So my daughter and I went out and worked on the barn today... We got 4 pens finished with the complete roosts, nest boxes, fixed the feeder etc. I have 6 icelandic hens and 2 roos in one pen, then I have all the other girls in a 2nd pen, all the roosters in a 3rd pen and then I have 21 turkeys in the 4th pen. Over the next couple of weeks I will be finishing the last 4 pens and splitting up the turkeys by breed.. We'll have 2 pens of Black Spanish, and 1 each of Narragansett, Bourbon Red, Blue Slate & Royal Palm. They were really putting on a courting show today... I'll have to try and get a video and post it.. wish I was cool like Mary and I'd put it to music... LOL
My little Icelandic pullet that wouldn't stand last week is doing better..
I kept her at home in the Nella brooder for several days and then a couple of days ago when it was supposed to get down into the single digits I took her out to the barn thinking it would be warmer.. I put her in with the hens and they pretty much left her alone.. I check her every day and she seemed to be doing a little better. Today she was walking around a little!! She acts a little gimpy still so I'm thinking she must have been injured by a overzealous rooster as several of you guessed... I'm just so pleased that she is acting better and hopefully will make a full recovery.. She is the one the kids say has a unicorn comb..
We had a funny thing happen today too.. We are putting the nest boxes up in the hen pen and several were checking us out, what we're doing etc.. Well, literally the minute we finished hanging them, Grandma (Black Orpington with a white cap) jumped in the end one. She fussed for a minute and jumped down. Then up into the middle one, down, up, down up probably 1/2 dozen times... We were finishing the roost in the next pen and then went back in the hens pen for something and she had laid an egg in the nest!! I guess the middle one will be the favorite one.. We joked that she had been "holding it" until we got the nest up...
Sorry no pictures DD forgot the camera.. I'll get some pictures of our progress, Grandma and Unicorn tomorrow.
This is for The other Mary and any other interested parties....
Picks of my New Years Day Hatch 2012 chicks.
First up the only two surviving Swedish Flower Hen chicks. I'm guessing female on the left, male on the right.
Next up, group shot at the feeder. Lots of blacks, whites and chipmunks.
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This brownish-black Icelandic is a tad weird, it hardly has any feathers and the ones that it does have are WEIRD!
Next, an Icelandic with white on it's wings... I'm guessing ROO!
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Next, the SFH.. ?Male?... notice the orange and white feathers coming in?
Next the only pure bred wheaten Ameraucana from my coop prior to roo loss.. I'm guessing pullet.
One of 7 chipmunk Icelandics
The blue and white one on the left is named "29"... as it was the last chick out...saved by my little girl because I was about to toss the egg and she said she heard a peep in the egg. I pipped it and it was out not long after that. It's mama is a big FBCM and the daddy was Fred, the Splash Wheaten roo. Should be a pretty Olive Egger but it's looking rooish to me.
And the Lavender Ameraucana from bargain's eggs. All but two of the eggs she sent went into Meg's bator and they all got fried. The two I kept hatched, one a purebred Lavender and the other a black EE. I'm guessing the Lavender is a roo. Should a get him decrowed and start a Lavender Wheaten project?
There you go. Off to candle the 36 eggs in my bator for the Ground Hog's Day Hatch.
8 of the 19 from WMR were duds... dang USPS. 4 from my coop started and then quit.
Started with 36 eggs. Down to 24. of the 24, 3 FBCM olive eggers where Fred was the dad. 1 olive egger from my coop where Fred is the dad (chick will be 3/4 Ameraucana, 1/4 FBCM), 11 purebred wheaten Ams from WMR, and 9 purebred W/BW/SW Ameraucanas from my coop.
I'm guessing I'll have 20 at lockdown and I'll hatch 16 chicks.
