Show off your Delawares! *PIC HEAVY*

[joletabey]

biomistake-
Cuties!!!! Do they ever push the waterer off the pot saucer?

 

[biomistake]

I have only had that happen once or twice when my cackle hatchery surprise crew turned into a wrecking train...(they went outside immediately) other than that nope not yet.. even as puffballs they can reach it and until about 4 weekish old they will not fill it with too much trash. After the first week the base for the 8" clay pot bottom is a couple of 2x4s which slowly get buried. I deep litter and every so often pull out the feed/water items and give it a good stir then top dress it with fresh chips which seems to have worked well for me. The first week I have found works great with puppy pee pads as the feed is very apparent to them that is spread around and the clay base is still under the waterer for stability. Its a little more work but it saves a week of chips and 100 pee pads go a long long long way

Speaking of deep litter (Off Subject!!!) I put two truckloads of large oak leaves in my coop for the winter and by the time I get off monday, I should be able to put the last load in and have a good 8" bed for them to stay warm in this winter and free mulch in the spring for my garden. The 9 weekers do not have a problem walking around either so thats great! As far as the packing down just put your flock in and do not let them out the next morning for a couple extra hours and that's all there is to it. I figure I will put about 6ish truckloads in the coop over the winter as I have enough for a second layering about january going into huge trash bags next week. (Subject Resume!!!)

 

[speckledhen]

Since this is a picture thread, adding a few more from today:

 

[kathyinmo]

Aahhh, you have as many leaves as I do! What do you do with them? Fertilizer / rotted leaves, or burn them? They drive me crazy!

Love those pictures!

 

[Laney]

Emily was attacked this morning. My In-laws dog again. I have to say she isn't the brightest. Instead of flying back over the fence she ran to it and tried to stick her head through the fence and thus was grabbed. My daughter saw this, ran out of the house and tackled the dog. She was able to drag the dog back to my in-laws house and fell in the process.

I got the call on me cell phone in the house, where I have been sick as a dog for days due to a gluten poisoning (thanks Chili's for not pulling all the outdated gluten free menu's out of your restaurant). Hubby and I raced out and got her. She's roughed up, lost some feathers. She was trying again to stick her head back through the fence even though she had flown back in. She apparently flew back out again and my in-laws Shih-tzu decided to play with her and was slowly plucking vent feathers.

So..she is now free ranging my hall bathroom. She would have been in the cage with my little 9 day old chick, but apparently her maternal hormones haven't kicked in. She's warm, we gave her water, and feed and a shot of Antibiotics because she has some torn skin. She's not limping or anything so I expect after three days of Tylan she'll go back out.

I'm very very peeved though. Not at the dog. The situation can be fixed. I'm more peeved at myself.

It's my daughters job to feed the animals, however she's 13 and has been sleeping later in the AM. While that's fine for the goats who will stay in the pen, and the ducks who can run back in the water it's not so good on the chickens who will come toward the house to wake us up and get their food.

So, now realizing all these chickens are getting attacked lately because they are coming looking for their food, I'm going to set my alarm and get up at 7am every morning and go feed the chickens myself. Stop them from coming out in the AM when the dogs are most likely to come looking for them.

Laney

 

[delawaregirl09]

Thanks everyone, it was tough loss. Cynthia, I'm not quite positive why I lost her. One day she was fine, and the next she was very lethargic acting, and I I held her for a little while. A clear liquid came out of her, and it had no smell, so I was thinking she might have a broken egg in her. When I looked at her vent, there was something white hanging out of her, so I clipped it off because I thought it was a tapeworm. She died that night while I was asleep, and I kept her warm and gave her a little chick starter mixed in with her regular feed for a little extra stuff. I took the worm/ whatever in to my zoology teacher, and she said it didnt really look like a tapeworm, so I have no clue what she died of.

I wish I did though, especially if it were something that harmful. But, none of the other birds are acting funny.

Quote:
Well, Flip got her name because there was a small flip in her comb that looked like a comb-over on someone, it looked quite cute. And Caulk... well that one is embarrasing...

When we first started in the chicken stuff, we had no idea what we were doing, and we only knew the basics. I didnt know what a Delaware rooster looked like, and I didnt bother looking one up. Well, she developed a HUGE comb (compared to the others) so we thought she was a rooster. Yeah. I know, stupid right? We bought them as 12 week old pullets. We were pretty dumb. Well, you call a rooster a cock, right? We didnt want a chicken with that name, so we changed it to Caulk because caulking is tough and yeah, you get the picture. Not the best of stories, but thats what happened

ETS: Laney, sorry about Emily,I gope she heals well and learns to fly over the fence

Cynthia and Biomistake+Catdaddyfro, cute! Those babies and grown birds are just the best! And it looks like Ike is going through a molt on his pretty tail! Lol.

 

[Laney]

Dela,

I can't tell you how sorry I am to hear about Fiona. Its always worse when you don't know what happened. Emily is doing Ok. I'll have more news on her in the morning. I think the important thing is preventing Shock and infection which I have covered.

Laney

 

[delawaregirl09]

Laney, I hope Emily is foing better. My my my, we have been slow!!!!!

 

[speckledhen]

Here is Gracie, Isaac's first chick. As I predicted, she molted out the barred, long tail feathers and now has a properly shaped pullet's behind, LOL. She is getting tail black now, but they are just now coming in underneath and aren't visible in the pics. Gracie is almost 17 weeks old now. She will be lightly marked in the hackles like her mother, but has a much better comb, courtesy of daddy Ike.

And here is DH's pocket pooper.. a Del baby with a slipped tendon we are trying to fix. Not sure it's possible, but this is getting to be one spoiled baby.

 

[McSpin]

Updated photo of one of my hatchery dels at 28 weeks. I didn't have time to weight him but I'm guessing already over 9 lbs. I've got one cockerel with a much better 5-point comb, but his hackles have very little dark pattern on them.