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It was the 4 of us, my parents, my grandma, and my two cousins. It was wonderful :) Dinner turned out fantastic though I have to say, I was extremely disappointed going through the black Friday ads for tomorrow :/ Anyway, here's some pictures of dinner (my cousin was taking pictures lol)

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Moved the last of the chickens and turkeys off pasture yesterday. Only a small flock of bantam ducks are still out there "braving" the cold and wet (braving is not really true for ducks, they thoroughly enjoy being cold and wet sometimes).
I am very happy with the Marans this year (lavender and blue copper) and they are the only breed that has started laying with any regularity. I've read that Marans original breeding in France involved harsh, wet conditions, though probably not as bad as PA in the winter.
I also moved in the Mottled Ameraucanas. These are great looking birds. The pullets are definitely prettier than the males (more mottling) and the second year hen that molted a few weeks ago is the best looking of all. Last year I found them to be "spookier" than the lavenders, but not this year. Probably related to how I raised them. I expect those chicks to be very popular, as the mottled breeds have very colorful chicks.
I'm also trying to keep a breeding flock of lavender guineas with the peacocks. Not sure how that go, guineas are just plain mean birds. I'm hoping that the size and aggressiveness of the peafowl will balance that out. If necessary, I will run the guineas with the turkeys and keep the bachelor roosters with the peafowl.
 
dheltzel said:
Moved the last of the chickens and turkeys off pasture yesterday. Only a small flock of bantam ducks are still out there "braving" the cold and wet (braving is not really true for ducks, they thoroughly enjoy being cold and wet sometimes).
I am very happy with the Marans this year (lavender and blue copper) and they are the only breed that has started laying with any regularity. I've read that Marans original breeding in France involved harsh, wet conditions, though probably not as bad as PA in the winter.
I also moved in the Mottled Ameraucanas. These are great looking birds. The pullets are definitely prettier than the males (more mottling) and the second year hen that molted a few weeks ago is the best looking of all. Last year I found them to be "spookier" than the lavenders, but not this year. Probably related to how I raised them. I expect those chicks to be very popular, as the mottled breeds have very colorful chicks.
I'm also trying to keep a breeding flock of lavender guineas with the peacocks. Not sure how that go, guineas are just plain mean birds. I'm hoping that the size and aggressiveness of the peafowl will balance that out. If necessary, I will run the guineas with the turkeys and keep the bachelor roosters with the peafowl.
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I can imagine mottled ameraucanas would be beautiful!

The turkeys have decided that it's time for me to fire the incubator back up already... one of my oldest hens started laying again about a week ago and some of my younger girls seem to be contemplating. Friday, my first batch will be going in. I only have 2 toms this year instead of 4 so I'm hoping fertility will be way better this season. @dheltzel , I still have Romeo, the mottled black tom that I got from you :) He's my favorite Tom ever and has the world's sweetest personality. He's adopted and raised multiple poults that were added to the coop young and has humored me on several occasions with a leash and harness to go meet people. There will never be another like him. He's the wise and caring ruler of the flock :)

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Keeping older poults warm in the nest

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Babysitting one of the broody's babies. He left her stay there as long as she wanted and only moved once or twice when his flock was arguing... but not enough to make the baby leave lol

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Meeting the girl scouts around Thanksgiving a few years ago

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Hi there! I want to introduce us to my 'Peeps' in PA. We are in Bucks County. We are newbies to having a backyard flock. We did one of those 'Hatching at Home' projects with our 3 kids. We have 2 kids in HS and 1 kid in the 6th grade. They all hatched chicken eggs back when they were in preschool. I saw that you could hatch duck eggs at home over the summer. I thought it would be fun and educational project if we did it again all these years later. We hatched all 8 of the Khaki Campbell duck eggs we were given. My kids fell in love with our little duckies so we decided to keep them. We really love our little team of ducks. They are so funny! We've enjoyed building their coop and pen together as a family. It's been a great thing during these trying times. My only sadness is that we have too many drakes to ducks. We need to find homes for our handsome boys. Glad to be part of the BYC! It's an awesome group!!
 
Welcome! I hope you find local people to take the extras. You can keep the extra boys in a bachelor pad if you don’t. Don’t forget that they are fine in the cold (more padding than chickens!), so they might be happy roaming around during the day this winter, and you can just focus on a coop to get you through to spring.
 
