Illinois...

[Faraday40]

Trouble is going to have her hands full......
Why dont I ever have any broodies? Do I offer TOO much free ranging fun?

I seem to have too many broodies.
This morning when I woke up, all but one egg in the incubator has hatched. Trouble is up to 7 chicks, and they are gradually being added today.

Crystal is full broody out in the laced orp tractor. She started sleeping in there about a week ago. I have a few eggs from my blue SLO orp project already in the incubator, so she'll get them if any are developing.

And this morning ""Poof Poof" is acting like she's turning to the broody side. (!st timer if it's true) And, our special MaiMai is also acting broody this morning. Last time MaiMai did fine setting but walked away after the chicks hatched.

 

[Faraday40]

Another 100% hatch (from all the eggs that made to lockdown. I did have some "clears" and 1 quitter during the 1st week.)
Throughout the day, the chicks were gradually moved to mama sebright. They've all been accepted and are doing well.

Here are a few of the orps

 

[Faraday40]

Trouble now has all her chicks & is doing well.
Here's the happy family at bedtime:

She doesn't have the coverage for all of them, but I think they'll be ok in this heat without a "mama heating pad"

 

[chickendreams24]

Here is a pic of today's bounty. Every now and then I stop and realize how incredible it is that we get to walk 50 feet out the back door and get these incredible gifts every day.
View attachment 1819426

Love this! It's so true.

Had a poult attempt suicide
Heard a ruckus and found a poult hanging by his feet, where 2 panels of a chain link dog run join He must have slipped off and went down about a ft. the clamp that connects them stopped him
I had seen several sitting on top of it earlier after it quit raining.
He seems fine

Oh goodness glad you found him. Are you still getting eggs?

And just like that, Mr. Duckie became a surrogate "mom". He's never been so happy!View attachment 1820187 View attachment 1820188

Aww I love that! I thought he was a Welsh harlequin. DH2B have thought about adding them.

So I put experiment eggs on lockdown tonight. A day late, but considering how im feeling, its the best i can do. Filled all the trays with water and took out the bad eggs. Out of 8 set serama eggs only 2 seem to have made it. Upon eggtopsy, it looks like they werent fertile. Don't think jasper and phoenix are quite there yet.

Next were the spitzies. Out of 14 set only 9 made it. 4 of the ones showed development and 1 had a blood ring. Looks like they stopped development at maybe 10 days.

Now the experiment eggs. 4/5 at 1 day
4/5 at 1 week, 4/5 at two weeks, and 1/5 at 3 weeks. All the 3 week ones at eggtopsy showed no development. The other showed varying days of development. So we actually have a result in spite of them not hatching yet. 2 weeks seems to be the firm cutoff for storing eggs for incubating. After that 14th day, you have a sharp decline. I would say a great experiment this year!

Now what am i going to do with all these fluffies?!?

I'll take fluffies from you. Especially that little recessive white. I'm just not jumping into the seramas at this time. Much as I'd like to my wedding may be off if I decided to get some seramas that had to winter in the house. LOL

Welsh Harlequin

My dad sent me this picture while i was at the store.
View attachment 1820959
Isnt that sweet? He managed to get all 4 kids down for a nap!

Aww he's so happy to have the ducklings. He's totally guarding them.

Problems, have I got problems.

I was taking a closer peek at my chicks today. I was looking at this batch of spitzies thinking how I wasn't loving their color.
View attachment 1830333
I picked one up an snapped this picture.
View attachment 1830331
Do you see that?!? My spitzie has silkie feathers with yellow? Do you know what that means?!?
@Faraday40 wanna take a guess? Betcha you know what that means. Might want to hang on to those spitzies that havent sold yet. I got 5 from my first batch that are pure, but 1 I can't use due to feathering white. All the others are acting like......well, boys. Assuming i dont lose any more girls, that leaves me with 3 girls.

Then i took a picture of this guy from my orpington batch.View attachment 1830337
When it hatched i kept wondering why it look liked a ccl chick when i dont have any....well, not full grown. Mine are only 4 weeks old and certainly not laying eggs!View attachment 1830338

Apparently either one of those brown orp hens out there carries the ccl gene, but didnt exhibit any outward appearance, or maybe ththe black roo that has that suspicious gold leakage. Now i have to get rid of two hens because I don't know which one is carrying it. Been trying to get rid of the roo. At least most of the black chicks look pure so far, but makes me wonder what is hidden in their genes.

Okay I would like to see the ones you're referring to with gold leakage if you can manage to get any pictures of them.

Secondly I don't think that chick is silkied. Your spitzes would have to carry it for it to show unless you have other birds that carry it. It looks like down to me that just hasn't come off he ends of the feathers as they grow in. It will fall off.

Also I've never had a chipmunk striped chick come from two mostly black parents even if they had legbar in their background. The black would dominate so they would almost certainly be black or mostly black like the parents.

The little brown chick looks like it may be bearded which would be an EE but the legs look yellow. Time will tell on that one I think.

