Pipd's Peeps!

[shadow rabbit10]

So exciting to see him grow. The war front. That's great! It seems like you have really crazy broodies. Mine are pretty consistent. I'm sure Reuben will come around eventually.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Mine come in waves and usually only last a few days. So the broody wars only get crazy over here because I'm juggling multiple birds at once, and it seems like every time one quits the brigade, another joins up. But I'm not bitter about it or anything.

Yeah, Reub is getting there. He was acting much more confident than usual this morning. He even started to wing dance at the Lady Wyandotte, although a short glare from her kind of turned him off of the idea. He just needs to get his bearings and figure out where he fits in here.



And on to our junior ducky. Crashie was a pain in the patootie to get pictures of today! He wanted to chew on everything, and when he wasn't chewing, he was running around the brooder like a maniac, and if he wasn't running, he was eating or drinking, neither of which makes for a very flattering picture! I finally got some good pictures of him after a lot of work, but holy cow! This is one of these days that I have to say he's lucky because he's so cute!

His Easter chick picture, after a lot of effort! I finally got this shot because he was eating something off the floor.

"Must... Chew... Easter chick..."

This one I just thought was cute. It's the Crashie bunny!

I sat the Easter chick down there without thinking about the fact that the floor was wet there. It started peeping, and Crashie finally stopped chewing on it and gave it this look like he didn't expect it to object to him chewing on it so much!

Here's a hand full of Crashie.

Snuggle time!

Editing to add bath time! Thought I'd throw these pictures in as well! Someone must have showered right before this because there was hardly any warm water left. :/ So his bath time was pretty short, unfortunately. Still, lots of fun!

Splashie Crashie!

Ah, the lazy bum!

Hmm... Not quite as cute as last time, I think...

Spoiler: Last Time

I started to empty the tub and he got all kinds of excited about it! So I plugged it back up again and he and I played for a few minutes in the inch-deep water. He was trying to do his zoomies and torpedoes, but it just wasn't deep enough. He wanted to float, too, but couldn't, so he was pretty much pushing himself across the tub on his belly. Silly little guy!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Crashie is 3 weeks old today! As such, I thought I would throw together all of his pictures with the Easter chick to show how much he's grown. Here we go! Click to see larger pictures!

And today:

Look how TAAAALLL he's gotten!

Still adorable.

In other, funnier news... I had to share this here.

I got all the coops opened and set up this morning, and by the time I had made the rounds and gotten back to the chickens to move the broodies out, Georgie was already on the nest. Well, it's pretty dark in the coop in the morning because there aren't any windows on the east side, and the nests were already full, so I couldn't tell where Georgie had gotten to. I stood back and jokingly said, "Okay, where's the broody?" And to my surprise, with no other hens around to evoke such a reaction, Georgie began growling and puffing out in her nest! I don't know if she knew her time was up or what, but I thought that was hilarious--she actually reacted to what I was saying!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Crashie duck has apparently realized today that he can put his head in his waterer. I woke up this morning to see this little guy peeking out of the brooder at me. He looks awfully satisfied with himself, doesn't he...

And here he is going in for more.

Just because, I got his buddy picture while I was at it with the Easter chick. Look at all the feathers he has coming in!! e

Georgie pulled a fast one on me yesterday! She was out of the nest, not acting broody, and her belly wasn't heated up. Guess where I found her this morning? Margaret has joined her in the broody brigade, and it looks like Kit-kit may be their next recruit, although it looks like Poppy's done at least. It's a never ending battle!


And in other news, I'm keeping a close eye on my Tilde. She's not acting right... Still talking and grumping like she does, and she seems bright-eyed as usual, but she's standing around a lot more than normal. And last night I couldn't find her anywhere at roost time. I had to get out the big torch light before I found her, just sitting on some feed bags along the fence in the dark. I'm thinking that all of this wetness may be causing an outbreak of coccidiosis strong enough that it's got her down. At least, I really hope it's just that simple...

 

[shadow rabbit10]

Wow. He'll be feathered out before you know it! Hope your hen is ok. If it's cocci, at least that's treatable. Something else could be a problem.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

For sure. I guess I'm especially hypervigilant with HPAI confirmed in the area, too. It's probably putting more stress on me than I need at the moment, worrying over every little thing.

On Tilde, she was back at 100% by roost time last night. I'm not sure, but I think I may know what happened. It's been so wet here that everything is molding, especially any feed that they kick out of the dish into the mud. I'm thinking she may have found some spoiled feed that I missed or something and that's why she wasn't feeling herself yesterday. Either way, it seems to have passed now. I'm being especially careful to clean up any bit of spilled feed that I see, though. The girls just love to get into the food dishes and kick their pellets everywhere!

