Hi all..
I am feeling better, I putzed outside for several hours yesterday. Judy keeps saying I need to take it slower. She just wants to make me dependent on her so I don't dump her for the beautiful rich songbird Eileen.....
I have decided to not do any fairs this summer. I am just too far behind and not up to it. So I lose the fair contest to the MnchickMom kid's by default...BUT that gives them a year to try and beat me next year...OR I can whoomp their behinds at Hutch or New Ulm....
I really appreciate the offers for help, but I will manage on my own. I am always up for a visit though. I have new pens and cages to build. I have securing of old pens against the new critters two legged or four, but that is bull work and I kind of putz when I do those things. I have baths to do but I have a couple months now that the fairs are out. Maybe if I get real ambitious I will do the state fair, but I doubt that, too many people there.
I am still working on getting a cream legbar pre-qualifier at the Hutch show. I hope I can pull that off. I am going to be close on the number of birds. I thought I had enough to make the pre-qualifier my self. But after the attacks I might be short on pullets and cockerels. I knew I was one rooster ( I know they want me to say cock) shy.
I am working on a bumblefoot on the one cock, he is my best creamiest cock. He was the one as a cockerel that was 24 hours from the nice Asian lady's freezer in St.Paul. He has turned into a great bird. His sons are decent and his daughters are super. I hope to have 50-60 cages inside the pole barn come fall. I can then cull and actually keep must my birds in the barn over winter.
Andy might make a show this year, if I can see what the judge will do with his winter dubbed comb. He actually has a crest back this year. I will enter him as a cream but in actuality he is closer to gold creole.
Destiny the predators are terrible this year here. Not counting the real mystery was it Mom, a crook or a critter ones. I am going to lie a second ground wire (hardware cloth) around the main array of covered runs and an electric poultry net around it. Expensive but cheaper than losing all these birds.
I have decided to only hatch about 30-40 birds of each species early on next year. I will not be selling to the general public, and when I do they will pay in advance like at a real hatchery and not be getting
TSC prices. I will still have the cheap chicks for all my friends and the 4h kids in the area, I want to encourage the kids still.
I know I had more I wanted to say, but it is gone now..Fleeting thoughts.
OJ, aka the ex-next Bert, is still alive, he seems to be getting better with me. I might try and remove his spurs and see if that makes him gentler. I really want his color, but not his attitude. I find a small isolated cage can change their appreciation for my wonderful personality. They look forward to my 5 minute a day visit. Otherwise he is perfect size for Thanksgiving.
Talk to you all later...
