*returns from the grave*
Hi Everyone!!!! It took me two days to catch up on all of the posts that I missed last month and the beginning of this one. It has definitely been a roller-coaster for me and my family. Without going into too much detail and making this a novel, my pain lvls have been through the roof and besides sitting and being in bed a lot there is not much else I have been able to do. My "doctor" took a 6 month vacation and we found out last week that she is not coming back. Then I found out on Monday that for the last 5 years she has known and hidden the fact that I have SLE and the treatment that she has been giving me for the MS and FM has only been making the SLE worse and that is why I have been getting worse and worse. The new doctor showed me the tests run 5 years ago and there is no mistaking the results. Hell it says it right on the paper at the top in big bold letters POSITIVE FOR BLAHBLAHBLAH. So the good news (heh) is that I have been shoo'd off to a Pain Mgmt. Specialist and they are going to try to get me back to where I can at least do my chores and be with my boys without breaking down from the pain.
The good thing is that we started tilling up the garden area finally so we will be planting soon, provided we keep this great weather up. This week is the last week for Breakfast, Dinner and Supper (3 of the 4 Rhode Island Roosters I got in last Fall's order) along with 3 of the SLW roos, and 1 BO roo. They have finally made it to BBQ size.
Costco had Iceberg lettuce on sale 3 huge heads for $1 and most of the packages looked pretty gnarly so I picked up 15 pkgs. and my babies have been feasting until they bust every day this week.
I have two hens that have been soooo broody lately that I finally decided to see what they were made of and I have about 18 eggs sitting under them. We are on day 10 and the girls are going strong. I knew something was up when Hortence (one of the two barred rock hens I have) stopped coming inside the doggie door to visit. She and "3 of 6" (one of my older SLW hens) are the two that are brooding right now and Big Bertha my BO hen that Aubrey gave me is tag team sitting with them. When Hortence gets up to dust herself and get some food and water Bertha is right there to take her place on the hatch. She actually roosts on the board separating the two brood nests and waits for one of them to get up. "3 of 6" does not seem to get up at all so I have been putting food and water in there for her cause I just cannot stop spoiling my girls.
It is totally a mixed breed of eggs, I have not had the energy to start on the new chicken coop/run yet to get all the breeds separated out but before I put in a lot of money into an incubator I wanted to see how my girls would do hatching them out naturally and possibly save me some major money. If they make it all the way to the end I will be super elated that is for sure.
Aubrey: I do not know if you are still having issues on how to let your SQ girls stay outside but not get bullied by the other girls but last Fall I used our dog crate to keep them in and it worked awesome because I was able to move it around the yard and give them new scenery each day but it was big enough to house 16 chicks up to 10 weeks with no problems whatsoever. It is one of those extra large "crates" that we got years ago for our mastiff and my two mastiffs now just use it for camping trips although the girls are way too big for it now. I have a picture of it on my BYC Page here (it is the last pic on the bottom). They are always trying to get rid of them on Craig's so I am sure you can find one pretty cheap.
Ron: As always your coops look so pretty. I think you are doing a great job at least from the outside. When I got mine done I was so thrilled but after it was built I immediately started going over and over in my head of how I could make it more efficient and then when I decided to do the pure breed thing the whole house design was not going to work. We are going hoop house on the new one and will have it sectioned off in 4 sections and use the house we have now as the brood house for setting eggs and raising babies. This is what gave me the idea: Hoop House Chicken Coop
Tek Supply has it listed as $8200+ which blew us away but after pricing out the materials to do it ourselves it is only going to run around $400 to build. The tarp being the most expensive part. We also are only doing it 6ft high to help hold in the heat during the winter and save wasted space since I am a shorty. It will be 26'W x 6'H x 48'L and then I will section it out inside so I can separate out the different breeds. We are going to use rebar and PVC for the main structure too which will help with the snow and wind.
I'll keep ya updated on how it goes. I took some pictures my babies that are no longer babies so I thought I would share. I definitely have too many boys and they will go on the grill next weekend simply because they are too oversexed for my girls. I have hens with bare backs from being road so much.
This is one of my Black Australorp Hens hanging out.
