Pipd's Peeps!

[Crazy Maizie]

Oh I see about the colors. You can tell I don't know anything when it comes to the oegb colors and sexing. I thought for sure the 1st one that I posted was going to be a boy. But, if I got 2 girls, it's better than 1.
I'm not holding my breath though.
As for the cochin, I guess its wait and see too. But, he was in the bantam bin and I was told that they were 7-10 days old by the weekend. At this point, it would be just my luck.
The others should have been a few days old when I got them.
The funniest thing to me is that the lady at RK was adamant that I not brood them together and I was like ok. Just give them to me (I will do what I want). Then, it turns out that the oegbs are the feisty ones along with the cochin. My big girls are pretty sweet. So is the barred oegb, but he wants nothing to do with me and peeps when his gigando brother is too far away.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Oh yeah, those OEGBs are feisty for sure! They have no idea how much smaller they are than the rest of the birds, they just want to be boss. But I wouldn't worry about brooding bantams and large fowl together in general, not unless the LF are a couple weeks older than the bantams. If they're the same age, or if the bantams are the older ones, they do just fine together. I've had many a brood with a mix of sizes in them.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Oh yeah, those OEGBs are feisty for sure! They have no idea how much smaller they are than the rest of the birds, they just want to be boss. But I wouldn't worry about brooding bantams and large fowl together in general, not unless the LF are a couple weeks older than the bantams. If they're the same age, or if the bantams are the older ones, they do just fine together. I've had many a brood with a mix of sizes in them.

She even put them in separate boxes.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Myrtle, my wicked queen, is dying. She was laying on the floor of her coop with her eyes shut when I opened it this morning, and I thought for sure she was gone, but she is still breathing shallowly. Gus hung back with her until I stepped in to get her, sweet man that he is. I've brought her in to the warmth and rested her on a towel so that she can at least be a bit more comfortable in her final hours. I knew she was approaching the end for a few days. Her crop had slowed, and she just didn't seem her usual, wicked self among the others in her group. But I hadn't anticipated that she would go down quite so quickly. Another tough loss, both for my breeding program and for me.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Things didn't go exactly as planned yesterday, but Myrtle is gone now. Rest in peace, my lovely girl, we tried our best.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Sorry to hear that.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

The cochin girl, I've been calling Lemon, laid her first egg for me!

My chicks have been doing well. I moved them to the shed in a different set up a few weeks ago. I was really worried about the latest cold blast, but they did well. They have a very secure heat lamp. But, they have lots more room in there and mostly enjoy it. I'd post pics, but since there is no overhead lighting, the red of the heat lamp really takes over any value of the photos. Also, the creles are still perplexing me. The one is absolutely a cockerel, the other 2 are still about the same with their comb and wattles. However, I think there is a little more wattle on the one that isn't as easy to identify. I'm sure here soon it will show it's true colors.

How have you been? Any sign of life in the eggs that you incubated?

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Aww, yay, Lemon!

Those Creles were perplexing me last time you posted them! Definitely interested in seeing what that confusing little one ends up being! Maybe she's just a mismarked female after all?

Been doing okay over here, just not a whole lot going on to post about! The eggs, ugh. It doesn't look great. I've set 3 batches of 8 eggs each every Saturday since then; first batch only had one develop and it quit, second batch has only 2 developing but still going strong, and third batch hasn't been in long enough to know yet. If I don't see an improvement with fertility in batch 3, I'm going to have to try splitting the Blue girls out and moving Wyatt over there to see if I can get some fertilized eggs out of those Blue girls. The only ones to develop seem to be Boba's eggs, so at least they're chicks that I can keep for breeding purposes if they make it to hatch. Not sure why no one else is laying fertilized eggs because I've seen Gus breeding one of them at least and a few of the others have a few feathers missing from the backs of their heads like he's breeding them as well.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

When you breed, do you keep them all or just some for the breeding program?

Honestly, I think all of the creles are boys (6 weeks old).

And, look at the bantam cochin next to a barred rock - again 1 week apart.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

And also, none of my birds want to stay still for a photo. I don't know how you do it!