Pipd's Peeps!

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

We lost Kate at about sunset last night, the last of my Barred Rocks. She went off of food entirely a couple days ago and would not be convinced to eat no matter what I did, so I kind of saw it coming. She would have been ten years old if she made it just another month with us.

Kate was always the worrier, never sure of following the other birds or exploring new places. During building projects, she'd hang out nearby and talk to us the whole time, as if scrutinizing our work and worrying that it was up to par. Toward the end, she'd lost a lot of her balance and would trip easily, and that was the main reason why the flock rejected her. She spent most of her last year of life inside in a hospital pen, with people for company. This is her almost two years ago, looking the best she ever did.

It's... odd not having any Barred Rocks anymore. It was sort of odd after Freema left us because Kate had been in a hospital pen for months with her weakness preventing her from integrating back into the flock, but now that Kate is gone, too, it just feels like a key part of the flock has gone missing. Barred Rocks were the first breed that I picked out on my own for the flock, and that we ordered specifically rather than going to the feed store and hoping what we wanted was there. The breed holds a lot of sentiment for me.

A few years back, while coming to accept that Kate and Freema would not live forever, I had planned to seek out Barred Hollands as a sort of Barred Rock replacement once they'd gone, but now that it has happened, I'm not so sure that's what I want to do. I'm quite happy with my Dorkings as the white eggers of the flock, so white eggs are no longer the benefit of the breed that it once was, and as much as I'd like to get my hands on some Hollands some day, I feel like it wouldn't be the same to have them instead.

Perhaps I'm just wishy-washy on the idea because of the recent loss... However, I'd already ordered some Barred Plymouth Rock bantams earlier this year to arrive at the beginning of July, so I suppose they will fill the role of the stripy birds of the flock for the time being. I hope their personalities live up to those of the large fowl birds.

 

[ronott1]

We lost Kate at about sunset last night, the last of my Barred Rocks. She went off of food entirely a couple days ago and would not be convinced to eat no matter what I did, so I kind of saw it coming. She would have been ten years old if she made it just another month with us.

Kate was always the worrier, never sure of following the other birds or exploring new places. During building projects, she'd hang out nearby and talk to us the whole time, as if scrutinizing our work and worrying that it was up to par. Toward the end, she'd lost a lot of her balance and would trip easily, and that was the main reason why the flock rejected her. She spent most of her last year of life inside in a hospital pen, with people for company. This is her almost two years ago, looking the best she ever did.

View attachment 2622898

It's... odd not having any Barred Rocks anymore. It was sort of odd after Freema left us because Kate had been in a hospital pen for months with her weakness preventing her from integrating back into the flock, but now that Kate is gone, too, it just feels like a key part of the flock has gone missing. Barred Rocks were the first breed that I picked out on my own for the flock, and that we ordered specifically rather than going to the feed store and hoping what we wanted was there. The breed holds a lot of sentiment for me.

A few years back, while coming to accept that Kate and Freema would not live forever, I had planned to seek out Barred Hollands as a sort of Barred Rock replacement once they'd gone, but now that it has happened, I'm not so sure that's what I want to do. I'm quite happy with my Dorkings as the white eggers of the flock, so white eggs are no longer the benefit of the breed that it once was, and as much as I'd like to get my hands on some Hollands some day, I feel like it wouldn't be the same to have them instead.

Perhaps I'm just wishy-washy on the idea because of the recent loss... However, I'd already ordered some Barred Plymouth Rock bantams earlier this year to arrive at the beginning of July, so I suppose they will fill the role of the stripy birds of the flock for the time being. I hope their personalities live up to those of the large fowl birds.

It is hard to lose one that has been with you for so long!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Whoops, been quite a while since I posted here! Time to catch up again!

I mostly wanted to post because I've set eggs again--yup, more chicks on the way as of last night! It was a whirlwind effort because these were shipped Monday and tracking had them arriving tomorrow, but they instead arrived YESTERDAY, so I had to clean the incubator and get it up and running in a hurry!! These are more silkied Cochins, with the potential for being Black, Blue, Splash, Barred, or recessive White, and possibly Red as well, but I don't think she included any of those because she's only got one pair of them... Really hoping I get a Blue or Splash this time around, male or female! I have male and female Blacks, so I can breed some more Blues later on if I can just get at least one Blue or Splash! A Barred pullet would be nice for making sexlinked chicks, too, but I'm not as interested in the Barreds as with the Blues, honestly. Love me some Blues! But mostly, I'm just hoping to get a good hatch out of these regardless of color!!

