Our introduction to keeping chickens, the high's, the lows and pics of our journey.

[ozexpat]

Forget what I said about rarely having severe weather!!! Okay, still rare, but I guess I should have knocked on wood upon saying it. Pouring rain, 60mph wind, tornado watch...
Hope all the Michigan people on our thread (and their flocks) are safe through it!

mother nature has a serious mean streak. be careful out there

 

[Fancychooklady]

mother nature has a serious mean streak. be careful out there

Hey oz, you got that right. It's finally stopped raining here. I swear my trees have grown 1.5 metres .

 

[Bens-Hens]

Rain and wind all night. Had to turn off the heat because I couldn't breathe. And in the strong winds warning area until 1am tomorrow. Moderate risk of isolated tornadoes. All I have to say is that if a tornado were to hit, it needs to wipe out my house really well so that I can build fresh, but leave my coop, and the birds therein, untouched. Lol.

I swear the weather conspires against me being able to spend much time outside.

You posted this while I was writing so I missed it. Stay safe and I hope it's not as bad as they say.

Forget what I said about rarely having severe weather!!! Okay, still rare, but I guess I should have knocked on wood upon saying it. Pouring rain, 60mph wind, tornado watch...
Hope all the Michigan people on our thread (and their flocks) are safe through it!

I always knock on wood, once you say something out loud it becomes real lol.

I am sure Mr Wright has your place bullet proof, best of luck to you all.

mother nature has a serious mean streak. be careful out there

Darn tootin mate.

 

[Wrightsx4]

Flash flood warning now. Our property is bordered by a county drainage ditch - the source of our pond. Well, the pond is full already. Hoping it stops soon!
haha - not bulletproof but I bet the garage is. Lol. I went out and checked on the chickens. All were hunkered down on their roosts except those crazy faverolles. I swear they love bad weather and being soaking wet.
Power just went out. Guess I better conserve batteries.

 

[Bens-Hens]

All the best to MI. I have filled many sand bags in my lifetime, many were to increase a rivers levy in order to save a town called Wangaratta from flooding. Was certainly a few days hard yakka.

I hope you guys hold up OK with the water.

So three Coro eggs went into the hatcher 'bator. I weighed them this morning before the big move and am surprised how close they are to 13% loss.

I ran the DIY incubator as close to 47% humidity this time as possible, sometimes it dropped to 45% and the last couple of days I was getting concerned that the air cells were too big, so I brought it up to 50-51%.

Egg No. Start Weight End Weight 13% Target Weight
1 63 56 55
2 58 52 51
5 57 49 50

All figures were rounded as my scales are only good to a gram.

We have already seen our first wiggler. Fingers crossed we meet 3 happy healthy pullet chicks in a couple of days!

 

[Fancychooklady]

Oh Ben, I wish your numbers had been better, but my fingers and toes are crossed for these 3 stayers. Of my Wyandotte batch I got 7 pullets and 1 roo, not bad odds.

 

[joannefiddler]

Oh Ben, I wish your numbers had been better, but my fingers and toes are crossed for these 3 stayers. Of my Wyandotte batch I got 7 pullets and 1 roo, not bad odds.

"Wow" pictures again Lisa! If only I could find someone to pay me for looking at your pics and reading backyardchickens all day I'd have it made

. The rear shot of the three together would be a great entry into a "make up the caption" contest. Ben, hoping for a good feminine hatch for you!!

 

[Wrightsx4]

Once again it seems that Lake Michigan protected us from the worst of the storm. The states to the south got much more. All our structures are standing so I'm thankful to be near the lake.
Ben - happy lockdown!!! Hoping all three hatch healthy and female

 

[CB and CG]

Good luck with Lockdown Ben. Great weight loss results as well.

 

[NovaAman]

No damage here to anything. Lots of downed branches of the bigger sort, but nothing hit the coops or runs. Several down trees in the way back, but nothing that fell this way, or in the direction of the power lines. Birds didn't like me much though... locked up again today since the winds were still whipping pretty good here.

About your favs... NO it is not normal for then to have bald spots. You might need to put a camera on them for a bit and figure out who is head picking on them. Faverolles are really very laid back and docile in comparison to other birds, even as chicks. Put some bluekote, or no pick on them, cuz even chicks can be vicious.

I love those pictures. Makes me want to go out and take nice pics too... but its tooooooooo cooooooooooold. LOL. Spring is way to far away.