***OKIES in the BYC III ***

[NanaKat]

Robyn...proud you got some rain.

Kyzmette...love Bumpers' attitude!

Jeansrie...cute photo.

Kass..nice garden photos...tomatoes look huge! Also your quilt/crochet is a nice wedding gift.

Praying for rain today. It seems to split and go around us. Eggs should be hatching under hens in the barn today and I have a few chicks to add for them to raise. Another group of eggs are going into the hatcher for hatch on the 30th. Looks like I've reached enough eggs for a 25 chick hatch for two of the breed pens...will keep collecting from the pens as long as the temperatures remain a comfortable temperature and fertility remains good. My Columbian Wyandotte hatch numbers have been really low this year. The son of Beau's is doing a good job covering the hens and hoping the hatch rate climbs. This next hatch will give me a good idea. The Cochin numbers have been low as well.
I was hoping to bring some CW to POOPS for greenbeetle . I do have a few nice Cochin cockerels to bring and maybe a few pullets.

 

[BetsyOK]

I sometimes put food near the broodies, but I know one of my older friends who has raised chickens all his life does not; he often takes the hens off their nests to the food. I know he believes it is important for the hens to get the small amount of exercise it takes for them to move to the food. They should have easy access to it so they don't have to stay off the eggs very long.

 

[greenbeetle]

Robyn...proud you got some rain.

Kyzmette...love Bumpers' attitude!

Jeansrie...cute photo.

Kass..nice garden photos...tomatoes look huge! Also your quilt/crochet is a nice wedding gift.

Praying for rain today. It seems to split and go around us. Eggs should be hatching under hens in the barn today and I have a few chicks to add for them to raise. Another group of eggs are going into the hatcher for hatch on the 30th. Looks like I've reached enough eggs for a 25 chick hatch for two of the breed pens...will keep collecting from the pens as long as the temperatures remain a comfortable temperature and fertility remains good. My Columbian Wyandotte hatch numbers have been really low this year. The son of Beau's is doing a good job covering the hens and hoping the hatch rate climbs. This next hatch will give me a good idea. The Cochin numbers have been low as well.
I was hoping to bring some CW to POOPS for greenbeetle . I do have a few nice Cochin cockerels to bring and maybe a few pullets.

That would be awesome, might have to see what I can do to make it to P.O.O.P.S.

I sometimes put food near the broodies, but I know one of my older friends who has raised chickens all his life does not; he often takes the hens off their nests to the food. I know he believes it is important for the hens to get the small amount of exercise it takes for them to move to the food. They should have easy access to it so they don't have to stay off the eggs very long.

Betsy, I put food and water near the nest she is setting on, then this morning I took her off the nest so she could poop. She went outside, pooped and ate and drank, then went back to the nest of eggs, she was off about 15 min or so. Also I am going to see what I can do to make it to POOPS, however I am going to be going to the Keystone area on Saturday to buy some Silver Pencil Wyandotte chicks and a LF Barred Cochin hen.

 

[kimberlischicks]

Congrats on the little Blues! Looking forward to pictures of Blizzie's babies.


Pictures for today:
The two Birchen pens...Black Birchen over Black and Blue hens and Blue Birchen over Black Birchen hens



A young Blue Rosecomb Bantam pair out of birds I got from CJarvis



The Columbian Wyandotte hens are being covered by Beau's son.


This little Spangled Old English Game has decided to start laying again.


I reworked and extended the floor in the arbor in the garden. The wisteria is finally growing over the top for shade. I planted bird house gourds on the south side in the small garden box along with Hyacinth bean, Moon Flower and Cypress vine.


Three colors of poppies in the garden....I really like the carnation flowered better than the singles....but you get what comes up each year from seed.

Absolutely beautiful!

 

[Loriemarler]

NanaKat, do you know if I can breed a birchen hen to a blue roo? I have juveniles that I hope to keep but wasn't sure if that color combo would work

 

[Kyzmette]

Ooooh, poppies! I totally forgot those are legal to grow in the US! I read something when I was a kid and I keep thinking the Poppy laws of the 40's are still in effect today. I should plant some. They're absolutely gorgeous, and it would be a great contribution to my "Ready for the Zombiepocalypse" hobby.

I don't actually believe there will be some horrible world-destroying, life-altering plague/war/space invasion in my lifetime, but I do think it's fun to make changes to my property as if there will be. It's one of the reasons I have stuff growing wild all over the place. Poppies would be a great medicinal addition.

I don't take it too seriously, though. I haven't planted the foxglove yet, and won't until my youngest granddaughter is a little older. I do, however, make an attempt to take my granddaughters around to all the known plants (those planted by me and those that were already here) and show them which are edible and which are poisonous. They can tell wild onion by the smell, and know that wild plants that look like onion but don't smell like onion are poisonous. And they know the difference between nummy looking berries and pokeberry, which shouldn't be eaten (I didn't think it was worth going into those specific details at their ages, just 'BAD" was enough for now.

 

[Kassaundra]

This has been my first attempt at preserve (jam) making, and my oh my, I think I've used more sugar this afternoon then the whole of last year. It's a lot of prep and cook work, more then I thought. Now on to the wine. I ended up w/ 9 pints of jam, and will have 1 gallon of wine. And lots more cherries on the tree, just don't know how much time or energy I will have to harvest more cherries, it takes a lot of time to harvest those little cherries.

 

[ashtree]

Ooooh, poppies! I totally forgot those are legal to grow in the US! I read something when I was a kid and I keep thinking the Poppy laws of the 40's are still in effect today. I should plant some. They're absolutely gorgeous, and it would be a great contribution to my "Ready for the Zombiepocalypse" hobby.

I don't actually believe there will be some horrible world-destroying, life-altering plague/war/space invasion in my lifetime, but I do think it's fun to make changes to my property as if there will be. It's one of the reasons I have stuff growing wild all over the place. Poppies would be a great medicinal addition.

I don't take it too seriously, though. I haven't planted the foxglove yet, and won't until my youngest granddaughter is a little older. I do, however, make an attempt to take my granddaughters around to all the known plants (those planted by me and those that were already here) and show them which are edible and which are poisonous. They can tell wild onion by the smell, and know that wild plants that look like onion but don't smell like onion are poisonous. And they know the difference between nummy looking berries and pokeberry, which shouldn't be eaten (I didn't think it was worth going into those specific details at their ages, just 'BAD" was enough for now.

Your granddaughters are lucky. Apocolypse (sp?) or not knowledge about plants and their nutritional and healing values are important.

 

[Loriemarler]

The older d'Uccles got moved to a grow out pen today and They learned how to use the water nipple. I had to take one of my bantam Cochins out of the coop. She has a small bald spot by her tail and I saw the smallest chicken in the coop pecking at her. It made me so mad!! That little Napolean complexed chicken hurting my sweet baby! Needless to say I moved her into a cage in the bunny barn which has started turning into the chicken barn lol. Now if the little chicken was a rooster I would have a name but I'm not sure Napolean for a girl sounds right

I currently have more chickens than rabbits! No one needs d'Uccles? Come on I have 21. I'm sure I can part with a few.

 

[Kassaundra]

Today's masterpiece, my first ever jam