Illinois...

[jerseyridgearts]

My Veteran is out mowing today but he's suggested going to Farm King (a 'day date')...woohooo. The new hens are doing ok. The Red Girls are talkative and active but they will not use the chicken door. Even if I give them an assist through the door they come right back in. If I let them go out the big door in the barn they are completely happy....weird. Of course barn doors are my dilemma this week. The garage door to the barn got kinked or something and I can't seem to fix it. This is the second time this year it's hung up. So I lowered it almost to the ground and set up barriers. Will call the repair guy tomorrow.

The Rock girls are also ok in their private pen - they liked the Nutrena grow feed so I may continue with that. There are a lot more feed choices since the last time I had birds. The Rock girls need a little more socialization I think - they are skittish unlike the Red girls who can't wait to see what you've got/what you're doing!

And we got some pullet eggs this week (and an order of egg carton, lol - wishful thinking). So all's good so far (there was a HUGE pig sized coon last night at 8:30 strolling across the front yard - Sophie went ballistic and treed the thing but Big Mama better find new digs....)

 

[Faraday40]

Happy Memorial Day! I hope everyone's out enjoying the sunshine today!

Here's DD holding our only Bielefelder.

Kids & Dogs- a great combo.

 

[Faraday40]

Junibutt-
Here's what your babies look like today.

Of course when I 1st put my camera in the run, I only get pics of their backsides. LOL


Choc male


Lady Godiva


Double Barred Choc male (Godiva in the corner)

The boy above is about the dumbest chicken I've ever met. Every morning all the chicks find their way inside the run - except him. I usually find him outside crying to get in with the others. He'll walk by the open door multiple times before finding it. LOL Of course, he always gives me funny stories to share.

 

[chickendreams24]

@Junibutt

Double barred chocolate cuckoo boy

White sport legbar pullet

Double barred with a chocolate pullet behind him

White sport legbar pullet

More to follow later.

@Faraday40

Jasmine front and center.

Ella

One of the girls with the little single barred cuckoo cockeral back in April

If you can believe it they're even bigger and fluffier now.

More pics to follow.

We also have our first 6 chicks from Cinder and Ella the daddy was our SLW roo. I'm kinda hoping they will be big fluffy and partially laced, as chicks they appear all black and look quite a bit like little Ella did.
It was an experiment but I think it's going to turn out cool. I hope to have a few gold and or silver laced orps someday.

Well ladies and gents we lost four more birds to a predator not last night but the two evenings before, including 3 10 week old chicks and our favorite silkie, a buff named Ginger.

 

[Junibutt]

@Junibutt

Double barred chocolate cuckoo boy


White sport legbar pullet


Double barred with a chocolate pullet behind him


White sport legbar pullet

More to follow later.

@Faraday40


Jasmine front and center.


Ella


One of the girls with the little single barred cuckoo cockeral back in April

If you can believe it they're even bigger and fluffier now.

More pics to follow.

We also have our first 6 chicks from Cinder and Ella the daddy was our SLW roo. I'm kinda hoping they will be big fluffy and partially laced, as chicks they appear all black and look quite a bit like little Ella did.
It was an experiment but I think it's going to turn out cool. I hope to have a few gold and or silver laced orps someday.

Well ladies and gents we lost four more birds to a predator not last night but the two evenings before, including 3 10 week old chicks and our favorite silkie, a buff named Ginger.

Thanks @chickendreams24

 

[jerseyridgearts]

That's awful about the predator chicken dreams - do you know what it was? Great photos!

 

[Faraday40]

Here's Trouble (our sebright) & her babies (orpingtons). There's quite a size difference, but she loves & protects them anyway. One hatched under her & the other 3 were added later.

 

[MeepBeep]

It's been a fruitful week-ish for me in the poultry area... As I said previous the first egg hatched to my white sport cream legbar and two potential carrier roosters was a white sport, the next two eggs that hatched last week were normal color pattern but both pullets, this weekend I hatched out two more white sports and two normal colored (pullet + cock) so worst case i have a breeding base now for white sports, even though I would like to add some unrelated blood to the breeding mix...

Also today my peahen laid her first egg, been a long two year wait on that one...

Pixie took all my 1&2 week blue laying cream legbar and EE hybrids, hopefully they turn out to be a good hen to rooster for her...

Time to really get the closing in on 2 month old chicks out of the house so I have been working (albeit slowly) on a new room in the coop for them and also putting some breeding pens in that area... Trying to do it with stuff laying around vs buying stuff so it's not a straight forward of a plan nor is it moving as fast as a clean design would be...

And to anyone that keeps and raises ducks, my hats off to you... Been dealing with three ducklings and they make chicken keeping easy... The children love the ducks because they follow the them around instead of run the other way like chickens, but darn they are messy... I really need to address their water container, I'm so used to nipple waterers for the chickens going back to open water is dreadful in itself, and complicated 10 fold with the fact that if there is water in the brooder they can't resist splashing it everywhere until it's empty... Going to try a few of the DIY milk jug waterers for the ducks, and hope that slows down the spillage...

 

[Faraday40]

Here's one more pic of Trouble marching her chicks around.



In other news, DD's 1st chick just hatched - a lav orp. A second (black orp) is zipping as I type. Most eggs do not have pips yet but I expect that will change by morning. Their due date is May 31-June 1st.

 

[ChicagoClucker]

@Junibutt

Double barred chocolate cuckoo boy


White sport legbar pullet


Double barred with a chocolate pullet behind him


White sport legbar pullet

More to follow later.

@Faraday40


Jasmine front and center.


Ella


One of the girls with the little single barred cuckoo cockeral back in April

If you can believe it they're even bigger and fluffier now.

More pics to follow.

We also have our first 6 chicks from Cinder and Ella the daddy was our SLW roo. I'm kinda hoping they will be big fluffy and partially laced, as chicks they appear all black and look quite a bit like little Ella did.
It was an experiment but I think it's going to turn out cool. I hope to have a few gold and or silver laced orps someday.

Well ladies and gents we lost four more birds to a predator not last night but the two evenings before, including 3 10 week old chicks and our favorite silkie, a buff named Ginger.

All the chicks are adorable. So sorry for the losses due to the predator.