NY chicken lover!!!!

[Lapeerian]

Just rain here, glad we didn't get snow. Have to help a friend move today, so hoping it isn't a washout all day.
We really need this weather to break, too much water. With the culverts plugged, last night's downpour really washed out our driveway, pretty good trench across it. And the neighbors driveway is now running across our lawn instead of to the ditch. Some of the water is following the dirt pile from installing waterline to the barn last fall. Worried that the water will follow all the way to our basement. I try very hard to keep our lawn and yard looking nice, but the rock and silt from the neighbor is making it difficult.

 

[marquisella]

Put first eggs in the Redwood incubator yesterday. Finally figured out how it works, and its been keeping temps up consistantly now for a week, so in they went. I'll put eggs in each week until my other incubator is empty. It will make my life easier having it in the barn instead of the house. Heres a pic, it needs refinishing, but will do that over the summer when I'm not using it. I put 1/3 the number of eggs in it that my Sportsman holds and it didn't even fill up one drawer...oh my!

 

[Lynzi777]

Morning,
We got a dusting that you can still see the grass thru, hopefully that's the most we get. Gotta go let all the cheeps out. I've been keeping the ducks locked up a little longer as of late with hopes I get an egg from the runners soon and they're not laying them elsewhere in the yard. Moved mama bunny back outside yesterday since the last 2 of her kits passed the night before last. I just don't get it. But I guess that's expected with first time mama bunnies. Some get it and care for their young, some don't. Still bummed about it, I really wanted to see what color bunnies would come from her and the buck I used and I no longer have the buck. :-(

I'm getting ansy for these eggs to hatch and I still have just under 2 weeks to go! LOL Two should be lavender but the other is from my Lavender over Splash so I'm dying to see what that one turns out like. And yesterday I saw someone on FB list a "lavender splash" for sale, I didn't think there was such a thing but it seems like more and more are creating silkie colors these days that really were just odd colors thrown to begin with. Pretty soon everything will be a recognizable color regardless of what it is!

 

[Lynzi777]

Put first eggs in the Redwood incubator yesterday. Finally figured out how it works, and its been keeping temps up consistantly now for a week, so in they went. I'll put eggs in each week until my other incubator is empty. It will make my life easier having it in the barn instead of the house. Heres a pic, it needs refinishing, but will do that over the summer when I'm not using it. I put 1/3 the number of eggs in it that my Sportsman holds and it didn't even fill up one drawer...oh my!

Wow, that's really neat. Looks like a nightstand! LOL That's going to look really nice when you refinish it this summer. And it has an egg turner and everything in those drawers?

 

[pharmchickrnmom]

Morning all. Got heavy rain all night and now have a pond in the backyard. The big run is one giant muddy mess and so is the one silkie run outside their coop. Fortunately they are inside with a run under their coop so they are staying drier and less muddy. I have to run out and put up Juniors temporary home before it rains again. He is terribly lonely and has been crowing all morning. I will move one of the girls in with him so he has company. His father, Legolas, looks quite good this morning and did his little two step challenge at me this morning so I know he is feeling well. I changed the chicks bedding from paper towels to pine chips and they went crazy. Flapping and jumping and racing around like crazed lunatics! Silly babies. They are growing like weeds and look fantastic. They like eating chick food out of my hand but dont like yogurt. I gave the rest of the container of yogurt to the terrorists last night who were watching through the sliding doors. They were hilarious! Yogurt all over faces and beaks. Bill looked like he had been painted! Dh and I were roaring with laughter at the sight of them.

Time to run out and set up the cage and tarp before round two of rain. Later all.

 

[Cass]

Wow ! were you lucky ! you got a coon that likes eggs not chicken .
Where your chickens showing any signs that they knew the Raccoon was in there ?

Were they showing signs? OMG the noise was rediculous. They were clucking and hooting and crowing. Now that I know there was a coon around, it does answer a lot of questions I have had about my flock dynamics. Like "why no eggs to speak of" and "How come those 2 are ALWAYS in the rafters, never outside", "why don't those chickens go IN the coop when it is raining out",etc.

I thought that the fright would stop them from laying. I mean, we did shoot 2 bullets in the coop while they were in there. The real result of culling (LOL) the coon from my flock was I found 2 eggs I have never seen before. Smallish eggs, just about the right size to fit in a coons mouth, so it seems. And I was just down there this morning and THREE were IN the nest boxes making those "i'm thinking about laying an egg" sounds. So, it wasn't the weather that had my production off, it was that darn racoon eating the production. (Oh, and no one laid in the eves yesterday either. Seems they had to lay but they didn't want to fly down to do it, so they found a way to get behind the chicken wire and lay them up under the eves)

 

[PhoredaBurds]

Here's the new/final set up for this year:

Orps to the left, Bantams on the right, ducklings are in the middle. I think I'm going to swap them with the Bantams tho because I don't like how open the top is on the bantam pen. Easy access to hawks. The middle one has a tree so that'll out some coverage over them, enough hopefully to keep a hawk from swooping down. The ducks and rabbits are all behind them, I left a path between the two.

Looks great! How much of the net fencing r u using there? I love my electric net fencing. I'm hoping my credit card will sponsor me for another roll this summer.

 

[Lynzi777]

Looks great! How much of the net fencing r u using there? I love my electric net fencing. I'm hoping my credit card will sponsor me for another roll this summer.

That's just one of the 100ft rolls. My husband said I should buy another one. I don't know why or what I would use it for but if he said to buy it I better buy it before he changes his mind! ;-) lol

All you can hear in my backyard is this river roaring!

 

[PhoredaBurds]

So this morning the chickens asked me to turn off the snow and turn the ground warmers on. If only I had such power...

Just yesterday the yard was littered with robins. Clearly they did not see the forecast.

 

[PhoredaBurds]

That's just one of the 100ft rolls. My husband said I should buy another one. I don't know why or what I would use it for but if he said to buy it I better buy it before he changes his mind! ;-) lol

All you can hear in my backyard is this river roaring!

They say up to 3 strings of the 180' rolls can be hooked together. Would become a bit cumbersome, but it would give the birds lots of safe space to scratch around in.