Surviving Minnesota!

I have to say Im impressed with my Wyandottes Ivie. And I know this does not help on the "must resist" facade you have going. LOL.

But my Wyandottes have given me Laying Years. When old and bitties and 3-4 years old...they still give eggs. And beings that I have more of a pet thing going with my birds and like having them around longer than 2 years. That's a good thing. Plus the comb is perfect for Minnesota's brutalities. Their conformation is bowling ball in resemblence. I love that. And of course the gorgeous feathering patterns. Well I can't think of a reason not to pick up Wyandottes. Love them.
 
Heritage Wyandottes are probably better, but my hatchery SLW was mean as a snake and a poor layer. My BLRW boys were pretty nice though, just not protective enough.
 
Okay BC - Just after I posted that I thought 'Well, ya don't have to get a half a dozen. Just two - one of each. Certainly I can find room for two." Okay - here are photos of the projects.


This is the long view of the coop. It has not been cleaned and I have just begun to take the plastic off. To the right by the garage (not the shed on the left) is their nesting box. And under that shed roof of the coop (the green portion you see on the front) I want a build out (My DH sighs) which will give me 3 x 5 of insulated roosting space during the winter. I have a radiant heat panel to hang from the top - incorporated into what would be the ceiling. It would have two roosts and each roost could easily hold 7 birds. Perfect! I will have this before this next winter.

Close up view. All that to the left of the cement block will fill in with plants as we progress into warmer weather. Pretty cool even though I do say so myself. No pride here.
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Walk around either out building and you will see the back of the run. So they now have sunny run space, turning to shade early afternoon, in the back and then sunny run space in the front in the later afternoon and evening. There are 14 birds in this area.
Opps I just deleted two pictures that I will go back and get in a minute.




Meanwhile, this is one of my two little gippers (we have a lab also) I had to run a quick errand this morning and I let the little ones ride along. This is Jacq (the other one is Cousteau) He just turned 10. He loves to lay in the car. It is so nice and warm and he will sleep the day away in the sunshine and warmth. The window is down a little for air flow and he is very content.
 
Jerryse - I am a little disappointed in you although I knew it all along. Such an Eyore and then the moment the sun pops - there you go, all smiles and happy like to play and just leave us behind. Hopefully we will hear from you tonight.
Sure and all I hear on gloomy days is crickets on here . Sun comes out and bam lots of posts . So had lunch and back outside .
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This picture is included because the DH is concerned that my chickens will make our place look ghettoey with the coops/runs and refuge. I LOL for I think, reasonableness.

This is the hospital coop I am working on. I pulled it out of the garage and into the sunshine today to let it dry out more before I finish it and then seal it with poly. It says it can hold four. What? Ruby and Regina are enjoying the sunshine in it for now. (There were three eagles grocery shopping this morning so NO ONE is out of a coop at this time.)

This is where I believe I will angle that hospital coop into the landscape. It is beside the garage and therefore electricity would be available if needed with an extension cord. This area is a mature garden that needs work so that it can last me the rest of the life I need to work in it. It was planted twenty years ago and is time to redo. So lottsa hostas, phlox, ferns, some hydrangas, and other stuff. It looks pretty nice with its done. Again, I am not proud. Just saying like it is.

I will take pictures again later in the summer so you can see the finished project.
 
This picture is included because the DH is concerned that my chickens will make our place look ghettoey with the coops/runs and refuge. I LOL for I think, reasonableness.

This is the hospital coop I am working on. I pulled it out of the garage and into the sunshine today to let it dry out more before I finish it and then seal it with poly. It says it can hold four. What? Ruby and Regina are enjoying the sunshine in it for now. (There were three eagles grocery shopping this morning so NO ONE is out of a coop at this time.)

This is where I believe I will angle that hospital coop into the landscape. It is beside the garage and therefore electricity would be available if needed with an extension cord. This area is a mature garden that needs work so that it can last me the rest of the life I need to work in it. It was planted twenty years ago and is time to redo. So lottsa hostas, phlox, ferns, some hydrangas, and other stuff. It looks pretty nice with its done. Again, I am not proud. Just saying like it is.

I will take pictures again later in the summer so you can see the finished project.
Sweet!

Love the hospital coop. I'm planning to build a similar one this summer as a permanent residence for my -cover your ears, Ralph- disabled ducky.
 
Looking good Ivie. Looking good.

Banty. My SLW hatchery mutt of a thing is mean too. But this spring she's been knocked down a few pegs by Junior my new rooster. He likes the young pullets you see and now old Sylvia is on the outs. I don't feel too bad for her as she's got alot of gumpf and takes over when I don't have roosters for protection. That I have to say about her. Is she is a leader. But she's such a key character in the line up. IDK. She laid eggs for quite a while. She's retired now at 5. Been a while since we've had eggs from her. So I think she's done. We'll see here. We're letting her retire as she's an original.

Jerry we are sorry about the sunny day posts.
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SIGGIE!!! you better get the camera batteries juiced up. I want LOTS of photos of the cochin broody crew! Can't wait.
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And now that Ed has approved all chick pictures --we are ready.
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So just got home from work and checked on my flock. One of my broodies is now in a different nest box and I found 6 eggs in her original nest box. They were still very warm so I proceeded to place them in front of her in the other box, she rolled all but 2 back underneath her (after she gave me a good peck to let me know she wasn't happy) I'm thinking she came off the nest to stretch her legs and another hen went in and laid an egg in the nest. Since it was busy, I think she then went into the other nest box and started sitting on those eggs....now I'm kinda bummed because if she has new eggs under her along with the 4 other older eggs, will she abandon those new eggs after any chicks hatch from these 4 older ones or will she wait these 4 extra days for the new ones to hatch?

I also took the two she did not take back and I candled and then cracked them open (for research purposes). One was fertile (tell tale bulls eye) but must have been a new egg because it still had good shape to the yoke and the whites but no veins or any other signs of incubation (so I wasted that one - darn it). The other one was not fertile and it was very runny so I think she had been sitting on that one for a bit.

My question is this - how long can the eggs sit in our 40 degree weather without the egg getting too chilled to continue incubation? Did I place those eggs back under her in vain? Three of those eggs I candled and saw a large dark area in two (about a third of the egg) but couldn't make out veins (too bright outside I think) and one was almost 3/4 of the way dark inside. I have no idea how many she sat down on in the new nest (she did not want me checking - remember the peck warning) I usually have 2-3 in that nest when I get home from work. It really think it was too bright outside to candle them but I tried.

Wow what an education this is turning out to be. Now I see why some people separate them - no confusion or nest swapping.
 
My question is this - how long can the eggs sit in our 40 degree weather without the egg getting too chilled to continue incubation?
I know some that had their incubator go down to 50 degrees on day 25 (ducks) and they still had over a 70% hatch, I think... So I'd not think 40 would kill all of 'em since you caught them before they got down to 40* internal temp.
 

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