Pipd's Peeps!

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Long time no see!

Haha, yeah, June is always just really busy for me Sorry for the lack of updates! I'm determined to make sure I update on the babies at least weekly, though!


Doesn't look like we're going outside with the babies this weekend, unfortunately. It's been threatening rain since yesterday and today is really looking like it's going to downpour. I might yet take them out to a little fenced off area on the deck, where they'd be out of the weather, though. I'll have to see if I can modify it a tiny bit to better suit the job.

 

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Well, my schedule's finally opened up again, just in time for me to not be feeling well. Guess that's what happens when you run yourself too busy for too long, huh? I'll be fine with a few days of rest, but I'm definitely not feeling up to getting down with the brooder babies to take pictures or haul them outside or any of that fun stuff at the moment, so all that will have to wait. At least now I have plenty of time to catch up on BYC!

The remaining babies are doing great, growing so fast, and, oh man, look at all the combs. I keep reminding myself that a lot of the silkied Cochin pullets I've hatched in the past have had suspicious combs at this age, but it sure doesn't stop me from feeling like I've got a whole lot of cockerels this time around. A couple more weeks and I'll know for sure. For now, I do have a few that I'm pretty sure are pullets, and definitely have a few I'm positive are boys already as well, including quite a few of my Blues


The rest of the flock is doing pretty well, too! I don't remember how much I talked about this, but I was trying to integrate Rosey into the main flock for a bit there and had to stop for a few reasons, primarily that he began attacking me when I was out there and I was having no success training him not to. I don't keep aggressive boys generally, but a friend named him, so I feel obligated to keep him around. That said, he definitely will not be integrated into the main flock now.

I bring this up (possibly again? I really don't remember ) because we had an incident the other day where Roscoe escaped his pen and free-ranged with the flock. Now, Roscoe is older, I've had him for many years, and I know I can trust him not to attack me or anyone else. He only wasn't in the main flock already because he and Winter would fight so much that he always ended up blue in the face, and he just won't quit even when he looks like he's about to pass out! But, when he escaped his pen the other day, he and Winter seemed fine, only scuffling a few times and then going their own ways. So, basically, Roscoe may be joining the main flock instead!

This all comes at possibly a good time because the flock may be down a male fairly soon anyway. I've noticed lately that Reuben, previous king of the flock, has been hanging out in the coop during the day and resting a lot, letting his son, Winter, take over his duties watching over the flock. Reuby's pretty old, will be 9 in October if I am remembering his hatch day correctly, and he's certainly feeling his age at this point if his behavior is any indicator. It's sad to think it could be his time to go, but he hasn't really been himself since his favorite hen, Margie, passed away. We'll just have to see what transpires in the coming weeks.

Anyway, phew, I have a lot of catching up to do around the site now! See y'all around!

 

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This morning, I peeked my head into the coop that Rayburn and Bruner have been staying in to see if they had enough food for the day in their dish or if I needed to go back to the feed shed and get them a scoop, and Rayburn jumped off the high perch into my head.

I'm okay. A bit woozy and shaky, I might be bleeding a bit, and my heart is still pumping like mad, but I'm okay. But that's pretty much sealed his fate. He needs to go, now. No one is interested in him on craigslist, so I may just have to make a trip up to the processors. Rayburn for sure just needs to go, but Brune is teetering on the edge of the same behavior and who knows when he'll decide to come at me as well. I have no idea what changed the sweet puffball boys I had into these hellions, but I'll be damned if I ever try to hatch them again. I'm over it, I'm done, I just want them gone.

 

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I'm fine now other than a headache. He scratched my scalp, but it didn't bleed much, just enough that there was some dampness along the scratch so I could tell there was some bleeding happening.

After I posted here, I went over to CL and renewed and updated their ad to basically just say make an offer, I need them both gone. Not 10 minutes later, I got an offer. Barring any complications, both boys should be leaving this evening. I am a little relieved, but more so anxious to find out whether or not this will fall through and I'll be stuck with them for any longer.

