The Evolution of Atlas: A Breeding (and Chat) Thread

[speckledhen]

Wow, Michelle, you really had a wonderful trip! I'd someday like to go back through Utah and Colorado and Wyoming. My sister and her SO are in Colorado right now spending most of the summer. She lives east of me in Cleveland, GA, or has since not long after my father died two years ago and her early-in-life older boyfriend got in contact with her and asked her if she'd like to give it another whirl.

Today, I'd be happy to sell Hector with Tessa as a pair. That boy! I raise my voice just a little in exasperation (was chasing Betsy, who was not happy to go back in her pen and playing ring-around-the-barn with me) and he goes off like there is a pack of coyotes snacking their way through the groups. I've never had a rooster who goes off that much over nothing!

 

[MistyMountain]

It was pretty amazing. We loved the bighorns in Wyoming. So peaceful and not so commercialized. We'll focus around here next, Blue Ridge Parkway or maybe a trip up the East Coast to Maine. We do that instead of Disney--- for the cost of a couple days at Disney, we can do weeks seeing places we've never seen before and learning about things we never knew existed. Our boys became Jr. Rangers at Yellowstone, Glacier, Battle of Little Bighorn NM, and Big Hole Battlefield. They had to complete a booklet and attend a ranger talk for each one. Take that for summer reading, huh??

Oh Hector, settle down already! I shouldn't say a thing, though, I am rooster heavy right now with 6 and three maybe four 6 week olds. 4 of my adult roosters all live in the main coop together. Knock on wood, they all get along! Maybe it is more like... they all respect the alpha, and he does not like it when anyone causes a ruckus. I guess that is why I am struggling so to let any of them go. I have so much GOOD protection when they free range right now.

 

[speckledhen]

Oh Hector, settle down already!

Yes, please come have a talk with him. He's such a pain! He still have not flogged and has doesn't bite me, but his loud mouth (aside from the crowing) is making my uncomfortable summer more irritating.

 

[getaclue]

At least he's running away from you, like his tail feathers are on fire...instead of being a butt, like when he was younger.

 

[speckledhen]

At least he's running away from you, like his tail feathers are on fire...instead of being a butt, like when he was younger.

For the most part, that's true, but he does run up to me like he's going to attack, full of energy, dances and looks directly up into my face. I have to scold him. Poor boy lost Mary, I give him Ro, now Ro is ailing and skitters away from him and Thea is broody, so, in effect, he has only Jill for awhile. He has too much energy for that.

 

[speckledhen]

The morning report: Thea got off the nest on her own while I was doing barn chores this a.m., pooped, jumped on the roost for a moment, then went back to her eggs. Quick broody-poop cleanup! My barn is fairly odorless unless that happens, shew!
My Blue Partridge Brahma hen, Bonnie, is still broody after over two weeks and shows no signs of breaking up, but Thea isn't due to hatch for two more weeks. If Bonnie has not killed herself by then and hasn't snapped out of it, I'll give her a couple of Thea's chicks to snap her out of it-they're Brahmas anyway.
I heard Wynette clucking this morning. She'd better not!

 

[Leahs Mom]

I'm jealous of all these broody hens. Well...not ALL of them. Just one would be nice. I haven't had one for 3 years!!!!!

 

[speckledhen]

I'm jealous of all these broody hens. Well...not ALL of them. Just one would be nice. I haven't had one for 3 years!!!!!

Do you want Tessa? LOL. She wants so badly to have chicks, but she is, well, not fun when she's broody. I think she'd take on a bear to defend her babies. She sure takes on me even without eggs under her, geez. She does calm down awhile after she breaks up, but preceeding, during and immeidately following her full-on broody period, watch out.

Brahmas would do well in your weather up there. And my line of Brahmas is pretty darn broody, or at least, two of them are incessantly broody.

 

[speckledhen]

Husband got a burst of energy and started cleaning out under the deck. He even got a wheelbarrow load of nice dirt from the underneath part of the compost pile to put in my hosta bed next to the steps. It looks so much better!

Today's garden stuff. That is the last of the straightneck squash, all plants now pulled up. I am about to begin processing some of the butternut squash from the compost pile plant. And these peas that we grew from seed my dad gave us umpteen years ago don't seem like the crowders I know, but like blackeyed peas. I know they are related, but my husband said they were crowders and I just never questioned it. I shelled some into two bowls, the ones that are already drying out and the fresher ones we will cook. There are a lot more not ready just yet. I have to show him how to shell them and when because I did this all the time as a child after picking off granddaddy's farm. Now that I think of it, my dad was a huge blackeyed pea fan, me not so much. I think they taste like dirt, mushy dirt.
The paste tomatoes won't be much to really can so will have to mix them with the regular ones to get enough to do anything with, leaving an occasional slicing tomato for a hamburger. These are just the ones ripe so far, quite a few more, but not the haul we should have gotten. The Juliet grape tomatoes are pretty large. And I got one Gypsy Bell Pepper (already sliced and bagged in the freezer) finally. Others are coming along finally.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I generally need to leave my butternut squash to cure right up until the frost. You're are done already? Mine are just now forming fruit. I am finally getting cucumbers, tomatoes, and green beans.

My husband can't sit still either, it's go, go and more go. Though it's nice to have someone do all the cleanup, I often feel like a bum.

I am hoping the broodies stop coming here too, but probably not for a while.