Office Work.......

[Orchid]

Quote:
Oh that sounds good. Would you share your recipe for the honey plum sauce? Pretty please?

I don't have a bator, wegots. Yet. Hubby about keeled over when I told him I want 12 laying hens (9 more than I have now), so we're working into this slooowly.

I have big plans for next spring though...

Your new feeder is awesome!

Belle, sounds like a great dinner. I loved Robeeze, our second wore nothing but his first for two and a half years! Sorry your friends were poopy about the shower, I think every baby (and mom) deserves a shower, 1st or 10th.

We had a busy weekend. Our 10 year old shot his first deer! He was so excited. Good shot, too, one shot through both lungs, just the way it's supposed to be. My DH uses one shell every year, I guess now we're a two shell family.

I made pumpkin pancakes with bacon, homemade split pea with ham soup, baked a pumpkin pie, cranberry orange chicken and rolls...it was a good eating weekend at our house. *burp*

Got the hallway painted, my only helper was our five year old. I did not pay him with wine.

He sure had fun with the roller. Now I'm motivated to keep right on painting. I think the den is next.

 

[Orchid]

Oh and Beaner, I managed to fall down the bottom half of the basement stairs yesterday. Thank God they're carpeted, but I have a few scrapes and bruises too.

I always say it's a good thing my parents didn't name me Grace.

 

[Orchid]

God forbid we are ever in the same room at the same time Beaner...or worse yet, on the same staircase! Chaos and calamity would ensue...

Speaking of which, pretty sure the chickens are trying to kill me so they can eat my eyeballs. I found chicken poo on the porch stairs yesterday, waiting silently to slip me to my doom. Evil little dinosaurs, they are...

 

[NellaBean]

My stairs out back are about 6 feet wide. Plenty of room for both me AND you! Calamity here we come.....I have the non-skid traction tape! I just need to get it "installed". It is only 2" wide, so I am going to put 2 strips across the entire top step, and then 2 strips for 24" of each of the other steps. That should give me a nice path to walk down. I think. I hope. Scrubbing the mildew and algae off helped a lot. I had almost forgotten the steps are brown aka wood color and not GREEN. I need to rent a power washer, I think.

 

[wegotchickens]

Morning, ya'll.

I hate having a thermometer in my office. It is almost 65 in here. I am sitting under a laprobe, wearing a l/s shirt over a tank top, with a down vest over all that. Where's the freezing-to-death-smiley?

DH painted DD's 'new' room cobalt blue this weekend. Then he caught our cold. He kept saying he wasn't sick, but when he sits still without complaint then he's ill.

I killed off a couple of roosters and added them to the rehab center stash in the freezer. Decided I just didn't like them or their attitude, and they're too small to eat. They are not birds I hatched, so I didn't feel particularly loving towards them. And when one bit the crap out of me I told him very sweetly how much I would enjoy wringing his scrawny, ugly neck....
Yesterday was not a good day to give me an ugly look....

Tennesseebee is VERY happy right now, as he has 10 mature MF hens all to himself. He's actually a canary in the mineshaft, though. If he survives 3 weeks with the newbie millies then some of the hens are going into Tennessee's pen.

My project birds are getting more adorable every day. Soon I will have 2 pens of millies, a pen of project birds, a pen of project bierds & goldneck combined, and a pen of silkie/showgirls.

This weekend I get rid of a goldneck trio, and 3 of my porject birds are going to LadyHawk's daughter. She lost her millie pullet, and I don't have any others the right age for Chey's cockeral. So she will help me see what happens when the project birds with gold lacing are crossed back to mf. I hope she's as excited by this as I am

 

[NellaBean]

I didn't get rid of anything this weekend. A few more chicks did hatch out though. LOL. Downsizing in reverse is quite fun.

She has 6 babies now. 2 black, 1 blue, 3 yellowish.

There are no more "early eggs" waiting to hatch. Next batch is 16 eggs or so that were set 10/24. All olive eggs, whooo. I have a new broody that has set well for 2-3 days now, so I will give her another 10 eggs tonight.

These broodies are craaaazy. Must think its spring. 2 hens with chicks and 3 hens on eggs right now. RIDICULOUS.

