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Woo! Just got confirmation from the breeder in Eustis that our NNs will be ready for pick-up in 22 days. SUPER pumped. I was reluctant about having chicks over winter, but I'm now confident our chicks can handle it since we've made some minor adjustments to the brooder plans, especially since they'll be indoors for most of it.![]()
@Fire Ant Farm WELCOME BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I missed you soul sister! I'm glad to hear you flock survived those determined little foxes. Scary stuff!
Hey, strangers!!! I've been crazy busy - still am, but taking a bit of a break, thought I'd drop in because I want to show Kev some pretty photos.![]()
First a brief update on some excitement (I also posted this story on incubating with Friends):
About 2 months ago, I was sleeping a bit late on a Saturday morning, and had not let the chickens out yet - so only the Naked Necks were out in their paddock (since they had an automatic door). I was woken up at about 8am by all hell breaking loose outside - I looked out the window, and right there outside the window was a greyish fox lurking along the paddock fence. (NOTE: I live in the city limits - I saw a fox once about 12 years ago, but they are VERY unexpected here.) I raced out, scaring that fox away and finding and retrieving one (uninjured) hen - Trinity - walking outside the paddock near the house (I figured she had been frightened and flew out of the paddock). I did a head count and was missing little Switch, and then I heard more ruckus in the back of the yard, so I headed back there and found where the NN paddock fence had fallen/been pushed down, and a trail of WAY too many feathers heading to the back. I figured she was a goner, but still followed the racket being raised by the chickens in the back coop where Tank and his girls were (still locked up safe). And I was surprised to see a SECOND fox that jumped up over another sagging section of this other paddock's fencing and ran off away from me. I walked back to check that fence, and there was Switch, just sitting on the ground immobile and looking stunned. I swooped her up and checked her over, and was astounded to find only superficial bites and abrasions. Apparently, the second (pretty young looking fox had heard me and had carried her to the back in his mouth so he could then dispatch her in private, before being scared off before he could do the deed. I repaired the paddock fence problems (the sagging was because of recent heavy rains moving the posts), and kept an eye out, but the foxes have not returned.
She's a tough little bugger - I brought her in to the chicken hospital, and within 30 minutes she was up and bored, and staring at me as if to ask "What's for lunch?" - despite the teeth marks all over her neck. She stayed in the chicken hospital about a week so she wouldn't have fly strike in the wounds (it was instructive to see the pattern of bruises and swelling, making it more clear that the fox had carried her in his mouth at some point), and grew back her feathers finally (she looked like a little porcupine for a while). These photos are literally an hour after the whole thing (it's hard to see how many feathers she lost - her whole back and most of her tail was naked, save that one lone feather sticking up).
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About a month later I ran into a neighbor who told me that he was repairing his coop because about 4 weeks previous (same time as my attack), foxes broke into his coop overnight and killed all 10 of his chickens. I felt very fortunate, and also very justified to have built all my coops like a paranoid person (and for laying a cinder block against the doors every night as well).![]()
A few pretty (non-NN) photos for Kev - @Kev , do you recall the Lavender Ameraucana cockerel I had? Well, he's all grown up, and turns out he's a Lavender WHEATEN Ameraucana. He's molted his beard a bit, but isn't he handsome!!! I thought it was a nice example of what you described as the lavender gene effect on red as well as black. The olive egger next to him there is a cross between a wheaten ameraucana and a splash marans. She's sassy.![]()
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One of my NNs is laying these FREAKY things - they're even freakier in person. I need to figure out who it is (I'm depressed to think it may be Sweetie) - no babies for her if I hatch in the spring. None of them has ever been sick, so I'm leaning toward shell gland defect (not IB)![]()
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And I'll end with a gratuitous pretty eggs-in-nest photo.
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I've got some reading back to do, but I'll try to keep more caught up, if I can.![]()
- Ant Farm
Welcome back! Been missing your posts. Sorry to hear about your fox attach. Hopefully it over.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/content/type/61/id/7615391/
I had a hen that laid an egg like that before. Most cracked on the end when she laid them. I managed to get two or three gathered that weren't broke/cracked and incubated them. I managed to get one cockerel out of the hatch. I sold him as a baby chick and then he fired some babies and I bought back a son of his :![]()
This fellow right here. My first Red Mottled NN rooster. He is the sire of most of the offspring of my Mottled Partridges offspring. I had to cull him because he was very aggressive towards people. He never did learn his lesson even with a boot against his head a couple of times. So far the one rooster offspring tried attcking ne once, but looks like he learned his lesson hadn't tried it since.