Sdwd

[NellaBean]

One day soon I want to play a matching game. I want to post a pick of the 3 "bachelors" along with the 3 "bachelorettes" that could have contributed to the most recent batch of babies. Then I want to post each individual chick (now that they are all feathered out and growing up) and see if we can tell who is the mother/father of each chick. It should actually be quite neat. I just need to get out there during daylight to wrangle all the hens/roosters and get all the chicks singled out.

 

[NellaBean]

Well shoot, those sure are pretty boys if nothing else. I thought my last hatch was mostly boys....but now that they've grown up, it became obvious that it actually leaned slightly heavy to the pullet side. 14 girls, 12 boys. Other than 2 wheaten colored chicks, the rest of the girls are all blue, black or splash. Solid, no leakage. The boys are all mixed up colors. Interesting looking boys. I may even keep a couple just to see how they turn out. I need to get new pix!

 

[kathyinmo]

Well, I would sure like to be able to sex these Cochins I hatched. They have me stumped.

 

[NellaBean]

It's been a few days. Is it time for new pix yet? LOL

They looked pretty girly last time.

Keep in mind, the barred ones.....if being bred barred to barred.....will be the same as barred rocks. Girls darker, boys lighter.

 

[kathyinmo]

Ya know, I did not even think of that! Yes, that's right!
So, maybe I have a pair of the barred, then.

Girl?

Boy?

 

[speckledhen]

Not sure, Kathy. I can't sex the Cochins. The combs are sort of like the Orps and take their time to show what they are.



Candled the 16 eggs that are now on Day 7. None of the BBS Orps, including Meg's, were fertile. All the Delawares are hopping, as is one of Miranda's eggs, but the second one of Miranda's is blotchy and hard to see, looks non-viable to me, but I left it in. So from 16 eggs in the last batch, am down to 8.

Moved the four Delawares that finished up Day 17 today to the hatcher. The next set of two Ellie eggs and one June egg are doing great-those are on Day 14 tomorrow, if I recall.

 

[NellaBean]

Barred #1 does look girly. #2 is hard to tell.....in another week it should be obvious.

 

[NellaBean]

Alright, one of the cats is fired. Just not sure which one.

All week I have been thinking I smell cat pee. which is rank and gross. But I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. I thought maybe moving the bunnies into the laundry room made it so the heater vent blew past their cages and was blowing stinky bunny pee smell around. But it smelled worse out here than in there. Hmmmm......I have two new end tables and new crappy furniture always has that weird smell for a few days so I thought maybe it was just messing with my nose.

Nope.

Found the source tonight. One of the cats has been using a small dog bed for a litterbox. It was completely SOAKED in cat pee. SO NASTY. I figured it was probably Norman. He has urinary issues and has been a little off lately. Plus maybe he is ticked that I let Lucy out full time now....plus is scared of the bunnies, so maybe having the bunnies in the laundry room made him not want to use the litterbox in there. But when I scooped the litterbox in there, there were very obvious (huge and along the back wall) Norman cat pees. So maybe its lucy? Ugh. SO GROSS. When I moved Lucy out to the rest of the house, I took her litterbox out of the extra bedroom and stuck it in the laundry room, stacked with Norman's. Maybe she got confused?

I dont know.

but it was nasty. NASTY. I can't imagine those crazy cat hoarder houses that are covered and soaked in cat urine

Back the extra litterbox went into the extra bedroom, and the cat bed was removed and where it was (linoleum) was cleaned thoroughly. GROSS. Might lock Lucy up tonight and tomorrow, just in case. At least then I'll know which cat it is, if it still happens!

GROOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSS.

 

[kathyinmo]

Candled the 16 eggs that are now on Day 7. None of the BBS Orps, including Meg's, were fertile. All the Delawares are hopping, as is one of Miranda's eggs, but the second one of Miranda's is blotchy and hard to see, looks non-viable to me, but I left it in. So from 16 eggs in the last batch, am down to 8.

Moved the four Delawares that finished up Day 17 today to the hatcher. The next set of two Ellie eggs and one June egg are doing great-those are on Day 14 tomorrow, if I recall.

Well, you are gonna have some Delaware chicks anyway! YAY for Isaac! He's my man!

Time to dump that infertile Suede, Cyn......

(Just kidding, but don't tell Ladyhawk.)


Nella ....
Silly cats! They wanna go outside, really, ya know.

OK, Nella, what ya gonna build? Got a picture or plans ready to show us?​

 

[NellaBean]

Those cats DO NOT want to go outside. Cat pee in a dog bed? Hmmmmm......

I am hoping to deal with the 8x8 pen this weekend.

Remember this pen?

I am going to finally remove that top 2 feet of hardware cloth that goes above the start of the hoop. And I am going to fix the hoop. It got partially broken by the snow we had a while back....and as of today the tarp had blown halfway off

So, I am going to remove the 2 feet of hardware cloth, fix the hoop, re-cover it with the tarp (or a new one if it is ripped), and build a 3x4 coop inside, butting up to the back of the coop wall on the right.

It is going to be 4 feet wide, 3 feet deep.....and in the same style as my "rooster pen" hutch.

It really should be super super easy. I plan on making the 3x4 floor and then screwing it to the wall and putting legs on the front. Then building the wall for each side and the frame for the front. Screw the roof on, build doors, WHA LA. New coop. That will be a perfect grow out pen or coop/pen for my bantam cochin flock if I need the big pen they are currently in.

I also plan on cleaning the brooder shed in the garage since it is EMPTY. Going to candle the eggs that are under my mottled girl. If any are good, I guess i will move her into one of the other brooders in the garage that are already cleaned and refreshed and just waiting for something.

Going to go through and finish installing all of my feeder/water hooks and hangers.

I think that might be it! I need to build a fence dividing my big rooster pen, so I can then build another coop right next to the existing one (shown above). Then I will have two pens that are 8x24, each with a 8x4 coop. those will be my spring breeding pens 1 for my olive egger group and another for either my mottled flock or my blue x barred cochin project. But if the ground is frozen I won't be able to get t-posts in, sigh.