New Brahma Group: Blue Partridge x Partridge, Plus Dark

[1muttsfan]

bad case of chicken math!

 

[speckledhen]

bad case of chicken math!

Well, she has a lot of room for any additions she wants to make. They live in on 400+ acres, no neighbor in sight. Sounds like heaven to me...or would, until tax time.

 

[speckledhen]

Well, five more Brahma chicks are on the way. Thea has 5 Brahma eggs under her. Someone wants a splash chick and one other so he will be waiting on this hatch. Of course, of five eggs and probably only two or three of them from my Blue Partridge hen, Betsy, no telling if there will be a splash. Bonnie has been broody for the past two weeks already, me trying to break her up the entire time. She will go outside with the group and stay out for an hour, but then goes right back to an empty nest.

The heat today is atrocious! I was standing in front of my cage that houses my broody BR, Lizzie, giving her cold water, when I was hit on the side of the leg by Bash chasing one of the hens down the barn aisle. He almost made my knee buckle! I grabbed his butt, stood him in a pan of cold water we have outside, wet down his face and scooped cool water into his beak. If he keeps doing stupid stuff like that in this heat, he's going to keel over. And if he does, he isn't going to be replaced, much as I like him and his personality. What a goof!

 

[speckledhen]

It's HOT today! And Cora is turning into a beauty. She lives with the adult group now at 23 weeks old and has her own "harassment-free zone", aka, The Princess Roost, LOL. At least, it's harassment free until Brandy wants up there.
I have Bonnie in a dog cage trying to break her up still. She insists on sitting in that hot-box nest of theirs.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

They are a good looking bunch.

 

[speckledhen]

You can see how they were panting. The actual worst one is my one yr old BR hen, Athena. She has a worse time than the Brahmas do. Thankfully, we got a rain shower tonight and tomorrow, the high is about 5* lower than today.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I saw your hens standing in the water, my turkeys will do that but I've never seen a chicken do it, though we don't get that hot here, maybe they would under those temperatures.

 

[speckledhen]

I saw your hens standing in the water, my turkeys will do that but I've never seen a chicken do it, though we don't get that hot here, maybe they would under those temperatures.

Actually, Dru was standing in it because I picked her up and put her there and she just went, "Hmm, that sort of feels okay." LOL. The only hens who voluntarily stand in water that way are my BR hen, Thea, and her sister, Jill, who copied Thea. Thea is broody and sitting on eggs, so her breaks are made nicer for her by cooling down her feet-she's a smart little hen, that Thea. No others do that, certainly no roosters. Even Tiny, who will dig in Amanda's water dish when in her pen, won't stand in the water outside.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I was thinking my chickens are big babies, good to hear it's not normal.

 

[speckledhen]

They are big babies, LOL. I keep placing them in the water and hoping they'll stand still long enough to notice that it feels good. Well, I guess they can't all be as smart as my Thea is.