Pipd's Peeps!

[2ndTink]

Oh my, I love him. Is he a bantam lavender orpington?

Lavender Ameraucana

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Lavender Ameraucana

Do you keep them for a project or just a hobby?

 

[2ndTink]

Do you keep them for a project or just a hobby?

These are just for fun. The breeder I got some other breeds of hatching eggs from had them so I got a few

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Just went out and my silkie mix was out of her penned area (because I didn't afix a top to three panels of an old prefab run [makeshift pen]. I just set some feed bags and scrap hardware cloth on top). She figured a way out through the top.
She's giving me Maizie vibes. Maizie was my EE that I got from a farm that had way too many chickens and no space for them for winter. I got Maizie because she was one that we could catch along with her sister ZuZu (they called the "ugly one" - she's not). Maizie passed over a year ago (memory is not my friend these days and it could be 2 years at this point ). Anyway, when I got the EEs I didn't quarantine , I just set them up in a separate area of the run. I go out that evening to put the 2 into the coop (intending to get them out every morning and put them back in their section - I know, I know - the things we learn). I find Maizie with her head sticking up and out of a hole in a tarp that I put over their section. This (among other instances) is why I called her Craizie Maizie and came up with the username that I have now.
Oh and since I was putting them in the coop every night, one morning I go out to frozen rain. Every thing is frozen. I couldn't open the side door that I normally would open to take them out. I had to wait for the auto door to open as the button was on the inside to help with weather issues. I was panicking - thinking the chickens were going to end up killing one another. Then I got the brilliant idea (from something I had read) and moved things around in the run to shake things up. Hoping that they'd be confused by the changes, they'd forget about the new chickens. I don't know how, but it worked out. That's my integration story that I usually keep to myself.

Back to the present. The silkie mix has a small scrape on her nose. I put her in a dog crate for the night. She seemed fine once I put a little spray on her beak and a slight dusting of stop quick even though it wasn't bleeding that much.
Well, she must have caused quite the commotion, because the bantam girls wouldn't go into their dog crate for the night. The first 2 nights they went in by themselves, but every night since I've coaxed them in. Tonight they weren't having it. They don't have to be in the crate, I just feel better if they are. They have an actual tarp over their pen (no holes). So, they should be fine. If they escape, they have plenty of space to roost in the rafters if they choose.
I obviously talk (type) too much when I'm tired. Goodnight.

 

[2ndTink]

Just went out and my silkie mix was out of her penned area (because I didn't afix a top to three panels of an old prefab run [makeshift pen]. I just set some feed bags and scrap hardware cloth on top). She figured a way out through the top.
She's giving me Maizie vibes. Maizie was my EE that I got from a farm that had way too many chickens and no space for them for winter. I got Maizie because she was one that we could catch along with her sister ZuZu (they called the "ugly one" - she's not). Maizie passed over a year ago (memory is not my friend these days and it could be 2 years at this point ). Anyway, when I got the EEs I didn't quarantine , I just set them up in a separate area of the run. I go out that evening to put the 2 into the coop (intending to get them out every morning and put them back in their section - I know, I know - the things we learn). I find Maizie with her head sticking up and out of a hole in a tarp that I put over their section. This (among other instances) is why I called her Craizie Maizie and came up with the username that I have now.
Oh and since I was putting them in the coop every night, one morning I go out to frozen rain. Every thing is frozen. I couldn't open the side door that I normally would open to take them out. I had to wait for the auto door to open as the button was on the inside to help with weather issues. I was panicking - thinking the chickens were going to end up killing one another. Then I got the brilliant idea (from something I had read) and moved things around in the run to shake things up. Hoping that they'd be confused by the changes, they'd forget about the new chickens. I don't know how, but it worked out. That's my integration story that I usually keep to myself.

Back to the present. The silkie mix has a small scrape on her nose. I put her in a dog crate for the night. She seemed fine once I put a little spray on her beak and a slight dusting of stop quick even though it wasn't bleeding that much.
Well, she must have caused quite the commotion, because the bantam girls wouldn't go into their dog crate for the night. The first 2 nights they went in by themselves, but every night since I've coaxed them in. Tonight they weren't having it. They don't have to be in the crate, I just feel better if they are. They have an actual tarp over their pen (no holes). So, they should be fine. If they escape, they have plenty of space to roost in the rafters if they choose.
I obviously talk (type) too much when I'm tired. Goodnight.

Chickens are a hoot

Good night!

 

[NagemTX]

OEGB eggs in lockdown! Should start piping today sometime because bantams, LOL. Saturday is hatch day.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

You can check with your Ag department and see if you can sell meat raised by you and processed by someone else. I think ours says they have to be raised and processed on-site though. But if they were processed by an approved company, maybe?