 

[Southernbelle]

I love broodies! My Welsummer is still raising her chicks, but I don't have anyone sitting on eggs right now. Before I found out I was pregnant, I hatched out broody breeds this spring to create a flock of broody minions (Silkies and Cochin/Silkie crosses) and they've just started laying well in the last few weeks, so I'll probably end up with a few broodies this winter. And probably at the most inconvenient time possible.

 

[NellaBean]

2 of my current broodies went broody at about 29 weeks. I think they laid eggs for a few weeks and then just plopped down and decided to raise chicks. 1 was a RIR/Cochin hen (huge) and another is one of my leghorn/Giant hens. Crazy ladies.

My little white silkie is broody, not surprisingly.....she is newish to me, so this may be her first time broody. Or maybe not. But her first time here for sure.

My little buff columbian bantam cochin hen that has all the babies is broody here for the first time. Not sure if she had been broody at her previous home.

My barred cochin hen that just went broody has been a successful broody here a couple times before. She does a good job, and protects her babies very aggressively, so I will always encourage her to sit once she starts. She is doing a great job of protecting 3 wooden eggs right now. I really need to dig out 10 good eggs for her to sit on. And she will be a nice backup, as just in case one of my other broodies "breaks" in the next week, she can take over their eggs too.

My broody plans are all out of whack. I have a million cochins but mostly my leghornX ladies like to go broody. I have no doubt that before these girls are done, I will get another broody out of my leghornX. My half blind hen has been broody twice...last time her singleton chick died after hatch....i bet she'll go again before winter is over.

SIGH.

 

[wegotchickens]

I don't know what makes them go broody at this crazy time of year.
I have 2 d'Uccles on eggs, one due to go to a new home on Friday

I had hoped she'd take her chicks with her but either a) she hasn't stuck tight enough or b) she lacks mass to keep them hot enough to cook. When I candle I see wigglies, but they are NOT where they should be at 19 days

This means I will be stuck finding a place to put these half-cooked eggs, as I think moving them on Friday would kill them for sure.
The other d'Uccle is already at capacity with eggs cooking too slowly as well.

The showgirl, who had barely begun laying, is clamped tight, and very pissy when egg-candling is going on. Her eggs look to be cooking at the correct temp. I considered playing musical eggs, but I want her chicks more than I want d'Uccle chicks at the moment....

The brooder is empty, and waiting on a mama to reside in it, with babes.

In case mama is a better bater than parent, I have an EcoGlow Brooder by Brinsea on the way. I scored it and a high-class egg-candler for 30% off earlier today, by being first to notice and respond to an ad on Facebook. I win at spending $. I'd like it to be noted that I did NOT buy the cool demo bators being offered at 30% off. Only ya'll would be proud of me for only spending <$80 rather than <$200 on chicken stuff....


DH finally noticed there were hens on eggs. He didn't realize they'd been on them for a while. I am doomed when he realizes this.

The blonde stillkies still don't understand that they are supposed to go into the coop at night. Or maybe they can't get there. Or maybe Sopie is a bee-yatch who won't let them in. So I am still going out every night to put them away. Spikely hangs with them, too. Going out in 30 degree weather to deal with 2 blondes and a buddy when you don't feel good is no fun at all.

 

[NellaBean]

Lori, I feel your pain. i finally gave up on my slackers who wouldn't go into the coop at night....after MONTHS of having to put them away, I tossed their butts back into a brooder in the garage. The darn pullet's faces are reddening up and they are still in a brooder! Ridic. Speaking of ridic, one is a little cochin pullet who is a bantam anyways, but also apparently "stunted". She is the size of a 4 week old bantam. I could sit her in the palm of my hand. Totally adorable. I have two TINY bantam cochin hens too.........a partridge and a lavender. I should create a new breed of miniature bantam cochins. I wonder if I have any worthless, I mean small, bantam cochin roosters.....

I have 6 brooders currently. ALL FULL. 1 has babies, 2 have momma hens with babies, 3 have hens on eggs. These are serious brooders too. 2 are 4x6, 2 are 2x8 and 2 are 2x4. What happens when the NEXT hen goes broody? Geez.

Lori, time to bust out the incubator!