Utah!

[sundancenbare]

My coop is soo funny at the moment. My Turkin and Sizzle are both broody. The problem is , they are broody in the same nest. The other problem is they are nesting in the box my hens love to lay in and they aren't going to move just becauree someone wants to lay an egg. I went in earlier to gather the eggs under them and found the baard rock girl sitting kind of on top of the turkin so there were 3 in that nest. As I was reaching in to gsther the eggs I found einstein the polish clear in the back of the nest kind of tucked in behind them. laying her egg as well. Poor babies. I pulled the two breedies out and put them by the water so at least the other two could lay in peace. I gathered the eggs and those two hadn't laid yet. I can't break those two but at least I can move them once in a while. I have 8 other nest boxes but they all lay in the same box.

 

[Whittni]

Ha.^

 

[Desert Springs]

hahaha, I love it, Little People! My DH had a break few a few weeks ago when I told him my coops just wasn't big enough for all my girls, and that I was afraid of the upcoming winter. So he helped me box in the full run enclosure so we now have a 9 ft by 12 ft coop, now if I can just get him to help me put on the roof. HAHAHA, he's been super busy, and of course its not raining or anything, and none of the girls are sleeping in there yet. But I was totally shocked when he said, "Well I guess we need to do something about the upcoming winter, we can't have frozen chicks outside, and off to the hardware store he went.

Love that your DH is on board (whether he realizes it or not)!!!!

Lil -

Desert, I rub oil on them down to their skin, usually canola, but I've also used olive oil. And yes - I'm having a really hard time with the thought of letting my babies go, though. Particularly my Wyandotte sisters that I got from Lisa. If anyone want them, let me know. One blue, one black. Both are very sweet, especially Angel. I want them to go together. I wouldn't part with them until the one hen has weaned off her chick, though.

I also have my blue Ameraucana. She's purebred and lays a nice blue-green egg. It's kind of small, but she is such a sweet girl. If no one wants her for breeding, she will be going to my neighbor with my RIR, BR, and Barnevelder. I'm not sure what to do about my Delaware and her BSL buddy. They are teenagers now. I don't want to rehome them, but I told my BF that I was going to downsize and focus on the Icelandics. And I have my Exchequer Leghorn and my SBEL..........they are going to be so hard to let go. If I can even let them go. My Leghorn is a good layer and very smart. She's also an escape artist. And there's my OE, who is currently broody, so it would be a bit before I can let her go, too. She's a big girl - half BO, half EE. She lays the pretty speckled olive eggs I have shown on here before. Here's one of her eggs:




So, now that I've given a sample of some of my flock, I'd just like to say one thing:

Thanks for the oil explanation.

I would have a really hard time parting with my favorites. This hot summer has been hard on many, and I've lost some:

Love your pics..... still have to get some of the new brooders and the Icelandics!! My camera usually gets left indoors as I forget it when I put it down, then am unable to locate it without retracing my steps. Ugh

My coop is soo funny at the moment. My Turkin and Sizzle are both broody. The problem is , they are broody in the same nest. The other problem is they are nesting in the box my hens love to lay in and they aren't going to move just becauree someone wants to lay an egg. I went in earlier to gather the eggs under them and found the baard rock girl sitting kind of on top of the turkin so there were 3 in that nest. As I was reaching in to gsther the eggs I found einstein the polish clear in the back of the nest kind of tucked in behind them. laying her egg as well. Poor babies. I pulled the two breedies out and put them by the water so at least the other two could lay in peace. I gathered the eggs and those two hadn't laid yet. I can't break those two but at least I can move them once in a while. I have 8 other nest boxes but they all lay in the same box.

Sounds pretty wild...lol!!

 

[Desert Springs]

Wanted to say.... love all the pics....(kept forgetting to mention that!!)

 

[saracalderas]

Every time someone posts about needing to rehome their girls I immediately think "I'll take them." Can't be doing that though. Ugh it takes so much restraint.
I've been seeing a few birds of prey here lately :/ scary stuff. Saw a beautiful white owl a few weeks ago and a bunch of hawks lately. I realized it was there because I had my flock out free ranging and the rooster started freaking out. Naturally I looked up and saw it land in a tree right above where I had been free ranging the babies. I screamed at my 8 y.o. son. "Grab the babies!" He looked at me like I was nuts and I pointed up. After he looked up he was frantically running around trying to grab all 8 little ones. It was quite comical looking back. But scary at the time.

