"Louisiana "La-yers" Peeps"

[kuntrygirl]

Morning all! Had a half decapitated pullet when I got home from work Friday. You really could have just grabbed her skin and peeled her face right off. It was terrible.

I have no clue how, but she was ripped to the bone from ear lobe across the back of her neck to the other ear lobe. I'm assuming that giant, emu looking wyandotte cockerel got rough with her--he chases her a lot lately--and then the others went after the blood. Poor bird. She's my 8 year old's pullet, too. She's been given the luxury of a shower, blow dry, private living quarters in DH's shop with lots of treats, and access to walk around in the house. My sweet son even held her in his lap on the swing yesterday!

Beautiful! And that darling girl still laid an egg for us after all that drama. I think the swinging must have shook it out of her.

Spent yesterday finishing the run for the ducks and those crazy birds were still out in their yard at 11 last night when I came in despite multiple attempts to get them to go INTO their house.

I thought chickens were a little on the slow side...THEN i got ducks. Got another coop moved to its new home and started on the other two coops that need to be finished and painted by tomorrow evening because I have birds coming this week and birdies in my yard will need to be moved around. Hope we get it all done--poor hubby worked more yesterday than he did all week at work, I think. Bless him! My first incubator that began with 38 eggs had a terrible hatch. Only 23 even made it to lockdown and then only 10 of those hatched. There is one marans egg that is still showing movement, but it has made no effort to pip and this is day 23. The rest got tossed because they had passed somewhere between lockdown and last night. Second incubator is in lockdown and I'm hoping to see some pips by tonight. So, more coop and run work this morning and then cleaning up to take my sweet little man to a birthday party this afternoon. Hope everyone enjoyed any swaps they attended yesterday and you all enjoy a great day today!

So sorry to hear about your pullet. How is she doing today? Sounds like you were VERY busy. And I thought I had a lot to do.

 

[kuntrygirl]

So I guess chicken math is hitting me. I won't do it, but am VERY tempted. Someone on CL in Church Point has some Blue Lace Red Wyandottes 1 year old for sale. I looked those up and they are very unique looking. Would definitely add some color to my chicken viewing. The existing residents have become quite comfortable. (excuse the rusty patio furniture)

Sweet pic!!!

 

[kuntrygirl]

Hi all! My name is John. I'm 15 and in Woodworth, Louisiana. I am TerriLaChicks' cousin. I've been on BYC for a while but have been waiting to get some more chickens before I joined in. We have 22 big, brown, and beautiful Buff Orpington eggs set to hatch Thursday the 28. Got them for my birthday. My dad knew that was a breed I wanted. Tomorrow begins lockdown.

They are in our Genesis Hovabator which we have used to hatch chickens, ducks, and quail out of before. My profile pick is my favorite out of the little EE bantams we used to have. Very excited to not just read and look but finally join in! Looking forward to meeting you all!

Glad to have you here!!!

 

[kuntrygirl]

Hi all! I am brand new to BYC! I was raised with chickens and am excited to start my own coop! I live in Baton Rouge and am looking for local silkie breeders. If anyone has recommendations I would greatly appreciate it!!

I am excited to get to know all you LA chicken lovers!!

I'm from Opelousas. I was in your area this weekend.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Hi all! I am brand new to BYC! I was raised with chickens and am excited to start my own coop! I live in Baton Rouge and am looking for local silkie breeders. If anyone has recommendations I would greatly appreciate it!! I am excited to get to know all you LA chicken lovers!!

If you are just looking for pet quality, then check out the Baton Rouge craigslist. There is someone posting on there all the time for chicks, but I think they are hatchery quality birds from the pictures I've seen. I have a small BBS pen, and can hatch you some pretty babies (including showgirls) if you can wait a month. (a week to gather eggs, and 3 weeks to hatch them. Here are a few pics from this weekend. Send me a PM or email if you are interested!

Hey Gracie. Long time no see. to the pics. I'm still scared. How are the sheep Gracie?

 

[Gracie9205]

Hey Gracie. Long time no see.

to the pics. I'm still scared.

How are the sheep Gracie?

Been quite busy lately, but it looks like things are starting to settle down!

The sheep are great. I think all 4 of my females will have babies on the ground by early summer. One of my girls is huge right now, but no sign of developing a bag yet. I afraid she may pop soon! She is so large that you can see the babies moving around on her sides. Almost alien like

I am going to put my deposit down this spring for one of those big rams from Country Oak Ranch, and I'm really excited about it. I hate paying so much for one animal, but I think I may just have to bite the bullet. Hubby says I will have to sell a lot of geese this year because he's not paying lol.

