Pipd's Peeps 2014!

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Adorable! My favorite is Violet.

She's sooooo pretty! My sex links could start laying in less then a month!

I've never had a chicken long enough for it to lay! This is my first time having chickens! (sort of)
I've had a Black sex link before. Just one chicken and the she grew up and I didn't have a coop built so now she's living on a farm.....free ranging all day and everything! I miss her....she was so sweet! I actually raised her WITHOUT a heat lamp! She was in a little bird cage in the house and then she moved outside (when she was older) and lived in a old rabbit hutch. I love how attached they get to you when you only have one.....but of course there's the peeping and peeping whenever you weren't with her. I heard that she's still a bit of a loner.

Well I have my 6 babies right now! BTW Georgie is my second fav!

 

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Cant believe how much they've grown in 2 months!

 

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Well, it's that time of the week again! The littles are 11 weeks old and Poppy and Vi are 12 weeks old today!

Not a whole lot has happened in the past week. We rebuilt the nest boxes for the big girls and cut a pop door from the coop into the yard the chicks have been roaming during the day, so my life has gotten a bit easier not having to herd birds from their pen to the big door! The smart babies figured the pop door out immediately--and spend the first day or two with the door available coming in and out like they were just ecstatic that they could! Tilde, on the other hand, still flies to the roof of the coop and I have to grab her every night and put her through the pop door. She's not the only one, however. Last night, I had to get Poppy out of a tree! Hoping that was a one-time thing!

On the duck eggs, there is only one embryo, dubbed Little One, visibly developing at this point. My mom and I have been browsing other options if this Little One does hatch. My thought is if it hatches and is female, it could work out with one duck, she can just live with the hens. Everything I have read about male ducks and chickens, though, is not good, and so I'd have to house it separately if he hatches male. This, of course, is assuming it hatches at all! We'll have to see. If not, I might invest in another bantam duck breed, one not so notoriously tricky to hatch (I'm looking at you, mini Appleyards!). I likely will not be investing in ducks again until next summer if this year is a bust, though. I don't expect to have enough time for incubating or raising ducklings during the school semester.

Speaking of, I have but a few, precious weeks left of summer break. Gotta make it count!

Anyway, on to the babies! Here are their pictures!

Elda the cuddler:

Kit-kit the cutie:

Georgette the stompy-footed:

Louise the graceful:

Mabel the worrier:

Poppy the tree-hopper:

And Violet the ever-hungry:

 

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The twins! (Elly's looking up because she saw a cuddle opportunity. )

Here's Kit sitting above the commoners.

Kit-kit taking a closer look now:

Louise! She has such pretty eyes right now!

Mabel in the new pop door!

Poppy's so pretty!

Violet, on the other hand, is so colorful!

...And hungry. Violet is perpetually hungry.

 

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And to finish up, here's cuddle time with the Dorkings! Because who could turn down these faces?

Elly was looking for hugs

The two of them on my lap. Elly always looks so grumpy when Kit joins in on cuddles.

Finally, Kit's leaving! Now, Elda says make with the cuddles!

My Elda

 

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Adorable! They are growing up so fast! Love Violet!

 

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Okay, my computer is loading exceptionally slowly, but let's see if I can get this done, huh? The babies are 12 weeks old today!!

Today, I opened up the fence and let the babies experience life in the big girl flock! It went surprisingly well! Of course, the big girls kept the babies at bay, but they were not overly aggressive, and the little ones soon learned their boundaries. I ended up moving the babies back to their yard instead of letting them free range, though, mostly because I'm not totally sure that they and Tilde will come back to the coop. Anyway, it went well, so I guess the integration has begun!

On the duck egg, 'Little One' is in lockdown now! Tuesday is the estimated hatch date! Oh, I hope I don't mess this up! We will be building a duck coop and yard whether it hatches or not, so I can try again next year for my mini duck flock.

Anyway, on to the pictures! It's super hot today and the girls weren't particularly cooperative, but I did my best!

Elda!

Kit-kit! See the differences between the two? They're subtle!

Georgette!

Louise and her crazy eye!

Mabey Mabel!

Oh, and the older two at 13 weeks old! Here's pretty Poppy!

And Big Violet!

 

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Cuddle time! It was awful hot, but Elly needed her cuddles anyway!

Violet wanted cuddles, too!

Violet's preferred method of cuddling.

Georgie's not a cuddler. This look says no touching.

Mabel Pretty girl!

Poppy again! Ugh, such a diva! If Poppy doesn't want to have her picture taken, she absolutely does not cooperate. Poppy's like the supermodel of the group. She's so pretty, but so high-maintenance!

Violet's pretty, too!

Vi's kind of silly sometimes, though. "What?"

 

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Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!! I went up to candle 'Little One' and noticed that it was a little bit off from where I had left it. Well, when I shined the flashlight into the incubator before opening it, I saw it wiggle! Oh my gosh, there's a little ducky in there!! e Okay, trying not to get my hopes up because things can still go wrong, but oh my gosh, it's wiggling!! Come on, 'Little One'!!

 

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Duckling! Yay! Violet is very pretty.