Yup. I had to bite the bullet and let Jasper and Phoenix free range. I couldnt keep them locked up in a cat carrier 24/7. They hang out up by the house most of the day, but have been spending more and more time with Jake and the girls. Jasper puffs his chest, spreds his wings, and then chases off the spitz girls. He will then happily trot back to Phoenix. Its hilarious to watch and I thought he'd be too small to mate with them, but it certainly explains a lot with this batch. They are much tinier than usual with different coloring. The tiniest one died a few days ago. It was just slightly larger than the micro chicken.

Buff roos have been in the freezer since before I left for my mom's house. Definitely not the buff roos fault this time.

These just hatched and havent been outside yet. They are only 1 week old. DH just built another tractor so the first batch of babies that are 4 weeks got to go out for the first time yesterday.

I guess time will tell on this one. Im still thinking ccl mix. When you brought the chocolates and the black ones, you didnt know if they were ee until 2 of them developed crests and the floppy ccl comb. It would make sense that the other chocolates and possibly that black roo that has that gold leakage could be hiding that in their genes and not expressing it. A ccl gene from chocolate mama and ccl from roo would equal ccl mix chick right? If going by sex link, at least i can say this one will probably be a girl......wonder if she would lay blue eggs. Probably not since everyone lays brown, but wouldnt that be pretty cool? If it does turn out that way i will have to let the chocolates and the roo go. I really just want to concentrate on getting a good english orpington stock.

I would hatch some more spitzies but it is getting too late in the season. By the time I isolate jasper and clear out that mess, then incubate more eggs, we are looking at hatching babies in mid August. It would be getting too close to fall and winter to be getting them fully grown for our harsh winters. I'll have to hope im wrong on these 4 spitzies that are a month already and hope a few are females, but i just have that nagging feeling they arent. I'll probably take the boy for a back up for Jake if he doesnt sell for you. As long as he's not causing problems right now.

Well the storm ran through and we've been without power for an hour and the kids are already going stir crazy. Ugh, todays kids have no idea how to independently play without something electronic.

 

[Molpet]

Love this! It's so true.



Oh goodness glad you found him. Are you still getting eggs?



Aww I love that! I thought he was a Welsh harlequin. DH2B have thought about adding them.



I'll take fluffies from you. Especially that little recessive white. I'm just not jumping into the seramas at this time. Much as I'd like to my wedding may be off if I decided to get some seramas that had to winter in the house. LOL





Aww he's so happy to have the ducklings. He's totally guarding them.



Okay I would like to see the ones you're referring to with gold leakage if you can manage to get any pictures of them.

Secondly I don't think that chick is silkied. Your spitzes would have to carry it for it to show unless you have other birds that carry it. It looks like down to me that just hasn't come off he ends of the feathers as they grow in. It will fall off.

Also I've never had a chipmunk striped chick come from two mostly black parents even if they had legbar in their background. The black would dominate so they would almost certainly be black or mostly black like the parents.

The little brown chick looks like it may be bearded which would be an EE but the legs look yellow. Time will tell on that one I think.

Turkeys are broody, but I haven't had any luck selling poults. You might be getting a wedding gift of jennies
Logistics of getting them to you might be an issue @Faraday40

 

[homeschoolin momma]

@Molpet
I saw your facebook ad for the poults....at least im pretty sure it was you!

 

[Molpet]

@Molpet
I saw your facebook ad for the poults....at least im pretty sure it was you!

Probably was I am Maureen Peterson
I am trying to sell the tame ones in the house, but one has crooked toes and I can't keep a slipper on it. I have nutidrech in the water... I didn't see the foot until I went to take a picture
She had been one of two that stayed under the mhp a lot.

 

[homeschoolin momma]

I was pretty sure it was you. Turkeys , new lenox, and more or less matched your name here.

What is with the crooked toes and missing feet this year? My spitzie from the first batch has crooked toes on one foot and deformed claw on the other.

Looks just like your turkey. Ive tried like 3 bootie orthotics. She just keeps taking it off. Was thinking about buddy taping it to the outside toe.

 

[Molpet]

I was pretty sure it was you. Turkeys , new lenox, and more or less matched your name here.

What is with the crooked toes and missing feet this year? My spitzie from the first batch has crooked toes on one foot and deformed claw on the other.View attachment 1833905
Looks just like your turkey. Ive tried like 3 bootie orthotics. She just keeps taking it off. Was thinking about buddy taping it to the outside toe.

I'm wondering about genetics, this poult was a father daughter breeding and her parents were hatch mates. This poult was hatched and under her mother the whole time, so it wasn't an incbator issue.
Not sure which hen footless came from, however same genetics... but Breeder wondered about his incubator too.
Vitamin deficiency in breeding stock is another possibility.

 

[homeschoolin momma]

Yeah, mine was a father daughter breeding. I thought father daughters were ok though. I love my roo, he's the nicest looking one...has most all the qualities we are looking for in a spitz. And at least one of his daughters shares those qualities. Is grandfather granddaughter breeding going to make it worse?