 

[Sphinx]

Red, I'm sorry that you are having to pare down your flock a little. Focusing on the Icelandics will be fun though.

Sara, glad you were able to keep the babies safe. I think it would be really neat to see so many birds of prey up close. We see a lot of hawks, but they haven't messed with my chickens. They don't even mess with all the doves around here.

Sundance, my silly birds are the same way about nesting boxes too. Actually, I have about 6 birds who prefer to lay their eggs in the time out corner, where they remember growing out. They have zero interest in the nest boxes, which is a good thing because I have two broodies there.

Speaking of, we had a (maybe?) near disaster here. I thought my incubator was making a weird noise last night. DH insisted it was fine and it was no big deal. I thought of bringing it upstairs so it'd be closer where I could hear it better, but didn't. I went down there a few minutes ago, and the incubator had died! The eggs were still slightly warm to the touch, so I ran them outside to the broodies. I just ordered a new incubator, and it's being overnighted, so it'll be here tomorrow. The eggs are under the two bantam frizzles that I bought from Sundancen. The one has successfully raised chicks, so I know she'll be fine for a bit, but she's way too small for 5 eggs. So, I put the other two under the psychotic broody who is her twin sister. I don't trust her brooding abilities- she had a hen lay an egg RIGHT NEXT TO HER, and she didn't put it underneath her. I have a third broody- she's been that way for just over a week, but she wasn't on the nest this morning. I think she was out getting some morning air. I'm going to go check in a little bit, and if she's back on the nest, she's going to get a total of three.

 

[blujems]

Sorry for all the troubles everyone is having. Finding what you really want is hard. Someday I hope to raise the wheaten marans. Until then I will have my 3.

Lisa as much as I would love to get a couple chicks. She loves the black one. I would be afraid it would be stuck inside all winter. Unless you think they would make it into the coop before it gets cold?


Also wondered if anyone had heard this. A friend told me that the rounder eggs produce hens and the more oval or pointed eggs produce roosters. Anyone notices this before?

 

[La Casa de Pollo]

Sorry for all the troubles everyone is having. Finding what you really want is hard. Someday I hope to raise the wheaten marans. Until then I will have my 3.

Lisa as much as I would love to get a couple chicks. She loves the black one. I would be afraid it would be stuck inside all winter. Unless you think they would make it into the coop before it gets cold?


Also wondered if anyone had heard this. A friend told me that the rounder eggs produce hens and the more oval or pointed eggs produce roosters. Anyone notices this before?

I read that too--but have not noticed a pattern. In fact, those WHeatens we got from Bonnie...one lays a really pointed egg and I kept wondering if all the babies would be boys, but it seemed to be a normal mix.

About these chicks--I got two black ones from this hatch. If she wants the pair she is welcome to them! They are both more SG looking, black skin, five toes, feathered feet. I have more hatching from Alice and Vinnie, she is the mom that produced these, so I bet there will be more....The only non conforming item on these two would be the combs---one has a single comb, can't tell on the other one yet. They can stay here until they are ready to go outside if you want...it will start to frost at night around Labor Day so I will probably say mid Sept? With a light outside at night they could go out sooner. By 8 weeks they are usually ok outside weaned off heat. I had some born in November that i put out in January, heat lamp at night for a few weeks, but they were not really going under it any more than the big girls. ..so mid October they would be ok without heat outside? If you just got them used to the temps slowly, I would not worry about putting these out. The last hatch last year I had was labor Day, they were out by Halloween and doing fine.

You let me know if you want dibs on them. It is up to you and the monster.

 

[Cynthia12]

Funny you guys mention the pointy and round egg thought...I have a real pointy Pure Ameraucana egg in the bator from Cowgirl. I thought, if what they say is true..it's a boy..but I really don't think it's true. Like you said Lisa, your hen would lay all the same sex of babies? Nah.

I have some cute little Chipmunk babies hatching. Little EE's. They are always so cute with their little beards.

 

[La Casa de Pollo]

Funny you guys mention the pointy and round egg thought...I have a real pointy Pure Ameraucana egg in the bator from Cowgirl. I thought, if what they say is true..it's a boy..but I really don't think it's true. Like you said Lisa, your hen would lay all the same sex of babies? Nah. I have some cute little Chipmunk babies hatching. Little EE's. They are always so cute with their little beards.

' ADORABLE! Man the fuzzy cheeks get to me