Michigan

[steelchair]

Thanks for the warm welcome and the invite, but my wife will be having our second child that week. Well off to work. goodnight.

 

[Nigellas]

...So we all walked back. Ducks don't walk very fast.

I don't know why, but this made me giggle. A lot.

Finally, the babies have arrived. Two girls, 6 lbs 4 oz & 6 lbs 8 oz. Their names are Alice & Julia. I'm waiting for their father to send me pictures and I will reserve commenting on their beauty or lack there of. I learned with my first son that you never tell a new mother exactly what you are thinking when looking at a newborn.

Congratulations!

 

[Olive Hill]

taprock - You can freeze eggs for later use.

 

[Nigellas]

OK, prepare to die from cute overload:




5 babies are out, there are 2 eggs left under mama. How long do I give them before taking them out? Another full day?

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

Hello all. I posted in the new members section and was told I should also post here. Well I am a new chicken/duck keeper. I have two pekin ducks and three Rouen ducks. I also have six chickens purchased from TSC. Two brown pullets, two red pullets, and two black sex link. It was recently confirmed that one of my BSL is a Roo. That made my wife upset and me happy. Looking forward to fresh eggs. I am loving this forum. Seems like a bunch of great people. Cheers. Ron

& welcome!

Nigellas, CUTE!

I finally got DH to believe me that I saw and chased a fox a few weeks ago. It came back and was in the orchard by the house when DH came home tonight. This time he saw it and I was even taking a pic of it to prove it to him. I would have rather taken a shot at it.

 

[vjwilmoth]

Here's the pics i promised yesterday:


The first one is the definate boy, (girls don't do that, do they??!) the second one is the one who's beak is trying to cross.....


Camera died before i could get the 3rd buff, who i am hoping is a girl because though there is light coloring like the crossbeak, that one's comb is much shorter and does not have the rounded appearance on the comb. This group is 4 weeks old now. For the beak issues i have been trimming it back, in an effort to stop it from crossing, in the last week it hasn't gotten worse, but not better either.... I know not to breed with this one, but it is a sweetie so i'm trying to give it a chance. If the beak crosses, i will have no choice, i'm not going to make it suffer.


This is my porcelain, she's only 3 weeks old, still no comb development (though she's much smaller than the others were at this age....?)

I wouldn't mind having a roo in this color, but i gotta have at least ONE girl to sit on the eggs, since my EE's won't do it....

Thank you for posting these! I'm going to watch my two very closely over the next week. They will be 3 weeks old on Monday and they still have tiny combs but I'm prepared for some sprouting. What are the chances I have 3 hens? Sigh...I guess it's better than 3 roosters!

The 4 orphan ducklings got to swim in the sink while I cleaned out the brooder. They were having a blast and the batteries are dead in my camera. Figures!

I didn't let them stay too long, they have little if any oil yet. Now they are in the nice clean tote, preening under the warmth of the heat lamp. Nothing cuter than a frolicking little ducky.

I better ride the Harley to the beer store and regain my manhood.

Yes, you better. We can't have people thinking you're going soft.

I have babies!

This morning I peeked under her front feathers and saw this sweet face peeking out.




Then I got curious again just now and peeked again and just as I lifted her front feathers I saw this little chick roll out of it's shell. It was one of teh neatest things I've ever seen.



YEAAAA!

YAY PHINEAS! Chicks are so cool. Better watch though. Mom can become a real witch now that they are out of the eggs. Skeeter had/has no problem with me taking the days eggs from under her, but once the chicks were actually out, she became attack chicken.

Skatters babies are due for hatching this weekend.

Opa, I went 25 hours after my water broke. I was in latent labor after the water broke, so ended up on the drip. Oh it sucked. BUT, I had the most beautiful baby.

Thats a blatant lie. Babies are not cute in any way, shape, or form for atleast 2 weeks. They look like constipated, water logged Mr. Magoos with funny shaped heads and black eyes. Yup.

