The Front Porch Swing

[Beekissed]

Bee: Go for it and keep us posted! We can follow your lead. I am looking for pictures that you posted on the FF thread on the wood trough you built for the fermented feed. My hens have started flipping over my feed bowls. I guess the process of refining the cops and runs is a continual process.

It is! I'm always tweaking and never get done. There's always a better way. I learn so much from other people that I never would have thought of doing. If I learn a particularly neat idea, I'll often tell them that I'm going to steal it!

So far, what I want to do with incubation I'm not finding any information or indication that anyone else is doing it. I'm thinking it will work like gangbusters but I'll have to put it to the test to find out.

I got a dozen again today! That's 2 days in a row!

Some of those are HUGE!

Beautiful eggs!!! My egg count drops every time it warms up....I think there is a correlation between my egg count, confinement to the coop due to snows and cold, and then when it warms up enough for the gals to stay out for extended periods of time. I think my young WRs are taking their eggs to the woods and making a deposit there instead of the nests. The next pretty day I'm going to wake up early and watch the birds....those two gals are wild and prefer to live in the woods.

If they lay there, my dog will be scooping up the eggs before I can ever find them. He's looking very sleek and glossy lately.....

 

[Beekissed]

Good morning, folks!!

It's a lovely day here with a gorgeous 7 in. of snow on the ground and all the trees are frosted out in white like a wedding cake. No wind to speak of but the snow is very heavy, dense with ice balls mixed in. Maybe will take down trees if it continues and the power will go out. We don't mind because we are always prepared for that. Got good food, good wood and a warm fire, water drawn up and the animals all fed, watered and snugged in to warm houses.

My birds foraged in the rain all day yesterday until they were soaked and ragged looking but it was too warm and good foraging conditions for them to stop...they ranged far and wide, tossing leave litter. The new rooster is not a good foraging breed so he just wandered around but didn't scratch much and he doesn't seem to get the notion that he is supposed to guard his hens and keep them flocking in a unit...he kept wandering away from them and looking perplexed. Poor guy...belongs in the city.

Hope to hatch out a real rooster with this incubation to take the place of city boy Cochin and then he can just be an elegant lawn ornament for awhile. He doesn't eat much and he's no trouble.

It's a great day to be alive!

Hope you all stay safe and warm out there and just enjoy the stillness that the winter weather forces upon us at times. That stillness is a good thing and a place where you can hear the Lord above the noise of the world. This pic is from another, lighter snow this season but I love how this looks...this is taken from my bedroom window. Each evening the sun lights up that room right before going down for the night and I make a point of lying there soaking up the sun like a lizard on a rock and thanking the Lord for all things.

 

[lindz8504]

Gorgeous picture, and a great post Bee!

 

[TexasLisa]

Good morning, folks!!

It's a lovely day here with a gorgeous 7 in. of snow on the ground and all the trees are frosted out in white like a wedding cake. No wind to speak of but the snow is very heavy, dense with ice balls mixed in. Maybe will take down trees if it continues and the power will go out. We don't mind because we are always prepared for that. Got good food, good wood and a warm fire, water drawn up and the animals all fed, watered and snugged in to warm houses.

My birds foraged in the rain all day yesterday until they were soaked and ragged looking but it was too warm and good foraging conditions for them to stop...they ranged far and wide, tossing leave litter. The new rooster is not a good foraging breed so he just wandered around but didn't scratch much and he doesn't seem to get the notion that he is supposed to guard his hens and keep them flocking in a unit...he kept wandering away from them and looking perplexed. Poor guy...belongs in the city.

Hope to hatch out a real rooster with this incubation to take the place of city boy Cochin and then he can just be an elegant lawn ornament for awhile. He doesn't eat much and he's no trouble.

It's a great day to be alive!

Hope you all stay safe and warm out there and just enjoy the stillness that the winter weather forces upon us at times. That stillness is a good thing and a place where you can hear the Lord above the noise of the world. This pic is from another, lighter snow this season but I love how this looks...this is taken from my bedroom window. Each evening the sun lights up that room right before going down for the night and I make a point of lying there soaking up the sun like a lizard on a rock and thanking the Lord for all things.

STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT!!! I now live where we don't get snow, just the cold. Your picture is breathtaking!!!

Did I read you right.....you are going to let Cochin rooster live if you get another rooster? This coming from a person who says 'if it doesn't serve a purpose, he/she is gone'.

Bee you are letting your soft heart show through. Your animals know!!!

Lisa

 

[lindz8504]

STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT!!! I now live where we don't get snow, just the cold. Your picture is breathtaking!!!

