Pipd's Peeps 2014!

[lightchick]

Oh no! Poor Violet and Vespa! I always liked Violet!

Frou Frou is hilarious!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Well, time has passed. I spent spring break sick and missed out on picture taking as promised, so I thought, of course, I'll get pictures on the littles' 10-month hatchday. And then it came and I ended up saying goodbye again. Much as old Cubby seemed to be improving, her time was running out even still, and on the morning of the 19th, I woke up to find her dying. She went peacefully, as peacefully as any of them go. She would have been 10 years old at the end of the month, but I believe it was her age that took her in the end. I'm really hoping I won't lose anyone else now, at least for a while. :/

The girls are well and we've been enjoying more spring-like weather at least. I've taken pictures of the littles today for their belated 10-month hatchday. The girls are clearly getting antsy for spring and some of them have some pecks on their combs and wattles, but they're healthy and seem happy anyway. Louise is still out of commission, so no pictures of her. She's improving every day, so I hope I can pull her through and get her back out in the flock!

Here are (most of) the babies:

Elly-welly:

Kit-kit:

Georgette and her poor comb!

Mabel:

And Poppy looking fabulous:

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

A few more miscellaneous pictures of the youngsters from today.

The Dorking twins! Oh, these two! Looks like Kit is in front and Elda is in back of both pictures.

Elly being a sweetie

Georgie, err... Grump face!

Here's Georgie again getting some scratching in:

Here's how most of my pictures of Poppy turned out. She can be terribly uncooperative sometimes!

And here's Elly asking for cuddles.

Cuddle time with Elly

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Oh, a couple more from the flock. In regards to the hawk attacks, we got a cheapo shade cover thingy to put in the chicken yard in the most open area. The girls don't seem to mind much at all. Haven't seen anything of the hawk in some time now, so hopefully that means it's found better prey elsewhere.

This one made me chuckle. Kit-kit's saying, "They're looking at me, aren't they..?"

My Silkie, Margaret, has been brooding like nobody's business.

And the girls are getting back into lay for the year, resulting in a lot of quarrels over nesting space. There are 7 other boxes, most unoccupied, but this box is the best one, apparently.

Tilde, at the bottom of the pile. "Can't... Breathe...."

 

[lightchick]

LOL! They are all so pretty! Sorry to hear about Cubby!

When did Margaret first start laying eggs? My Silkie is almost a year and she's never laid an egg and she doesn't squat either.
I hope Louise gets better soon!

 

[itspebbl]

We had a chicken picked up by a hawk(someone at our house saw it swoop and we saw feathers every where), but she apparently was dropped because she was found near one of the barns. Maybe other breeds are too heavy for most hawks

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

LOL!   They are all so pretty!   Sorry to hear about Cubby!      When did Margaret first start laying eggs?   My Silkie is almost a year and she's never laid an egg and she doesn't squat either.
I hope [COLOR=333333]Louise gets better soon!    [/COLOR]

Margie started laying at around 7 months old. She promptly went broody for the first time at 7 1/2 months old.

We had a chicken picked up by a hawk(someone at our house saw it swoop and we saw feathers every where), but she apparently was dropped because she was found near one of the barns. Maybe other breeds are too heavy for most hawks

We're thinking that the wound on Frou-frou's neck may have been caused by the same hawk, so I think you're right. I couldn't positively identify it, but I believe it was a Sharp-shinned, not terribly large. Definitely not large enough to carry off Frou-frou's big butt!

 

[lightchick]

...

LOL!   They are all so pretty!   Sorry to hear about Cubby!      When did Margaret first start laying eggs?   My Silkie is almost a year and she's never laid an egg and she doesn't squat either.
I hope [COLOR=333333]Louise gets better soon!    [/COLOR]

Margie started laying at around 7 months old. She promptly went broody for the first time at 7 1/2 months old.

LOL! I'll just be happy if my silkie does anything.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Thought I would stop by this evening and post some pictures of the duckies from yesterday. It's been a while since I posted about them here, I think, so here we go! They FINALLY moved out of the basement on Sunday and have been enjoying life outside since!

Malcolm really stole the show, so I have lots more pictures of him, but I narrowed it down to the best. I just love his chubby cheeks!

"Why yes, I do know I'm adorable."

Those cheeks!

Trudi patooti! She's been laying about one egg every three days or so lately.

Something flew over and got their attention, but I just love their faces in this shot!

The old rooster, Mr. Toes, who was with them all this time, seems to have grown attached to them. He freaked when I took the ducks up to their coop and wouldn't settle down again until I brought him up as well. I mean, you could see him relax once he knew where his ducks were! Silly birds! Thought that was kind of sweet, though.




In other news, Miss Frou-Frou is nearly moved back out, except my two Partridge Plymouth Rocks don't want her back in the flock apparently. They're really giving her a hard time whenever she's outside with the flock. I think she's not happy with the transition anyway--she had it made inside! But she'll be happier in the long run outside.

I think that's about it from over here. A couple more weeks and I'll be taking the littles' 11-month pictures. Can't believe they're almost a year old!!


Edited to add 'in other news'.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Another post? So soon?! I can't help it, these birds are such characters!

Short back story - one of my Easter-eggers, Betty, had been coming inside for a few nights for some crop issues that have since pretty much resolved. I think she had started to go sour crop on me, but I caught it before it soured, if that makes any sense? Also, Frou-frou is still coming in at night so she isn't getting beaten up on (by a certain duo of partridges ) before I get out to the coop in the morning.

Tonight, I went out to get the birds around for bed, and of course, Frou-Frou was waiting at the gate to go in. So I opened up the gate to let her through to go in, and here comes Betty Beard, casual as can be. I thought, okay, why not? And so I let her through the gate as well, just to see what she would do.

With Frou-frou and Betty in tow, I headed toward the house to get the laundry basket I had been carrying them in and out with. Just as casually as before, Betty follows me right to the door to wait for her ride. She knows she has it good inside, I guess! She and Frou'f settled right into the basket, side by side, to be carried on up to bed. What a set of spoiled birds!


I need to get more recent pictures of Betty. She's always been a character, that one! This picture is from January:

And Frou-frou. I may have posted this one already. Getting some love from my mom. Big, fluffy goofball.

Edited to fix a picture.