What did you do with your flock today?

[kurby22]

My new chicks came today! I was so hoping to get a lavender chick because I saw that someone had gotten the genes in a batch of chicks they bought from Greenfire this year. All those eggs and these chicks were gotten in the hopes I'd get lucky. Well I think I did! One chick is all white with a little grey spot on its head where usually you see blacks and/or red. Either way they're absolutely adorable. One had a pasty butt but still looks healthy and the other six are vigorous. Added a little medicine to their water but expect they'll all make it. They sent one extra so seven new fluff balls View attachment 3809588View attachment 3809590

EEEE!!! I think you did get lucky!!! That one should be wrapped in bubble wrap now Did they come from GFF again? Or from someone else? SO pretty!!!

 

[ChicksnMore]

I KNOW, someday maybe! I too have so many on my list of must haves but not till I have a LOT more space and time haha. I want them all in all the colors!!

I have a friend that loves to tell about how she asked for maid service to clean her house when she retired. She told her family otherwise she wasn't really retired. !

Maybe what we need is chicken coop maid service so we'd have enough time to enjoy more! Nevermind...then I'd be too broke to feed them anyway

 

[ChicksnMore]

The previous roo, Joel, was attentive to the girls, tidbitting them, watching over his girls...but he had a seizure and died in January. He had a good temperament.
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Samuel never tidbitted the hens.

Sounds like Samuel was best replaced for sure. Roos that don't tidbit the hens aren't respectable roos. Joel was gorgeous ! Do you have a local source that you can choose a new bird from?

 

[ChicksnMore]

EEEE!!! I think you did get lucky!!! That one should be wrapped in bubble wrap now Did they come from GFF again? Or from someone else? SO pretty!!!

Greenfire again. I saw they had chicks up and I was behaving. But then they added an Easter sale discount and I just had to Saved $70 on them ..not bad at all!

 

[Smokerbill]

O my gosh that's adorable! They really love the nest box you built them don't they

Sure seems that way!

 

[PopoMyers]

Note to self: don't use styrofoam in the coop. I tried putting the feeder up on a thick styrofoam cooler lid and the flock started eating it!

They seem to love Styrofoam. I made the same discovery as you when I thought I'd be smart and use it for a little brooder outside.

 

[PopoMyers]

I don't know what it is about the stuff but chickens just love it! Weirdos...

I try to buy stuff without Styrofoam packaging but sometimes it's unavoidable. What I don't use for pot drainage or insulation, I turn to glue. It's strong stuff!

How do you make glue from it?

 

[PopoMyers]

I finally hung a bag of 99+% elemental sulfur across the entrance/exit between the coop and the day run. Every time they pass through, they bump the bag and a tiny bit of sulfur powder dusts their back.

Sulfur is supposed to be great for preventing and controlling mites and lice on chickens. Now the chickens take care of pest control all by themselves.

I used a piece of floating row and some double sided tape to make the bag, stapled it across the doorway, then dumped in some powdered sulfur. It should work. When I bump my hand against it a bit of the sulfur comes out.

I've read that just a little bit of the sulfur is all it takes.

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So clever!

 

[PopoMyers]

Today I did a full inventory of all my chicks I’ve hatched this year. Took forever haha. I didn’t take pics of every single chick but got a couple of the ones growing out really nice. Also got a group picture of all my watermaals I’ve recently hatched and the bobtail that hatched today

Also had a poultry project meeting that went fine until we wrapped things up. The youngest kid at the house we were at didn’t shut the door fast enough and let out their young, maniacal German short hair puppy. That dog moved SO fast!! She found an opening thru a kids legs into the main yard…and proceeded to take off after the free ranging chickens! Everyone went after the puppy and left the other gate open and her three dwarf goats went thru the open gate onto the deck where we were practicing and beelined straight for the landscaping The one goat was properly admonished for its naughtiness but the other goat was quite uninterested in listening and pulled a “cat on a leash” and just flopped down and refused to move So while people were running all over trying to catch the puppy, the chickens were squawking and freaking out, kids were yelling, and the goats were bleating It wasn’t funny at the time, but afterwards I couldn’t stop giggling at the chaos

We are all exhausted and tired from the weekend and wishing we had another day before Monday.

Oh, to have taken a video of the mayhem! That would have made AFV, or an animal funny channel.

 

[PopoMyers]

Thank you. That's so sweet.

I'm actually hoping to introduce a different cockerel to the gene pool as all the Speckled Sussex chicks got the recessive and non-Standard yellow shanks, all were Samuel's. I will still keep any yellow shank pullets for eggs, but not for breeding.

I'm not a Standard snob, but there are not a lot of Speckled Sussex bantam sources out there. I want to produce the best I can for the breed.

And thank you to all who have been kind about my experience.

Your knowledge of chicken genetics is so fascinating. @ChicksnMore @kurby22 as well.