My Easter Hatchalong chick is a cockerel, of course, which means that Bee is my only female hatched so far this year. Hopefully, the current eggs change that!


Beyond that, not much is happening. My building projects for the year have been stalled by the insane prices of fencing and lumber right now, so there's not much to do around the farm. I did put up a little pen with scrap fencing and some orange plastic netting to put the OEGBs out in during the day, so that they're protected from aerial predators. I don't want to risk losing another one of these precious girls like that. Here's Vega and Sumi on the perch I put up in it; Vega is not pleased by the lack of cuddles.

I should be taking 11-month pictures for last year's babies soon, so stay tuned for that! I still need to sort through all the baby pictures for this year's kids and get them posted, too. Thinking I might just make an album to dump them in rather than making a mass-picture-post here, as there are a lot.

I'll... eventually get that done.

 

[ronott1]

Whoops, been quite a while since I posted here! Time to catch up again!

I mostly wanted to post because I've set eggs again--yup, more chicks on the way as of last night! It was a whirlwind effort because these were shipped Monday and tracking had them arriving tomorrow, but they instead arrived YESTERDAY, so I had to clean the incubator and get it up and running in a hurry!! These are more silkied Cochins, with the potential for being Black, Blue, Splash, Barred, or recessive White, and possibly Red as well, but I don't think she included any of those because she's only got one pair of them... Really hoping I get a Blue or Splash this time around, male or female! I have male and female Blacks, so I can breed some more Blues later on if I can just get at least one Blue or Splash! A Barred pullet would be nice for making sexlinked chicks, too, but I'm not as interested in the Barreds as with the Blues, honestly. Love me some Blues! But mostly, I'm just hoping to get a good hatch out of these regardless of color!!

My Easter Hatchalong chick is a cockerel, of course, which means that Bee is my only female hatched so far this year. Hopefully, the current eggs change that!


Beyond that, not much is happening. My building projects for the year have been stalled by the insane prices of fencing and lumber right now, so there's not much to do around the farm. I did put up a little pen with scrap fencing and some orange plastic netting to put the OEGBs out in during the day, so that they're protected from aerial predators. I don't want to risk losing another one of these precious girls like that. Here's Vega and Sumi on the perch I put up in it; Vega is not pleased by the lack of cuddles.

View attachment 2652886

I should be taking 11-month pictures for last year's babies soon, so stay tuned for that! I still need to sort through all the baby pictures for this year's kids and get them posted, too. Thinking I might just make an album to dump them in rather than making a mass-picture-post here, as there are a lot. View attachment 2652919 I'll... eventually get that done.

I hope things calm down for you!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Haha, well I'm not really sure how much calmer it could get, but thanks anyway, Ron!

I'm pretty excited this morning, though, because I took a peek at the eggs and saw lots of veining! 9 for sure and 2 maybes out of the 12 eggs!! Their first 'real' check is Wednesday night, so I'll take a closer look at the maybes then. Here's hoping for lots of babies come the end of the month!!

To be honest, I gave myself an amazing example of why checking too early can give the wrong idea; I also looked on Sunday evening and only saw one embryo. I was super bummed all day yesterday because I kept thinking about it and how sad I was to only have one egg develop out of the lot of them, which is why I peeked again to make sure and found out how wrong I was! Thank goodness for that!! Now I just have to keep them going until hatch time!


One other thing to note here, poor baby Bee was being harassed by her brothers this morning, so I've had to separate her. I'm just going to have to put an ad up or something for these boys. I can't keep them, and I have nowhere to put them, especially with no affordable fencing available for me to put something up and move them outside full time. Makes me sad, but it's a consequence that I accepted when I decided to start hatching. There will always be too many roosters.

 

[ronott1]

Haha, well I'm not really sure how much calmer it could get, but thanks anyway, Ron!

I'm pretty excited this morning, though, because I took a peek at the eggs and saw lots of veining! 9 for sure and 2 maybes out of the 12 eggs!! Their first 'real' check is Wednesday night, so I'll take a closer look at the maybes then. Here's hoping for lots of babies come the end of the month!!