Did I read you right.....you are going to let Cochin rooster live if you get another rooster? This coming from a person who says 'if it doesn't serve a purpose, he/she is gone'.

Bee you are letting your soft heart show through. Your animals know!!!

Lisa

 

[Beekissed]

STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT!!! I now live where we don't get snow, just the cold. Your picture is breathtaking!!!

Did I read you right.....you are going to let Cochin rooster live if you get another rooster? This coming from a person who says 'if it doesn't serve a purpose, he/she is gone'.

Bee you are letting your soft heart show through. Your animals know!!!

Lisa

It's not me!! I had word from the Holy Spirit on that bird, so I can't take any credit for a soft heart. Everything inside of me is saying he is about as worthless as teats on a boar, but the Holy Spirit whispers that he is here for a reason, though I know not what. That was not my decision to keep the silly thing...I was just following suggestion. Now, if in the future I get word to kill him and eat him, then that will feel a bit more natural to my methods.

Not only did the Lord want his life to be spared, He reinforced that with providing money for the feed that he wastes as he goes about looking pretty and doing nothing useful. Can't argue with that, can I? God said, "Here...I want you to keep this worthless but sweet bird and I'm going to give you the money to care for him. Why? Because I said so, that's why!"

So, here he is until God says otherwise.

 

[lindz8504]

It's not me!! I had word from the Holy Spirit on that bird, so I can't take any credit for a soft heart. Everything inside of me is saying he is about as worthless as teats on a boar, but the Holy Spirit whispers that he is here for a reason, though I know not what. That was not my decision to keep the silly thing...I was just following suggestion. Now, if in the future I get word to kill him and eat him, then that will feel a bit more natural to my methods.

Not only did the Lord want his life to be spared, He reinforced that with providing money for the feed that he wastes as he goes about looking pretty and doing nothing useful. Can't argue with that, can I? God said, "Here...I want you to keep this worthless but sweet bird and I'm going to give you the money to care for him. Why? Because I said so, that's why!"

So, here he is until God says otherwise.

 

[bruceh]

it is wet and cold here with 7 + inches of snow. we get a break tomorrow. then we get more. then a break and then they are calling for feet not inches of snow for the weekend.. on a positive note i spoke with Jeremy Woeppel. loos like were going to have some nice barred rocks here. big suckers. the rebuilding is going nicely . next year is looking good.. so we will see. all takes time.

 

[Beekissed]

it is wet and cold here with 7 + inches of snow. we get a break tomorrow. then we get more. then a break and then they are calling for feet not inches of snow for the weekend.. on a positive note i spoke with Jeremy Woeppel. loos like were going to have some nice barred rocks here. big suckers. the rebuilding is going nicely . next year is looking good.. so we will see. all takes time.

Yay!!!

Now, is that a breed you have a passion for like you did about those Reds? Do you think you'll want to develop them as much as you did the Reds? I know my first passion is with WRs but my second would be the Reds if given a choice. My heart just swells when I see a good example of those breeds. Another one that gets that response from me is the NHs.

 

[bruceh]

bee i will work hard with them. reds are reds. i love the reds like no other. i need a break from them for my own well being. that was just a hurt that right now i can't bare. # 11 was a good bird to put over Lucy the pullet. however they are gone. Lloyd is not doing much breeding this year. my mentor is getting should i dare say looking out for his interest only. so it is all very disappointing with the reds this year.. the red crowd is also on the snobbish side and constent bickering in this period of time..they took the fun away. Jeremy's birds are stunning. they are of the good sheperd line.he offered me new hamps and some white rock which has bobs blood in them. i want to see how you do on your line. i am sentimental that way. when i do a line of birds it the master breeder i have sedament for.. i am going to see wilford kittle and dick hortsman in march. now wilford may twist my arm a bit. will see. his birds will never win a show. however he built them birds to be productive. they could be made good birds. my pennsilyvania red project is mainly wiflords birds however i would need some flanagen birds or a good nelson birds to start over. will see. i am not going to have layers. so i now have the room to do what i can in preservation. these barrnevelders are going to be a challenge. i only keep a small amount of breeders for each breed . 6 pullets and 2 cockerels. i am not one to hatch out hundreds of chicks just to cull them later. you know the saying . go low, go slow and stays somewhere in the middle. i am also not going to be one of those who take 20 birds of a breed to a show to see if i get lucky. i am one to take my best and show them win loose or draw. i never did get that.. how can you have 20 of your best. you should have 1 or 2 maybe 3 best. if you can not tell your best.. you are breeding wrong and playing the number game odds.that is my take. also with the cost of feed rising all the time. i can not afford to feed 120 layers plus breeders.
i enjoy my birds even it is for me to see.