Icelandic Chickens

[The Sheriff]

Michelle, you are getting forty eggs. Let me explain the math here, in front of our friends as I will need their support. Here's the breakdown.

Last fertility check =90%. The one before that =67%. Average of the two = 75%.

75% of 40 eggs = 30 chicks.

Postal damage (50%) of those = 15 chicks.

Percentage of cockerals (70%) = 5 pullets at the most!

I need to send more! But the box is full and Michelle's incubator only holds 42.

Love,

Mary

p.s. I appreciate the support of my friends.

p.s.s. I also failed to mention that I am green with envy over your new chicken barn and this is my attempt to sabotage you from the get-go.

Love,

Mary

 

[The Sheriff]

Quote:
I know, you can't look, but you can't look away either! If it survives, boy or girl, it is going no where near the breeder coop!

 

[AK Michelle]

Quote:

You crack me up!

I love you too!


And now it's not my fault

When Tom asks how I exceeded my "limit" I'll just say according to Mary's math, this is well within my limits

 

[Jake Levi]

Mary I have a twin to that one !! It also got scalped so is in rehab, and its colors coming in are exact to that one !! Do you suppose there is something in their behavior, or the actual feathers looking strange to prompt the scalping ?? It was smaller then the others , which is what I thought prompted it, and within one day it was scalped. Its a spook too, but I would be also after that.

Its feathers are coming in every which way ! I was going to put it in a pet home, I just didnt want to pass on the small size, I dont think that it belongs in a farm flock, I am pretty sure it is a pullet.

The hatch mates are now pushing the big ones in size, they are amazing, my keeper roo Bjorn is going to be gorgeous, a dark chimpmunk, crested, with gold cape on a red brown body with dark green and black irridescent feathers on the back and tail with splashes of red. He would have been a keeper just for his size, he was the largest of the hatch. So he joins Blau , and Isison as carriers of the seed. The three are very different in colors , way different, hard to believe that they are of the same breed !!

Isison is a Single Comb. So far all of my white splashed or very white roos have been S.C. All six of them. Also, they seem to be a bit sharper tempered then the other roos, one, is a bully flat out. Blau and Bjorn are quite live and let live, while still paying attention to the girls. Blau so far is a model boss roo, calls everyone when its food time, calls out warnings that makes everyone freeze if he senses danger, shows the pullets where choice food it, a model roo. And he is gorgeous.

70 % roos?? I think I ran about 60%, more then I needed for sure.

Life is good, and better with Icelandics

 

[LarryPQ]

I wanna say I have 65-70% roos. But I am not sure. They won't hold still for me to count.

MARY- are your chickens laying in the winter? My last eggs for the year are hatching right now, but I'd like to do a batch for the NYD hatch. If I am lucky, I'll be able to hatch my own Icelandic eggs too!

 

[The Sheriff]

Quote:
They slowed down but definitely kept laying through the winter.

 

[kathyinmo]

I got 2 of those itsy bitsy chicks. One did die after about 4 weeks. The other one is thriving, though itsy bitsy. As it is gonna be thunderstorms for the next 3 days, I brought it and another little chick inside. I am afraid they would drown in rain! Hatched June 20, this chick looks like a one week old chick.

 

[The Sheriff]

Battling neighborhood dogs again. The new renters got rid of the border collies that were trying to get to our chickens. They admitted to animal control that they were in over their heads with those dogs. They replaced them with one giant Newfoundland. I am waiting so see if it turns out to be a worse nightmare. At least it shows no interest in the chickens when they walk it by our fence. For now anyway.

The more immediate problem is either someone new moved into the neighborhood or just got new dogs. We now have a giant, aggressive Pit Bull mix that runs the hood with a Shepherd mix. They have collars but have been at large for about a week. When chased off they run quite a ways before disappearing so we do not know where they live. They come into our yard and harass the donkeys. Jack goes into guard mode but little Diana panics and runs. So far they have not gotten through the fence. It is just a matter of time I am sure. I typed out a note and left one on each side of the cluster mailboxes notifying the owners that they dogs have been harassing livestock and, with the permission and blessing of Animal Control, will be shot if it happens again.

I don't know how many times I have said this but I am saying it again. What the h*ll is the matter with most dog owners? Why do they think the imagined "rights" of their dogs have more weight than the rights of neighboring property owners? Why can't they simply recognize and obey the law and keep the dogs on their own property, under their control? I do not think I have the right to say someone else can't own a dog if they want to, but I can say it needs to stay off my property and away from my animals.

Just Saturday in Sacramento a young girl, visiting her cousins for the day, was mauled by a pit bull. He got out of the yard next door because the owner "propped the broken fence with a trash can!" In the attack her face and neck were bitten severely and the nerves that control the left side of her face were severed and unable to be repaired after a marathon surgery. She cannot blink or close her left eye and will have to wear a patch over it. She cannot eat or speak as before because she cannot move the left side of her mouth. The entire left side of her face hangs down lifelessly. She is ten years old! I will never understand this. Never. I just have to hope and pray when the day comes that those dogs do get through my fence, it is one of the animals they kill or maim and not one of my grandchildren.

 

[AK Michelle]

I am getting a pair of Maremmas. Their first defense is barking, it should buy me enough time to load the rifle.

These are not the pups I will be getting, I'm still looking, but the pups I get will live in the barn and pasture and will be on duty even when I can't be.

 

[LarryPQ]

Mary: Hugs