Persistent Silkie

[Purpletie3]

Moving the silkie was a bad idea. My dog, even outside of the pen, irritated the snot out of her since he knew that she was isolated from the rest. Dumb dog, locked out of the pen through three layers of wires, still barking at her every time I went to check on her. Kept her so upset I ended up moving her back to her original nest. I might try moving her again after the chicks are born. Until then, she is back on her TEN eggs in the main coop with the doors shut to keep everyone else out.

As for my husband and all; so far, no more seizures. It will be interesting to see if his more dangerous seizures are gone now after his surgery. I can handle grand mals with no problem. I can't handle him opening the car doors up at 65 miles per an hour going down the interstate or him jumping across the basement stairs.

My pneumonia is still going strong but at least I'm off for another week from work so I have time to recover a bit.

LPeaslee, keep us up to date on your silkie. It is so hard to not give in after a while when you know they really want to have some babies.

Your little silkie has to be coming right along...What day would she be on?

I would have him in the back seat with the child locks on and the seat belt kid locked. That's so dangerous for you. Please be careful!'

Good luck with your pneumonia. Hope you can get your rest this week.

 

[JadedPhoenix]

We should be on day sixteen or seventeen if I'm counting right. I figured some might start hatching Saturday and others start on Sunday this upcoming weekend. I was just glad when I went to check on her today that she was back on the nest after her stressful day yesterday with the dog. A less persistent breed might have been broken by the dog. I have the chick feed with her with a shallow puppy pan for the chicks already with her since I've had too many chicks to get their heads caught in the ones with the holes for them. The coop stays pretty warm even on the oldest of days so the chicks should be fine to dart out and explore while momma continues to sit on any eggs she chooses to for a few days without them getting too chilled before getting back under her. Once all eggs are hatched, I'll TRY to move them all to the other coop to allow the other hens see them more without putting the chicks in danger. Especially from my cochins and my rooster. My cochins have always been a bit of a problem with younger chickens; even when they weren't much older than the other chicks I got last year when they were only a couple months old. Continually harassed until the chicks were bigger than they were.

As for my husband, believe me, if he could have fit in the back seat, that is where I would have put him. I even looked into putting a child safety lock on his door but couldn't put one on the passenger's door. Hopefully, those days are behind us. Prayers up for that.

 

[Purpletie3]

Oh~ Let us know how she does. Can't wait to hear who hatches out since she was egg collecting!

You are lucky you have nice temps. We are having a snow day today. We got around 12" and it's negative with the wind chill.

 

[JadedPhoenix]

In count down mode now!! She is still sitting on the eggs pretty as can be. I moved her food closer to her so she can snack now that she won't be getting up. Hope to check on her in the morning to see if any have started hatching. Hands off, of course.

 

[Purpletie3]

What a dutiful gal! Go silkie go!

 

[JadedPhoenix]

Well, I'm disappointed. Yesterday, on day 21, I went out to check on my silkie and she was up on the roost and the eggs were as cold as could be. She did go back when I was examining the eggs for any signs of life so I left her be. Today, I went out to check her and she was hunkered down BESIDE the nest, not on it. I took the eggs and let her back out of the coop to join the rest of the flock figuring she knew something that I didn't.

Out of ten, three were complete duds, the rest stopped at various stages, most of them quit early on. Only two looked like it made it past day fourteen. Maybe it has been too cold for her to keep that many eggs warm enough. Remember I originally only gave her three and she gathered the rest. We've had some cold weather for NC, hopefully she'll want to try it again when it gets warmer. If nothing else, when there are chicks in the feed store so I could give her some while she is still broody.

 

[Purpletie3]

Awwe... poor gal. Sorry things didn't work out for her. Maybe next time~

 

[JadedPhoenix]

I hope so. Or maybe one of the other hens will get the hint, too. I have two cochins (it'd be good if they went broody since they are so nasty to everyone else, no one would mess with their chicks) and I have a barnyard mix who came from a broody hen so I hope she inherited the knack for it. I really want to have a self-sufficient flock and only need to bring in fresh blood every so often.

 

[Purpletie3]

Jaded...How are things going for you?

 

[JadedPhoenix]

Chicken-wise, I lost one due to the cold temperatures. All of my chickens decided to crowd into one coop rather than into three.

That meant that there wasn't enough room and left two out in the cold. One survived but the other one didn't. It happens and I hate it but can't do any thing about it. I do know now that when push comes to shove, 16 chickens can cram into my coop for 6. Nice to know for the future. I'll have to lock a few up in a separate one and leave no more than that many to try to get in the favorite coop.

Stubborn chickens.

I'm still waiting on another broody. If I don't get one by summer then I might incubate a few instead.

On the home front, this past Saturday was one month since my husband's brain surgery. So far, he has been seizure-free.

I hope that he will remain so once his medications are reduced in a few weeks.

The surgery has given him something that he has not had in nearly thirty years; hope. I know he has had a lot of people praying for him and this just proves that prayers do indeed work.