I think my cuckoo marans hen looked at my golden laced wyandotte and said "being broody looks like fun and I want to do that too." She growled at me and puffed out when I went into the box to gather my eggs. Sigh. I will see how long she sits in the box and might have to give her eggs too.
My marans was out of the box tonight when I checked on them. The GLW was happily sitting on her eggs I gave her. I love watching momma and her babies.
Good luck with your hatch!Just checkin' in - I'm exhausted after 2 gorgeous days. I'm off work (presently between jobs, start my new one on Monday, so computer access is more limited and no cell phone at all) and working hard at the farm.
Moved around a lot of chicks of various ages. Some of the first ones I hatched back in Feb and March are looking big enough to start laying soon. I know it will likely be some weeks, but they sure look good.
On a related note - if anyone is interested in Welsummer cockerels, PM me, I've got a few extras. These are from a strain that lays lots of very dark eggs, darker than any Marans eggs I've seen. If you want to make "olive eggers", these would be good. They grow out very pretty also.
I sold most of last weeks hatch (except the special breeds from msladyhawke), got almost $50 for 19 chicks. The money goes to my niece's college fund, so that made her quite happy. I have hatched over 300 chicks so far this year, but haven't sold many. Early on we weren't trying to sell them, we need to build up the laying flock. But now we have extras to sell.
Tomorrow's lockdown has the first eggs from our "wheaten looking" Ameracaunas. I know they aren't colored quite right, but the hens started laying at a young age and the eggs are the bluest of any eggs we've ever had from our flock.
I think my cuckoo marans hen looked at my golden laced wyandotte and said "being broody looks like fun and I want to do that too." She growled at me and puffed out when I went into the box to gather my eggs. Sigh. I will see how long she sits in the box and might have to give her eggs too.
everyone was a little nervous about venturing out lol. Picture time! they truely enjoyed it though they only ate about half of their food yesterday. I think they were having too much fun. I only saw a couple go back into the coop at all but I think they were just grabbing a drink. So we FINALLY got the run done yesterday morning
Sugar was the first to Brave it
After Sugar was out and having fun, our little OEGB girl came out and ran around like roadrunner before running back up the ramp to tell everyone else how great it is.
Then the parade began!
let the fun begin!
It was great to finally get to see them out and running around and playing
Quick question though. I thought that at dusk they would put themselves back to bed. Only a couple actually went into the coop. About 5 of them managed to wedge themselves together to roost right in the chicken door between run and coop lol. The rest formed a big cuddle puddle under the coop. I gathered them up one at a time and put them in so I could latch the door. I just don't trust the security of our run yet to let them out all night. So, will they just learn if I keep putting them back in or am I just going to have to suck it up and deal with it?
