Kristen’s Chickens and Farming Ventures

[Kris5902]

@Kris5902 Congrat's on the hatch!

One of the Barnevelder's has been laying egg's now almost the same size as most of my hen's are laying. I think that I will throw some of her egg's in with my next batch of hatching egg's. My NN rooster Roger would be the daddy.

Awesome! I’m setting the last of my spring layers hatch on Monday, so the little helper can be around when they hatch... she is with her dad on weekends, so she is missing this one and the next one. If I do anymore hatching it will be for meat birds if the CX girls start laying again (they are quite sporadic). How do you find your Barnvelders for temperament? Mine are somewhat flighty, really dislike handling, and quite high strung. Beautiful but also a little annoying.

 

[aart]

.. (@aart will love this...) leaving my laptop and phone unattended/secured near the back door of the pub to finish the update.

Huh?<scratcheshead>

Night pic is gorgeous as is!

 

[BlueBaby]

Awesome! I’m setting the last of my spring layers hatch on Monday, so the little helper can be around when they hatch... she is with her dad on weekends, so she is missing this one and the next one. If I do anymore hatching it will be for meat birds if the CX girls start laying again (they are quite sporadic). How do you find your Barnvelders for temperament? Mine are somewhat flighty, really dislike handling, and quite high strung. Beautiful but also a little annoying.

The Barnevelder's are that much different than my NN's are. They are pretty mellow and lower in the pecking order. They like the higher level out in the run, maybe to keep a better eye on thing's? One of them is laying a pretty speckled egg, but I haven't caught which one lay's it yet. It's not as big as that other Barnevelder girl's egg that I mentioned earlier. If I hatch from that bigger Barnevelder egg, it will have a 50/50 chance of being either a fully feathered neck, or a Naked Neck with a big bib.

 

[Kris5902]

Huh?<scratcheshead>

Night pic is gorgeous as is!

Oh, just thinking based on your previous reaction to our less than secure parking arrangements you might get a laugh at our naive attitudes. Two or three years ago I would never have just abandoned my phone and laptop unattended in a pub and gone for an hour long walk. Or left expensive commercial weed whackers and a $300 pole saw in the back of a truck outside a pub all night!

 

[Kris5902]

I’m getting a little tired of eating eggs!

Two and a half days collection, not showing the four I held for hatching, and three or four I just fed straight back to them...

The dirty ones are all going back to the girls, and that should be solved when I put in the nest boxes again... I do two egg collections a day (or more) usually, but having been out all day yesterday there was a bit of a pile up, and they got more dirty than usual... scrabbling, rolling them under the roosts, pooping on someone else’s egg for spite?

 

[aart]

Oh, just thinking based on your previous reaction to our less than secure parking arrangements you might get a laugh at our naive attitudes. Two or three years ago I would never have just abandoned my phone and laptop unattended in a pub and gone for an hour long walk. Or left expensive commercial weed whackers and a $300 pole saw in the back of a truck outside a pub all night!

Hmmm don't remember that one.....tho remember the 'Corey' issue.

 

[Ribh]

So about those chicks....

So far I’m quite happy with the way this staggered hatch is turning out. Of my 10 eggs 6 have hatched and are doing well. I’ve got three Sapphire Marans, two black and one yellow. I think the black ones may be sex linked, in which case I have one male. Chickie Hawk has another two daughters (hopefully), and Bob is a daddy, the mama was the old HyLine. That chick had some issues, mainly with turtling in the incubator. I think she was trying to dry her belly fluff out or something? After six flips I decided to just move her to the brooder. Once I transferred her into the tote she stayed in a normal upright position. I love the Brinsea EcoGlow heating plates! Probably my best chicken decision in this whole experience so far.

Hatchling #1 (you can’t see the white dot on his head here but.... maybe a sex link?)
View attachment 2045760
And here with his new sisters

The other eggs don’t look promising, but I will leave them in until the next lockdown cycle happens on Tuesday. That includes the CX, one pure double laced Barnvelder, one from Chickie Hawk, and One sapphire Maran which had a very lopsided aircell at day 14 candling. Here a photo of it I was going to post last week before things got so busy.
View attachment 2045759

Yesterday was long, very long. But profitable. Morning chores and then off for cleanup landscaping work from 10-2:30. DH did 10-1:30 so about 8 hrs total at $25/hr then it was off to work at the pub 2-8 for poor Andrew. I walked down after I finished up at the rec center to change shoes, try to update my phone and computer over their (“best on the island” WiFi) had lunch and a beer. I got DH’s tip $ from last week, borrowed his phone for some music, and walked up to the store and back to kill some time, it’s about an hour... (@aart will love this...) leaving my laptop and phone unattended/secured near the back door of the pub to finish the update. The Corey isn’t on the island . We also had about $2000 of landscaping tools/machinery, DH’s laptop and a case of beer I added in the unlocked truck. “You might be an islander if...”

What was really annoying is this is what I returned to for my phone, and there’s some sort of I tunes update my computer just can’t seem to get installed. It’s a 2009? (Maybe 2010?) 18” MacBook Pro, and an iPhone 7 or 8 Plus.
View attachment 2045763

So I decided to walk home, with a nearly full moon I didn’t even need a flashlight. All together I think I had about 3 1/2 to 4 hours of walking, and some fairly steep hills. I wish my phone camera could take better nighttime/low light photos, because it was absolutely beautiful despite the light rain.
View attachment 2045761
View attachment 2045860
Red dot: Pub Green dot: Store
Yellow dot: Farm house/utilities
Blue dot: Trailer/house build
Orange line: my walk, (purple lines are steep hills)
And the shaded “parks” are very rough indications on this map (especially where it borders the farm!)

The hatch is looking good, the moon shot is stunning & you might be an islander if...
I give a DIL conniptions every time we leave the house: windows open, doors unlocked & the back door ajar for the cats. We've never locked anything here. Ever.

 

[MaryJanet]

The hatch is looking good, the moon shot is stunning & you might be an islander if...
I give a DIL conniptions every time we leave the house: windows open, doors unlocked & the back door ajar for the cats. We've never locked anything here. Ever.

The moon was utterly gorgeous at my place last night

 

[Ribh]

The moon was utterly gorgeous at my place last night

Yes very full. It sends my cats into a frenzy. Kirby in particular wants to be let out to go hunting.

 

[MaryJanet]

Yes very full. It sends my cats into a frenzy. Kirby in particular wants to be let out to go hunting.

Same with Blossom. As if she's ever been let her out after dark.