What did you do with your flock today?

[ChicksnMore]

It's been a nice off-and-on rainy day here, cool and cloudy. Since my chickens never had the experience of being outside in the rain I let them roam around the yard for an hour or so. They spent a lot of time scratching down the two compost piles, and ate their whatevers in the yard.

One of them found a snail and played keep away for a while. I think it was able to pick the goodies out of the shell because she dropped it. I gave it a gentle stomp to break the shell and it was empty. The hens then ate the shell fragments. More Calcium!!

Five eggs today so far, all nice, clean and well shaped. Except for one, which looks a little long and is probably a double yolker. No jumbos today, all seem to be in the 43 gram weight size. Smalls, I think.

I had to give up some of my rice and veggies to entice the birds back into the run when their time was up.

The cockerel is definitely the leader of the pack now. A couple of the hens didn't stay outside long. I think one of the was feeling like laying an egg.

View attachment 3600541View attachment 3600542View attachment 3600543View attachment 3600549View attachment 3600551View attachment 3600552

Your lucky lucky birds with all that grass to scratch around in!

 

[ChicksnMore]

Today was gardening day which usually means treats for everyone. Trimmed my wayward sweet potato vines and the grape vines that were growing into the pathway. Had enough for all the coops to get a little, along with some honeydew skin and seeds. Love the excited sounds they make over their goodies.

 

[Smokerbill]

Your lucky lucky birds with all that grass to scratch around in!

Yes, I guess they are! Most of the grass is dead with weeds growing in it. But there's a patch of evergreen grass next to their run, that's always in the shade and get the drip off of the metal roof where they can get all the green grass they want.

 

[Smokerbill]

Today was gardening day which usually means treats for everyone. Trimmed my wayward sweet potato vines and the grape vines that were growing into the pathway. Had enough for all the coops to get a little, along with some honeydew skin and seeds. Love the excited sounds they make over their goodies.

You know, sweet potato leaves are edible. Grape leaves, too.

 

[Nomadicus]

As many sweet potatoes as we have grown and canned we've never known about the leaves being edible. Next year come hell or high water I want some gold ones and some white ones to make chips out of. Maybe some purple ones too. I think the one that get to big could be pressure cooked and fed to the chickens. Leaves raw of course.

 

[kurby22]

I found an exciting surprise in my unsanctioned eggs (the 23 eggs that we forgot to collect) that are hatching now! It was out of my show bird group so I was more inclined to let them hatch than mixes…

Anywho—my show roosters are a black and a black mottled, and my hens are black, black mottled and lavender. I expected all black or black mottled…but I got this little one

So, I now know that my black mottled rooster is split to lavender!

This is happy news because while I do love my little Squeakers, my first ever d’Anver…he is not show quality at all and thus cannot be used for show bird breeding. So I had decided maybe I wouldn’t do lavenders for awhile cuz I didn’t wanna hatch a ton and track splits. Now I don’t have to, I have a lavender rooster from show stock. Woohoo! Then I lost both of my porcelain babies I hatched this year as well…so I lost my other lavender option. Now I might be able to try lavender mottled

 

[ChicksnMore]

You know, sweet potato leaves are edible. Grape leaves, too.

View attachment 3600791

Yup

 

[ChicksnMore]

I found an exciting surprise in my unsanctioned eggs (the 23 eggs that we forgot to collect) that are hatching now! It was out of my show bird group so I was more inclined to let them hatch than mixes…

Anywho—my show roosters are a black and a black mottled, and my hens are black, black mottled and lavender. I expected all black or black mottled…but I got this little one
View attachment 3600885
So, I now know that my black mottled rooster is split to lavender!

This is happy news because while I do love my little Squeakers, my first ever d’Anver…he is not show quality at all and thus cannot be used for show bird breeding. So I had decided maybe I wouldn’t do lavenders for awhile cuz I didn’t wanna hatch a ton and track splits. Now I don’t have to, I have a lavender rooster from show stock. Woohoo! Then I lost both of my porcelain babies I hatched this year as well…so I lost my other lavender option. Now I might be able to try lavender mottled

I saw pics of lavender mottled orphingtons and just fell in love . Can't wait to see what your lovely little grows up like!

 

[kurby22]

I saw pics of lavender mottled orphingtons and just fell in love . Can't wait to see what your lovely little grows up like!

I know! Lavender mottled is so pretty! I got super lucky! Now I just need to figure out where they’re all gonna go

 

[Shetland lover]

The jumbo egg was a nice double yolker!

View attachment 3600170View attachment 3600171

Wow! My ex-batt, Maud, used to lay eggs that big every day, poor girl. None were double yolkers though!