North Carolina

[greenacresgrl]

American Silkie Bantam Club has a junior program- my daughter has been involved for quite a while. Encourages breed education/showmanship.

 

[dutchbunny83]

Very cool!
I will have to look into that for my son, he loves silkies too!

My incubator went into lockdown this morning and I see a few lavender orpington eggs rocking around, getting super excited!!!!!!!!!!

 

[LukesCityHens]

BUSY weekend! The watering system: I bought one of those spicket splitter things, 1-3, and ran giant pvc pipes cut in half along the side of the pen, then ran a small hose from the end to the other pen then out to the garden. I'll have to get pictures sometime this week. I smoked a boston butt on saturday for 13 hours....OMG it was delish! I think I need to quit my day job and be a competitive bbq cook, I love cooking!

The baby had a check up last week and is doing great, almost at 10 lbs!!! He holds his own head up about 75% of the time and when we give him tummy time he tries to turn over and looks like he is trying to crawl!!!!! He's only a month old LOL

Happy monday everyone!

 

[tammyfarms]

My incubator went into lockdown this morning and I see a few lavender orpington eggs rocking around, getting super excited!!!!!!!!!!

YAY~ Hatching is so much fun!!! Mine should be hatching in 3 more days! Lockdown tonight or tomorrow am.

Luke - Glad the baby is doing great! How is his mom?

Hollow - Safe travels, glad you are homeward bound!

 

[tammyfarms]

My Monday is NOT off to a great start. I got ready for work, went out to take care of the babies and when I got to the coop where the 4 week olds are, I looked around for the ONE brown chick that hatched (ONE of 18 from a black am roo and a blue Marans). I really liked that chick. I didn't see her so I looked in the external next boxes from inside the coop. Relaxing inside the box nearest the door was the largest black snake I have EVER seen. This thing was HUGE, I am guessing between 5 - 6 feet long. I have to state a disclamer here. I HATE to kill snakes. I usually even let the poisionus ones go. They perform a very important function in the cycle of life and just as importantly, they are REALLY good rodent control. However, when they eat a 4 week old chick, it is time for them to go. I actually called DH to make sure I wasn't overreacting because it got my favorite chick. He confirmed that after one chick dinner "blackie" would probably be back for more. So, I did what had to be done. We have had blackie on the property since we moved in. We relocated him from under the house, he lived near the garage for a while then when we got chickens moved out near the coops. I just did not anticipate that he would eat a chick that size. I thought the coop was secure. That project is on tonights list of things to do.

 

[NewHomesteader2010]

My Monday is NOT off to a great start. I got ready for work, went out to take care of the babies and when I got to the coop where the 4 week olds are, I looked around for the ONE brown chick that hatched (ONE of 18 from a black am roo and a blue Marans). I really liked that chick. I didn't see her so I looked in the external next boxes from inside the coop. Relaxing inside the box nearest the door was the largest black snake I have EVER seen. This thing was HUGE, I am guessing between 5 - 6 feet long. I have to state a disclamer here. I HATE to kill snakes. I usually even let the poisionus ones go. They perform a very important function in the cycle of life and just as importantly, they are REALLY good rodent control. However, when they eat a 4 week old chick, it is time for them to go. I actually called DH to make sure I wasn't overreacting because it got my favorite chick. He confirmed that after one chick dinner "blackie" would probably be back for more. So, I did what had to be done. We have had blackie on the property since we moved in. We relocated him from under the house, he lived near the garage for a while then when we got chickens moved out near the coops. I just did not anticipate that he would eat a chick that size. I thought the coop was secure. That project is on tonights list of things to do.

I am so sorry for your loss!!

Our Monday is NOT starting out too nicely either...we had "something" attempt to break into the coop last night (I'm thinking coyote as it was literally "pulling"/"digging" at the base of the door - where DH forgot to latch it). Sadly the little gap was just enough for our remaining biddies to either get out or get pulled through, either way, we lost ALL of our babies last night. I am sorry you had to dispose of the killer, but I can honestly say if I knew what got ours, I'd dispose of it without a second glance... my favorite little chickie was a white & brown Swedish Flower Hen and "she" was SO sweet - would follow us around the yard and would even let my little ones "pet" her.

Guess it means that this warmer weather is making the predators even hungrier and/or more bold! I hope your day gets better!!

 

[LukesCityHens]

YAY~ Hatching is so much fun!!! Mine should be hatching in 3 more days! Lockdown tonight or tomorrow am.

Luke - Glad the baby is doing great! How is his mom?

Hollow - Safe travels, glad you are homeward bound!

She's great,She was up and going when she was still in the hospital. Now if I could just get her to help out with the chores around the house we'd be in business LOL

 

[shallowbrook]

Thanks I will try it out this evening!

 

[ramirezframing]

Tammyfarms, my parents remove all snakes and relocates them due to this fact (the snakes try to eat their pigeons and or small chickens) I relocate the snakes because the DH will chop them to pieces and the neighbor will kill them as well.

The really big ones go down the road to a swampy area where there's no houses and the little ones go down the road in the woods where there's no houses or to Meg's

 

[dutchbunny83]

I'm sorry for your losses