[The Shire] Our growing flock!

[newchickychick]

Eggs SHOULD arrive tomorrow, fingers crossed! Tracking hasn’t updated in two days but. Hubby will be here to sign for me if they get here early. We’re going out of town to get Appa (Tolbunt Polish cockerel) and 6 sweet Tolbunt chicks (one being frizzle!) from a lovely breeder.

I have hubby a little “class” in how to unpack the eggs and set them for being ready for incubation. I’m SO excited ahhh! It still amazes me eggs hatch in 21 days. Nature is wonderful!

I swear it was since this morning… because I remember only seeing our two Black frizzle Cochin Bantams. We’ve got THREE. The feathers either just popped in, or they’re splitting into two like amoeba. The chickies are really enjoying their new coop! I can’t wait until it’s 100% finished. The fancier touches are an eventual project, but it will be well worth it.

 

[newchickychick]

The eggs are here! The others are now in town (though at the local distribution center) so should get here Monday! Please, Monday.

We got Appa! He’s got his own little bacehlor condo until we can introduce him to everyone else! We are going to take it slow and steady to make sure it is a seamless process without throwing then together too early. We will be repurposing both of our prefabs (this one being one of them) along with building an 8’x12’ coop for the Bantams in one big run so they can all have options. A lot of our Bantams are Old English Games and are showing some feisty (but so far not aggressive thankfully, they’re so little!) personalities so we’re hoping more options will make for happiness with the wide variety.

Appa here will of course end up joining the big coop after said introduction period. If for any reason it just didn’t work though, he can stay here with a couple of ladies all to himself. We plan to refurbish both of them to make sure they’ve got great ventilation and would expand the run space by a good bit. But hopefully he gets along swimmingly with everyone after time!

 

[newchickychick]

I didn't know this, as the listing didn't mention Candy Corn Polish, but apparently that's what the CC eggs are! SO cool! We don't have any of those yet. I'm hopeful we can hatch at least one egg from the 13 we set Monday, but more would be fantastic.

The chicks LOVE the big coop. We're so proud of it being our first ever build! My hubby did a glorious job.

I actively watched him fall in love with one of the Lavender Orpingtons. He put his hand into the brooder as we were sitting there and gushing over the new chicks, and one of the Lav Orps hopped right up into his hand and turned into a little cuddly puddle. It was so cute! What a great day!

 

[newchickychick]

Boy, I sure do talk to myself a lot here. Honestly this has been a really fun start to my chicken journey!

It's another really stormy day, but we're going to wrap up the roosting bars and enjoying hanging out with the coop chickies (while adding a big extra layer of bedding. We only put down 6 bags at first and that covered the floor with one thin layer. Oops!)

Tomorrow is the start of our hatching journey! So nervous, so excited! I've already picked out little codenames from favorite characters for our favorite shows for the Hatch-Along. I'll be doing another when our next batch gets here some time after the 7th of July. I'll probably do dessert themed for folks to pick their own codenames for. Hehe! I used to bake ALL the time. I really should get started back and find some good gluten-free recipes for delicious dessert delights.

Appa is doing really well today! I'm sure he's not a fan of the storming, but I'll be happy when he gets to join everyone else in time and have some friends to cuddle up with too.

The new little Tolbunt chicks are great too! What sweeties. One is definitely a frizzle! I'm not seeing any others show it yet, but I swear it showed up overnight on some of the Bantam Cochin frizzles, so there may be time yet.

We've got the plans solid for the run! We're going to speed through it this week. It'll be hardware cloth entirely, roof included, but an additional for-weather roof that starts at the beginning of the coop and extends out a good 30-40 feet of the run. Thank goodness I already bought the hardware cloth well ahead of time! So much hardware cloth.

 

[Iluveggers]

Boy, I sure do talk to myself a lot here. Honestly this has been a really fun start to my chicken journey!

It's another really stormy day, but we're going to wrap up the roosting bars and enjoying hanging out with the coop chickies (while adding a big extra layer of bedding. We only put down 6 bags at first and that covered the floor with one thin layer. Oops!)

