Montana

[Azriel]

Karla I'm very sorry about your hen. I guess sometimes that just happens. RoyalT sorry about the bad hatch, what kind of bator do you have, I really like my Hovabator.
I had just a crappy day yesterday. I had to work late and didn't get home till after 6 and then had to go feed the cows and horses. When I get down to the barn, the calf that we kept to butcher next year had gotten out and ripped out the horses electric fence and their gate was wide open. I'm lucky that they are really good horses, and hadn't gotten out, but after getting the calf back in and feeding, I had to try to get the fence back up in the dark. I didn't get done till almost 9:00, by then it was too late for supper, and I was too tired to eat anyway. That calf is such a pain, I wish we would have just shipped him with the rest.

 

[karlamaria]

Karla I'm very sorry about your hen. I guess sometimes that just happens. RoyalT sorry about the bad hatch, what kind of bator do you have, I really like my Hovabator.
I had just a crappy day yesterday. I had to work late and didn't get home till after 6 and then had to go feed the cows and horses. When I get down to the barn, the calf that we kept to butcher next year had gotten out and ripped out the horses electric fence and their gate was wide open. I'm lucky that they are really good horses, and hadn't gotten out, but after getting the calf back in and feeding, I had to try to get the fence back up in the dark. I didn't get done till almost 9:00, by then it was too late for supper, and I was too tired to eat anyway. That calf is such a pain, I wish we would have just shipped him with the rest.

I'm sorry for your day, sounds like a really hard day for you hon. Ugh I can not imagine all that work when you just got home. Is this calf by himself? Maybe he is lonely? I had a friend who had a calf they were butchering when he got bigger, that calf was such a big baby. He would jump on my friends husband and wanted today. I could not bear to think of him being butchered seeing he was so playful. But he was. M not cut out to be a rancher, or have animals one must slaughter. Sounds stupid I know. I have always wanted land for cows and goats, chickens etc. but again what the heck would I do with them, I just fall in love and they become pets lol, can you imagine me with pet cows and goats and never butchering. Maybe that's why I do not have land lol. My chickens are the same way, though I am more apt to give my girls away ad not slaughter I can let them go and add new to the flock if need be. Can not believe my broody died, she was awesome at being a mom, now what am I going to do? Looks like I buy a new buff Orphington for a future brooder. I hope Azreil that you got some rest.

 

[Azriel]

Hey Karla, I have a Buff Orp that is broody all summer, if you want her come spring, you can have her. My Blue Orp is broody right now, I keep tossing her out of the nest, but not helping to break her yet. I want to keep her, and I'll let her have some eggs this spring.
No, the calf isn't by himself, I have a small herd and he's with them but he just won't stay in the fence. His Mom is a pet, when she hears me go in the back door after work she starts mooing,and keeps it up untill I get down there to pet her and rub her ears. She has cute fuzzy ears.

 

[montanachicks]

Hey Karla, I have a Buff Orp that is broody all summer, if you want her come spring, you can have her. My Blue Orp is broody right now, I keep tossing her out of the nest, but not helping to break her yet. I want to keep her, and I'll let her have some eggs this spring.
No, the calf isn't by himself, I have a small herd and he's with them but he just won't stay in the fence. His Mom is a pet, when she hears me go in the back door after work she starts mooing,and keeps it up untill I get down there to pet her and rub her ears. She has cute fuzzy ears.

I have 6 of the BO's & didn't know they tend to be "broody" til after I got them. They are less than a year old right now, and haven't had any issues yet........... keeping my fingers crossed. I could deal with 1 of them being broody but not all 6 ...LOL

 

[Azriel]

Montanachicks, I have 4 BO's, and only 2 of them go broody, they are hatchery birds, and smaller than the breederOrps, but they are very nice and good layers when not broody. My Blue Orp is just a year old now, and this is her 1st time broody, and so far none of my Lavenders have gone broody, so I'd say you have a 50/50 chance.

