Pipd's Peeps!

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He probably still needs to mature though as his breeding manners are a little lacking. He doesn't ask or do a dance for them.

Uh-oh! Practice makes perfect, as they say. Sounds like he's doing good otherwise, though! That's good to hear! Most of my fellas (well, actually, I think all of them except the three that are under a year old) are molting, so they've been moody with each other. Murph, Dante, and Darwin are having spats every now and then, and Roscoe has lost all of his patience for his sons. Reuby's been keeping up with his roosterly duties, though! We had a hawk fly by yesterday and he had all the hens up at the coop while he checked the place out to make sure it was safe. I love that big fuzzball!

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

Uh-oh! Practice makes perfect, as they say. Sounds like he's doing good otherwise, though! That's good to hear! Most of my fellas (well, actually, I think all of them except the three that are under a year old) are molting, so they've been moody with each other. Murph, Dante, and Darwin are having spats every now and then, and Roscoe has lost all of his patience for his sons. Reuby's been keeping up with his roosterly duties, though! We had a hawk fly by yesterday and he had all the hens up at the coop while he checked the place out to make sure it was safe. I love that big fuzzball!

So sweet. Boomer had a soft molt, but other than that nothing major. My Brahma is in full molt though and she waits until he is busy in the morning to come down from the roost. She's been waiting until I come out I think, because I distract him enough not to bother her. Or at least that is what I noticed this morning.

 

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Aw, poor thing! That's kind of strange to me, seems like my fellas leave the girls alone when they're molting. No one's messing with Tessa, that's for sure!

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

Maybe it is because he is still young and she hasn't pecked him hard enough?

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Maybe it is because he is still young and she hasn't pecked him hard enough?

That's a distinct possibility.






Popping in for a brief update. I've been busy winterizing this morning. Yep, that time of year is upon us. My main way of switching the coop to winter-mode is just putting up plastic sheeting on the more windward walls of the deck. Every year, the girls see this as me giving them a snack and they nibble on it here or there all winter. Well, not this year, girls! I saw a post somewhere about using black silt fencing without stakes as a cheap wind block. Silt fencing is made of a tarp-like material, so no way the girls would be snacking on that! Anyway, silt fencing is black and I didn't want to block out light, so instead I put it along the bottom over top of the plastic sheeting to prevent snack-happy hens from ripping it up. About $14 for 50 feet of three-foot-tall fencing (plus some fresh, non-chewed-on plastic sheeting), and voila! It's not quite finished yet because I ran out of staples, but here is the deck so far. Still to do is covering the closer door with plastic sheeting and getting a section of silt fence to go on the bottom of both doors.

In other news, Elda is leaving her molt and hasn't yet had any indications of crop issues! I wonder what's different about this year..?

Tessa is still doing okay despite her nakedness and has feathers starting to open up at last! Hopefully, the newly winterized deck will give her a nice place to hang out until she's filled in.

We've hit the half way point for Winston and Sybil's quarantine with no signs of major issues or anything! One week until the Ohio Nationals--I wonder how hard it would be to run two quarantines..?


EDIT: Oh my goodness, suddenly there is a big update!! I just went out to check on the girls because there was a ruckus in the coop and I found this! Vira is nesting!! She's just under 24 weeks old!

 

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SHE DID IT!! And it's so small!! Not quite as small as Abra and Rowena's first eggs were, but super eensy anyway!

I don't have any large eggs (bunch'a freeloaders!), but here it is next to one of the adult bantam's eggs (I think Rowena's, but not 100% sure--it might be Margie's) :

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

Sweet little eggs!
I put a heavy duty tarp up to block wind. But, it only goes up so far, so hopefully they get enough light still.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

They are cute. Almost as cute as the hens that make them.

I like the extra light with the plastic sheeting, plus they get a little bit of a greenhouse effect when it's sunny. But, the hens have an appetite for plastic sheeting for some reason. Especially Cazzie and Flury. I also go for an 'open-air' feel instead of completely wrapping it up tight, so the two walls that are covered now are it, the rest (except the one door, I still have to cover that) will be open wire all winter. It already feels warmer on the deck just for the wind being blocked. The only thing I'm not liking is that this plastic sheeting isn't as clear as the previous roll was, so it's hard to see through. Oh, well.

 

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So, I've been thinking about the OEGBs and eyeballing this old nest box structure from my early days chickening. It's been sitting in the middle of the yard for years, but it's mostly treated wood, so it's not in too bad of shape. I'm thinking... This could make a pretty nice mini-coop with some fixing up... The type of mini-coop that's perfect for little mini-chickens like OEGBs...

The dimensions are a bit weird (5ft by 3f 4in at the base, 4ft by 3ft 4in at the top, 2ft 4in tall) and I'd have to add a floor and move the internal floors to cover the openings in the top and end, but I don't think it would be too hard to make a coop out of this... My current thought is to raise it up a few feet and build on an attached run like the prefab coops at the farm stores (sort of like this one: https://www.innovationpet.com/colle...feathers-hen-coop-78l-x-30w-x-41h-item-220-50 ). Hmmm.....

Speaking of the OEGBs, Winston has gone into an uber-molt and is half the chicken he used to be... which is saying something. He also caught my thumb with one of his spurs when I was checking him over this last time and gave me a small cut. Not on purpose, of course! He was trying to fly back into the quarantine coop from my lap and I tried to catch him, and, well, ouch. But despite the molt, he and Sybil are looking good still. About two more weeks of quarantine to go!

 

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It's been too cold overnight for Tessa, as naked as she is, so she's bunking in the brooder I never got around to taking down. It did get a bit warmer yesterday, so I took her back out for the day. The fun part was when she darted past me out of the brooder and I had to chase her around the room and corner her to catch her. Anyway, the high today is 39, so I guess she's in for now.


Scenes of horror from this morning. What I first saw out my window.

This was all the 2018 babies' first time seeing snow. The Marans had no problems at all, but the younger girls... They were a bit worried.

Myrna observed it veeeery closely...

Bryony tried to do the same, but was quite concerned.

Sylvie was just accusing. "How could you do this to us?!"

Vira and Roxy just kind of rolled with it. Here's Vira gaining more speckles.

The two young Dorkings were very unsure. They sought out shelter in the rooster pens, but alas, there's no way through!

So, instead, Kita just hid in the coop under the hutch.

Myrna seems less dramatic about it than her sister, even peeking outside again...

And Ida never once came out of the coop. This is a terrible picture, but a lot of the hens were in agreement with Ida. There are several more in the back that you can't see because of how dark the camera made the coop look.

It looks like it's mostly melted off now, so I'm sure they've gotten over their hesitance and come out of the coop by now. Good thing I got the plastic sheeting up when I did!