of Spot's frizzle feathers!

(I also must have a frizzle, but let's not talk about that for now...)

Sorry to hear Blondie got pecked, but glad she's ok. It's probably all part of adjusting to her new role of mom/broodzilla... I'm sure they'll all learn to get alone soon.

We have a dove nest too, with 3 tiny eggs - or possibly baby doves by now. It's up in a tree though, so quite hard to take pictures of... but I remember they started sitting around the same time I gave Bonnie eggs, so I'll probably see the babies soon enough, maybe will get a picture then.



Of course, I must share some new Bonnie and family pics. Here they are:














Oh, and while I was spying on Bonnie last night before bedtime through the fence, one of the teenage silkie crosses decided that my shoulder made a far better roost than anything they had in the coop, so I must share this felfie (I'm pretty sure that qualifies as one) with you as well.

 

[16 paws]

Oh I am so sorry,
I got it mixed up, congratulations ItalyChickie!! Well I am confused, isnt MistyMountain expecting also?

Cant keep up with all the newbies....

 

[MistyMountain]

Oh I am so sorry,
I got it mixed up, congratulations ItalyChickie!! Well I am confused, isnt MistyMountain expecting also?

Cant keep up with all the newbies....

Just expecting eggs here! Lol!
Speaking of expecting... My little sister just went public with her news of expecting a bubbie of the two legged non feathered variety! I'm gonna be an Aunt!! (again!)

 

[Teila]

Quick visit .... beautiful day outside!!

Blondie's new extension so she can have a stretch without Dusty picking on her. It's not pretty but it will do the trick!:



'Gloria' is feathering out nicely:

My little dinosaur!!







I need you help on 'Spot'. Still pretty sure 'Spot' is a Frizzle but the next few days will tell. It is the colour I am more fascinated by! I have no idea what to call it ... it's like a silver! I know it is early days but interested to know your thoughts???





The little sweetheart knew I was trying to get a good photo of the wing and was very obliging!! lol