It doesn't get any sweeter than that! I don't know RedBugPoultry but that says a lot about her. I just love stories like this.I thought this would be a good place to post about our Chicken filled Christmas. A gift we got from a fellow BYC member, really upstaged all of our store bought gifts this year. We really lucked out when we wanted to get started with chickens by joining this board and getting to meet RedBugPoultry. Such a sweet lady with so much knowledge about chickens. She helped us get started with our Black Copper Marans and some hatching eggs for our incubator. Then, because I was nervous about the outcome of my hatch (today is D-Day and so far not a pip!) she offered me some day old chicks so the girls would have their long awaited chickies for Christmas. This sweet lady drove out on Christams Eve and gave us 14 chicks. A Dorking, some Dominiques, Delawares, 2 Blue Copper Marans, and some Black Copper Marans. She even sexed the Dominiques and Dorking to make sure we would get hens! Our brooder was set up temporarily in the living room for the girls to find on Christmas morning.
Everyone was so happy with our new babies! And the immediate questions came out "How do we know which ones are boys and which ones are girls?" So I explained how Heidi had been able to sex the dorkings and Dominiques at birth for us. I told them the rest would be a suprise. But my 11 year old Sophie, did some research on the internet about feather sexing. She used the following photo as a guide.
And so, she determined that we have 2 female Blue Copper Marans, 1 female and 1 male Delaware, 7 female Dominiques (Heidi had one she was unsure of, but Sophie concurs based on the feathering), 1 female Dorking, 3 male and 5 female Black Copper Marans. We banded the suspected boys and will be keeping track to see if this was an effective way to sex the chicks. I suspect she'll be off a bit because some of the chicks hatched a day or so before others, so they are at different stages of development, but it was fun to let her try. She will be using a control group with any chicks that hatch out of our incubator because we will know exactly how old each one is. This is now her proposed science fair project! If she's right, that is a lot of new hens for us! Either way, we are so thankful for RedBugPoultry's kindness. I hope you all had a great holiday with your chickens!
Amen! A-Men! She and her family are just that kind of people!!!
Yes, It does! That is exactly just the kind of person and family she/they are!
I want to see pictures!!!!Does anyone think there are too many Serama in the world? I have just gone crazy! I love them! I just got a trio of chocolate to add to my minagerie of Seramas...LOLOL! I have a Columbian color with frizzle white hens...and lots of others...OH BTW...I sure need a couple BB Red OEGB hens! I have a great boy that is soooo lonely!!!! LOL
Our little bull (for the moment. He might become a steer soon). He broke his neck while being born, and it miraculously healed, but at an up angle, because he had his head tilted up to nurse while it healed, so he has to get on his knees to graze grass that's very close to the ground. He's our 'discount baby' lol. He's destined to become our beef dinner, as he's not breeding quality, but he's soooo sweet. He can't turn his head very well to itch his back (cows itch with their tongues), so I've become his good friend by itching his back and brushing him with a curry comb. Our Angus cow loves the curry comb too, but our Angus/Hereford is still to shy to let us scratch anywhere but behind her ears. I need to friend her fast though, she's due to calve within the month!
He has a half of a heart shape on his face....too adorable!
