***OKIES in the BYC III ***

[buffalogal]

I sat up half the night watching the lightning off to the west and north, and crawled into bed around 3:00AM. At some point in the next 5 hours it must have rained, the Mesonet claims we managed .47 inch, but the ground only feels damp.

But in other, better news, I have another Ancona that has gone broody. Of course, being an Ancona she's more attached to "her nest" than any actual eggs; in fact, she doesn't have any eggs, but by gawd, she is determined to defend that piece of ground from all comers. It looks like I'll have to lock her up somewhere more suitable than the floor of my husband's garage. I moved her twice last night while I was outside watching the lightning and she went creeping back to it across the yard in the dark.

 

[BetsyOK]

Kinda excited about a showgirl silkie chick that hatched yesterday. It had been struggling for at least 24 hours and had only gotten one leg out and was no longer under its mama, and the rest of the shell was pretty well smashed. Was a pitiful little thing last night, and not a lot better this morning although moving around quite a bit. After it fluffed out, I discovered it is a paint! I have only one paint, its mother, a very nice paint silkie. Its father is a very nice white showgirl cockerel, but is not out of straight white lines, so I knew there were other colors hidden by the white. However, I expected white to be dominant, so was very surprised it's a paint. I'm babying it along; I think it was just worn out by its struggles as well as a bit dehydrated. It is doing well now. It has two hatchmates; one looks to be a silver white silkie, the other is a blue showgirl.

 

[MacGuyver]

Kinda excited about a showgirl silkie chick that hatched yesterday. It had been struggling for at least 24 hours and had only gotten one leg out and was no longer under its mama, and the rest of the shell was pretty well smashed. Was a pitiful little thing last night, and not a lot better this morning although moving around quite a bit. After it fluffed out, I discovered it is a paint! I have only one paint, its mother, a very nice paint silkie. Its father is a very nice white showgirl cockerel, but is not out of straight white lines, so I knew there were other colors hidden by the white. However, I expected white to be dominant, so was very surprised it's a paint. I'm babying it along; I think it was just worn out by its struggles as well as a bit dehydrated. It is doing well now. It has two hatchmates; one looks to be a silver white silkie, the other is a blue showgirl.

Do you have pictures of the mama? I don't think I've ever seen paint silkies.

 

[BetsyOK]

I've not been able to get pics to work on my computer--there's a glitch somewhere down the line when my server kept being bought and I've not spent the time with the "guru" to get it worked out. If you'll search for paint silkies, I'm sure you'll come up with lots of pics.

 

[BetsyOK]

Paint silkies are much more striking in person than in most of the pics. At first glance, they look similar to the splashes, but they are really quite different. Splashes are sports and have a light blue to very light blue ground with a lot of very random "splashes." When they hatch they are a solid color--the color the ground will end up. the splashes develop as the mature feathers come in.

Paints have a white ground and have random patches of black (or in some recent cases another color) from the time they hatch. Those patches get larger and usually a more intense color as they grow, but if they don't have the patches upon hatch, they're not paints. They don't get additional patches, either, but it may appear so, as some of the patches may be very tiny, almost too small to see, when they first hatch. Some of the earlier paints have a dull, grayish appearance in some places in the white, but the breeders have been able to breed that out fairly quickly.

A year or so ago, paints were quite expensive, as they were new, but they've come down in price. They are usually very hardy and easy to breed. I just haven't had any except this nice little pullet I got as a small chick last December in Shawnee.

There should be some very nice paints at the show in Shawnee the second week in December. Several of the really good breeders bring their birds to show and sell, so you'll see some really good quality birds and some colors you haven't seen.

 

[Ksane]

I had to trek out and get some pictures of the silkie on her nest.

Now that is a determined Silkie! My Silkies and Bantam Cochins beat anything I've ever seen when it comes to broodiness. My big Cochin girls give up after a few wks. Not the Silkies and Bantam Cochins!

 

[MacGuyver]

The Rani had seven eggs under her when I brought her in to a safer nesting area. Gonna replace 'em with six LF Dominique eggs tonight.

 

[Greybear23]

well I had a cartoon pic to share but my computer will not upload pics today for some reason. i hope everyone got some rain, we sure enjoyed what we got last night, we can use more but very thankful for what we got!Went out to check on Heather gathering eggs today and looked at all the chickens, my three speckles Toppy Gamefowl are looking very pretty, i don't see much top knot on them though, one has a little red showing in the neck and I think it is 2 stags and 1 pullet of course! will try to post pics when I get some. Egg production is coming up, really humid the last couple days but that hasn't seemed to bother the egg production. Enjoyed al;l the pics and congrats on the ponds, setting hens and such to all!!! Have a great day all, Lynn

 

[Kassaundra]

We got 1/2 inch yesterday 1 inch last night and it is raining right now. I was trying to weed some beds to plant some fall seeds that I should have already planted, but last week didn't do any gardening at all. Even though it is keeping me from gardening I'm still glad to get the rain.

 

[erinszoo]

Glad to hear a lot of you got rain yesterday and last night. We got squat. We're watering our garden today is how little we got. Oh well. It thundered all around us, lighteninged and spit at us for a total of .13 inch of rain. We got the coop cleaned out and limed while the birds were out running around in the yard. Some of the girls weren't very happy when they couldn't get to the nest boxes and stood outside the door and did a dance and song routine for us. It was kind of amusing to watch and listen to.

Also got some canning done. We put up two jars of chopped green chilies which was way more work that its worth. I'm buying them at the store from now on. Then we made cranberry apple juice. Oh wow is it good. We were going to put up just plain apple juice with most of the apples and just a couple of jars of the cranberry apple for me but after my daughter tasted it she said we could make all of the juice into cranberry apple. Works for me! We bought a ton of cranberries last year for 49cents and put them in the freezer and they have sure come in handy. I hope I can get more this year.

And our neighbor is at it again. She started the day running back and forth to her shed carrying cloth bags with tongs. Then just after lunch headed back in with a cake pan covered with a cloth. They've been gone for several days and are back home again doing crazy stuff. Haven't smelled anything, however, between apples, cranberries, and charring the chilies our house smelled like a cigar shop. At least I don't have to deal with her and my driveway any more. Now if I just didn't have to see her out my kitchen window I'd be thrilled. My new mantra is "just think about the farm".

Gonna do nothing tonight but watch a new mystery on PBS and eat chocolate chip cookies.