***OKIES in the BYC III ***

[Gigiintheforest]

So sweet! What kind of goats?

Ooops, just caught up on my reading. I love nigerians. We have pygmys and adore them. They are so much fun and come running whenever they see us walking to the barn. Love, love those animals.

 

[Elie mea]

Dose anyone have any baby ducks?

 

[MacGuyver]

Welcome to the okie forum. There is going to be a swap in north east Oklahoma in a couple of wks. Someone will chime in shortly to share about it I am sure. If you want it, then chances are you can find it at the swap or at least get pointed in the right direction.
We just got in from Blanchard auction, birds were still going when we left. Lots of pretty birds tonight. Trio of bronze peafowl were very tempting as was some pullets teach brought. DD had selected the pullets for her wishlist, but somehow I missed them coming up on the table & she didn't even ask about them before we left. While we were @ the auction DH drove to pick up a swamp cooler I found on craigslist. The ladies will be so happy to have their own a/c in the barn lean too. Imagine my lazy dogs will try to make a day time home in front of the swamp cooler too.
We returned home & wen to check the birds & collect the eggs that were laid late---Taron saw a stupid snake coming out of the nest boxes & he got away! she said he was a big bull snake. Guessing he will be back & we will get him soon enough.
One of the guys at the auction was telling me he is feeding his birds creep from the feed store in Dibble. Says they fill 55 gal drums for him & thinks it comes to about $6 a 50lb bag. He is the one who brought the gorgeous rock roo so his birds are not hurting from the feed! He said he does give them vitamins since the creep doesn't have any in it.
Eggs from poops started hatching today, but I wasn't thinking clearly & I had BCM & Dominic eggs in the same tray! So far I see 2 black chicks with spots on their head. Guess they are dominic?? Also 1 serama hatched & no buff cochins as of yet. The serama is so tiny!!!! The other eggs are not showing signs of pips so the serama may be a tiny lonely chick. Hope not!

Dominiques do have a little spot on the top of their head. Here are some out of the same rooster and hens, just hatched a few weeks before yours.

 

[MacGuyver]

You know, I had that happen with that pullet! I just thought I had missed one egg the day before, lost in the shavings I had in their nest box.

Well that's just cool. Would be cooler if my rooster laid eggs!

Seriously, they are laying machines! I love them!

 

[MacGuyver]

If you find shells with one end gone it is either skunks or rodents, no shell it is snakes, a partial shell it is usually the hens. Most snakes will hunt at night when it is cooler and they have darkness to their advantage.

Get some of that 1/2in bird netting from WalMart and just put it on the outside of the pens. A snake's head can go through it but not the body but they do get stuck in the netting. And think small. A rat can go through a hole the size of a quarter and a skunk can squeeze through an opening of just a few inches.

I think that Bill used a minnow trap with an egg placed inside and trapped quite a few new hat bands for himself a couple of years ago.

I'm going to pick up some minnow traps. How do you make said hat bands??

tg

 

[MacGuyver]

Well considering you will be picking up a snake w/ it, I'm going out on a limb and saying the BIGGEST one!!!!!

That's the one I'd be getting!

 

[Greybear23]

Dose anyone have any baby ducks?

A friend of mine has Chocolate and Grey Muskoveys and Call ducks for sale, not sure on the colors of Calls. He lives north of Ripley near Ingals. PM me if you want his phone number. He has baby guineas also and some Black Sexlinks and some Austrolorp hens for sale also!!! Lynn

 

[MacGuyver]

Afternoon, Okies,

I just returned from the NUC pickup yard, which turned out to be an empty field in the Catoosa area. I mixed the bees a nice drink and let them glom onto my veil for a few minutes. Apparently I smell like "friend" or at least "benign entity," so they went back to exploring the hive body. It must have been uncomfortable to be locked in and then bounced around during the drive home.

I decided to save the sunflower design for my next hive. DH is concerned about me keeping bees and will not be mowing anywhere near the hive. I've done my best to explain that they won't "attack" the mower or its driver, but he's not convinced. I painted this first hive to match the house, neutral and friendly colors, so as not to draw attention to the fact that the bees are in residence. Maybe next year, when they are established and we've not had any negative bee encounters, DH will see more benefit to keeping these beautiful, beautiful bees.


Our white rock rooster has decided the juvenile tractor run needs to be guarded. He's been sitting out there all day, making sure the little delinquents don't get out. Too bad I can't train the rooster to keep the kittens out of my flower beds.

I was always scared my bees would get upset by the mower, so I avoided it too. Was that not necessary?

 

[Greybear23]

I'm going to pick up some minnow traps. How do you make said hat bands??

tg

Those Minnow traps work and you can dispatch them in them or turn them loose somewhere else, your choice, just put an egg or two in there and set them uo next to the wall of you pen or hen house, or on the inside next to the wall up under the nesting area or near it. they go in after the egg and can't get back out the way they came in!!! Lynn

 

[mjgigax]

The girl that is now laying was broody in April. I put eggs from my Mottled pair under her but let her keep one Buff egg. We didn't plan to hatch any buffs this year but I thought "just 1 and hopefully it will be a pullet" -

Buff chicks are such a pretty color. The father of your trio is named Moonpie. So my DH is calling the new chick MP3 and turns out she is a she!!!!!


Since I am a novice at incubation I have been taking my LF Buff hen's eggs to Jack to put in his incubator. Last week the first 3 were clear but this week only 1 was clear and the rest are due to hatch tonight or tomorrow.

There are more due to hatch next week and also the hen went broody last week and is sitting on 7 eggs. What am I going to do with more LF Cochins? Plus, I just got a Bantam Americana pair from Teach and some eggs from Michael R.. I also am getting a La Fleche trio from a friend in Texas.Where did all these chickens come from? - I know, I know, I am preaching to the choir.