I Built A Bridge!

[lizgarf]

I just found Jan's secret nest!!
I thought it was weird that she was laying once every 4 days! Now, it looks like she has been laying 2 days in a row, with the morning eggs in the nestbox and the afternoon eggs in the backyard in a very well-chosen spot that I only found because I saw her make a beeline straight there today! There were 4 eggs in the secret nest, after laying today's egg, and only one of them looked like it should be tossed, since it was slightly cracked. Another was pretty dirty, but I'm going to boil it and give to Reggie, who has not been getting her usual egg quota with the drought and all.

I spoke a little too soon yesterday about it being easier to manage the flock. It was actually very hard to get Frankie back in to the coop, without his posse. I'm hoping today will go better. He's snuggled up with Rousseau in the yard right now.

Still no interest out there in my cross boys. Sigh.

 

[MistyMountain]

Liz, Yay for the BCM boys! So happy to hear that they have found a good home! Happy you were able to find Jan's secret nest! That is always one of my biggest fears free ranging--- that they will lay somewhere else. I have only had one instance of that with Mable, but she has turned around well.

Teila, Great pics! Happy to hear integration is settling down well. Now if you could only get Miss Grumpy to settle down!

TG, Love the chicken hug pic! I had no clue! I don't know if I could convince anyone here to take my pic hugging a chicken, it will probably end up being a felfie!!

I have a little bit of news here. Anna (Blue Cochin), Wanda (Wellie), and the two cuckoo marans are still freeloading, but Daphne, the Leghorn/SLW mix was checking out the nest box today. I can not wait for these summer babies to lay!

We went to the house of one of DH's colleagues on Saturday night for Chili. It turns out, they are looking for some pullets. They had some on order, but they are not coming in (not sure where they ordered POL pullets this time of year…). Anyhow, some time soon the triplets will be heading up the mountain to their new home!! I feel super good about this because I know these people will take care of them for life, not just change their mind and try to swap them out for whatever breed is their favorite this week. I see a lot of that around here. I was only holding on to them for that reason--- I would rather pay to feed them than have them jump from swap to swap so someone else can make money on them. We are just going to give them to them, though. My oldest jumped out of the car as soon as we got there and scratched their van with our car door. They didn't care one bit even though we wanted to make sure it got taken care of. Super nice people. I figure them going to a good home with super nice people to "pay" for the scratch and not having to feed them through winter is a good enough price.

So, once the triplets go, poor blackbeard will be lonesome. There is no way 3 roosters would get along in one coop, at least not these three. Best not to push my luck. I figure that although the 3 newbies have been fully accepted into the big flock, they would be the best group to put back with Blackbeard. They are mostly still at the bottom of the pecking order and it will increase my in the coop area to a little over 3 sq ft per bird and run up to 11 sq ft per bird. I think that will be much less stressful over the winter lockdown months.
We have had a few good frosts here and looking at super cold weather the end of the week and into next week. The growing season is done.

Oh, forgot to mention. I made these Salted Caramel Apple Pie Bars for the get together. It was my third time making them. DELICIOUS! What's better is nothing came out of a can! So it has to be good for you, right? We can look over the half pound of butter and the heavy whipping cream in the caramel sauce, right?

Link: http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2014/07/03/salted-caramel-apple-pie-bars/

 

[tommysgirl]

just wanted to share this link.. http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2...icken_examines_varieties_of_championship.html Enjoy!

 

[Teila]

TG I love that picture of you and Daphne!

Thank you for the link .. nice pics and some good tips for getting that perfect shot; I like the different backgrounds; I may have to experiment some more with my pictures.

Liz sneaky Jan!

MM sounds like a wonderful place for the triplets.

Salted Caramel Apple Pie Bars

Just a few weeks ago, in what I realise now must have been a dream, I had a happy little flock of five chickens. Everyone spent their days being social, scratching around, laying eggs, no dramas, no fights watching each others back .. family!

Sound idyllic? Surely nothing could break up this happy little family?

Enter Spring and it’s evil sidekick .. Broody Hormones! (cue scary music)

Starring in this little horror story are:

In corner number one we have Cilla, beautiful, sweet little gal when not broody but currently trying out for the lead role in the Exorcist!

In corner number two we have Blondie and her baby Bear (coming up for 4 weeks old). Blondie has no qualms drawing blood to protect Bear! She WILL bite the hand that feeds her!

