***OKIES in the BYC III ***

[Kassaundra]

Congratulations on your hatch. Give her a few days with her chicks in a cage or small floor pen so her chicks learn to follow her calls and then put her with the flock. You may need to enclose her and her chicks at night and when you give chick feed. The other hens will eat the chick feed if you don't provide a separate feeding station.

x2

 

[Poco Pollo]

Robin - Look what happened yesterday : 0 Two broody hens. It must be contagious.

 

[HeyBigRhondaq]

Congratulations on your hatch. Give her a few days with her chicks in a cage or small floor pen so her chicks learn to follow her calls and then put her with the flock. You may need to enclose her and her chicks at night and when you give chick feed. The other hens will eat the chick feed if you don't provide a separate feeding station.

Thanks! She separated herself in a separate (old) doghouse we have on the property, so last night we fenced (temporarily) the area so they have food/water. Fortunately, that whole flock is on chick feed. I had integrated some younger pullets in addition to having two adult Roos (hehe obviously, given my situation). And, thanks to BYC, yes, they have access to grit and oyster shell. You all are the best.

My first tomatoes are turning color, but nothing ripe yet, they are loaded though. I had always heard peas don't like nitrogen rich soil, but this year I threw caution to the wind and planted where I knew the chickens had pooped a lot (one of the chicken highways in their yard). So the myth that peas don't like nitro has been busted. I have two broodies co-setting. They are sharing one nest and 12 eggs. The one went broody and was broody for a week or so when the other one decided to join her. We were trying to figure out the logistics of giving the second girl eggs so long after the first w/ just one broody area, then they figured out the solution and shared,

My husband does most of the gardening! I look forward every year to garden fresh tomatoes.

Robin - Look what happened yesterday : 0 Two broody hens. It must be contagious.

I am fascinated with ALL of this! Bertha still has a few eggs yet to hatch. It's amazing that a chicken who will eat out of my hand can go all evil-like given some babies. I am a mom (human and poultry babies) too, though, so I guess I get it!

 

[artsyrobin]

Robin - Look what happened yesterday : 0 Two broody hens. It must be contagious.

oh that is too funny!!!

 

[mjgigax]

This is maddie the sizzle! He or she?

What a cute chicken!

 

[mjgigax]

I'm thinking boy mainly because of the wattle growth. He's a Frizzle though-Sizzle and Frizzle are soooo confusing. If I hadn't hatched out 10 and got each kind I'd have never been able to tell the difference. Frizzles are crinkled regular feathers and Sizzles are crinkled Silkie feathers. I'd have been money my Blue Partridge Sizzle was a girl and she had the audacity to crow! It's hard to tell on the "izzles".
I was a good teen with wild and troubled parents lol I feel bad for most teens nowadays also. They don't have the mental capacity or self-knowledge to tell someone they need help, they're confused or hurt. Nobody taught them how to deal with emotions or other people. So what they learn comes from their troubled friends. It's hard to love teenagers, but they need it more than any other age group. When you get them alone and get them talking they're different people. And they're kind and want to be good and want to help. It takes huge efforts to *get them alone away from their friends and get them talking though. 90% of people won't stop for a dog hit by a car, they're certainly not going to put forth effort towards a kid who's acting like a punk and mouthing off because he's scared.

Exactly my experience with the kids in the Junior High where I taught. The Gansters were the sweetest kids when you earned their trust and talked with them away from their friends, just looking for a "family". It was the adults at the school that led me to quit, not the kids.

 

[mjgigax]

I'm still picking....planted Snow peas, Sugar Snap and Marvel in early March....the Snow peas started a second flush and the other two varieties are still going strong. I mulched them with aged cow manure and hay compost when they were about 12 inches high. They are growing up a cattle panel in each bed. Rows of spinach and lettuce on either side also keep the roots of the peas shaded and cool in one bed, beets and carrots in another and tomatoes and broccoli in a third.

This has been a good spring for gardening. I had to tie up my potatoes plants that we're spilling over the sides of the raised bed so I could run the weed eater around the boxes...never had to do that before. I've tied up tomato plants to the cattle panel in the boxes for a third time already and have picked our first ripe tomato.
First time I've gotten Snow King cauliflower to make a huge white head without yellowing and have the best beets ever.

Now if I can trap the vole that is gnawing on my beets and carrots I'll be thrilled. Murdock the cat has been spending time in the garden and watching a wood pile outside the garden fence pretty close the past several days...hoping he gets it before I do.
Did you know that voles are monogamous and can raise several litters a year!

Chicks are hatching in the incubator today...so far three are out.

Yes! a good start for gardens this year! I struggle with vegetable growing in Oklahoma. The first year we were here was a mild Summer. I had a great garden and it tricked me into thinking growing here was just like Michigan.

My sugar snap peas haven't done well though. The seeds were old and only a few germinated. So many of my tomatoes have buds and even are quickly putting on fruit before they are big plants. I have been snipping the buds off to encourage bigger plants like crazy.

We found a new tomato, called "Sausage", that has long fruit that I can't wait to taste. We also got an "Abe Lincoln" tomato plant that I think I remember my grandmother growing. Anyone have any experience with that variety?

 

[mjgigax]

Robin - Look what happened yesterday : 0 Two broody hens. It must be contagious.

I have 4 broody hens right now but only one is a Cochin!

- one Corronation Sussex, one Marans, one Showgirl, and one Lavender Cochin.
My Show girl is working on her second clutch. Her first chicks were crosses that I threw in to give here something to get hatched and get back to laying. Now she has been in with a Showgirl roo and the eggs are hers. I can't wait to see what Showgirl chicks look like.

My other Showgirl hen/pullet is still soooooo thin. She eats and I have wormed her. I just love her and don't know what to do to get here weight up. Any more suggestions?

 

[cathiesue]

THe sun is shining. Quick take a picture.

 

[lonnyandrinda]

THe sun is shining. Quick take a picture.

LOL.... Come on Sun, I need to take honey off the hives today!