Pipd's Peeps 2014!

[carikermoon]

I agree with @autumnhearth. I'll follow you either way because I enjoy your perspective and LOVE seeing the pics of your chickens! I'm thinking I need to start a thread to have a place for all my pics. I take them weekly too--until I stumbled across your thread I thought I was the only one crazy enough to be THAT infatuated with my chicks.

I hadn't thought about a Happy Hatchday party--what a clever idea! Our silkies just turned one and we'll need to celebrate (right after this camping trip, sigh).

 

[lightchick]

Yay! Happy hatchday! Sorry about your duck egg. Maybe you can just wait and see? I don't think you would smell the rotten egg until it it opened (my teacher has had dead Canada goose eggs in the open lab for 2 weeks and they don't smell, but I wouldn't want to open them). I've heard calls are hard. I totally think you should start a blog type thread about your flock. I love seeing your pictures and stories and you are one of my favorite members to read about on BYC. It doesn't matter how many people follow it, because there will always be a group who enjoys reading your posts. Also, it really doesn't matter of you don't post that often. Sometimes I prefer low activity threads because I myself am too busy to keep up with them frequently, and I'm sure others are the same way. Plus I wouldn't say you rarely post. And like you said, you want a place to talk about your flock, so I say go for it and make one.

Happy Hatchday! I would love to see pics and stories of your whole flock and a will follow either here or on a new page, I can see the pros to both.

X2! I'll follow along anywhere!

 

[ChickenChatten]

I agree with @autumnhearth. I'll follow you either way because I enjoy your perspective and LOVE seeing the pics of your chickens! I'm thinking I need to start a thread to have a place for all my pics. I take them weekly too--until I stumbled across your thread I thought I was the only one crazy enough to be THAT infatuated with my chicks.

I hadn't thought about a Happy Hatchday party--what a clever idea! Our silkies just turned one and we'll need to celebrate (right after this camping trip, sigh).

I also take weekly pics of my chicks! I have six arriving next week and am likely going to start a thread for them. If you do a thread for yours please share a link, I'd love to see it!

 

[autumnhearth]

I thread *is* a really a good idea, I've done weekly albums for my chicks and made a few pages for members of our flock but a flock thread is a great way to dump pics and stories and just add as you go instead of edit and not feel guilty about posting too much to other threads. Maybe for our next batch of chicks, or I'll see what you do for your new thread

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Oh, boy, don't anyone forget to share links if you make your own threads! I'm going to have lots of new threads to follow!


We had a hatchday party today! Uploading pictures as I type! e

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Here we go! Apologies if we aren't in tip top condition--they have not handled being confined since the HPAI finding very well. :/ But other than a few pecks to the comb and some ratty feathers, everyone is healthy. They were definitely happy to have some room to run around today!

Elly-welly! She apparently wanted to lay her egg in the mini yard, which is not open to the girls at the moment, so she was in a hurry and couldn't stand still for her picture.

Kit-kit!

Georgie girl!

Mabey-wabey! She had her serious face on because someone was in her nest box.

And Poppy, who was too busy for a picture. Huka did not appreciate the company...

...So I removed Poppy, and got this look from her. "How DARE you!"

Because when Poppy doesn't want her picture taken, she will not have her picture taken!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

A few more pictures before we get to the party! The obligatory Elda Cuddles pictures:

I was crouched in the corner of the coop and the Dorkings decided they wanted to be underneath me for some reason.

I think they were dazed when I stood up!

Georgie had a few things to say. What a dirty look!

Apparently she needed the nest! She sat in there for a few moments and then came out screaming, but there weren't any eggs in there, so...

Here's Kit-kit where she doesn't belong. But doesn't she look sweet?

And just for the heck of it, Poppy's rumple-comb.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Here are our Hatchday Cakes!! These beauties are hollowed out watermelon halves filled with diced bell peppers, cucumber bits, and watermelon chunks and topped with a thin layer of plain yogurt. I also used diced bell pepper, cut cucumber, and pepper seeds to decorate.

I had to get many pictures of them because they would never look this nice again. So here's the lettering. I also cut out the hatchday girls' names in cucumber, but it became pretty evident that they wouldn't all fit, so they got mixed into the middle of the 'cakes'.

A heart for my precious girls.

I also made mini-cakes; the biggest one was for the Guinea fowl, the medium one for the ducks, and the small ones for the roosters, Toes and Reuben.

Because I know how things work in the chicken world, separated off an area to put the 'cakes', and one by one I moved the little girls in so that they could have dibs. Kit-kit was naturally cautious of this new treat:

Elly didn't waste any time digging in:

Georgie says, "Is this for me?"

Then, she dug in:

It got too crowded, so Georgie moved to the other 'cake'.

Poppy and Mabel were hardly interested. Ingrates!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Once the babies had a chance at their 'cakes', I opened up the fence and let the rest of the girls through. The party quickly got crowded...

Meanwhile, Reuben spent some time eying his little mini-cake carefully. At first he was like, "Really?"

Then he feigned disinterest.

Finally, he gave it a chance--and it actually wasn't too bad after all!

Mr. Toes didn't take but a moment to dig in, but he didn't like pictures being taken while he was eating, so this was all I got!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

In their pen, the ducks decided that their mini-cake was to be approached with caution.

...Nope. They don't like this.

Trudi would rather wallow in the mud.

And the Guineas? They were absolutely terrified of their cake.

The Guineas did eventually warm up to their treat, but as of yet, the ducks haven't touched theirs. They aren't afraid anymore, just disinterested.


The girls sure enjoyed their portion, though! It had been eaten down to almost nothing before long!

Here's what the cake looked like when I left them. (With Iddy Biddy poking around at it still.)

Though the rest of the girls were happy, Margaret, who has recently joined the Broody Brigade, was displeased with the hand full of pepper bits I tossed to her. Life's unfair for broodies.

And Frou-Frou thinks that that's the end.

Editing to add, I will post the link here when I get around to making the other thread. I'm still deciding on what I want to call it.