After all of that hussling around looking for a replacement rooster for my australorps, I ended up having one that just did not develop as quickly but he is HUGE now. He is so big but his colouring is much different. Where Oscar has this beautiful forest green all through his feathers, Punch has this royal purple colouring that is mixed in with the black and the green that is just breath taking. I do not really NEED two Australorp roosters but I am going to keep him and breed him with the two australorp hens that have the same colouring and see what comes of it.
This is Roderick, he is the love of Bertha's life. She just adores him.
This is a closer picture of him, I wish my camera was working like it should, with the sun out he is so gold. It is like watching a gold bullion bar walking across the yard.
I have a couple of these pictures where I am trying to get all of the flock together and we all know how that goes. I even threw out their favourite treat of crushed up pretzels and they were not having any of it. I have Golden Laced Wyandottes, Silver-Laced Wyandottes, Buff Orpingtons, Black Australorps, 2 Barred Rock hens and I am going to keep 1 Rhode Island Roo to try to breed Black Sex Links. I have 4 Black Sex Link hens, 2 White Leghorns, 3 White Crested Black Polish that I kept for the boys and that is about it for now. I hope I am not forgetting anyone.
This is Bo, he is one of my pride and joys out in the flock. He has turned into such a gorgeous rooster and he is so nice too. He totally remembers perching up on my wrist when he was a baby and he still tries to do that when he is WAY to big to be doing that. I cannot help spoiling all of them. Mixed with my golden-laced wyandotte hens they are going to make beautiful babies I think.
Here is a quick picture of Breakfast and Dinner, two of my Rhode Island red roosters that are going to the grill next weekend.
This is Picard, he is the Silver Laced Wyandotte rooster that we have decided to keep out of the 4 that we have. When we got him, one of the boys dropped him and he acted like he was not going to make it for days he just laid there but I kept praying and babying him and by the end of the week he was all better again. By then though, I had already placed an extra order with Ideal for another SLW roo and they sent me 4 at no charge. He turned out great and so did the others, which is why they are making it on my table instead of a freebie on Craig's list. heh
Anyway, that's the update of the babies who are REALLY not babies anymore. You all take care, I have to start getting ready to go to my parents for tonight's service so you all take care.
Night
Hi Everyone!!!! It took me two days to catch up on all of the posts that I missed last month and the beginning of this one. It has definitely been a roller-coaster for me and my family. Without going into too much detail and making this a novel, my pain lvls have been through the roof and besides sitting and being in bed a lot there is not much else I have been able to do. My "doctor" took a 6 month vacation and we found out last week that she is not coming back. Then I found out on Monday that for the last 5 years she has known and hidden the fact that I have SLE and the treatment that she has been giving me for the MS and FM has only been making the SLE worse and that is why I have been getting worse and worse. The new doctor showed me the tests run 5 years ago and there is no mistaking the results. Hell it says it right on the paper at the top in big bold letters POSITIVE FOR BLAHBLAHBLAH. So the good news (heh) is that I have been shoo'd off to a Pain Mgmt. Specialist and they are going to try to get me back to where I can at least do my chores and be with my boys without breaking down from the pain.
The good thing is that we started tilling up the garden area finally so we will be planting soon, provided we keep this great weather up. This week is the last week for Breakfast, Dinner and Supper (3 of the 4 Rhode Island Roosters I got in last Fall's order) along with 3 of the SLW roos, and 1 BO roo. They have finally made it to BBQ size.
I have two hens that have been soooo broody lately that I finally decided to see what they were made of and I have about 18 eggs sitting under them. We are on day 10 and the girls are going strong. I knew something was up when Hortence (one of the two barred rock hens I have) stopped coming inside the doggie door to visit. She and "3 of 6" (one of my older SLW hens) are the two that are brooding right now and Big Bertha my BO hen that Aubrey gave me is tag team sitting with them. When Hortence gets up to dust herself and get some food and water Bertha is right there to take her place on the hatch. She actually roosts on the board separating the two brood nests and waits for one of them to get up. "3 of 6" does not seem to get up at all so I have been putting food and water in there for her cause I just cannot stop spoiling my girls.
