Jest Another Day in Pear-A-Dice - Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm in Alberta

[Northie]

Ha.... Every time my little boy sees me on here I get "Ducky? Ducky? Where ducky??? Quack quack!!"

 

[Chipper Chicken]

Silver(left) and gold always make a hard lesson easier!

Seriously, this is amazing what you do, and trying to teach it to us too! (I totally agree with @BamaDude, this is information overload! And thanks Wisher1000 too for the link.)

I think I'd have to be very well rested to follow it though.

Speaking of genetics and such I found something for my coop I just had to share, I think you all especially will appreciate the subliminal message it will send my chickens. We are on the road (work, not play) and spent Labor Day in the mountains above Alamogordo NM., at an RV park. The owners were having a garage sale and gave this to me for my coop build, being "too weird" for them to sell, lol! (It was made out there by a local artist)

Thanks Tara , you are awesome!

I suspect you're using full advantage of clearer sky's today(according to Accuweather at least) to finish tucking everything up for the (early?) winter.

 

[drumstick diva]

as soon as you tell me what it is, I'm sure I'll have something nice to say- need a little help here.

 

[bamadude]

Is it a rooster booster seat?

 

[Chipper Chicken]

(Paper mâché) chicken (egg) embryo to show my chickens what their job is



(Or maybe how they'll end up if they don't give me fertile eggs???)

 

[Chipper Chicken]

Oops. Gave it away too soon, oh well.

 

[drumstick diva]

Now I see it - duh! I thought the stuff in the middle was tissue paper to fill it up or protect from breaking - hey I'm old and I don't see so well. Now that I know, I can clearly see the chick , looks like full term. NO wonder he gave it to you, it really IS weird.

 

[LindaB220]

Absolutely awesome...FIVE eggs...hmm...those girls were holding back to swamp you with eggs now were they?

What marvelous news and you will have to STOP buying those store bought eggs, eh? Congratulations and thanks for sharing...we get to RElive your excitement with you and isn't that just joyful fun!

I agree that there is no way to compare the freshness and the TASTE of home grown produce! Now if I could only convince Rick his tomatoes are terrible...taste bad...he needs to share them...share like I share my veg garden bounty. Wishful thinking on my part...

​

Boiled up beans and beets last night after a salad of spinach, green onion, carrots and romaine from the garden.


Swedish Flower hens...they have those dotty dots too like my MDF's do! I do so love dotty dot chickens!

Dotty dot dots...this is that half half pigmented boy last evening...he is SO desensitized to handling!​

Plymouth Rocks and Dorkings too...yes indeed you will be busy. Bet you hardly even notice summer slipping away with all those distractions going on. Sounds like an excellent plan!

Fingees & toesies crossed for big productive hatches for you!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

Yeah, I've got my SFH eggs in the incubator day 1. Looking good. I'm trying a new way of doing it. To raise hatchability and lower mortality and deformities, I'm soaking the eggs in 1 tsp Ascorbic Acid (Vit C) in 1 liter of water for 2 min and then air drying before putting in the incubator. Then on day 16 I'm going to take the top off and let eggs cool down for 6 hrs. One time only. The dorkings will come on the 25th. Yes, busy. BUT my last hatch of White Plymouth Rocks was a bust. Only two were viable and hatched me some Barred not White.

But the mother lode came through for me. A local buddy from BYC has really good White Rocks. So I bought 5 five mo old birds. One Blosi pullet and three JWIP pullets and a cockerel. I'm out of orbit on the buy. So beautiful, fluffy and blindingly white. BIG And that's why I'm happy dancing today.

 

[drumstick diva]

That's why people are born with two feet - so they can dance

 

[Bunnylady]

Tara, just a thought on that cockerel with the mismatched feet - do you think he might be a chimera (two embryos that fused to produce one organism)? It looks to me like his feathers might be showing two different color patterns too; I have no idea whether that is normal in Booted bantams or not. A few members here have had a chimera or mosaic pop up in their flocks. Apparently, in chicken chimeras, it isn't unusual for the cells of each embryo to be mostly found only on one side; there have even be a couple where a bird appeared to be male on one side, and female on the other (gynandromorph).

Possible? (Or have you covered this, and I missed it?)