Sdwd

[kathyinmo]

Well, if Maggie is done raising her kids and done molting, she should start laying soon. Her 2 sisters are done molting, or close to it, and they have not yet resumed laying. I am anxiously awaiting .... Silkie mama decided she was done raising babies and she has returned to the nest (started laying eggs) again.

Maggie hatched around my birthday, within a couple days of it anyway .... Aug 22.

 

[Cetawin]

Evening all....back from Chaperoning Cheyenne and Eli at the movies and waffle house and I swear my sinus infection is back grrrrrrrrr. Eli was the perfect gentleman and they had a great time. Husband sent word to him that I was to sit between them and he was like "okay but won't you get made with us passing popcorn back and forth?" So I told him they could sit to my left with him beside me...when he said "Okay may I ask why?" I said "So I can smack you with my purse if you misbehave" he said "Okay maam" lol

As we were trying to get dresssed to put girls up and go, a fight broke out in the coop...so we went running. The two compatants....Spike vs. Severus.

One of the girls pushed her way into Spike's coup by pushing the flimsy hardwire cloth aside and one of Spike's girls got out...Spike went out after her apparently and he and severus hooked up. Me expecting Spike to be a dying mess when I saw all the blood....noticed that Severus was also bleeding. Spike actually won the fight...he messed Severus' face and neck up! Spike's comb was bleeding terribly but was quickly stopped with some pressure and blood stop powder...Severus however looks like he took on a large dog.

Oh the humiliation...big ole EE flock rooster has ass kicked by 1 lb d'uccle.

So Spike and his girls are in the house with me where it is warm...I had to find his one girl that escaped...she was hiding from the big girls but she is fine and they are happily in the bathroom in a tote enjoying the wood stove.

so...bath time for me and nyquil...just in case. Night night all

 

[NellaBean]

Quote:
Broodies and babies are doing okay...the broody barred cochin girl on eggs isnt sitting very tight. Caught her off the nest a couple times today. If I open the brooder, she will run and jump back on her eggs and peck me........but it is awfully cold to spend so much time off them. Ah well, I will assume that she knows best. They are technically at 21 days LATE monday night......we'll see if any start hatching tomorrow. I wonder if they may be a little behind from the cool weather and her not sitting as tight as she could. Who knows!

Her daughter, the cochin/RIR girl gave me a scare earlier. I went in the garage and only saw the babies all in a corner......had to squat down and look and she was up on a roost in the corner by herself. I thought, oh shoot, she is tired of them already WHAT DO I DO......but the babies didn't seem upset, and she hopped down and was clucking at them and giving stink eye to the other chickens that were coming into the garage to visit......and a bit later she had them all tucked nicely under her. Guess she was taking a break!

Silkie momma is still doing good. She has the 4 babies left and they are cute and happy. Interesting thing I just realized.....each broody had a single chick die. Black chick fell out of the cochin/rir nest and died....partridge/chipmunky chick died in the bantam cochin brooder and the partridge/chipmunky chick died in the silkie brooder. Interesting. The 7 babies in the bantam cochin brooder are huge. Darn roosters.....at least 5 of the 7 are roosters....still not sure on the blue and one of the "yellow" chicks. It is white with blue feathers mixed in....probably not a true splash but rather a white with blue leakage...anywho, those 2 I can't tell.

Just in case one of the broodies break, I think I will take the 7 "older" chicks away and stick them in a brooder with a heat lamp. They don't even fit under their momma anymore, and they just all sit together under their lamp. Then she could take on a "younger" batch......her and the silkie hen could split all 13 babies. Just in case the cochin/rir does indeed stop taking care of her kids....crazy chicken.


Almost killed a rooster tonight. I have two big silver laced cochin boys. They are BIG.....were from the TSC bins around March, so they are pretty well full sized. I caught them today......one had jumped on a girl and was breeding her and the other was standing next to her and grabbed her by the top of the head/comb area and was yanking her head around like he was trying to kill her! And he did it TWICE before I could get over to him......Oh lord, it got ugly for a minute.......I had him upside down by the feet reading him the riot act and threatening his life. "UNACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOR". And you know what, he is the same rooster I kicked off a girl this morning because he was being mean about it. Never have culled one of my own, but he may be the first.........JERK. I do not approve of that behavior. I did consider tossing him into the rooster pen out back. Those boys are all bantams but boy would they give him a run for the money. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr......

Last I say him, he was hiding under a bush 20 feet away from any girls. Not sure where the higher boys were at...usually they deal with that kind of crud......if he pulls that snot tomorrow morning, I might have silver laced cochin rooster for dinner.

 

[kathyinmo]

What in the world was that boy thinkin'? Glad you let him know he had better shape up or become dinner.

Hope the broodies do well through the winter. It is just so weird that they hatch this late in the year. Hope they know what they are doing. At least you have brooders you can use if you need to. Can you put those roosters on Craig's list now, and not have to feed them, or do you want to grow them out?

 

[NellaBean]

Wow, you all should hear the pack of coyotes down at the end of the road here right now.

