Pipd's Peeps!

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

It's official--Nara laid her first egg today! That means that all of my June babies from last year are laying now! Trixie's the only pullet left still holding out on me.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Are you getting snow or just wind and rain? We are getting quite a bit of wet snow and high winds. I got some things around for the brooder just in case the electricity goes out. It's been going on and off for over an hour. Plus, there are sections of the county where they have no electricity right now.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

We had a little bit of everything here. Rain, freezing rain, ice pellets, big clumps of snow, snow at the same time as rain, rain and ice pellets flip-flopping every few seconds, wind, thunder and lightning, it was a whole ordeal. Thankfully we didn't fully lose power, but it did flicker a few times. Looks like we got a dusting of snow that stuck, but I haven't been outside to see how icy it is or how bad my netting and tarps have been impacted. Yuck! I hope things are looking okay over there this morning!

 

[Crazy Maizie]

We got at least 5". But, the worst part was the duck and chicken pen was iced in at the door, so I couldn't get in there. My husband was able to hack at it with the claw of a hammer and they are out now. After I went to bed, we didn't have any electric issues that I know of. The chicks were fine. They are happy little campers. The boys are getting ornery though - kung fu fighting and flapping. I'm thinking here next week of setting them up with new digs. I will post pics here later today to see what your thoughts are on 3 of them - I'm suspecting 2 of those to be boys, but hopeful that 1 is at least a girl. If not out of that whole bunch I would have only gotten 1 bantam girl.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Wow, y'all got a lot more than we did! We may have gotten as much here, but it was mixed with rain so much that it couldn't really accumulate. There was about an inch, maybe two, in some places, but some places were bare earth still as well. All melted off now except for in shady spots, though.

for that third one to be a pullet.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

In other news...

On your mark, get set... First batch of eggs in the bator! I feel like these will probably not be fertilized just because of the time of year, but fingers crossed we see some development in a few days!

 

[Crazy Maizie]

What incubator do you use?

Yeah, we got so much snow it's still here. And, it's so heavy I couldn't get much out of the runs. It isn't fully enclosed. So, I put a layer of straw down until it can dry up a bit.

Which brings me to another question (sorry), but with Cochins and their feathered feet, how bad is it if they are wet and muddy? There are dry areas for them and of course the coop is dry. Do I have to trim feathers once in awhile?

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

That incubator is a Brinsea Ovation. Usually I use my Brinsea Octagon, but the automatic turner for that model isn't great so I never bought one, and usually end up just hand turning with it. Hand turning is easy with the Octagon, not so much with the Ovation. But, the Ovation has an autoturner built in, so I'm going hands-free this time around and letting the incubator do the hard work.

As long as the Cochins have somewhere dry to get to, like the straw you put down, they should be okay. If it's really muddy for a while, keep an eye on their feet and the area around the backs of their legs. Sometimes they get mud balls in those feathers that you might have to trim out if their pen is muddy for too long. But they usually take care of themselves as long as they can get out of the mud.

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Here are the pics. I made some collages so that I don't take up your page with all of my pics.

This is one of the ones you thought could be spangled. I have 2 that have small combs, this one is a little more prominent - but not as prominent as the brother's.

This one is even less noticeable even though the pics picked it up. It also doesn't have the brown on the crown or chest like the first one.

Here is their bro.

Crele girl?

The crele boy

And one last one - do you think the cochin is a bantam? He's still huge compared to the sapphire gems. He is at least a week (maybe 10 days older). In this pic, I have a treat off to the side and that is why they look crowded.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Hmm, the first three you posted are actually the Creles. The first is definitely a pullet and third definitely a cockerel, but that middle one has me puzzled. Patterned more like a cockerel, but not much comb development like a pullet. I'm honestly not sure on that one. I'd lean toward slower developing male just based on the feathering, but give that one more time to be sure. Hopefully I'm wrong.

The next two look like Black Breasted Reds, so I'm guessing that the ones I thought looked spangled were actually just BBRs with lighter bellies than I'm used to seeing on them. Weird! But you have a pair there, first female second male.

Crele, for the record, is the same pattern as Black Breasted Red but with the addition of the barring gene. So the males of both varieties at this age should have more black / gray coloring, especially down their fronts, while females should have brown on their fronts.

I'm feeling like that Cochin has to be large fowl as big as he is... unless he's way older than the others, but he doesn't look that much older based on how much feathering he has. Weird that he was with the bantams!