INCUBATING w/FRIENDS! w/Sally Sunshine Shipped Eggs No problem!

[BullChick]

אתה בעצם אומר "it".
אז, זה.

 

[Chaos18]

My first sizzle is out and its blue! Well silver. Grey what ever you want to call it.....it is adorable!

Write it in Hebrew, l want to see!

אלכסנדר הגדול

I'm smooshing up my baby bumblebee!
Won't my mommy be so proud of me?
I'm smooshing up my baby bumblebee!
Ewe! It's on my hands!

Little bunny foo-foo,
hopping through the forest
Scooping up the field mice,
and bopping them on the head.

 

[BullChick]

מאז אני משתמש זה בכל מקרה, אני רשאי גם לנצל אותה!
ערב טוב יקירתי. ווסלי. אני מקווה שיש לך יום נפלא, ערב טוב.
הנוכחות שלך בחיי מורגשת, אני כל כך שמחה לפגוש אותך!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Mehhhh. I have to pick which chicks to keep and which to sell. They're just barnyard mix and EE, but I can't decide!!! Help? I tend to choose roosters....lol

One out of these two (any guess on what in the world they are is also appreciated)
...

And one out of these EE

...

Do you have to decide now?
Usually roosters should be full grown before all their qualities are known, and then not completely.
If you have to decide now, take the largest and most vigorous.

I've had a... Day. So many things going through my mind!
Having to lift heavy structures by myself makes me emotional because I don't have anyone to help. It makes me mad, but that does me no good. So, I bend with my knees and lift. Then I tear up and berate myself for crying.

When an hour of charging the screwdriver only got part of the third wall on, I used it to finish screwing in all of the screws on all three walls. Realizing I had to get more done outside, I pulled up the tarp I had in the garden. I honestly don't know how the grass managed to get that long underneath a tarp.
Once again, I got ticked off. Two rototillers and I can't use either one. Being mad and being upset was not doing me any good, so I grabbed a shovel and got to work. I had forgotten how rocky my yard is. I am surprised that there were still so many large rocks in a garden I've had for several years. I may not have gotten very far, but at least I got a good amount done.
The nice part was getting to be naked in the house! LOL!
I was just contemplating a shower when I got a call from my in-laws. Duckling was coming back early.
I knew that they had not given her nap, so we headed upstairs at 6:30. She cried the entire time I was trying to get her changed for bed. I kept trying to comfort her, but she just wanted to go to bed. She did not even want any stories. It amazes me that everyone else is still giving her bottles with rice cereal in them, and rocking her. It still takes them two or three hours to get her to sleep.
So you see, it is been a very… Interesting day. That, and I just can't seem to say anything the way I mean it.

I feel you. Everything that is done outdoors, I have to do by myself. It makes for very long projects. Sometimes it helps to have someone there just for moral support. Or in the event, you need a spare hand.
One gets pretty ingenious at times. I built a 25' tall by 10' wide ornate metal trellis, then had to figure out how to lift it and drive the four 3' legs driven into the ground at the proper spacing from the building - all by myself. It worked out. It had 2 supports welded toward the top where it would be attached to the wall at the proper spacing. I placed it on the ground so the ends of the legs where I wanted them to be driven into the ground. I blocked the legs so they couldn't move. I then clamped the end of a long pole to the center top of the trellis. (that's only about 18'. - the tall part is offset to one end.) I laid the pole on the ground and lifted the trellis as high as I could, grabbed the pole and used it to push it the rest of the way. If I had help, I would still have needed the pole but the job would have gone much faster.

As for tilling, since you have so many rocks, rather than tilling just build up soil above. I know you have grass and weeds you want to get rid of but tilling continues to bring weed seeds to the surface for germination. Weed eat all the greenery, cover it with cardboard or newspaper (what's that) and then put soil/compost on top of that. Worms will consume the cardboard by the time it has killed the grass and the garden plant roots will grow through it.
Another option is to put down weed barrier and plant seedlings through slits in it.
I have a huge antique tiller that I haven't even bothered to use in perhaps 10 years.

this a blossom on our volunteer pomegranate tree. I love the color. Pomegranates are such an interesting fruit.