To be honest, I gave myself an amazing example of why checking too early can give the wrong idea; I also looked on Sunday evening and only saw one embryo. I was super bummed all day yesterday because I kept thinking about it and how sad I was to only have one egg develop out of the lot of them, which is why I peeked again to make sure and found out how wrong I was! Thank goodness for that!! Now I just have to keep them going until hatch time!


One other thing to note here, poor baby Bee was being harassed by her brothers this morning, so I've had to separate her. I'm just going to have to put an ad up or something for these boys. I can't keep them, and I have nowhere to put them, especially with no affordable fencing available for me to put something up and move them outside full time. Makes me sad, but it's a consequence that I accepted when I decided to start hatching. There will always be too many roosters.

I do not worry about not seeing development in the first couple of days. Lots of shell types can make it hard to see at first.

Construction materials are very expensive currently. Prices are supposed to go down is about 6 months.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Yup, that's definitely what I try to keep in mind--but at the same time none of my hatches have exactly gone well so far this year, so it was disheartening only seeing one embryo on Sunday. Thank goodness it was just because it was too early!


I hope that's the case with the building materials, though sooner would be better. No way I can afford to pay $60 per sheet of plywood, $10 per 2x4x8, and $80 per 50-foot roll of fence to do any building right now, anyway!!

 

[ronott1]

Yup, that's definitely what I try to keep in mind--but at the same time none of my hatches have exactly gone well so far this year, so it was disheartening only seeing one embryo on Sunday. Thank goodness it was just because it was too early!


I hope that's the case with the building materials, though sooner would be better. No way I can afford to pay $60 per sheet of plywood, $10 per 2x4x8, and $80 per 50-foot roll of fence to do any building right now, anyway!!

It is very expensive currently!

We were going to replace some boards on an arbor but the materials cost is way too high.

 

[hirundinidae]

Good luck on the hatch! Sorry about Kate. The Dorkings are adorable! What new building projects do you have in mind?

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

So much!

Mostly renovations to already existing structures, but I still need fencing and lumber to get it all done.

The main project and my priority this year was going to be my Old English Game bantam coop. I have what is essentially an 8ft x 8ft x 6ft-tall box that was the Guinea coop, but I am currently down to just the one Guinea cock without any plans of getting any more of them, and the roof has always been super leaky on it anyway. The plan was to tear the roof off entirely and rebuild it, and then build individual, stacked 'coops' inside it for the OEGBs, especially since I have a couple varieties I want to work with and breed pure. Along with that, I need to fence in a yard for each of those coop spaces and net the top of those yards for hawk prevention.

For the Guinea, I have a structure that needs to be re-fenced with secure fencing, and then it can be his coop. That will also need to have a yard fenced and netted for him because he'll just fly out otherwise. I was thinking of just building a fenced wing off the side of it to double the floor space and have the entire floor be his 'yard' (it's a dirt floor as is) and he'd fly up to his perches up above for his 'coop', but I think I'd also like a larger yard area attached for him to forage in. He hasn't free-ranged in a long time because he wanders too far on his own without his flock to keep him in check, so this would be sort of a surrogate free-range scenario for him.

I also need to put up another fence for the old duck coop, and gut it and rebuild the interior for chickens as I also don't plan to get any more ducks any time soon. Ideally, this would be replacing the shelf that the ducks flew up to to look out the window with a perch and dropping board of some sort and installing nests somewhere. The interior rebuild isn't super dire as it's livable for chickens as-is, just not as ideal as it could be for them.

Last thing is more fence as I want to rotate one of my rooster duplexes away from the others and put a yard up for it so that I don't have to use the currently singular rooster yard on a rotational schedule as much, and more of the boys can have outside time more often. With any luck, this will go along with my two OEGB rooster flocks merging together to save even more space

I also have been meaning to re-fence the main coop yard for years to secure it a bit better, but that's been put off for so long now that I guess it can hold out a bit longer. I was also going to put together a meat bird tractor, but again, it's been put off for a couple years and it can wait a bit longer. And I want to re-fence the mini-yard off the side of the main yard that I usually use for integration (but is currently being used for the Cochins I want to move to the ex-duck coop once it's fixed up), but I believe there's enough fence there that I can move it as I need and just re-pound the stakes in and it'll be what I am envisioning, so no purchases necessary there if I'm correct.

And... I think that's it.