 

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And, the boys are gone. With full disclosure, of course. The guy was pretty old school and didn't seem to care if they were aggressive or not. I have one empty coop to move birds to as I need, and a weight off of my shoulders!

 

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The babies today! I hate that I missed their 3-week pictures, but here are their 4-weeks at least. I am currently confident that Black 3 and Blues 2 and 6 are pullets, and that Blues 1, 3, and 5 and Chocolates 1 and 3 are cockerels. I'm pretty sure Blue 4 is a pullet and that Blacks 2 and G1 and the mixed color baby are cockerels. The rest of them are kinda in between and could go either way... My greatest fear is that the rest will all go cockerel on me, but I'm trying to remain hopeful that maybe one or two more might end up as pullets so that I don't have a whole bunch of boys and hardly any girls for all this work raising them.

Super excited to see how Blue 4 grows! She is BEAUTIFUL already and everything I'm hoping to work toward in my Blues!! It's unfortunate that the rest of the Blues are already quite dark... Hopefully they lighten at least a little bit as they fill out. I've already identified a couple that are likely culls, but I may keep them around just in case, depending on how many males and females I end up with. Obviously the girls can stay in my mixed flock regardless of whether they're culls or not, but males are a bit more complicated.

Oh, and don't mind Chocolate 3's eye--he blinked. His eyes are totally fine.

 

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The girls have been setting off for seemingly no reason the past couple days. Today, I saw the likely reason. A mink. No casualties yet, but I dread dealing with minks. This is only the second one we've ever dealt with, but they're so tricky. My older girls like She Who, with her balance issues, are the most in danger with one hanging around, though I fear my babies could be easy prey to it as well. I'll have to take the girls a bit more seriously now when they start cackling out there. And I'm going to have to figure out how to trap or kill a mink before it gets any of my birds.

 

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I haven't seen the mink since that post, and only twice have they set off all week in such a way that I would suspect it was lurking around. Not sure what to think of it. I did get some firecrackers to make a BIG noise if I suspect it's around and hopefully scare it away. So far so good.


Anyway, stopping by again because I braved the insane number of mosquitoes to go out and take pictures of the babies today! I meant to also take pictures of the Easter pullets, but they were dust bathing and I had been chewed on enough that trying to get them to cooperate was not exactly something I wanted to do any longer. So, just the little ones for now. They are about 6 weeks old! Spending full days outside, and only coming inside to the brooder for the night. I see a whole lot of potential in these babies and I'm so excited for how they fill out!

I am unfortunately growing more and more confident that I only have 5 pullets out of the 15; Black 3, Blues 2, 4, and 6, and Chocolate 2. At least I didn't get any cockerels at Easter, so the total is only about 40-60 with 7 pullets and 10 cockerels this year. Not too shabby, anyway. I'll probably sell about half of the boys in the fall once they've grown out enough for me to properly pick breeders out of them. I already have a few that have caught my eye and are tentatively on the keeper list for now.

 

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I took some quick pictures of the Easter babies today! They're about 14 and a half weeks old, so not really a milestone, but their last pictures were their 8-week pictures, so it was long overdue. I also got chewed by mosquitoes pretty heavily around my ankles and knees to get these pictures, but hey, the sacrifices we make, right?

I've officially named the silkied Cochin Trixie. I think I mentioned considering that name at some point, but I don't know if I ever made it official? But anyway, here's Trix:

And the little naked neck bantam. Still struggling with a name for her, but I'm sure I'll come up with something eventually. She has grown into such a lovely little Australian Bush-Turkey

Since I was being chewed on so badly, I didn't stick around for many more pictures, but I do have a couple outtakes from Trixie's photo shoot. She was so hard to get a picture of because she kept coming toward me instead of letting me get a shot from the side! Then I got several side shots that were good--except she had such a derpy look on her face in all of them!

Also, a little proof that she does, in fact, have legs underneath all that fuzz.

 

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I put some work into my flock page this week and I think I have it all up to date on my flock as it is right now, all except the June hatch babies! I'll add them when they're a bit older, and when I know a bit better which of the boys should be added to the page and which will not be staying. Here it is for anyone that wants to check it out: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/pipds-peeps.72248/