Happy Mother's Day to everyone. Mothering is a state of mind. It is caring and nurturing those in need. We are all mothers in some sense of the word.

That's beautiful. Looks like hibiscus.

Evening whites! And everyone else!
Yes, for the moment anyways.
The fire in north Alberta is a good 500 miles northwest of us.
We do have a local fire about 60 miles due east of us, but on a much smaller scale
The Alberta fire on the news is now covering about 800 square miles of mostly forested land.
Fort MacMurray is the only relatively large town in that zone, but there are hundreds of small burgs and oil and mining camps that are now being evacuated in that area.
Our local fire has seen several small mining and resort areas evacuated in the immediate area of the fire, but we are talking about hundreds of people displaced, not tens of thousands like Fort Mac.

Can't imagine what those people have experienced.

It doesn't get the news coverage here that it needs. The fire gets 20 seconds and Donald Trump gets 20 minutes.
I heard it's put oil field work on hold.
I also heard it will burn for at least a couple more months.

I appreciate the thought and concern
I have relatives in that area that made it out safely early in the week, they have been informed by a firefighter friend of theirs that their house is still safe, but that fire is going to be burning for months.
Our area has had less than 50% of normal precipitation since last August, western Canada where Fort Mac is has been in drought conditions since April 2015.
We drove through the area on vacation last year and had to detour around a few major forest fires in July.
The majority of the province of Alberta has seen less than 20% of normal precipitation for the past 2 years.
The forests there are bone dry, and the majority of the vegetation is pine or spruce which ignites like gasoline even when green.

Unprecedented. I think climate change is real.

How far are you from Calgary? Is that area in danger?

They do eat a lot and grow a ton faster. They are pretty mellow and none of them are crowing. They are fine with the smaller birds. A couple are posturing with each other, but most are very laid back. It may be because they have not been free ranged, and the current pen is not made for this many birds. The new coop is almost ready.

I really liked freedom rangers. I raised 25 the first time and 50 the next time. They are great foragers, as compared to Cornish X.
They are slow though and are vulnerable to hawks and other daytime predators. I'll take Penedesencas over any of them as meat for the predator issue.
The freedom ranger carcasses are harder to clean up than white Cornish X. There are a lot of dark pin feathers to deal with.

Yep that's exactly what happened in California last summer. Devastating. You realize how insignificant your problems are when you hear about people loosing everything in the fires, including beloved pets.

Isn't that the truth.

@chicken hawk 33

Looks like a handful.

...

Your teens may seem ungrateful for all you do for them but I believe kids listen to their parents FAR FAR FAR more that they want you to believe they do.

...

They act like they're not listening and ignore but they hear every single word.

I've read they were supposed to be good egg layers as well. But that they didn't reproduce like kind although some are saying they did. Confusing

Depends on how they were developed. If the parents are 2 separate types, they won't breed true - as in cornishX.
I don't think freedom rangers breed true.

Tonight was a bad night. We lost our flock master and only large fowl rooster, Twitch, to a predator tonight around 10 pm. We live in South central WI and if anyone has any suggestions as to what it sounds like I would greatly appreciate it.

What I know. Our flock was out late tonight BC DH2B was in the fields and didn't get home until 9:30 we were out for about a half hour but didn't bring them in BC DH2B was starving, so we were going to eat and then bring them in. Our flock is fooled by our yard light and frequently have to be brought in when the weather is nice BC they think it's still day time. We have never lost an animal to a predator although we've had a couple close calls with hawks. Our roosters do a great job protecting the ladies.

So firstly, we were outside and came inside just long enough for me to pee so less than 5 minutes, when we heard a huge ruckous. I flushed and ran outside thinking DH2B would also run and investigate, he didn't, but he's been in the fields all day so I kind of understand. Okay so I get outside and I see one of the broody's chicks a 4-5 week SLW standing in the middle of the yard cheeping, said broody is laying on her side under a tree. I thought she'd been attacked. She got up when I approached and seemed fine. I looked around and realized I only saw hens and our two bantam roosters. I walked towards the slw chick and found some feathers. Flight feathers, hackle and saddle feathers. Not a lot but enough that I was worried because I didn't see Twitch.

