The Middle Tennessee Thread

[Jenski]

Good morning, and welcome to Seattle, LOL!

I'm glad I'm not the only one sick of the dang rain. I see little green plants popping up in the garden, and I am ready to do some major outside work - - but I can't seem to get it done since I am not a big fan of mucking around in the rain with a trowel. Eh well.

Thank goodness for my super-power muck boots . . . though I must say that during the flooding last week I noticed I had a little cut in the top of one of my boots. ( - and how do you think I noticed, children?

) Guess I need to get down to TSC and get a boot patch.

Don't know if anyone else was up at 2 am last night, but I heard the wind howling so I got up to find we had something in the order of 50 mph winds going on here. I checked all the coops and then got on the computer to check the weather. . . then after the wind, we had a downpour right up there with the hardest rain I have yet seen. It lasted about 10 minutes, and then just stopped and dripped for a few minutes before the next wave came.

Despite the rain, Chup-Chup the mocking bird was on the patio early waiting for his breakfast. He glides right down over my head when I take the old "chicken mush" out of the banty pen and set it on the railing. He gets the dish nice and clean before I bring it in, LOL!



Troyerchicks, 100 acres sounds like heaven!! Who needs a car and groceries - - just go for it!!

oldchickenlady, glad hubby is warming up to the chicks. . . maybe he can encourage believer01's hubby to get a little of the chicken fever, eh! I imagine it's hard to be the only one in the house who's into critters.

CityGirl, glad you got through your NPIP - - but I'll bet your birds are still ticked that they were handled thus. Poor beebies! I'm not a big fan of things that make my critters bleed. Eesh. Good to know.


Well, stay dry everyone! Hope no one had coop flooding, etc. - -



[P.S. - Holly, I HATE doing dishes! Aaaargh!! I need a dish boy . . . hmmmm . . . ]

 

[cpegram]

Quote:
100 acres and the lottery that would be awesome!!!!...think of all the chickens LOL different breeds...

oh and all the fun....I wouldn't be able to contain myself...

citygirl wow 21 birds...I would never be able to catch my two roosters....

more rain at least we are catching up with rainfall this year hopefully...I am ready for the warm to come back....it was so nice

 

[HBuehler]

Jenski(and our neighbors) the bright side it stopped under a foot this time.Amazing how we can put it in perspective better now...4" used to be lots of rain.Now,it's just very wet.We know we can handle anything that Mother Nature can do to us...floods,tornado's,drought... so since we have learned this lesson very well I really think it's time to teach it to others and give us a break

It's not going to help us get out of the dry conditions very much since the ground was saturated it's just running off into the river..come late July we will be back in trouble again..lets hope not sooner.But boy I can't wait for green grass and playing in the pool-which is green right now

I wanted to make sure I have nothing hatching while I'm in Gatlinburg so I have been timing it all just right..so I bought some eggs I have to start on Sat...they will hatch April 1st...yepper while I'm driving up to Gatlinburg I'm sure

Lavender Ameraucana chicks chirping in my incubator

Oh those dish boys only dirty dishes not wash them..I have 2 and 1 dish girl

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

I'm with you, Holly. I'm ready for some other place to learn Mother Nature's lessons. Enough rain already! My poor silkies are slogging around in puddles and mud banks. It is NASTY out there! The winds last night reached the scary level. I thought for sure the shingles were a goner.

1newegg- the trick, I have found, to catching the little buggers is a net. My old farmer neighbor uses a fishing net. I pilfered a butterfly net from my nieces and use that. It also helps to have two people to head them off at the pass. I locked them all in the 8x16 run first, so there was a limit to where they could run. They are terribly zippy little boogers.

Jen- the actual process was fairly easy. The worst part was holding them upside down by their feet. I never hold mine like that. I tend to hold them more like a baby or a football. They were quite insulted by the indignity of being held by their feet. The guy was really efficient though, so the actual prick and collection wasn't that big a deal. Some of them did bleed quite a bit initially, but they seem no worse for wear today. I'm glad I got it done. I really need to move some of last year's silkie hatch. Some of them look really nice and I'd like to be able to sell them out of state if need be.
Sorry to hear about the catastrophic failure of your magic muck boots. Clearly the hole allowed all the magic to leak out. Perhaps you can recharge them at the TSC.

I have peeps in the house again!! Whoohoo!!!!! So far 9 of 10 Easter eggers from my flock have hatched. I also stopped at the co-op and got 5 barred rock girl chicks and 3 red star/red sex link girls. I love having a stash of girls chicks to pair up with all the boy chicks I seem to hatch out. All 17 are resting comfortably in the brooder with only the occasion screech. One lone egg is left in the bator. We shall see if it hatches.

So genetics gurus, talk to me of colors. All of my EE eggs came from my pens here. I have a black ameraucana roo in the LF pen. Theoretically all of the offspring from that pen will be black. The other pen has a blue AM roo and barred rock hens. 100% of the eggs from that pen had to have come from the blue AM x barred rock mix. Wouldn't all of those offspring be either black or barred? How did I get two, possibly three, blue chicks out of that lot? I swear one of them looks silvery like a splash. ???? How did that happen?

I'll get pics tomorrow. At the moment they all look like little chick rugs flattened out on the paper towels. It has been an exhausting day.

I LOVE having chicks in the house again!!!

 

[Jenski]

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm chicks . . .

Dang. Done it again.

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

They are awfully cute and sweet in there toddling about.

 

[gallinamama]

My family is from Lebanon.. My mother and a lot of relatives are in the Wilson cemetary ... I live in michigan and can't get down there as much as I would like to... I have a brother in Doyle Tenn. and cousins over shop Springs way... and Watertown... I love Tenn. I have a cousin Becky who lives in Hendersonville. It was so sad last year ... you all had all that flooding and hardly any help... but Tenn. is full of some strong people... and You all got er done....

Wish you all beautiful weather.

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[HBuehler]

Howdy gallinamama...we have a lot of crazy chicken people around here.I'm just North of Lebanon up by the river
Jenski-gotta come over and see the C.H.I.C.K.S those darn bantam Cochins are so cute..going to put Dixie with my blue boy soon...gosh he could really improve the frizzle Cochin's a lot-she's perfect anyway.Nothing cuter than watching her and Wild walking side by side away from you...all fluffy butt wattles

.Getting ready to start hatching more Mille Cochin's now the girls are laying..one is broody already..darn girl
City Girl-so glad you have chicks in your house..and I don't

they are so much cuter in their own house outside and they smell better out there too.Now,we just bring them in to play.

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

I love having in them in the house for about three weeks. After that they get dusty and stinky and need to move outside. The first three weeks they are still sweet and cute though.

Holly- are you planning on coming to the April meetup? I'm thinking perhaps to get eggs from you then. I figure if I start another round on Friday that the bator will be empty again for the April meetup.

 

[HBuehler]

What date is the meet up? If I'm home I will be there