Sdwd

[Yard full o' rocks]

Morning all.....

Cool and rainy here today (yeah!!! we need the rain)

Spend all day Saturday cleaning runs, coops, nest boxes, etc. ITSMYOBSESSION came by and picked up the Delaware chicks.

Here are a couple of pix of my blue rock girls crossed to Pepper my Del rooster. They are such a pretty even shade of powder blue with very faintly barred hackles...AND yellow legs. Tails are a bit "pinched", but these two are TROUBLE. They are the only birds I've ever had that I consider flyers...they get out of everything

Have a great day...I'm off to an interview. Hope this is a good one!!

Scott

 

[joletabey]

Scott- prayers for your interview!

Your crosses remind me of my little Boo, who is, at 9 weeks, as large as his surrogate mama - that light blue is so pretty, isn't it?

Yes, it is raining, and I actually have partially flooded runs! I have been waiting for this, so I can see what I need to do for flood control - the Del pen is not too bad, since they don't scratch much, but Ultrasuede and his gals have scratched down to nothing - and he is in a rare bad mood, as he is safely in the coop by himself staying dry, and his women won't come in no matter WHAT he says to them. I am wondering who will win. Everyone has some dry places under the tarps, but I have lifted and drained them out of the pens twice, it's really coming down!

 

[NellaBean]

Yard full o' rocks :

Morning all.....

Cool and rainy here today (yeah!!! we need the rain)

Spend all day Saturday cleaning runs, coops, nest boxes, etc. ITSMYOBSESSION came by and picked up the Delaware chicks.

Here are a couple of pix of my blue rock girls crossed to Pepper my Del rooster. They are such a pretty even shade of powder blue with very faintly barred hackles...AND yellow legs. Tails are a bit "pinched", but these two are TROUBLE. They are the only birds I've ever had that I consider flyers...they get out of everything

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/25882_cimg1999.jpg

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/25882_cimg2000.jpg

Have a great day...I'm off to an interview. Hope this is a good one!!

Scott

Hey Scott,

the 1 girl (I think) I ended up with from that cross looks the same. Very pretty. She is still pretty small and since its survival of the fittest at my place these days, no idea if she'll make it til adulthood LOL. Sad to say. She is very pretty though. You should market the cross....I bet the boys are good meat birds and the girls are so pretty

I have all of my younguns locked in a small covered tractor....they are getting a little cramped so I will have to figure out where to move them to next. They really want to go out in the big yard but they are still perfect size for a hawk snack, so I will have to put them into a covered something else until they are older. I only have 2 covered spaces....my little breeder pen/tractor and an 8x8 pen with no coop. I really need to build a little hutch in there. For now I leave it open and keep the feeders in there for the big coop group.

Anywho, it is raininging here as well today. Rained yesterday too, off and on. I need to go buy a few hundred pounds of chicken feed but I need it to stop raining for that. Maybe tomorrow. Only 1 of my 3 feeders still has food in it. The chickens are so confused. Rooster pen and baby pen has food.....and the big coop has the 1 feeder of food, but the girls are used to 3 feeders full and are very unhappy about this. PIGS, all of them.​

 

[kathyinmo]

Scott, Good luck with your interview!
I like the look of your crosses. Very very pretty! She looks good sized, too. I bet she will be a great layer.

It is cold here this morning, only 50* ..... BBbrrrrrrr, I am not ready for winter. I hate having to suit up in winter attire and boots to go to the coops. Worse than that, I hate having to have water heaters everywhere.

 

[Serrin]

Quote:
That beats the heck out of having to bring them inside and thawing them in the bathtub!!

Which is what I have to do every winter. I have not had what anyone could call "good luck" with the water heaters. My girls, for some inexplicable reason, find the dang things to be very tasty!

The little turds! Those heaters are expensive! Worse yet is the fact that once you get below about 15-20 degrees, they're completely ineffectual!

Hey Scott! Beautiful little girls there! I like their look very much! Are you going to work on putting these into production next year? I bet you could sell tons of them, especially if they turn out to be good layers of nice sized eggs!

Good luck on the job interview. I'll be keeping everything crossed with prayers offered up!

Edited because I can't cut and snip like I used too!

 

[speckledhen]

We made a water defroster with a 3 gallon bucket, turned upside down and painted dark green (so the entire bucket wouldn't glow) and a work light, cord threaded through a hole in the bucket. Takes only a 25 watt bulb to keep the water from freezing. Even a 15 watt may work pretty well. The water sits on the bottom of the bucket (which is now the top, of course). You can get free buckets at most grocery store bakeries.

 

[wegotchickens]

Quote:
Those are some fine-looking babies! You have a partridge rainbow going on.

Do you still want another pullet or two for Cheyenne's millie flock?

 

[NellaBean]

Ooh, LH speak now or forever hold your peace.

Wegot, I am taking a rooster up to LH on October 9th when I go to Georgetown for my last trip this year. If she wants millie pullets and you can get them to me sometime the week prior after work, I will take them along with.

 

[wegotchickens]

Quote:
Sounds like a plan! Maybe since it's cool we can have a margarita together

Will wait for LH to give the A-Okay....

Sorry about the hawk issues.

Try putting some CD's hanging from string where they can blow around and flash in the light. I used those plus can lids to make flashes and noise when hung near each other and kept the songbirds away from my garden for a year. It would probably work with raptors, too.
If not, try LadyHwk's firecracker idea. You know there's a store for them not too far from work, right?
With some practice you can take a glass soda bottle and a bottle rocket and scare the splort out of most anything. Just have to be careful how you hold the bottle and where you're aiming it. We had the best luck with that after a couple of margaritas. But then again, the folks I hung out with back then were really good at setting a bad example....

 

[NellaBean]

I swear, I pass like 13 fireworks stores between my work and my house. Darn rednecks.....

I went and bought 4 x 5 foot tall scarecrows on my lunchbreak. They are darn adorable. if all else fails, I will have harvest decorations for next year LOL.

I plan on sticking them "scattered" around out back. hooked to step in posts so I can have a bunch stepped in and move them around every day or two. Also going to put some CDs hanging around here and there. I do actually have my big rooster pen....I could definitely string something across the top in there or actually cover it with deer netting. I may have to toss all the roosters out and lock all the bantam girls up. They will be so sad. YET ALIVE. Between my two covered pens, I may be able to get something temporary thrown together....but its still going to take a week. I just have to keep the hawk away for a week until I get the small ones under cover....if I throw all of my extra bantam roosters out in the big yard with my 'big girls' and boys...maybe the bantam boys will be the first to be taken? Sounds horrible and sad, but if anyone has to get eaten I'd rather it be my "extra" boys.

Sigh.