I'm going to agree...newborn humans aren't such lookers. When my first was born I'd say I was rather disappointed. He was also born posterior(face up) and I pushed for an hour and a half. He was cone shaped to the extreme. When the nurse came in some time after he was born she was gushing about what a beautiful baby he was, etc. I just looked at her and said, "Really? This baby? Because I was thinking he looked more like someone took him out back and beat him then dragged him through a knothole backward!" She was just stunned. She regained herself and said she'd never had anyone new mother tell her that and I said politely that all those other people just weren't honest.

He cuted up real quick though. He's quite a handsome almost 12 year old now.

 

[ladyfeather]

CUTE!

Farmerboy: Glad you figured out the fence thing! Get those crabby neighbors off your back about animals that aren't causing any harm.

Raz: What movie was it? My husband and I were extras in a movie- I nearly trampled Christina Ricci (she is not a nice person btw) and we lived a few miles from where they filmed a lot of Real Steel.

Ron: I didn't know that about Bad Axe! Welcome! Congrats on the new baby.

I second the allergies and none of our medications are making much of a dent in the symptoms.

Today I found one of the ~4 week old pullets chirping sadly outside the brooder. They discovered those big things on their sides actually take them places and the escapee isn't my oldest/biggest girl so we are scrambling for something to keep them safe. I'm trying to think up a name for the idea we are implementing for a stealth coop- M.I. Chicks? Our city requires you to get a permit for any building so we're going to hide a makeshift coop (temporary) behind some lattice in the established raised garden, grow thai long beans on the lattice, then stack hay bails nearby so it looks like storage. Or I'll be hiding it in the woods around the house. The garden is all ready fenced off with poultry netting and approximately 4 x 16 ft, maybe bigger. We are going to frame up, wrap the bottom with hardware cloth, put painted plywood on three sides at least.

Question: Do I need to tar paper and shingle the roof?

I'm hunting down a little tykes play house or something similar for the ducks to hide near by too.

 

[vjwilmoth]

Finally, the babies have arrived. Two girls, 6 lbs 4 oz & 6 lbs 8 oz. Their names are Alice & Julia. I'm waiting for their father to send me pictures and I will reserve commenting on their beauty or lack there of. I learned with my first son that you never tell a new mother exactly what you are thinking when looking at a newborn.

YAY! Congrats! But really, no pics YET!? Sigh...

Congrats Opa - I got in trouble with my hubby when I said our newborn son looked like an ugly little gnome.

But it was true!

I have two chicks out and one pipped so hopefully I end up with a pair.

My DH also entered me in a contest with some group he is part of. This is what arrived for me in the mail today.


It reads "Crazy Chicken Lady" and the second line is "2nd Annual Michigan Predator Hunters Rendezvous" At the top " Made by a Newb with a home brew kit - Drink at your own risk- not responsible if you start feeling the urge to chase rabbits or eat road kill. Ingredients: Ice Mountain bottled water, Mr. Beer Whispering Wheat Weizenbier HME, corn syrup solids, coyote Spit (from Michigan coyotes only) Alcohol content: Some

How cool!

Congrats!

Tap- Cool!
I have found the true cause of the fence not working right!!!

How did I find it? By getting a shocking experience! That is what!

HATE THAT!

I blame your piggies, Olive!
I was burning some wood and boxes, while watching the fire, I pulled up a very large dandelion plant, tossed it in the hog pen which is right next to the burning pile. Seeing that how fast they chowed down the weed, I looked around for more weeds to pull. Found one, pulled that, tossed that, found another, but was partly covered by a large board next to the hog pen. I was trying to move the board when I felt both of my feet (was bare feet) and hands getting an electric shock. I was shocked that I had gotten shocked a few feet away from the fence. Looking around, trying to find what shocked me, there in the hog pen was a telephone type wire that the hogs rooted up, and it was touching the bottom strand, draining the power into the ground. It was several feet long. I took a 2 by 6 board and pushed the wire away, and pulled it out. Jasper the boar was looking for more weeds, and wander too close, and got the worse shock he ever got, and ran 20 feet away from the fence.