Meanwhile, we're down to one broody, I think! Margaret! Funny thing is, I have her out away from the nests and Reuben is going nuts pacing the fence to get to her. She's never shown interest in him, so it's kind of funny how interested he seems to be in her. Must be because she's a Silkie like he is! I believe where he came from, he was in a flock of Silkies. I guess he's homesick.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Nope, I was wrong. 2 broodies still. Georgie fooled me again. Tricky, tricky hen!



Anyway, okay, it's kind of become the Crashie thread for a while now... So I spent some time with the girls outside and got some pictures of them to share!

Here's Frou-Frou telling me to put down the camera and give her some attention already!

Dorkings! Elda's in back and Kit-kit's up front:

A Dorking cuddle as promised in the first post. My Elly

Kit says, "Where are my cuddles?!"

Margaret the broody Silkie, who is glum because I'm keeping her from her nest.

Reuben pretending to be manly. Poor Reub wing-danced at one of the hens, and Fancy came out of nowhere to boss him around!

Iddy-Biddy the speckled supposed-to-be Sussex.

I couldn't decide which picture I liked more, so here's another dose of Biddy-bird:

Raven Wyandotte, who is awfully suspicious whenever I give her attention.

Here's our Tilde, eying the nests!

Malcolm and Trudi, working their innocent looks. "Mud? What mud?"

Okay, I couldn't help myself. Crashie duck!

Here's one of my Old German tomatoes, looks like maybe the only one that's going to grow out of the four plants. But we have around 20 tomato bushes of different varieties, so we should get plenty otherwise. The garden has completely overgrown with all the rain or I'd get more pictures of it. Basically, it looks like a jungle!

And just for the heck of it, some wild daisies.

 

[shadow rabbit10]

Your Dorkings are so pretty!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Aren't they, though? I just love them.

Speaking of, my mom and I have been talking, and I've decided that if all of this HPAI stuff slows down even more by next spring and everything looks safe, I'm going to go ahead and get a small order of chicks next year. I'd really like to get some more Dorkings, and mom wants more barred Plymouth Rocks, although I'm not sure I do yet. I'm thinking I'll try out a Cochin pullet or maybe an Olive-egger or Easter-egger, or even an Orpington or Australorp. I've never had an Orpington even though they seem highly recommended, but we did have an Australorp years ago and she was very sweet... Well, clearly I haven't decided on that front, but I have time.


As for our broodies, Georgie has finally given up the fight and Margaret is the only one left. I had to toss Margie out of the nest three times this morning before I separated her, so I guess she's in for a long fight.


And yesterday, I let the girls into the mini-yard to graze. It's a small area, but it had really, really, really overgrown, so the girls had lots of greens and wild raspberries to peck at! Unfortunately, I had forgotten that the biddy Sebrights always fly out of the mini yard and they were out of the chicken yard a few times yesterday. I know how they're getting out and I'm going to tack some fence up there before I let them in there again. Naughty girls always ruin the nice things I do!




And in ducky news this morning, Crashie duck decided to wake me up extra early because I had dumped his water out last night. Since he's learned that he can dip his head in that water dish, it gets a lot dirtier, and by the time I come in to bed, it stinks. Bad. Well, when I got over there, I realized that he had once again made a really bad mess out of the paper towels he was on with his water, so I decided that he's old enough and I switched him to pine shavings for his bedding. As you can see, he still flings water, but it smells less and it's so much easier to deal with!

Since I was taking pictures, I got his Easter chick picture. Look at all the feathers!

And, err, he's swimming.

"What?"

 

[TheChickenQueen]

I recommend cochins and orpingtons! Right now I've got a large black cochin pullet who is really shaping up nice <3 then I've got two bantam cochin roos, a birchen, and a blue, and I also have a large black cochin baby roo <33 he is so friendly and likes to be held when I go sit with them before bed.
And then I've got a assortment of Orps, but I must say a blue or well bred splash are very beautiful. Right now I've got 2 blues(one has English blood), 2 blacks, 2 splash, 5 buffs-never really liked them but one of the pullets is very friendly-, a Jubilee, and a Partridge who loves her food and is the first to take a bite of anything food looking.
...I have a lot of birds. I would have more if it wasn't for the avian influenza.


Crashie looks like he is going into his awkward baby stage... I wonder how long it will be until he shapes up into a fine young duck.