Good idea, I'll have to look into that! I'm pretty sure that the same goes for us, must be processed on-site and labeled just so or processed by an approved processor. The one I use for my extras does a good job, but they don't process for resale / don't have all the labeling for it, etc.

I think we could use maybe 2 chickens per month, maybe. So I guess in reality, if no one wants any, we'll be eating really well for the next year the stew hens do make great soup, I haven't had any younger birds yet, so those mean little boys are looking quite intriguing. I'm still working on mind over matter on eating my own chickens, but every time one was pulling feathers from my precious pullets... lol, tonight one bit me so I scooped him up and told him I just might bite him back, with BBQ sauce, after a nice slow roast in a toasty place

Haha, I've said as much to some of mine! Zeke definitely gets a lot of threats of visiting freezer camp particularly. The other boys are pretty mild-mannered, though, which is why it's a shame they'll likely end up soup.

It took me a few birds, and using them to make a favorite recipe, before I really got over that mental hump of eating birds I'd raised myself, so I definitely understand that struggle. I just keep reminding myself of how much better their lives were than a store-bought bird's would have been, that they were happy and treated well and only had one bad day at the end, and they only had that one bad day because I did everything I could to find them a good home and just couldn't. I still feel a lot of guilt for it, but there's such a feeling of relief when the population of roosters drops down and the tension in the flock dissipates without their antics out there stirring everyone up.

That's so odd about those 3 chicks from your corner coop

It is. They're the three that I'd mentioned a while back that the only thing similar I could find was clubbed down syndrome, but that doesn't really match what I'm seeing in them. They're so strange and take a lot of work to maintain. I would really like to hatch more corner coop chicks, but I just don't think I can handle more chicks like them.

I thought of pet food, our cats would be SUPER happy, but our dog doesn't tolerate chicken. Still, it seems we will have enough to share our housecat loves to hang I the kitchen with me when I'm cooking meat his adorableness always wins him a taste.

Pet food is a pretty good idea! My cat would probably love it, too. He's the same way, stinking adorable so he gets a lot of tastes of things. This is how we learned he's a peanut butter addict and I have to hide it if I ever eat peanut butter because he's all over me.

Just went out and my silkie mix was out of her penned area (because I didn't afix a top to three panels of an old prefab run [makeshift pen]. I just set some feed bags and scrap hardware cloth on top). She figured a way out through the top.
She's giving me Maizie vibes. Maizie was my EE that I got from a farm that had way too many chickens and no space for them for winter. I got Maizie because she was one that we could catch along with her sister ZuZu (they called the "ugly one" - she's not). Maizie passed over a year ago (memory is not my friend these days and it could be 2 years at this point ). Anyway, when I got the EEs I didn't quarantine , I just set them up in a separate area of the run. I go out that evening to put the 2 into the coop (intending to get them out every morning and put them back in their section - I know, I know - the things we learn). I find Maizie with her head sticking up and out of a hole in a tarp that I put over their section. This (among other instances) is why I called her Craizie Maizie and came up with the username that I have now.
Oh and since I was putting them in the coop every night, one morning I go out to frozen rain. Every thing is frozen. I couldn't open the side door that I normally would open to take them out. I had to wait for the auto door to open as the button was on the inside to help with weather issues. I was panicking - thinking the chickens were going to end up killing one another. Then I got the brilliant idea (from something I had read) and moved things around in the run to shake things up. Hoping that they'd be confused by the changes, they'd forget about the new chickens. I don't know how, but it worked out. That's my integration story that I usually keep to myself.

Back to the present. The silkie mix has a small scrape on her nose. I put her in a dog crate for the night. She seemed fine once I put a little spray on her beak and a slight dusting of stop quick even though it wasn't bleeding that much.
Well, she must have caused quite the commotion, because the bantam girls wouldn't go into their dog crate for the night. The first 2 nights they went in by themselves, but every night since I've coaxed them in. Tonight they weren't having it. They don't have to be in the crate, I just feel better if they are. They have an actual tarp over their pen (no holes). So, they should be fine. If they escape, they have plenty of space to roost in the rafters if they choose.
I obviously talk (type) too much when I'm tired. Goodnight.

No worries about talking too much! I love hearing about y'all's flocks! Maizie sounds like she was a real hoot! I hope that your new little Silkie mix gives you as many good memories (and also that she behaves herself from now on )

OEGB eggs in lockdown! Should start piping today sometime because bantams, LOL. Saturday is hatch day.

