Pipd's Peeps!

[autumnhearth]

Dramaa...

They'd fit in with my two white Easter-egger girls. Such drama queens.

Yes, the beards!

Especially when it's a super fluffy beard!! I mean, who could resist?

Oh, man, and that Jurassic comment reminds me of this picture I saw on Facebook the other day. I feel like this some days... Especially with treats in hand.

I love your pictures of Victoria. She always looks so nice, and never with a feather out of place!

Haha that pic! Our Buff Orp is also a bit of a drama queen. She must have her snuggles, so much so that she rose from the bottom of the pecking order to the top so she could have all the snuggles to herself. She is the also the first to start the alert call. But I wouldn't trade her for anything and I'm sure an Orp would fit in nicely in your big flock

The pictures of Victoria with her perfect tail are mostly from before she started laying Her tail is often ragged because our nest boxes aren't deep/wide/high enough for her tail and she won't just turn around when she's laying lol.


That top tail feather ended up snapping at the bend.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Aw, she sounds a bit like my barred rock, Freema. She's such a grump and no one stands between her and her lap time. I seriously think that I'm her pet human in her mind. I think I'm okay with that.

Agh, you're not making it any easier to narrow it down with your snuggly-sweet sounding Orpington! I need 5 chicks or fewer, not 5000 chicks! Why is it so hard to pick?



That picture of Victoria looks a bit more like my Dorkings now. Those big tails of theirs are always getting in the way, aren't they? She's still just gorgeous, though. This is why I need more Dorkings!

Did you see the Colored Dorkings over on the breed focus thread, by the way? They are just to die for!






And now it's picture time! Crashie duck is 4 weeks old today! e

Next to his buddy, the Easter chick. He's feathered on his chest and belly all the way back to right between his legs, and some under his tail as well. No wing feathers yet, though, so he kind of looks silly!

"I want it... I want it... I want it..."

"Nom!!"

I'm thinking it's about time to make him a new waterer. Look how big he's getting!

Soggy head. And he's nibbling, as always.

Snuggle time! EEEK, look at him!

He has his dad's cute, chubby cheeks. Looking a bit awkward in this picture, though.

Just for fun, I brought one of his mom's eggs up for a comparison. This egg is actually just a bit bigger than the one he hatched from. "I came from THAT?"

 

[TheChickenQueen]

He looks fabulous! I wish I had a call duck <3


What do you guys do for long tails? I have a Olive Egger/Bantam Phoenix mix who appears to be a pullet, and she has this huge tail. I'm worried the boys will tear it up and the nesting boxes. It would be a shame as she is such a pretty bird.

 

[autumnhearth]

That picture of Victoria looks a bit more like my Dorkings now.

Those big tails of theirs are always getting in the way, aren't they? She's still just gorgeous, though.

This is why I need more Dorkings!
Did you see the Colored Dorkings over on the breed focus thread, by the way?

They are just to die for!
And now it's picture time! Crashie duck is 4 weeks old today!

Just for fun, I brought one of his mom's eggs up for a comparison. This egg is actually just a bit bigger than the one he hatched from. "I came from THAT?"

Yes! I love the pic of the two hens facing one another, love the contrast of the hen on the right. I would love to have Red, Colored and Birchen Dorkings in the future along with the Silver Grey of course. The rose bomc whites are pretty too. For now I'm happy with Victoria and Cornelia the Welsummer <3 Crashie!

 

[autumnhearth]

He looks fabulous! I wish I had a call duck <3

What do you guys do for long tails? I have a Olive Egger/Bantam Phoenix mix who appears to be a pullet, and she has this huge tail. I'm worried the boys will tear it up and the nesting boxes. It would be a shame as she is such a pretty bird.

Perhaps put a basket in the coop that she can lay in. Of course no guarantee she will use it.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I don't know how Birchen Dorkings slipped under my radar. I'm in love with the Silver Gray, Colored, Dark, and Dun varieties, although I'm not sure if Dark or Dun are available in the U.S. But either way, .