Then I ran to the charger to test how strong it is now. Before the removal of the offensive wire, the tester reads poor on the charger output, but now it reads Very Good. Woot! No more escapes!!!

Oh my, well I guess that's one way to solve the mystery. At least you got it fixed now. Yikes though!

The funniest part, though, was that three of the four seem to have forgotten they can fly. So we all walked back. Ducks don't walk very fast.

Okay, this made me laugh too. I can just see myself walking ducks back home.

This is down in Portage, have no idea how much the guy wants for it, but DUDE! Awesome recycled green house. Heck, I'd use it for a chicken coop!

Oh great, now I'm going to have to go check this out. Lol

Hello all. I posted in the new members section and was told I should also post here. Well I am a new chicken/duck keeper. I have two pekin ducks and three Rouen ducks. I also have six chickens purchased from TSC. Two brown pullets, two red pullets, and two black sex link. It was recently confirmed that one of my BSL is a Roo. That made my wife upset and me happy. Looking forward to fresh eggs. I am loving this forum. Seems like a bunch of great people. Cheers. Ron

Welcome!

& congrats on the upcoming birth!

I've been able to keep up today! I took my son to the dr. for pink eye and got medicine but thinking it may be allergy related. My allergies are making my eyes and ears do crazy things. All the rain helped

- I have mold allergies and live with an area of clay right next to the house.
I have eggs everywhere and right now no one is buying - it's been a week with no sales. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them all. I think I am going to plug the small fridge for camping in the garage and move some out there. 21 a day + guinea eggs has caught up with me! I think I have 16 dozen in the fridge.
I'm off to watch something brainless and see if I can find any allergy meds in the house. My nasal spray just ain't doin' it today.

I hope your son is on the mend quickly. And that is a LOT of eggs! Holy moly!

taprock - You can freeze eggs for later use.

Seriously, you can freeze them and use them later? They don't crack when they freeze? Fabulous!

OK, prepare to die from cute overload:




5 babies are out, there are 2 eggs left under mama. How long do I give them before taking them out? Another full day?

Oh those are just adorable!

 

[vjwilmoth]

What a busy day I've had. It's like the day that never ends and I'm whooped. Had a glass of wine and I'm headed to bed soon.


So we don't have our coop attached to a run yet, I've just been collecting the chickens every day and taking them from the coop to the kennel in the morning and back at night. Should make them more used to being handled anyway is the upside I suppose. Well, usually they just stay put in the coop while I'm transferring(the kennel is only like 10 feet away) but today two of them took a chance and bolted from the coop. I've had one get away before but never two. Thank goodness for them being flock animals because they stayed together but then I had to figure out how to catch them. Well after 2x of walk-chasing them around the kennel I got smart and opened the kennel door just praying the whole lot of them didn't run for it. On the 3rd time around one of them was like, "OH! This is where I belong!" and hopped in. But the other just went around the kennel a 4th time before she figured it out. I'm sure it was a sight to see. Sigh... After all that in the heat this is how I felt.

Lol

I'm so ready for bed now. Soccer in the morning and then I think we're going to go see The Avengers.

 

[teeville5]

Opa- Congrats on the new grandbabies!
Nigellas- too cute. Congrats on the hatches.
Taprock- that was neat what your DH did with the bottle and I know what you mean about having way too many eggs around. Olive is right, you can freeze them, too.
Farmerboy- how do you get anything done? Between work, escaping cows and all you tire me out just reading about your day.
hello to steelchair

I took a long break after catching up to do a few things so there are probably a few things I wanted to comment on, but have already forgotten.

eta- spell check

and if my son has it his way, the Avengers are in my near future, too.