Any updates since you posted this?

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Tuesday afternoon, I went out to check on the birds because a few were making a fuss and I always try to check just in case. Everyone was fine, of course, but I did notice while I was out there that Sumi was wandering around on her own. This is unusual because Sumi and Vega are usually pretty much joined at the hip. I thought it was weird, but figured Vega was just laying an egg or something.

Tuesday evening, Sumi was at the coop... and Vega was nowhere to be seen. After hunting around the woods they free-range in for any signs of her, or signs she'd been taken by a predator, I found absolutely nothing. I figured she was gone, cried it out, and went to bed for a pretty rough night's sleep wondering what could have happened to her.

Yesterday morning, I went out and hunted around again, thinking maybe I'd see something since there was more light then. Nothing. Just nothing.

I was walking the fence line between the chicken yard and the edge of the property to see if she was maybe on the wrong side of the fence and couldn't find her way through, when I heard her characteristic little frog-like ribbit sound she makes. I turned around and Sumi was standing there, so I thought maybe she also made that noise and I just hadn't noticed before. Then I heard it again... except Sumi had wandered off and the sound definitely was not coming from the direction she went!

So back into the chicken yard I went to look around. It took hardly any time at all before I spotted Vega, peeking out of the old, old nest box structure that has been rotting in the chicken yard for years now. She was brooding on 14 eggs that she and her sister had laid in there, only a little over a foot off the ground and with ZERO predator protection

But, she's alive after all!! I genuinely never thought I'd ever see her again!

This was after I'd opened the door a bit more to make it less appealing for egg laying, and after I'd removed the eggs, of course. Vega was not pleased with me! You can see from the other hen standing in the background that she wasn't very high up off the ground at all. Even when the door was closed further, the back of it that you can see here is always open as it is in this picture, so there's literally no protection at all in this structure. There's always critters getting into the chicken yard at night, so the fact that she survived the night here is nothing short of miraculous.

Now that I've wrecked her nest, she's grumpy and broody, but at least she went to the coop last night to sleep like she should.


In other broody news, Delphine has two babies under her as of midday here, two little Blues out of Buck. Pictures to come once they've gotten their land legs and come off the nest!

 

[Crazy Maizie]

Oh my. That is such a wonderful story. I'm so glad you found her.

Can't wait to see Daphne's chicks.

Yesterday I just made the Silkie girl stay in her dog crate. I had no energy to redo anything. But, today I went downstairs and found an old tablecloth that would work perfectly to cover her temporary run and give her more space. So, she got to move back again. I haven't checked since late afternoon though, so who knows if she's gotten into another predicament. If so, she might be grounded to the dog crate until quarantine is over.

 

[NagemTX]

Good idea, I'll have to look into that! I'm pretty sure that the same goes for us, must be processed on-site and labeled just so or processed by an approved processor. The one I use for my extras does a good job, but they don't process for resale / don't have all the labeling for it, etc.




Haha, I've said as much to some of mine! Zeke definitely gets a lot of threats of visiting freezer camp particularly. The other boys are pretty mild-mannered, though, which is why it's a shame they'll likely end up soup.

It took me a few birds, and using them to make a favorite recipe, before I really got over that mental hump of eating birds I'd raised myself, so I definitely understand that struggle. I just keep reminding myself of how much better their lives were than a store-bought bird's would have been, that they were happy and treated well and only had one bad day at the end, and they only had that one bad day because I did everything I could to find them a good home and just couldn't. I still feel a lot of guilt for it, but there's such a feeling of relief when the population of roosters drops down and the tension in the flock dissipates without their antics out there stirring everyone up.




It is. They're the three that I'd mentioned a while back that the only thing similar I could find was clubbed down syndrome, but that doesn't really match what I'm seeing in them. They're so strange and take a lot of work to maintain. I would really like to hatch more corner coop chicks, but I just don't think I can handle more chicks like them.




Pet food is a pretty good idea! My cat would probably love it, too. He's the same way, stinking adorable so he gets a lot of tastes of things. This is how we learned he's a peanut butter addict and I have to hide it if I ever eat peanut butter because he's all over me.




No worries about talking too much! I love hearing about y'all's flocks! Maizie sounds like she was a real hoot! I hope that your new little Silkie mix gives you as many good memories (and also that she behaves herself from now on )




Any updates since you posted this?

Very small pip in one egg this evening. So I must have set pretty late on Saturday. All twelve where moving and maybe air cell piped.

Heat is ramping up so I have to get one of the half done pens completely done this weekend so I can start getting more babies out of the garage. I think with indexes we are getting triple digits.