The Birds on Mountain Home Farm

[gullinkambe]

Hi everyone! There's so much going on with my flock this year, I decided to make my own thread in order to keep track. I have plans for both my chickens and muscovy ducks.

A short introduction to my current flock:
Chickens: I have 7 one-year-old Icelandic hens, 1 Icelandic rooster, 2 wyandotte pullets and an old mix-hen of unknown age. I hatched the Icelandics (minus the rooster) from shipped eggs last year, and am very impressed with the breed. They got a wonderful temperament and fun personalities. They're also very hardy. They seem impervious to cold, which comes in handy up here.

Of the 7 girls, 4 are very similar in looks and temperament, I'm guessing they're sisters/half sisters. Dora the Explorer (she was always the first to explore as a chick), Dorthe, Dotty and Dorothea.
The 3 others must also be sisters. They're more skittish and have huge combs. I'll elaborate more later.

The Wyandottes were born last fall, and one just started laying!

The Mix hen is the last of a bunch I got from a friend who moved away from here, years ago. They were adults then, so she has to be 5+ years old. At least. She's a notorious brooder. Haha!

I happened upon a rooster about a month ago, a rosecombed and pretty rooster. He's a year old, rather unexperienced, but the girls accepted him. His name is Fjalar.


Muscovy ducks: I only have 3 females now. Unas, my oldest and most beloved duck of 10 years old, the first duckling I every hatched. Lillegull is around 6 and a bit skittish. Gulda is 3 years and friendly.


A few words about me and my home: I live in the far north, almost at the arctic circle. It's cold here. And hot in the summer. My farm is in the wilderness, almost on the mountain (hence the name, Mountain Home Farm). I moved here around 12 years ago because I love-love hiking in the mountain!

I got a fairly big free-range area for the birds, part lawn and part forest area. There are quite a few both land and air predators here, so I keep it enclosed and with a net over exposed areas. I'm going to expand the area and build a branch/stick fence around the whole thing this year.

 

[gullinkambe]

My brown magpie muscovy duck-plan:

Later this spring I'll be getting hatching eggs from brown muscovies. The color brown only came to our country some years ago, and I've been wanting it for a while. I decided not only to get some, but to make a project out of it, to create brown magpies. I've never done any "serious" breeding programs before, so this is a new experience.

Magpie, or duclair piebald, is a recessive pattern of white and color that looks like a magpie (duh). The first time I found out muscovies come in this pattern, I drove across the country to get a breeding pair. They're so pretty!

The first step is to get a male magpie, to cross with the browns next year. I got two magpie females, and a male split to magpie (he's rehomed now). Out of around 25 eggs I got7 ducklings with the correct pattern. They're from 1 month to 2 weeks now, and getting big, smelly and rowdy. Ducklings have a strong are-you-my-mommy?-instinct at hatch, and I've socialized and doted on these ducklings to make them tame (and a tad annoying).


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My Icelandic chicken-plans:

Unfortunately, some of my current Icelandic hens have huge combs that will easily frostbite. I decided to get hatching eggs from a different breeder, and create a flock with only rosecombs (and other small combs).

These eggs are currently in the incubator, to hatch next week (March 25).

Fjalar, the rooster I stumbled upon by accident, allows me to get hatching eggs from my own hens. Yesterday I separated a few of the hens I don't want eggs from, and will be collecting eggs to set next week.

 

[gullinkambe]

Juggling coops:

I finished the new, insulated "chick room" last week, it took longer than expected. It has two separate pens. Well, it's a duckling room now, husband calls it Duckburg. Haha!



They are NOT allowed to stay there long, though. Messy, messy boys!

Next week when the eggs hatch I'll be shuffling everyone around, the ducklings, chickens, even the rabbits!

I haven't had this many hatches this early before. The snow won't melt for at least another month and everyone need inside space. It's like a game of musical chairs, and I hope I got chairs for everyone!

 

[Debbie292d]

You have beautiful chickens and ducks!

Your pictures are stunning! What do you use if I could ask?

 

[gullinkambe]

You have beautiful chickens and ducks!

Your pictures are stunning! What do you use if I could ask?

Thank you!
I have a Canon R10 DSLR, with a good zoom lens. I mostly use it to take pictures when I'm hiking... and of my dogs.

I found out I haven't taken a single picture of the new hens outside last summer, and that's simply unforgivable! I need to rectify that this year!

 

[gullinkambe]

Oooop. I stopped turning the eggs that are on day 18 and a half, and there was a lot of movement. I should definitely have stopped turning yesterday. I didn't take into account that they're quite small, and will likely hatch on day 20, not 21.

Well, worst case scenario is that I'll have many malpositioned. In my experience, chickens do fairly well hatching in the wrong end because of the thinner shell, so I'm not too worried. I'm an Assister anyway.

There are 22 developing eggs, btw. Out of 24 eggs shipped just above freezing temps, I'll say that's quite excellent!