Pipd's Peeps!

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Hello, welcome! Since my last thread was made specifically to follow the growth of my 2014 babies and I will not be getting chicks this year, I decided (with the encouragement of the followers of that thread) to start fresh with a new place to focus on my entire flock, including my beloved hens, the handsome rooster boys, the crazy Guinea fowl, and the cute li'l duckies.

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For full disclosure, this thread is subject to replies with picture overloads, crazy chicken lady stories, rants about broodies (or whatever else is frustrating me at the time!), and even sad stuff if it happens.

Oh, and Dorking cuddles. There will be lots of Dorking cuddles.

You have been warned!




Things that are crossing over from the last thread:

• My birds, of course! I have little blurbs about each one of them, along with their breeds and hatch dates (if known) on this page:
  
  My Flock!​
  I will try to remember to at least mention breeds with birds' names or pictures in my posts, but if I forget, it's all there.
  
  
• The great call duck incubation! I have 4 little call duck eggs from my pair in lockdown at the moment, due to hatch any day now! . Just as a side note, I've been referring to the eggs by their position in the incubator so that I can remember which one is which from the candling pictures I took, so I will probably call them things like 'Left Top' or 'Right Center' when posting about them.
  
  
• The Broody Brigade! Their numbers are dwindling at the moment. Just stubborn ol' Lady Wyandotte is still brooding, but I think we all know it's only a matter of time before another goes.
  
  
  
• Reuben the Silkie cockerel. I don't know if I'll mention him a whole lot, but he's coming to the end of his quarantine period soon, so who knows?

I think that's about it! I will reply with things as they happen, so there are no guarantees how often there will be posts, especially during the semester (mid-August to early May usually).

Please feel free to join in!

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[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

And just to get the pictures and crazy-chicken-lady-ness started, here is a few favorite pictures of my splash Marans (and official mascot), Frou-Frou fuzzy. I'm crazy about all of my birds, but she really brings the crazy out. Love this bird!

Rest in peace, precious girl. . . . June 11, 2012 - August 21, 2015

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

Frou-Frou fuzzy and the Dorking are beautiful. Does your broody have any eggs?

 

[ChickenChatten]

I nearly forgot about your duck call eggs! I hope they hatch soon!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Frou-Frou fuzzy and the Dorking are beautiful. Does your broody have any eggs?

Nah, the only hens that want to brood are the ones I am least likely to trust with chicks. So she's in the broody buster at the moment, and not happy about it. She's so broody she can barely find her way to the nests anyway. She gets to the roosts outside the nest boxes and just broods there. On the perches. With air space underneath her. Classic broody daze.

I nearly forgot about your duck call eggs! I hope they hatch soon!

Yes! I just came on to post about them! We have a pip!! e






Short story time! I didn't say anything about this because this was right after I lost Diana and I was still upset, and I didn't want to post about it until I knew if it would make it or not, but on Sunday when I was candling the eggs, I dropped one and cracked it badly! Dad and I patched it up with candle wax and we've all been keeping our fingers crossed on this little baby over the past few days. Well, in spite of it all, 'Crashie' is the first one to pip!! I can hear it peeping in there, too! EEK! Baby ducky on the way!!


I can't remember what position 'Crashie' was in in the incubator, but I think it was Left Top? I've moved the eggs since then for lockdown. Well, Right Top is also on the way as well, and I can still see Right Center moving around in there! Not sure on Left Bottom, as I haven't candled since lockdown and now that there's a pip I definitely am not opening the incubator! However, all four were moving around in their shells at the start of lockdown, so fingers crossed for four babies!


I'm going to go stare at an egg for a while now!

 

[shadow rabbit10]

I love Frou frou. Such as beautiful hen. I can't wait to see what happens with your duck eggs. Best of luck!

 

[Mr MKK FARMS]

Frou-Frou fuzzy and the Dorking are beautiful. Does your broody have any eggs?

Nah, the only hens that want to brood are the ones I am least likely to trust with chicks. So she's in the broody buster at the moment, and not happy about it. She's so broody she can barely find her way to the nests anyway. She gets to the roosts outside the nest boxes and just broods there. On the perches. With air space underneath her. Classic broody daze.

I nearly forgot about your duck call eggs! I hope they hatch soon!

Yes! I just came on to post about them! We have a pip!! e






Short story time! I didn't say anything about this because this was right after I lost Diana and I was still upset, and I didn't want to post about it until I knew if it would make it or not, but on Sunday when I was candling the eggs, I dropped one and cracked it badly! Dad and I patched it up with candle wax and we've all been keeping our fingers crossed on this little baby over the past few days. Well, in spite of it all, 'Crashie' is the first one to pip!! I can hear it peeping in there, too! EEK! Baby ducky on the way!!


I can't remember what position 'Crashie' was in in the incubator, but I think it was Left Top? I've moved the eggs since then for lockdown. Well, Right Top is also on the way as well, and I can still see Right Center moving around in there! Not sure on Left Bottom, as I haven't candled since lockdown and now that there's a pip I definitely am not opening the incubator! However, all four were moving around in their shells at the start of lockdown, so fingers crossed for four babies!


I'm going to go stare at an egg for a while now!

Broody daze? I have only ever had one properly broody bird so I am not familiar with the term.

Good luck on the hatch!

 

[ChickenChatten]

So excited for you ducklings!! Let us know how it goes!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Broody daze? I have only ever had one properly broody bird so I am not familiar with the term.

Good luck on the hatch!

Oops, sorry, I didn't even think about it! 'Broody daze' is what I call it when a hen is so broody that she doesn't care where she is, whether there are eggs or not, she's going to sit. Most of my broodies only do the broody daze when I first pull them off the nest, but man, the Wyandottes are dedicated.

"Who, me?"

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

The eggie report! We have two air-breathers!! e I went against my better judgement and quickly grabbed the other two out of the incubator to candle them (making sure that the humidity got no lower than 55% all the while!).

Left Bottom looks very underdeveloped. :/ It's still moving around, but it looks like it's around a week off of hatching. Not sure how that could have happened when it's been in the incubator under the same conditions as the rest. I'm keeping an eye on it for now.

Right Center ('RC') appears to be getting into position to pip, so I'm hoping it will catch up.

The two 'top' eggs, 'Crashie' and Right Top, are our breathers. They appear to be resting (pipping's an awful lot of work, after all...), but are still visibly shifting around when I shine the flashlight through the top of the incubator at them. e I had to leave the room to resist the temptation to get in there and help them, so I'm only allowing myself to check on them every so often. What can I say, I'm eager to meet the li'l duckies.

(Also... Apologies for the smiley abuse.)





In the mean time, I took a hand full of pictures while I was trying not to think about baby duckies. Here we go!

Trudi and Malcolm, the parents of the li'l call duck eggies. Believe it or not, I hosed out and refilled their pool this morning.

Guess who's rejoining the broody brigade? These bitty Sebrights are lucky they are so beyond adorable when they're trying to look like menacing broodies. Oh, Rosie...

Marama has taken it upon herself to punish the broodies for being broody. Because apparently, no one likes a broody. (Marama is a sassy little Fayoumi.)

A look at how the woods is opening up over the chicken yard this spring.

And Frou-Frou looking for a roost. Her face!

Edited to fix something...