Office Work.......

[Southernbelle]

Quote:
Good nutrition for you and little Norbert.

He appreciated the meal. After the first glass of soda, he started turning cartwheels on a sugar high. I'm just about out of room for him to grow anymore, so when he really gets going, it's really uncomfortable for me. I'm pretty sure I was making some really funny faces - good thing the restaurant wasn't busy, yet.

 

[NellaBean]

Orch, YES it was a salt block holder LOL. I needed something to keep the eggs in place. That broody was VERY VERY VERY unhappy about being locked in that brooder and protested for a full day by sitting on the roost in the corner. Sadly, I found a fully hatched and fluffy chick dead behind it....I'm not sure if it hatched and fell out of the nest and couldn't get back in and then froze.......or if maybe it died in the nest and she booted it out. So I took the "nest box" out and just put the hay on the shavings. Broody protested and has moved the babies to a spot in the shavings instead.

I think in the future I will just use an entire flake of hay so I can make a deep "hole" in the middle to hold the eggs.

Belle, I really prefer having the broodies do the hatching and find that I enjoy my mixed breeds that I hatch out myself quite a bit. They really do great......they're all great broodies, big and healthy birds. As much as I complain about having 80 broodies at a time (or at least it feels like that many), I do enjoy seeing chicks that were hatched here and raised up, going on to hatch out their own chicks.

 

[Southernbelle]

Quote:
You deserve them!

I hope they make you smile every time you see them.

 

[wegotchickens]

DH is seriously intent on us making chicken Christmas cards this year. He's brought it up almost every week.


I'm thinking my new white pair would look adorable against a cobalt blue background with glittery snowflakes on it, with red scarves around their necks....

If we did it really soon I could fill the little wooden sleigh with chicks....

Wouldn't that be just too precious for words?

 

[Buff Hooligans]

Quote:
Wow Belle. I'm thinking of starting some sample designs myself - I can't believe you are doing homemade cards at this point in your ... ahem... family way. Wow, you are some kinda woman!*





*[...dialing Belle's psychiatrist...]

 

[NellaBean]

Quote:
that is correct. I have an actual bruise on my hand from her. Have actual WOUNDS from her biological mother, aka my barred cochin broody. She made me BLEED when I checked her eggs the other day. I didn't need that skin on my hand after all.....

She looks violent. I was afraid of my Welsummer broody - it was her first time and she made such horrific sounds when I got anywhere close to her that I decided to just let her be! I never saw her off the nest, never got to candle her eggs, wasn't even sure how many she had. She ended up hatching 13 of 14 and did a great job. I let her keep 5 pullets from her hatch and sold the rest last month.

I have about half really angry broodies and half really gentle ones. My bantam cochins are all quite nice as broodies....the silkie was nice.....the leghornXes will fluff up but aren't too bad. This LF Cochin cross girl and my large fowl cochins are all aggressive broodies. Good thing they get the job done. I had a blue cochin (well still do, but shes not broody anymore) that is a screaming broody. If she is broody and just SEES me she will SCREAM. Poor annoying thing. She's been broody twice and been broken twice. Same with my splash cochin that is a sister to her. They always pick the duds to sit on.

Wish my half blind leghornX would go broody again. She was a great mom and is so much happier with babies. Last time she hatched only 1 chick hatched out and then died. Poor lady.

 

[wegotchickens]

Quote:
You deserve them!

I hope they make you smile every time you see them.

They do. And the rooster's crow cracks me up, too, because he adds 3 extra 'doo's on the end. Cock-a-doodle-doo-doo-da-doo!!!

 

[NellaBean]

I have yet to ever even remember to send a single chrismas card out, so don't feel bad ladies. You'll do better than me, no matter what you do. I should go shopping after work, buy Christmas cards, and let my mom help me get them sent out when she is here visiting for Thanksgiving. Why are moms so good at these things?

 

[wegotchickens]

Quote:
It's a mom thing.
My daughter doesn't 'get' the concept of Christmas cards, and only likes the ones addressed to her if there is $ involved. She rolls her eyes when cards are mentioned.

 

[Southernbelle]

Quote:
Do you think chicks raised by broodies are more likely to go broody themselves? I'm finding my mixed-bred chickens seem to be more prone to broodiness and I've heard pullets raised by broodies are more likely to go broody, so I've been keeping a few pullets out of every broody-raised brood in hopes they will be good broodies in the future. I don't know why I love broodies so much, but I do. I'm afraid with all this emphasis I'm putting on cultivating broodiness that I'm going to end up with 80 broodies this spring!

I used to wonder why anyone would bother keeping mixed-bred chickens when you could have purebreds, but after culling my first flock, a lot of people gave me mixed-bred eggs to help me start over and I have to say those mixed-bred chickens are my absolute favorite. They lay better, they're unique looking and good broody moms. Now probably 75% of my flock are mutts.