As for the long tails on my girls, unless it's hindering their ability to thrive, I just leave it be. They get ratty feathers every once in a while, but they don't seem to mind. The only time I've taken action, other than the occasional wing trimming to keep a fence hopper where she belongs, has been with Tilde's crest. She can't see at all when it's feathered in fully, so I trim it back around her eyes.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Well, apparently we had a rough storm this morning! I slept through it, but my mom texted me to ask how everything was. Apparently where she works, it blew the windows open on the building and even broke some! I was afraid there would be a lot of damage here, but there really wasn't. A few fallen trees and lots of shredded leaves, but no damage to any of my fences or coops. Phew! I took pictures, a lot more than I realized, but here's the worst of the damage done:

This tree, the girls used to dust bathe under. But now they have all sorts of branches to climb on, I guess.

It fell right on the boat! No damage to it, as far as I can tell, but the place is a lot more sheltered under there now!

And if anyone was wondering, the crappy shade cover thing is perfectly untouched.

There was a bit of flooding at the back of the chicken yard and in their 'free-range' space adjacent to it. It's hard to tell in this shot, but there's about an inch of water back there. It's flowing, so hopefully it will all run off and I won't have a swamp back here!

The stream running through the 'free-range' space:

This picture isn't great, but the best I could do, but this is what's left of the mini-yard. :/ It used to have trees and bushes and vines, and it looks like the top of a tree fell in there and just flattened everything. :/ The sucky thing is, we built the coop addition there with lots of windows on that side because it would be shaded in summer and get sunlight in winter, but all of that summertime shade just got steamrolled.

This is a tarp I had to kind of extend the cover from the coop into the mini yard. So we got some rain...

I believe this tree is the one whose top flattened everything in the mini-yard. You can see all the vines are hanging over the fence into the mini-yard now... I'm a bit unnerved by this tree, because it's in the main chicken yard and now leaning a bit too much toward the mini-yard... Yikes!

The ducks and Guineas fared better for it all. The only thing over at the duck coop is this tree leaning over one corner of their yard. It looks like the only thing that would hit the duck yard is small, flimsy branches if it fell the rest of the way, but I'm not 100% sure on that. The old rooster, Toes, was in a pen at this corner of the duck yard for a few days--he's in another pen now, just to be safe!

And I think the Guinea aviary must have been built like a tank, because the trees didn't do any damage to it!

 

[shadow rabbit10]

Glad you're ok. Storms are pretty though. Of course the crap tarp survived. I love how you're using sticks to hold it up!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Haha, yeah, the sticks are the only things keeping it up! It only has to last until we can replace it, although it's looking like that's going to be a while still. I'm half way through my summer break already and we haven't gotten ANYTHING done! :/ At the very least, I wanted to get the Guinea coop rebuilt and the crappy shade cover replaced with something more permanent over this summer... But oh, well.



Here's the Crashie duck today! Remember those chubby cheeks of his I was talking about a few posts ago? They disappeared--in lieu of feathers on his face!

He's gotten really snuggly lately, too! He just loves to lounge on my lap.

Snuggled to my chest.

So I've been looking into a few things in regards to ducklings, mainly including when to take them outside and, more importantly, how to tell their sex. Now, I've got next to no experience with ducks or ducklings, so I pretty much have been raising him like I do with chicks, which was why at 4 weeks-1 month old, I started thinking about taking him outside. Apparently I probably should have taken him outside sooner than now. I'm a little bit afraid to with the possibility of disease or him deciding to run for it or something, not to mention that I've already had to bury one duckling and I'm already overprotective of him as a result, so I'm taking it slow. I think today, I'll get him some grass to nibble on and see how that goes.

And as for sexing, well, I have no idea. Supposedly, females should have their voice change at 4-6 weeks and males at 8 weeks. I can tell that his voice is cracking sometimes, but if anything, he sounds quieter than he did when it happens. He's still noisy as all get out, though... So here's another wait and see. But if he is male, we've got to make arrangements, because I'm pretty sure from what I've read that his dad won't accept another male being out there in the duck yard and his mom won't fare well with two males in the same pen as her.




It's actually a nice, sunshiney day here! e I can't wait to spend the rest of it outside!

 

[shadow rabbit10]

He's looking great! What color is he? I'm jealous that you get to go outside. I'm spending my whole day cooking a bunch of stuff in the kitchen. :/