I ran in and grabbed DH2B and flashlights. And we searched and searched and searched. At first we assumed it must have been an owl. But then found a trail of sparse feathers(several of our flock are molting so feathers are in abundance around here but we were sure these were his) leading across the yard to our barn yard where the trail dead ended. We then started to wonder what could have done this and continued our search on foot. Before driving up and down the road to see if we could see anything. (I believe this is when the predator left the barn hard and headed into the field.) We ended up driving the truck out into the field behind out house on a whim. We saw eye shine and followed it. But the field was too rough and we were worried the old truck would get stuck(they redid the irrigator this year so there's some two foot deep ruts from trucks)

We got out and followed the eye shin on foot. Twitch was nearly 12-15 lbs and towards the bigger end of the scale. He was a massive bird and strong as an ox. Great with his ladies but aggressive to my mother and I. He was also quite good at fighting and dodging attacks. I know this from seeing him with our other roosters and from having to kick him when he came at me. His aggression had earned him a spot on a list of birds to cull. That being said I respected him he was a great flock master never started a fight with another roo and even though he would assert dominance and put them in their places he was kind and gentle to the other birds especially the hens.

Okay the point is although we never got a good look at the animal BC it kept it's distance it's eyes were very very close together and it was small very close to the ground. I know some animals can help be distinguished by the color their eyes shine, this animal's were green in the light. The ground is too dry for tracks but it left no blood and no drag marks. It was carrying the huge bird in its mouth. I believe it too small to have been a coyote. It didn't seem to act like a coon.

We followed it into the field and found a place where it was plucking Twitch still no blood or any tracks. It eyes never seemed to change height. It was fast and it went over a half mile carrying the carcass. We followed it to some train tracks near our house before we lost it following it down the tracks.
I'm not 100% sure what all we have around here but I know I have seen skunks, heard coyotes, DH2B saw a fox but it was about a mile in the other direction, racoons, and some people say badgers are around here too. I've no clue what could have taken such a massive bird without leaving more then a couple handfuls of feathers and no blood. We have been seeing a pair of osprey or eagles around but it was clearly on the ground and never took flight. I may have missed some possibilities.
What are the most likely options that it could have been? Should we assume it will try to come back? Hell this is all new and I'm very frustrated and upset. I so wanted answers but the animal was always just out of our lights so all we could see was eye shine and the approximate height.

Over the last month or two there have been several nights where our great dane was frightened to go outside we assumed she was smelling something but had no idea what. Now I wonder if the two things are connected. I have seen her chase racoons and she's been outside when we could hear coyotes without acting scared.

We have also had something trying to dig under our stairs. A pretty sizeable hole too. We have had to fill it in several times but not for about a week, maybe two. We would fill it in and the next morning it would be larger and deeper even after we started putting large rocks and a couple pieces of concrete in it.

I'm leaning towards badger BC they are so low to the ground but are still very large and strong but I've really no clue.

Hope you can help.

Options are badger, fisher, grey fox, red fox or bobcat.
I vote for at least one game cam and some conibear body traps and snares.

Badger or Fisher..... In my opinion...o live in the U.P. North of you.... We have big fishers here.... But from what you describe I'm betting it's either a badger or a Fisher

X2

 

[Chaos18]

Then down came the Good Fairy, and she said:
Little Bunny Foo-Foo,
I don't wanna see you
Scooping up the field mice,
and bopping them on the head.
I'll give you 3 chances,
and if you don't behave,
I'll turn you into a Goon!

 

[BullChick]

I feel you.

 

[Chaos18]

Little bunny foo-foo,
hopping through the forest
Scooping up the field mice,
and bopping them on the head.

 

[Chaos18]

Then down came the Good Fairy, and she said:
Little Bunny Foo-Foo,
I don't wanna see you
Scooping up the field mice,
and bopping them on the head.
I'll give you 2 chances,
and if you don't behave,
I'll turn you into a Goon!

 

[Chaos18]

Little bunny foo-foo,
hopping through the forest
Scooping up the field mice,
and bopping them on the head.

 

[Chaos18]

Then down came the Good Fairy, and she said:
Little Bunny Foo-Foo,
I don't wanna see you
Scooping up the field mice,
and bopping them on the head.
I'll give you 1 more chance,
and if you don't behave,
I'll turn you into a Goon!