Illinois...

[homeschoolin momma]

. I can't really tell color yet, but so far they look like Silver Spangled Appenzeller Spitzhauben - and NOT "Sportzingtons."

YAY!!! The color looks right so far!

 

[Faraday40]

You know what kills me? You live in the city while I'm out in the country and you have more wildlife than I do.
I get the occasional coyote passing through, racoon and of course the weasel/mink that killed all those babies last year, but all in all, they aren't just sitting around. I literally dont have a hawk sitting on my house just waiting for the chickens to come out!

You have the space for the wildlife to remain "wild." Here they don't seem to fear people. The animals come in contact with humans daily, so I have to throw rocks at them to make a wild animal run away. Even then, they only move just outside of throwing range. My former dogs (running out at full speed to "play" ) were far better fox & hawk deterrents than I. Once our new puppy is trained not to eat chickens, I think he'll do well to keep the predators at bay. Hopefully the squirrels & rabbits will also stay away, since they seem to be taking over. The dog doesn't seem to have a strong prey drive toward the chickens, but I don't want to leave anything to chance. He won't be out there until he graduates from general obedience training. At his current naughtiness level, it may be a while......

 

[homeschoolin momma]

At his current naughtiness level, it may be a while......

Hee, hee....but hes such a sweet puppy! Good thing hes adorable!

 

[BReeder!]

Speaking of eggs.....

I have 2 turkey eggs (Day 12) here in my good incubator & I think both are developing. The rest are in the school incubators throughout town.

The 3 Spitz eggs from @homeschoolin momma and the 2 serama eggs from Noodle are all developing. (Again, the rest are incubating elsewhere. They are all day 6 & 7.)

The 1/2 doz leghorn eggs from the farm bureau all have veins, but the development looks a few days behind the other white eggs. I hope they're just slow and not early quitters.

The orp eggs are hard to tell anything at this stage. I usually don't even think about tossing any until 2 weeks. By then it's easy to compare either a nice dark shadow or bright glowing ball.


Test hatch-
Tomorrow's hatch day, but we have 3 early chicks. 2 white seramas, 1 Spitz, and 2 more pipped spitz eggs. Orps are a larger breed, so I rarely have any hatch before day 21. These eggs are in my back up incubator. I'll post pics after they fluff up.

Chicks -
Yesterday, I put mama silkie & her 4 wk old littles back into the "Useless chicken" coop. What a horrible 1st night with a fox screaming just a few feet away from them! (One of the main reasons I turned on all the exterior lights.) Then this morning, they experience their 1st snow..... and what a snow!!!

Although the snow is melting into a dense, heavy, slushy substance, those big snow clusters just keep coming. The trees are full, so they're dropping huge snowballs that splat on the ground - or my head. UGH!

Same situation here with falling slush balls.

 

[BReeder!]

Which chicken.. what letter... There was 3 of each

It was a "D" egg that I tossed. Also, there's actually 8 chicken eggs total and 1 tossed. So that's 7/8 fertile. Looks like you gave me 4 "A" and 4 "D" eggs.

 

[Molpet]

It was a "D" egg that I tossed. Also, there's actually 8 chicken eggs total and 1 tossed. So that's 7/8 fertile. Looks like you gave me 4 "A" and 4 "D" eggs.

Thanks
I knew I gave the same number from each pen LOL

 

[BReeder!]

Thanks
I knew I gave the same number from each pen LOL

Are they both cornish cross?

 

[Molpet]

Are they both cornish cross?

the roos are both barred cornish cross mixes... the "D" had "Dinner" an orp in there who was moved out on march 10th or 14th, I can't remember now... The hens are all Cx Mix, either barred, white or black.. the white are the meatiest and terrible layers, but tend to start dying off at 18 months. One wasn't a year and died this spring.. the barred are almost as meaty and good layers, none have died yet. the black are good layers but not so meaty.

 

[BReeder!]

the roos are both barred cornish cross mixes... the "D" had "Dinner" an orp in there who was moved out on march 10th or 14th, I can't remember now... The hens are all Cx Mix, either barred, white or black.. the white are the meatiest and terrible layers, but tend to start dying off at 18 months. One wasn't a year and died this spring.. the barred are almost as meaty and good layers, none have died yet. the black are good layers but not so meaty.

Let's hope I can recall this when it comes time to cull the flock.

 

[Faraday40]

YAY!!! The color looks right so far!

5 out of 6 Spitz eggs have already hatched. All 5 look pure at this point.
Both seramas are out.
None of the orp eggs have pips yet.

Tomorrow is the real hatch day. I decided to keep the chicks in the incubator until tomorrow.

One reason for the brooder delay was DD's Spanish project. In true 8th grade form, she let me know that she had a big project about Colombia due tomorrow. She had all the work done for her presentation, but for fun they need to prepare a food from their chosen country. She chose Arepas and had already submitted the recipe. (Unlike most kids, she does all her work on her own and rarely even tells me about such projects.)

I'm always up for cooking something new, but man did I have a hard time finding the correct flour! It requires pre-cooked white cornmeal. It took me 4 stores and 2.5 hours to buy it. I almost bought some "Colombian coffee" instead. Far easier.

Arepas are a fried dough. (We made a version with some cheese in the center). It's usually sliced to make a pocket & filled with a wide variety of things. For dinner I made black bean, onion, garlic combo & sprinkled some Jack cheese. I also made a tuna, onion, avocado filling. Both were good but very, very filling. After dinner, DD & I began cooking for the class. We decided to just make the cheese filled dough. Now it's 10:30, the kitchen is finally closed, and I can go to bed.