In corner number three we have Tina and her two bubs (7 weeks old). Tina loves Spot but not so much Gloria! That sounds not so bad? Wrong!! After deciding that she would start laying again when her babies were 4 weeks old, Tina lays 13 eggs and goes broody!! Tina is now parked on the nest with her 7 week old babies right by her side, probably thinking “Mum, we wanna go out and play!”

In the remaining corner we have Dusty and LuLu who while scratching their heads and thinking “where did everyone go” are lavishing in all the extra room and more than their fair share of the food!! If this keeps up they will permanently remain in that corner, too fat to move! lol

Me? What am I doing during this little horror show? Quietly banging my head on the desk while searching Gumtree [Craiglist equivalent] for anyone willing to swap a flock of prima donnas for chickens that actually lay eggs! (Kidding .. love them to bits, but they sure are making life ‘interesting’!!)

 

[lizgarf]

Hi everyone,
MM, the apple bars look yummy! I love that there isn't a single egg in the recipe! Perfect for fall! Definitely don't worry about the butter and cream, since everyone is realizing now that low-fat diets are actually bad for you. The sugar is another story! But, you know how I feel about dessert!

Sorry things are still rough on the farm, Teila! Maybe all of this separation is egging them on a bit? What do I know? Mine are mostly doing well, but some squabbling seems inevitable with these social beasties!

I am more obsessed than ever with trying to sex the Brahmarans. I've done tons of searches of brahmas about the same age, and even found a couple pictures of some 3-month old brahmarans (not identified by sex, though!), and I'm pretty much flummoxed. I can't compare combs, since mine have a modified single combs, but my brahmarans' comb/wattles don't seem out of the question. Brahmas tend to pink up early (though Bettina didn't). At this point, Norma still looks on the pullet side of the scale to me, and Brian on the cockerel side, but that could be totally subjective, because in actuality, their combs/wattles are sometimes indistinguishable and they're about the same size overall. Still, Norma has a few more signs pointing to pullet (lighter color, more penciling, rounder neck feathers, lighter comb - definitely when younger, pullet shape, her wings ride up on her back . . .) I'm realizing that I'm just not going to know until they start getting hackles/saddles or crow, and that should be soon! Both Diego and Frankie have hackle feathers, and much bigger/redder combs/wattles, so there's that too. I'm not posting to BYC about it because I think everyone else out there will be as confused as I am, and I don't want to get depressed by the responses, like I did last year when people said I had two cockerels!

OK, sounds like they're ready to go back in. Enjoy your Mondays, y'all! (Except Teila, who has moved on to Tuesday).

 

[tommysgirl]

I have a little bit of news here. Anna (Blue Cochin), Wanda (Wellie), and the two cuckoo marans are still freeloading, but Daphne, the Leghorn/SLW mix was checking out the nest box today. I can not wait for these summer babies to lay!

We went to the house of one of DH's colleagues on Saturday night for Chili. It turns out, they are looking for some pullets. They had some on order, but they are not coming in (not sure where they ordered POL pullets this time of year…). Anyhow, some time soon the triplets will be heading up the mountain to their new home!!

So, once the triplets go, poor blackbeard will be lonesome. There is no way 3 roosters would get along in one coop, at least not these three. Best not to push my luck. I figure that although the 3 newbies have been fully accepted into the big flock, they would be the best group to put back with Blackbeard.

Go Summer Hatch girlls!!! I hope that Leghorn SLW girl starts soon and that her hatchmates follow quickly after. My Marans who are still unnamed, Sapphire the blue splash OE and Beryl the Ameraucana look the closest. They all hatched in June. If they start before the solstice I won't be surprised but if the don't I won't be disappointed. am not really expecting anyone else to start before January

How nice that you are able to rehome your girls to a situation you feel good about. That is what worked out for me too last spring. I felt nervous that they were going to be largely free ranged and housed in semi secure barn at night but they are thriving and laying and happy there 6 mos later.

Good call on your shuffling the three to blackbird. Unintegrating the integrated is ironic but what I have figured out is that with as many chickens as I have right now...aka too many...There will always be some sort of flux.

TG Thank you for the link .. nice pics and some good tips for getting that perfect shot; I like the different backgrounds; I may have to experiment some more with my pictures.