 

[mbmess2003]

X2....Gracie! seen ya lurkin every now and then...when are you going to head this way for swaps? Will you be at the Jennings show in April?

brad

 

[kuntrygirl]

Good morning everyone. The weather was horrible last night. I'm so sick and tired of this!!! IT HAS TO STOP !!!!!!! I can't get the chicken yard dry enough to get a dump truck in the chicken yard to deliver sand.

This weekend was VERY busy. I had to catch ALL of my guineas and put them in the pen. The girls are laying eggs everywhere and I need to make sure the eggs are in one location and not all the way down the road at the railroad track. It took me 3 nights to catch all but 3 of them. They can't see well at night but they do know how to fly UP and ACROSS over the fence. It was not a pretty sight but it had to be done. Now, I am collecting a lot more eggs. I was out in the yard until 11:00 PM Friday night catching guineas and had to wake up at 4:00 AM to deliver my foster cat to her other foster mother, so that she could be adopted out. Then I had to hit the road to Baton Rouge for a workshop. I didn't leave there until 3:00 PM and headed home. I was so tired, I was falling asleep on the road. :/ But I made it home safe. When I made it to Opelousas, I had a gazillion errands to run (hay for the sheep and goat, get DE, etc. etc. etc.). So, I finally made it home, I picked eggs, checked on all of the animals and I was in bed by 6:00 PM. I didn't wake up until the next morning.

Sunday was church time and then in the yard until 9:00 PM last night. I had to work the DE in the bedding in all of the stalls, especially the one that I put the poults in. They were finally moved from the garage to their own stall. Had to run the heat lamp out to them for warmth in case we have some cold night. I had to move the 2nd group of peas to another pen so that I could clean out their pen.

One of my older raised chicken coops finally bit the dust. I had a UGLY UGLY UGLY coop that was built for me about 8 years ago and it was horrible but they chickens LOVED It. Well, it finally tipped over and is now on it's side. THANK GOD !!!!!! So, now it's time to haul it off and start construction on another raised chicken coop.

In addition to all of this, I when people see my truck home, they always stop in . I had about 5 people stop by wanting to buy stuff. A lot of them wanted to talk chickens, so I entertained them. This put me way behind schedule.

The baby poults that were hatched last week are learning that they have wings. I couldn't find them inside this weekend because they had jumped out and was hiding on the side of the freezer. They SCARED ME !!!!!!!!!!! So, they will have to go into the brooder that the older poults were removed from. I forgot to plug the incubator up on Saturday so that I could set more eggs, so now I am a day off of the scheduled day to incubate.

The geese are terrorizing the entire year with all of their breeding. I'm so sick of them too.

There never seems to be enough hours in a day. I'm looking forward to the weekend.:/

Have a good day ya'll!

 

[kuntrygirl]

Forgot to post a few pics of the peas. I caught them fanning in their pen.

 

[Gracie9205]

X2....Gracie! seen ya lurkin every now and then...when are you going to head this way for swaps? Will you be at the Jennings show in April?

brad

I won't be bringing anything, but I may stop by just to take a look at things.

And I'm not really sure when I will be heading that way. I got rid of a bunch of birds due to their poor laying. I spent all this money buying these good quality birds that wouldn't produce worth a darn! So, I just got rid of them! I got tired of paying the food bill for a bunch of freeloaders! I was so frustrated with having birds that are too valuable to eat, but didn't produce any eggs. NO FREELOADERS ALLOWED

I had gotten rid of my Black Minorcas to make room for all the other stuff I bought, and regretted it ever since. They were the only ones who pulled their weight.

The only think I kept were my geese, sizzles, and silkies. I found someone local that had some nice Welsummers, so I bought 4 dozen eggs from him and have them in the incubator. For $10 per dozen I couldn't pass them up! I really like how you can sex them when they hatch by their down color. The eggs aren't as dark as a Maran, but his lay like crazy and they are still a nice terracotta color.





Once those hatch, I will be hatching as many sizzle eggs as I can. By the fall I should have enough extras to bring to your neck of the woods!

I have some more Black Minorcas on the way, and will keep a small flock of culls/mutts for egg purposes. I'm just ready to be able to walk into my coop and actually be able to pick some eggs!