Illinois...

[Faraday40]

To all my flock friends:
Happy Valentine's Day!

DS & I made many, many of these for all his classmates & teachers.

 

[chickendreams24]

We don't have any "red" birds here anymore. ( Last year we had one RIR, who we sold in late spring 2017. ) We do have a beautiful multicolored golden penciled mutt = Precious, who makes very sweet, gentle orp mixes. Her eggs were similar in size to last year's orps', so whenever I hatched a "mystery chick" with some gold, buff, reddish accents, they usually came from Precious. Since you're always up for growing out our extra male chicks, you also got many of our CCLxOrp, EExOrp, and BielefelderxOrp mixes. I'm pretty sure if you got any red/gold on the males from me, they must have come from came from those hens. They all have a good chance of carrying the lav gene, but of course a pure lav orp male would make a better breeder.

Today I just sold the last pullet of the Sept 22 hatch...... the one which I had hoped would be my roo. Dinner is the last chick remaining from that batch. I decided to keep him around until I see what hatches. What's strange is that I KNOW Moose is the father. In order for"Dinner" to be lav, his mom had to be one of my 2 lav hens..... or perhaps Jewel. Jewel is my big blue orp (who came from the pairing of a mauve & lavender) so she carries the lav gene. She had just started laying & then went broody after only giving me about a dozen eggs. I had thought that I only set lav orp eggs, but if the sneaky broody laid an extra egg that was large enough to fool me, then it could explain the strange lacing on Dinner. (If that's what happened then he could carry choc, lav, blue, black, & white sport. Yikes! Can you imagine the assortment of rainbow chicks I'd get if pairing him with Oopsie?!)

Whoops my mistake. I forgot you guys had a RIR and that Princess is gold pencilled.

Not trying to cause any trouble of course your birds are amazing and I love them dearly. No my black and red roo will never be our breeding roo, but I have considered just doing one test hatch with him. He's a pet, essentially, lol I hadn't planned to fall in love with him and keep him but he's just so darn sweet. I have had some other cockerals that were very sweet too and were hard to process but I think he's my favorite and that's why he's been spared for so long. He's also a great protector of the pullets and hens and when he was in the bachelor group kept the order well.

Last summer the cockerals he was with got a little big for their britches but he did so well with them. If he wanted his own food he would follow me around and ask for it. Lol such a spoiled young man.

I'm happy to say his beak is healing extremely well(he broke off the tip of the top beak a couple weeks ago).



Happy Valentine's day to all my byc friends!
The flock has loved this nice warm weather today.

The egg production continues to increase more and more we are now getting a beautiful blue-grey egg that I haven't identified the layer yet. It's amazing! We also continue to get more bright blue eggs from my Legbars. I love those eggs.

Can't wait as winter hopefully lessens it's hold and spring comes along. To see how many eggs we'll be getting a day and more different colors, as I'm fairly certain 2-3 of last year's EE haven't layed yet. My guess is the blue grey egg is one of them as we haven't had that color before. Now they could be laying the same colors as some of my green layers and thus have been missed that way too.

 

[Faraday40]

Why do hens do this? (Two girls stuffed into ONE nest box)

.......Especially when all the others are vacant!

 

[cavemanrich]

You have children so you can answer this.
Why do multiple children want to play with same toy at same time??? Then when time passes, nobody plays with it anymore.

 

[Faraday40]

That's exactly it!

I mean LOOK AT THIS!
It's not like there was enough room for both to fit. That's why they both had to have it!
I've found eggs next to the nestboxes & thought that a new pullet simply didn't make it there in time. Now I know the real reason. LOL

Oh well. At least I'm finally getting eggs.

 

[Molpet]

yep I have 7 boxes and there will be 1 hen in the first one and one trying to get in. 5 more are empty and 2 in the last one with 2 hens complaining for those to hurry up.
I have ex large igloo dog houses out in the run and 2 hens will try to use one but the first one will not let the other in.. enough room for 10 hens LOL

 

[Molpet]

well like most of us, it rained most of the day yesterday and freezing rain before dawn today. I checked in the usually hidey holes before I locked the coops up for the night...

yep a bedraggled hen, 'stinker', was standing at the coop door this morning. I took her in to dry out since it's below freezing. I put her in with 'lucky', the not quite right pullet that survived the hawk attack staying the winter in my living room parrot cage. Of course she started pecking lucky so lucky got to go out with the thanksgiving brood... stinker, the wet hen, was their broody. She has been a pain since she was little. I thought she had to be a boy for months. She kept jumping up on my lap as a chick and still jumps up on my shoulder if I am sitting out there ... keeps hopping the dividing fences and changing coops.. and just had to sit on eggs in NOVEMBER
She certainly has a outgoing personality and is one of my favorites, but a pain.

 

[Faraday40]

So how's Stinker on this fine winter morn? (Love the name & personality BTW.) I'm saving the name "Pandora" for just the right pet.

 

[Molpet]

Stinker was in for a few hours yesterday before she dried and got antsy. She made a jailbreak and was pecking at the living room window and pacing. I had gotten into the habit of not locking the cage because lucky just stands around looking out the window or watching tv. So about noon Stinker went out, pecked around and went in to lay an egg.. When I went to lock up she was up on the roost. hopefully she has learned a lesson , I know I have. If the weather had been better the coons could have found her.

I only have a few that are named.. stinker and lucky received their names because they are LOL

Prayers for good health @Faraday40

 

[Faraday40]

Yesterday was DD's birthday. I made her a card with the following pic & caption.


You're Turning 13 Today!
Uh-Oh! Here comes TROUBLE.


(Get it? "Trouble" our Sebright.)

Poor DD was sick with a fever last weekend. Went back to school Wed-Fri, but she came home sick Fri morning. It's not like she felt 100% all week with the constant cough & tiredness. Last night she missed the big 4H International Night that they worked on all year & she's president! Today she was unable to teach & attend her dance classes, missed the sci expo, and tonight's the Daddy-Daughter Dance. What a horrible time to be sick. I guess she's learning the valuable lesson that life's unfair. Her family party is tomorrow & we'll decide later if that will be cancelled.