Just a few weeks ago, in what I realise now must have been a dream, I had a happy little flock of five chickens. Everyone spent their days being social, scratching around, laying eggs, no dramas, no fights watching each others back .. family!

Sound idyllic? Surely nothing could break up this happy little family?

Enter Spring and it’s evil sidekick .. Broody Hormones! (cue scary music)

Starring in this little horror story are:

In corner number one we have Cilla, beautiful, sweet little gal when not broody but currently trying out for the lead role in the Exorcist!

In corner number two we have Blondie and her baby Bear (coming up for 4 weeks old). Blondie has no qualms drawing blood to protect Bear! She WILL bite the hand that feeds her!

In corner number three we have Tina and her two bubs (7 weeks old). Tina loves Spot but not so much Gloria! That sounds not so bad? Wrong!! After deciding that she would start laying again when her babies were 4 weeks old, Tina lays 13 eggs and goes broody!! Tina is now parked on the nest with her 7 week old babies right by her side, probably thinking “Mum, we wanna go out and play!”

In the remaining corner we have Dusty and LuLu who while scratching their heads and thinking “where did everyone go” are lavishing in all the extra room and more than their fair share of the food!! If this keeps up they will permanently remain in that corner, too fat to move! lol

Me? What am I doing during this little horror show? Quietly banging my head on the desk while searching Gumtree [Craiglist equivalent] for anyone willing to swap a flock of prima donnas for chickens that actually lay eggs! (Kidding .. love them to bits, but they sure are making life ‘interesting’!!)

You are welcome. I just love the look of that Langshan...having trouble finding Australorps and there is a Langshan breeder in the east bay. I may have to switch my black chicken breed

You crack me up lady!!! I can just picture all of this happening. Chicken DRAMA seems to increase exponentially when you add a broody to the mix.

Speaking of broodies...Norma who just weaned those boys 3 weeks ago at like 13 weeks and just started laying again is now hunkered down in the nest box screaming at everyone who looks at her. If she is serious this will be the third time this year...and she isn't even a sikie or a cochin!!

She is the BEST mama but I am going to try to break her. I pretty much don't want to hatch any chicks until after the first of the year.

That is a very weak statement of intent ^^^ In my head I am jonesing for some Pita Pinta and/or Langshan eggs or some bantam cochins...mottled D'Uccle??? I

But the other thing about chickens is there will ALWAYS be hatching eggs available when I am really ready. However... One of the many good things about Norma is that I can just leave her in the coop and run for the duration of her set and then move her and the chicks into a dog crate for the hatch. It won't mess up housing...hmmmm.

I will let you know what I decide of course. If she is really determined I might not have the heart to tell her no.

I am more obsessed than ever with trying to sex the Brahmarans. I've done tons of searches of brahmas about the same age, and even found a couple pictures of some 3-month old brahmarans (not identified by sex, though!), and I'm pretty much flummoxed. I can't compare combs, since mine have a modified single combs, but my brahmarans' comb/wattles don't seem out of the question. Brahmas tend to pink up early (though Bettina didn't). At this point, Norma still looks on the pullet side of the scale to me, and Brian on the cockerel side, but that could be totally subjective, because in actuality, their combs/wattles are sometimes indistinguishable and they're about the same size overall. Still, Norma has a few more signs pointing to pullet (lighter color, more penciling, rounder neck feathers, lighter comb - definitely when younger, pullet shape, her wings ride up on her back . . .) I'm realizing that I'm just not going to know until they start getting hackles/saddles or crow, and that should be soon! Both Diego and Frankie have hackle feathers, and much bigger/redder combs/wattles, so there's that too. I'm not posting to BYC about it because I think everyone else out there will be as confused as I am, and I don't want to get depressed by the responses, like I did last year when people said I had two cockerels!

I sure hope your Norma is a pullet! I was obsessed with finding out the sex of my Konzas too. Was told at different times that both were cockerels but as it turned out both are pullets. You are smart to not take it to BYC...it just muddies things sometimes.

Enjoying my Tuesday off. Grateful to be the beneficiary of the service of men and women from both here and Australia... Freedom rocks!

 

[lizgarf]

Hi everyone,
Sounds like a lot of broody activity out there! Since my 3 haven't given up being broodies after 11 weeks, I'm guessing I'm in that club too! Grace did go into the nest today, but she made mama noises in there, so I don't think she intended to lay an egg. I hope all of your broodies mellow out soon!

