Once Upon a Farm Flock Adventures

[The-White-Elephant]

Introducing Skipper! Skipper is a barred rock, and is also one of my hatchlings from late 2020, the second hatch. Toes and Widget raised this brood together. My rooster, Kowalski, is also from this hatch.
Skipper is at the bottom of the main flock pecking order, but she doesn't seem to care about these flock shenanigans. She is most interested in getting the best food, and is very determined in this life quest. She stays up as late as possible to sneak more food, and doesn't listen to a thing the rooster has to say about this behavior. I have the most photos of Skipper, because no matter where I go or what I'm doing, she thinks I have chicken candy in my pockets.

Skipper
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Gorgeous!

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

And for the final of the grown-up flock members, here is Kowalski! My fabulous barred rock rooster. I've posted photos of him in a few threads on here so forgive me if you've seen these photos before.
Kowalski is a great flock leader. He takes his ladies to bed every night and is always alert and keeping an eye on everyone and everything. He finds new laying spots and calls everyone for treats he finds (real or imagined). He is not aggressive with his hens or people, and with birds not in his flock he is very tolerant. None of the hens have bare backs but the eggs are fertile . I am a big fan of barred rocks.

Kowalski

 

[Silkie Princess]

And for the final of the grown-up flock members, here is Kowalski! My fabulous barred rock rooster. I've posted photos of him in a few threads on here so forgive me if you've seen these photos before.
Kowalski is a great flock leader. He takes his ladies to bed every night and is always alert and keeping an eye on everyone and everything. He finds new laying spots and calls everyone for treats he finds (real or imagined). He is not aggressive with his hens or people, and with birds not in his flock he is very tolerant. None of the hens have bare backs but the eggs are fertile . I am a big fan of barred rocks.

Kowalski
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I hope mine will be so beautiful!

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

I hope mine will be so beautiful!

Oh my goodness what a total cutie!

 

[Silkie Princess]

Oh my goodness what a total cutie!

Thanks! He was a helped hatch and I didn't even think he would make it! And now I have a beautiful (a tiny bit dumb) cockerel But I love him

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

Thanks! He was a helped hatch and I didn't even think he would make it! And now I have a beautiful (a tiny bit dumb) cockerel But I love him

Keep posting photos of him as he grows up

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

The final installment of introductions! Here are Kea and Droplet, the pullets for 2021. They hatched in October three weeks apart, and Droplet hatched on my birthday! That was pretty cool. You'll also see Droplet's brother here, he hasn't got a name because he will be lunch. Generally referred to as The Biggest Hooligan. Another cockeral has already been lunch, he was very early to mature and wasn't too smart about hiding his antics from Kowalski. The three juveniles cruise around together and are known as the hooligans.

Droplet

Kea

Droplet and Future Lunch

I had a catastrophic failure of a hatch for November. We had a brutal humidity wave come through. I had two broody hens (Widget and Princess Fluffy Butt) sitting on 18 eggs. 16 of the eggs developed almost all the way but all of them died in the shell due to the humidity not letting their air cells develop enough. I've never had a 100% failed hatch before, and I was pretty disappointed. Ironically on the day I decided it wasn't going to happen and I disposed of the eggs (after a final float test), the humidity broke for the first time in 4 weeks. I've been too nervous to set eggs again this chick season, as I don't trust the weather!

Widget is the genetic mother of Droplet and The Big Hooligan, and Toes is their brood mama. Toes is the genetic mother of Kea, and a hen I have since sold was the brood mother. Kowalski is their dad of course.

Coming up next..... chick photos!

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

Some chick love. Watching my hens hatch and raise chicks is right up there with my favorite part of having chickens. My most favorite part is watching the antics of the juveniles once they have annoyed their mama so much she leaves them. They get into so much trouble. I can't keep them out of anywhere they're not supposed to be.

Unfortunately I take most of my chick shots as video. I'll have to figure out how to post video here.

 

[TheFatBlueCat]

Let me tell you about my coop.

My main flock coop is a kitset I purchased from a farm building company. This is their website for the coop I have:

https://outpostbuildings.co.nz/product/1-bay-hen-house.

My husband told me to buy a coop already built, don't buy a kitset. I declare I can totally do it and it will be a good way to learn new skills.

It claimed basic building skills required. I figured hey, I can do this! Purchase made, I borrow the ancient work ute (small flat deck truck) and go to collect it from the depot. Well, the work ute doesn't have power steering and is manual (stick shift) and driving that thing was a workout. I'm very small (a smidgen under 5 foot) and I had to make myself a cushion seat to be able to see over the steering wheel. After getting it home and doing a 1000 point turn to get that beast of a truck facing the right way, I felt like I had just been to the gym.

But success! The pallet of chicken coop pieces is now at my house. I unload it off the truck piece by piece, and wait for the weekend when I was going to put that thing together.

My brother and I get up early on Saturday to get this thing started. We expect to be finished in a day. My husband looks on in bemusement. It took us an hour to figure out the first set of instructions. I realize I don't have everything I need and go to the hardware store. This will be the first trip of many to the hardware store.

We get started. We get confused. We muscle and wrench and heave things into place. We accept that this will not get done in one day.

We get up on Sunday and keep going. There are more trips to the hardware store. The doorframe doesn't appear to work for hanging the door. There is yet another trip to the hardware store to buy a brace for the doorframe. My husband helps us but he isn't a builder either.

I take Monday off work. My brother and I finally get the roof on. It goes on in a questionable fashion but we are just done with this thing. We go get some lunch. Finally this thing is done and ready to move. We need 5 people to move it, that thing is heavy.

We DO get it in place! 3 days later, I have success. I admit my husband was right all along and vow never to build a coop ever again. On a positive note, I am now very confident using a drill!

 

[Ponypoor]

Hello and welcome to my flock story. It will be about my flock and occasionally you'll have to tolerate news about my garden or general goings-on that I find interesting. Everyone welcome!

I live in the South Island of New Zealand. I have a wonderful husband and we have a mostly ☺ wonderful nine year old daughter. I currently live semi-rural on 1/3 acre with an apple orchard right behind my back fence.

I have 11 chickens in my flock. I will introduce them individually over the coming days, but for now let me introduce Toes and Widget. They are lavender araucanas and I got them as point of lay pullets in May 2020. Chickens were my gift to myself after an exhausting time as an essential worker during the first lockdown. No, I'm not a nurse! I work on an orchard and all food production is essential.

TOES:

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WIDGET:
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I recently lost my Instagram account I'd been working on diligently for the past year or so, and wasn't keen to put all that effort in on something that could be disappeared again. No idea what happened to it, Instagram deleted it during one of their updates and poof it was gone. Lucky for you (hehe) I shall put those efforts into this story thread instead!

They are lovely!