I am inside with the windows all closed tight and can still hear them.......we have cow pastures at the end of our road, so I assume they are in there somewhere. Yikes. Actually....while typing this I no longer hear them, so I bet they were following the road and moving north. Crazy things. One time I was driving home late at night and saw a couple dogs loose....some sort of medium dog and then a little chihuahua behind it..I rounded the curve and almost ran over the COYOTE chasing down the chihuahua. Holy moly, fortunately it got spooked by my car and took off in the opposite direction. That chihuahua's life must have been flashing before its eyes.

I am undecided on the roosters......I wish we had a local processor I could take them to. I would just grow them all out and then nom nom nom them up.

Both silver laced boys and my golden campine boy need to GO. I went out earlier today because 2 of my dogs were on the back porch and were staring at the carport....well, i go out there and the golden campine rooster, one of my ee pullets and my little mille fleur d'uccle pullet all were out front in the planter just having the time of their life. He is bad about flying up onto the railing and looks like he is starting to lead a couple girls out too.

Of course, once he saw me he came running and dove through the railing, leaving the 2 girls out front by themselves. Little monster.

I would like to get down to my 2 blue cochins, 1 blue wheaten ameracauna boy, 1 bantam partridge cochin, 1 porcelain d'uccle and maybe a few others. I need to cut the rooster population in HALF.

 

[kathyinmo]

Those howling coyotes scare the crap outta me. Our dog is pretty good about guarding the coops, I think. We hear him bark in the night if anything is around. Last year we trapped 7 raccoons, this year only 1.

I know about those roosters. I finally feel relieved, as I got rid of all I want to for now. It does appear I will have more to go in the spring, as the Coronations and splits look to have quite a few in that group. They are nice sizes though, and I do plan to just process them (unless you want some of them!).... Oh yeah, then I have the 5 Lavenders ... 2 Lav roos, 2 split roos (black) and 1 split girl. I am letting them grow out, and then will decide if I cull any.

I got a couple dark eggs today. I am also now getting Icelandic eggs. Anyone want to hatch Icelandics? I am getting one or two a day. I stuck a few in the bator, to check for fertility.

 

[NellaBean]

Not a fan of the coyotes......i won't allow my little poodle outside at night without a 'big dog escort'. They go into a small fenced area connected to the house but still....4 foot lattice fencing is nothing for a coyote. She would be gone in 5 seconds! She has to take one of the big "boys" with her if she needs to pee, ha ha ha.

My backyard has 4 foot goat fencing around the perimeter....not predator proof by any means, but seems to keep a lot of them out. the "big flock" are all locked in a secure 8x8 shed at night. The mottleds have a covered pen with rabbit hutch to sleep in and the rooster pen has a 4x8 coop (but I leave the door open, whooops).....plus my gold laced pair who stays in the tractor.

I need more eggs to hatch like I need a hole in my head. I am still getting 3 duck eggs a day, shoot me now. Anybody want any Welsh Harlequin? LOL. I have no idea if they are fertile....maybe I will scramble a batch of them next. Those crazy ducks.....


Thinking of making some simple modifications to my garage nestboxes. Thinking about hinging a single board from the bottom and a single board from the top....that could be flipped up and latched together to cover the openings....that way if I had any extra broodies, I could let them sit in those boxes and just lock them in at night.

Here is a pic of them now so you have an idea.

I actually am a little concerned about the broodies. This barred cochin just doesn't seem to be sitting normally. She is a good broody but she is also the same broody who refused to adopt a "new chick" when he own chicks were only a few days old. She just doesn't seem very "vested" in these eggs.....so I worry she won't take care of the chicks once they hatch. She almost seems like she is only sitting on them because she is locked in that brooder and has no choice. If she does indeed not care for them, I think I will try giving them to the silkie hen who seems the most "attached", and then giving her 4 babies to the big cochin/rir girl. And tomorrow I am going to spend some time swapping out heat lamps, so that just in case a broody gives up on her kids at night, they will have a good heat lamp to hold them over. I can always use these brooders as regular "brooders" and not broody mom and baby holders......but I hate doing that in winter as I worry about it getting too cold at night when it is only 20 degrees outside.

Darn crazy chickens...I shouldn't have these kinds of problems in late NOVEMBER. Whose idea was this? Grrrrr.......

[I also have a crazy idea about converting a couple girls into broodies.....I do wonder if I locked my lavender cochin, partridge bantam cochin or half blind hen into a brooder with eggs/chicks, if they might "convert" they are all very broodylicious LOL]

 

[kathyinmo]

It looks like it should work with the nests .... They would actually probably like the confinement, too.

I got out all my heat lamps and bulbs, to prepare...... I have a few eggs in the bator, and I am hoping to get some eggs very soon from my Barred Rocks. I think I heard one of the girls singing the egg song today.

I can hardly wait to hatch those! I also saw the BR roo mate a couple of the New Hampshire girls today. So, hope to have some of those eggs soon, too.

 

[PepsNick]

Nella- Wow, it's looking great! I too am very excited to see the finished product.

I think a little later on I'll show you all MY broody coop... which is no where near what yours is already

I just realized that I've never posted a picture of my cat, Gravy, On BYC. We named her Gravy to go along with Biscuit, my dog. Lol. She is four years old. We found her in '07 in the bushes in the backyard of a small house we were staying at while ours' was getting renovated. Now she happily lives with us in our renovated home.

This is Gravy. Not the best picture, but it shows you what she looks like. Breed unknown.

And Biscuit.

 

[speckledhen]

for my Spike!