Our little flock

[ameliadanielle]

It's been a while since I've been online, busy lives. Our little zoo keeps us busy. I keep telling my husband I'm going to get a goat and open a petting zoo. Lol. Our flock started out with 12 chickens and now we are down to 10. Two of our easter eggers didn't make it and I believe the third that remains is in fact a rooster. My dad has a few easter egger hens, so he's HOPING it's a rooster so he can see how breeding them turns out.

Buff Orpington? She greets me every morning, even after the food is down she comes up to me to say hello before she goes to eat.

They have moved from their little coop to live with the pigs and we have had no more chicken losses. Pearl just thinks she has more babies.

The white one is the easter egger I believe may be a rooster. The comb is red, and it's tail feathers are shaped differently and it walks around holding it's tail straight up. He should be happy to have 9 hens to keep up with if it turns out to be a rooster.

A picture from last week, he's a little over a week younger than the other chickens, but close to the same size.

The little red hen I'm not sure of the breed.

Breakfast time this morning. The pig eats their scratch and the leftover greens and vegetable pieces we throw out for the chickens, and the chickens eat the pig food.

 

[scratch'n'peck]

Its sweet that your flock has pig protection.

 

[ameliadanielle]

I was worried at first, because we had to put the dog on a chain because Pearl was so protective of her babies she didn't want the dog around them. Then the chickens just moved under the pig shelter with her. She just lets them sleep with the babies. I think she'll be ok as long as the chickens don't start trying to nurse too. Lol.

 

[ameliadanielle]

Our poor Great Pyrenees didn't understand why Pearl wouldn't let her sleep with her anymore.

 

[ameliadanielle]

Breakfast time!

 

[b.hromada]

Its sweet that your flock has pig protection.

My thoughts exactly. Lucky flock! thanks for sharing.

 

[ameliadanielle]

It's definitely official. Our Easter Egger is a rooster. He chose to jump up on the little dog house right outside my bedroom window and crow about 8 times this morning. I threw back the curtains to catch whoever it was in the act and there he was staring at me. He crowed a couple of times looking at me through the window then he hopped down and ran over to wait for me at the back door to bring breakfast. I saw him sparring a couple of days ago with one of our Gold lace Wyandottes we also suspect may be a rooster. The Wyandotte is a week older than him though and we haven't caught that one crowing.

 

[ameliadanielle]

Our Easter Egger Rooster and some of his best hen buddies wading the small mud puddle our piglets made where we have a small leak in the hose.

 

[ameliadanielle]

All of our chickens are around 14 weeks now. Our little easter egger rooster has been trying to mate with our hens all week long, so last night he went with my dad to meet his two easter egger girlfriends. Maybe he's fertile and got enough practice with our not even laying eggs yet hens to do the deed with two full grown hens. I was also told one of my Gold Laced Wyandottes could be a rooster, but I see no signs now. I've looked up gold laced Wyandotte roosters and they look very different than the hens. They're almost done with their 2nd juvenile molt and they all still look like hens. They all still have rounded saddle feathers and appear pretty much identical except one hen has a little redder face. So now I believe my flock to be roosterless. I was almost hoping for a Wyandotte rooster. I'd like to raise to babies so my 4 year old gets to experience it.

The two little game chickens still have not joined the flock. They are their own flock of 2. Which is perfectly fine because I suspect one is a rooster and I just don't want a really aggressive rooster in the yard so the pair may go to someone else.

So we have 4 Gold Laced Wyandottes, 2 Buff Orpingtons, 2 Red Stars, and 1 Rhode Island Red in our flock. We are building a big coop for them as well. As right now they mainly sleep on our back steps, or on the plastic outdoor chairs. When it's raining they stay under the pig shelter. They don't really have a place of their own right now. I'm really considering buying a trio of 2 hens and 1 rooster of another breed so we can raise some babies. I miss my easter egger already but I have to restrain myself and not buy any easter eggers because we may be up to our eyeballs in them pretty soon. I've been saying I wasn't going to buy anymore chickens until these stop laying, but since we are going to have no pigs pretty soon, I think I can squeeze a few more chickens into the backyard.

We can't keep the pigs. Our plan was to raise the piglets, sell some and then eat what we couldn't sell. Since we decided not to breed our sow again, and we just don't have the heart to eat her because she has really become a pet, we need to get her out of the backyard so we can have a garden. I posted them up for $50 a piece and still no takers, so we may in fact have to eat them and my husband will have to get over it. Having a small herd of pigs is really hard on the lawn.

 

[ameliadanielle]

We have ducks. We got a trio of Muscovy Ducks on Sunday. They are currently residing inside. They were sexed as a male and two females. I'm also excited to see what color feathers the really light one turns out with as an adult.

We are also down to 1 piglet. Our 9 hens are nearly grown. The two little remaining game chickens are getting bigger and bigger. They still have not been accepted by the big girls. Our Easter Egger rooster is still by himself right now, waiting for him to get bigger before we try putting him back in with the EE hens my dad has. They picked on him. Now I miss having a rooster. He has a crele rooster that is of mixed origin in with his laying hens and has a son of his he said I could have. He doesn't have the full crele coloring but my dad says he has some stripes in his tail. Hopefully my dad will bring him over today and I can get pictures. Maybe he'll be able to insert himself into the flock of big girls.

I am going to get some new pictures of the flock today. They look so different and grown up.