It is totally a mixed breed of eggs, I have not had the energy to start on the new chicken coop/run yet to get all the breeds separated out but before I put in a lot of money into an incubator I wanted to see how my girls would do hatching them out naturally and possibly save me some major money. If they make it all the way to the end I will be super elated that is for sure.
Aubrey: I do not know if you are still having issues on how to let your SQ girls stay outside but not get bullied by the other girls but last Fall I used our dog crate to keep them in and it worked awesome because I was able to move it around the yard and give them new scenery each day but it was big enough to house 16 chicks up to 10 weeks with no problems whatsoever. It is one of those extra large "crates" that we got years ago for our mastiff and my two mastiffs now just use it for camping trips although the girls are way too big for it now. I have a picture of it on my BYC Page here (it is the last pic on the bottom). They are always trying to get rid of them on Craig's so I am sure you can find one pretty cheap.
Ron: As always your coops look so pretty. I think you are doing a great job at least from the outside. When I got mine done I was so thrilled but after it was built I immediately started going over and over in my head of how I could make it more efficient and then when I decided to do the pure breed thing the whole house design was not going to work. We are going hoop house on the new one and will have it sectioned off in 4 sections and use the house we have now as the brood house for setting eggs and raising babies. This is what gave me the idea: Hoop House Chicken Coop
Tek Supply has it listed as $8200+ which blew us away but after pricing out the materials to do it ourselves it is only going to run around $400 to build. The tarp being the most expensive part. We also are only doing it 6ft high to help hold in the heat during the winter and save wasted space since I am a shorty. It will be 26'W x 6'H x 48'L and then I will section it out inside so I can separate out the different breeds. We are going to use rebar and PVC for the main structure too which will help with the snow and wind.
I'll keep ya updated on how it goes. I took some pictures my babies that are no longer babies so I thought I would share. I definitely have too many boys and they will go on the grill next weekend simply because they are too oversexed for my girls. I have hens with bare backs from being road so much.
This is one of my Black Australorp Hens hanging out.
After all of that hussling around looking for a replacement rooster for my australorps, I ended up having one that just did not develop as quickly but he is HUGE now. He is so big but his colouring is much different. Where Oscar has this beautiful forest green all through his feathers, Punch has this royal purple colouring that is mixed in with the black and the green that is just breath taking. I do not really NEED two Australorp roosters but I am going to keep him and breed him with the two australorp hens that have the same colouring and see what comes of it.
This is Roderick, he is the love of Bertha's life. She just adores him.
This is a closer picture of him, I wish my camera was working like it should, with the sun out he is so gold. It is like watching a gold bullion bar walking across the yard.
I have a couple of these pictures where I am trying to get all of the flock together and we all know how that goes. I even threw out their favourite treat of crushed up pretzels and they were not having any of it. I have Golden Laced Wyandottes, Silver-Laced Wyandottes, Buff Orpingtons, Black Australorps, 2 Barred Rock hens and I am going to keep 1 Rhode Island Roo to try to breed Black Sex Links. I have 4 Black Sex Link hens, 2 White Leghorns, 3 White Crested Black Polish that I kept for the boys and that is about it for now. I hope I am not forgetting anyone.
This is Bo, he is one of my pride and joys out in the flock. He has turned into such a gorgeous rooster and he is so nice too. He totally remembers perching up on my wrist when he was a baby and he still tries to do that when he is WAY to big to be doing that. I cannot help spoiling all of them. Mixed with my golden-laced wyandotte hens they are going to make beautiful babies I think.
Here is a quick picture of Breakfast and Dinner, two of my Rhode Island red roosters that are going to the grill next weekend.
This is Picard, he is the Silver Laced Wyandotte rooster that we have decided to keep out of the 4 that we have. When we got him, one of the boys dropped him and he acted like he was not going to make it for days he just laid there but I kept praying and babying him and by the end of the week he was all better again. By then though, I had already placed an extra order with Ideal for another SLW roo and they sent me 4 at no charge. He turned out great and so did the others, which is why they are making it on my table instead of a freebie on Craig's list. heh
Anyway, that's the update of the babies who are REALLY not babies anymore. You all take care, I have to start getting ready to go to my parents for tonight's service so you all take care.
Night