DuckinDonutsBensalem said:
Hi there! I want to introduce us to my 'Peeps' in PA. We are in Bucks County. We are newbies to having a backyard flock. We did one of those 'Hatching at Home' projects with our 3 kids. We have 2 kids in HS and 1 kid in the 6th grade. They all hatched chicken eggs back when they were in preschool. I saw that you could hatch duck eggs at home over the summer. I thought it would be fun and educational project if we did it again all these years later. We hatched all 8 of the Khaki Campbell duck eggs we were given. My kids fell in love with our little duckies so we decided to keep them. We really love our little team of ducks. They are so funny! We've enjoyed building their coop and pen together as a family. It's been a great thing during these trying times. My only sadness is that we have too many drakes to ducks. We need to find homes for our handsome boys. Glad to be part of the BYC! It's an awesome group!!
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Welcome from Cambria County! It's so much fun to hatch with kids :) My oldest is in his second year of HS and my youngest in her last year of middle school. She's my poultry assistant and helps work everything from hatching to taking care of the coops. My son, meh, he plays with the babies on occasion when he feels like it lol. You can advertise your extra drakes on Pennswoods.net BUT I wouldn't ask what's to become of them. That's the unfortunate issue with rehoming drakes and roosters :/
 
OneMountainAcres said:
I can imagine mottled ameraucanas would be beautiful!

The turkeys have decided that it's time for me to fire the incubator back up already... one of my oldest hens started laying again about a week ago and some of my younger girls seem to be contemplating. Friday, my first batch will be going in. I only have 2 toms this year instead of 4 so I'm hoping fertility will be way better this season. @dheltzel , I still have Romeo, the mottled black tom that I got from you :) He's my favorite Tom ever and has the world's sweetest personality. He's adopted and raised multiple poults that were added to the coop young and has humored me on several occasions with a leash and harness to go meet people. There will never be another like him. He's the wise and caring ruler of the flock :)

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I do love to have turkeys as pets. I'm glad Romeo is still doing his job. Turkeys can have quite long lives in captivity.
I lost all but one free-ranging tom last year, but kept a few poults I hatched for a friend this year, so I have a breeding trio, a pair of mottled blacks and a royal palm hen. I haven't handled them much as they were out on pasture most of their lives, but I was surprised when I moved them at how docile they are compared to the chickens and ducks. Even the massive tom did not struggle while I gave him some oral deworming meds. I had to hold him by myself and hold his mouth open with one hand while using the dosing syringe in the other. This is no problem with chickens, but that tom was 3 or 4 times the size of the largest roos and I was worried I could not handle the process by myself. It went fine, perhaps because he could sense my calmness and just relaxed. Still, impressive for a bird that is large and strong enough to really hurt you. I'm really enjoying my turkeys, but have to admit their friendliness brings back pangs of guilt over letting my previous flock be killed by predators. These guys will be well protected for sure.
 
dheltzel said:
I do love to have turkeys as pets. I'm glad Romeo is still doing his job. Turkeys can have quite long lives in captivity.
I lost all but one free-ranging tom last year, but kept a few poults I hatched for a friend this year, so I have a breeding trio, a pair of mottled blacks and a royal palm hen. I haven't handled them much as they were out on pasture most of their lives, but I was surprised when I moved them at how docile they are compared to the chickens and ducks. Even the massive tom did not struggle while I gave him some oral deworming meds. I had to hold him by myself and hold his mouth open with one hand while using the dosing syringe in the other. This is no problem with chickens, but that tom was 3 or 4 times the size of the largest roos and I was worried I could not handle the process by myself. It went fine, perhaps because he could sense my calmness and just relaxed. Still, impressive for a bird that is large and strong enough to really hurt you. I'm really enjoying my turkeys, but have to admit their friendliness brings back pangs of guilt over letting my previous flock be killed by predators. These guys will be well protected for sure.
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If you decide you need more, let me know! I have 2 palm hens in the group. I have mostly penciled turkeys now though. I adore them. So sweet and beautiful! Molly even will choose hugs over food and will jump right in the window if it opens lol.

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I also have a mottled blue growing out, a blue slate, 2 Bourbon reds, a red bronze, a bronze-ish, and rusty black. The reds and bronze girls are all 5 years old now. They were the first ones I ever hatched. Still happy, healthy, and laying for me :)
 
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