Tomorrow is the start of our hatching journey! So nervous, so excited! I've already picked out little codenames from favorite characters for our favorite shows for the Hatch-Along. I'll be doing another when our next batch gets here some time after the 7th of July. I'll probably do dessert themed for folks to pick their own codenames for. Hehe! I used to bake ALL the time. I really should get started back and find some good gluten-free recipes for delicious dessert delights.

Appa is doing really well today! I'm sure he's not a fan of the storming, but I'll be happy when he gets to join everyone else in time and have some friends to cuddle up with too.

The new little Tolbunt chicks are great too! What sweeties. One is definitely a frizzle! I'm not seeing any others show it yet, but I swear it showed up overnight on some of the Bantam Cochin frizzles, so there may be time yet.

We've got the plans solid for the run! We're going to speed through it this week. It'll be hardware cloth entirely, roof included, but an additional for-weather roof that starts at the beginning of the coop and extends out a good 30-40 feet of the run. Thank goodness I already bought the hardware cloth well ahead of time! So much hardware cloth.

Are you gluten free? I am! I make a very liked banana bread with almond flour that my whole family likes, and an avocado brownie (that only I like…it’s great with chocolate ice cream!) if you have other recipes I’d love to hear them!

Have fun hatching! If you let people “adopt” eggs, I’ll take #13, just tag me when it starts! I read your whole thread, but don’t always comment or react. You have been super ambitious! . I thought I was a crazy chicken lady for adding a handful every year!

 

[newchickychick]

Are you gluten free? I am! I make a very liked banana bread with almond flour that my whole family likes, and an avocado brownie (that only I like…it’s great with chocolate ice cream!) if you have other recipes I’d love to hear them!

Have fun hatching! If you let people “adopt” eggs, I’ll take #13, just tag me when it starts! I read your whole thread, but don’t always comment or react. You have been super ambitious! . I thought I was a crazy chicken lady for adding a handful every year!

I am! Diagnosed celiac last year. I also have pernicious anemia and POTS, so I'm a whole bundle of fun. The worst part is, gluten doesn't really "bother" me too bad so it's been SO hard to 100% kick even though I know I MUST. </3 I will absolutely let you know when I get started! I made the most delicious from scratch cakes (I am biased xD) pre-diagnosis so I'm hoping I can do them just as well with having to be gluten-free now!

Oh I absolutely will! I'll go ahead and mark you down early. That one's actually set to be one of our mystery Polish eggs, codename Galadriel.

Aha we DEFINITELY are ambitious. We went big or went home. Well, I guess we went big AT home. The gateway was 19/20 making it of our first batch and going "oh man, too many roosters. We need more chickens. Oh, well, what if half of THOSE are roosters too? Well, we ARE building our first coop to fit 110 chickens per 4 sq ft math. So a few more wouldn't hurt. Oh, well, we did talk about wanting a second coop for everyone to have options..." Yeah, definitely chicken math!

 

[newchickychick]

Yeaaaaah they have no idea what to do with the roosting bars. I’m sure they’ll figure it out! They all opted to huddle in a corner instead. Hopefully they’ll figure it out so they don’t squish each other. Absolutely silly!

 

[newchickychick]

Big day, big day! Time to get the eggs in the incubators as soon as the others get here and rest a while ahhh! I’m planning on separating them in half and doing one with no humidity added, and the other with the wet hatching recommended humidity.
Our house humidity is at 20% right now which seems fairly low, but I do plan to add a little water to make sure one half has definitely a little more to start after their shipping journey. I’ll measure the air sacs at 7 days and then combine them into the incubator they seem to be most on track with and adjust from there.

 

[newchickychick]

We had a point this winter where our power went out every other day for about two months, and one point after a huge snow storm where it was out for 7 days. My husband and I had kiddo stay with my folks to stay warm. My father is severely allergic to cats, so we couldn’t bring them over so we hunkered down here to try to keep us and the kitties warm in the 20 degree house. Needless to say, a generator was first on the list this spring.

And WHAT a blessing it is that we did that.
Today, after MONTHS of no power outages… it went out. Hours after we set our eggs. The generator kicks on within a minute of a power outage. The incubators came back on just fine and quickly! What a relief! What terrible timing though.

 

[thistlewick]

Why are they in a carton in the incubator?