Thanks for the well wishes, TG, but after more obsessing, I think I'm reaching the inevitable conclusion that both brahmarans are boys. I might have seen the starts of some saddle feathers on Norma today, during the fleeting moment s/he let me touch her back. I'm pretty confident I saw them on Brian. I also just took a bunch of pictures, and "her" face is getting pretty roo-ish. I'm not throwing in the towel yet, but I'm getting closer to the hamper.

In any case, I took some pretty pictures!

Frankie in the lemon tree:


Mother and son - at least Rousseau's got her plumage back (for now)!


Diego (his crimson hackles are stunning in person);


The three definite pullets, Cindy, Alice, & Madeline, being BFF's:


Norma/n:



And because Desi loves the camera:

 

[lizgarf]

Hey folks,
I'm feeling really sad tonight. It's one of those too-frequent times that I feel like a foreigner in the universe I need to call home. I'm realizing that the best I can do for my likely 4 remaining cockerels will be to find someone who will treat them lovingly for the short time they'll have left here. No one seems to want my pretty boys, and it's getting harder for me to keep them in the flock. I think one of them might have crowed today, but I'll never be able to figure out which one it is, and I don't think I can put them all in the man cave at night - at least I'll need a separate crate for Frankie, since the others still want to kill him. And the boys are getting more aggressive. I really want to be able to keep watching them grow, but that will just make the inevitable harder. I don't want to eat them or anyone else for that matter. I just want pretty, feathered, pets who give me eggs! And I want to treat them lovingly and have them be loving back to the world. But, the universe is not set up for that!

So, that's my rant. Can I get a virtual hug from some other chicken-lovers, vegetarian or not?

 

[tommysgirl]

oh liz I am so sorry. You are a wonderful chicken mama and I am so sorry you are in this difficult chicken position. (((((((liz))))))))))

 

[Teila]

Good morning Bridge Club

Liz aaaw sweetie, I am so sorry you are having trouble with rehoming your boys. I agree that you are a wonderful chicken mama who deserves virtual hugs not just now but pretty much every day

I also do not want to put pictures of Spot and Gloria on BYC for gender guesses; living in denial has it’s benefits

Love the picture of Fankie, he is beautiful! I am still cranky with him for being a boy though

Rousseau is back to her pretty little self I see.

Love the BFF’s!

And, of course, Desi is as handsome as ever; stunning little man!

TG enabler warning! …. Give Norma some Langshan eggs! Dusty is an Australian Bantam Langshan; the world needs more Langshans! Lol

The G20 summit is being held in Brisbane (you may have heard). We have Obama, Putin (who was kind enough to bring 4 x Russian war ships with him and park them off our northern coast

) and others dropping in for a visit and for security reasons, half the Brisbane CBD has been locked down meaning residents of the Brisbane City Council area have a public holiday today … woooo hooo, that’s me! Three day weekend. I don’t really have an interest in the G20 but I sure wanna thank it for my long weekend lol.

News from BB:

Cilla = still broody.

Tina, after sitting on imaginary eggs for 3 days has miraculously hatched out two x 7 weeks old babies! Lol
After locking her out of the nest box she has decided that Spot and Gloria are her new bubbies and has reattached the cord; calling them over to feed them, protecting them from their aunties and my feet!

I believe Blondie is close to cutting the cord on Bear. Yesterday, for the first time, when offering her meal worms she ate one herself and gave one to Bear, up until yesterday Bear was getting them all!

Once the cord is cut, I am going to try and find Bear a home. I believe she is a pullet so it should not be too hard.

While I am 80% certain Spot is a rooster, I am still going to hang onto him until I know for sure and I am still on the fence regarding Gloria.

So, Bear will be found a home, Blondie will be integrated back in and I will hang on to Spot and Gloria a bit longer.

We have another remodel in mind! We are going to make the run bigger and now I have the broody box, one big open home for them, rather than separating it off for a broody.

I learnt an important lesson these last few weeks, I am not going to have two hatches at the same time again. One is enough

The three day weekend would have been perfect for the extensions but I think it is probably best to wait until we rehome Bear, integrate Blondie back in and have one flock again. Also, with temperatures expected to hit 35C (95F) on Saturday and 39C (102F) on Sunday, probably best just to concentrate on making sure everyone stays cool (us included).

Welcome to Brisbane World Leaders, enjoy the weather! lol