 

[karlamaria]

Thanks for the offer, I'm hoping my other orph takes up the broody tasks. I can no longer deal with adding adult chickens, it's such a pain to add new chickens to older girls. The pecking order of my girls is ridiculous . The pullets I add will have to be put in a pen and my RIR will be mean poos like always.
A single girl would be in trouble last summer when my broody had chicks one was a rooster and i could only keep one, they picked on that poor chick even today they do make a run on her. She pretty much now stands on her own but she was the lone man out for a long time. With me working it's just to hard to run interference. Come spring I will set up the pen and add a top to it and add pullets . I miss my girl, poor thing I'm still wondering what happened

 

[karlamaria]

Both m,y buffs went to broody by the time they were 9 months old lol. A sure sign to what was to come they were constantly broody last year until I let them both have eggs, my best broody had 2 times to set. I did not get much eggs, the constant broodiness, and trying to break it so often drove me nuts. My astrolorps even went broody a few times in there first year, but I got rid of the two out of three I had as they were constantly picking on my pullets so bad I got sick of it. They also picked on my older girls so off the went to a new home. I should have kept all my chicks from last falls hatch, I could kick my self, it would have meant I did not have to buys any chickens this year! Just weed out the roosters. Oye dumb dumb me! That's what I get with worrying I did not have enough room. My coop is big enough for 20 birds!

 

[karlamaria]

Hey Karla, I have a Buff Orp that is broody all summer, if you want her come spring, you can have her. My Blue Orp is broody right now, I keep tossing her out of the nest, but not helping to break her yet. I want to keep her, and I'll let her have some eggs this spring.
No, the calf isn't by himself, I have a small herd and he's with them but he just won't stay in the fence. His Mom is a pet, when she hears me go in the back door after work she starts mooing,and keeps it up untill I get down there to pet her and rub her ears. She has cute fuzzy ears.

awww how sweet, she is a pet, I love that. If you get some orphingtons to hat h I will get them from you as pullets ok. I love my orphingtons !

 

[RoyalT]

Azriel- I have a 1588 Hovabator Genesis. The eggs that didn't even develop were from poor USPS handling, and the rest that petered out, I don't know what did them in. I only had 2 blood rings, the rest just stopped for one reason or another. Two did look a little deformed, but they weren't from you! Possible inbreeding I would guess?

Haven't been on in a while! The new ducks are all doing well, staying put, too! Which is great because the gate on the second driveway right by their barn is open for winter (delivery trucks have it easier that way). They're all doing great

Today I went out and my main roo Linc's comb was shiny and BLACK on the tips! I freaked out until I realized it was grease from walking under the old trucks, not some crazy frostbite! Haha

So remember "Cali" and her "boyfriend"??? Yeah. They're both ROOSTERS! Grrr. So I'll be culling "Cal" and keeping the pure Marans boy "Conan"... Unless I can make a breeding pen for my F2 OEs... hrmmmm Think think think. Spring, hurry up!

Everyone's doing well here, hope you are all having a nice 2013 so far!

 

[Azriel]

So far 2013 is going OK, I think I have the fence fixed good enough that the calf has been staying in for the last few days. I should stop calling him a calf, he is 9 months old, and almost as big as his Mom. It was a nice weekend, close to 45 both days. The clutch went out on one of the tractors, so we had to split the tractor in half to get to the clutch, got that done yesterday now we need to get the parts and hope to put it back together on Wed or next weekend if we can't get the needed parts by Wed. We had to use the front end loader on the other tractor to hold up and move one half, and had the other half blocked up, now I hope we can get it put back together without any problems.
Chickens are doing great, they all came out of the coop today, and were picking around seeing if they could find any treasures. I have several in all different stages of molting, and 3 broodys right now. Crazy chickens, funny to see naked chickens out in the snow.
I've had a hard time candling my eggs, with the olive eggs having the double coating of blue and brown,so finally ordered one of the high intensidy candlers from Brisnea. I can't wait till it gets here. No more trying to candle with a flashlight. So far most of my eggs look good from what I can tell, so haven't tossed any yet. I might have to pick up a Little Giant for a hatcher.