What did you do with your flock today?

[TropicalBabies]

Oh my gosh, peapen (lol) looks fabulous and so does the hungry boy ♡ @ChicksnMore . Mahalos for the fun share!
@kurby22 my boy Spider has 1/8 Ameraucana. Just enough to throw me off cuz they have the slow to mature Brahma along with the Ameraucanas just plain hard to tell until they crow genes. I had one boy who I was on the fence about till he was 4-5mo. Then he just bloomed beautifully. Always a lesson in chicken world for me.
I think if I just assume they are all boys I can be thrilled when I get girls. prepare for the worst but hope for the best!

Well, just dropped DH @ the airport for emergency family trip. 94yo mom fell and is now in hospital awaiting hip surgery. Not good. Deep sigh.
I have been up since 4am (not completely unusual) and am grateful for coffee today too! Seems I am in good company.
I like my fairly fresh ground in a French press.

 

[kurby22]

Oh my gosh, peapen (lol) looks fabulous and so does the hungry boy ♡ @ChicksnMore . Mahalos for the fun share!
@kurby22 my boy Spider has 1/8 Ameraucana. Just enough to throw me off cuz they have the slow to mature Brahma along with the Ameraucanas just plain hard to tell until they crow genes. I had one boy who I was on the fence about till he was 4-5mo. Then he just bloomed beautifully. Always a lesson in chicken world for me.
I think if I just assume they are all boys I can be thrilled when I get girls. prepare for the worst but hope for the best!

Well, just dropped DH @ the airport for emergency family trip. 94yo mom fell and is now in hospital awaiting hip surgery. Not good. Deep sigh.
I have been up since 4am (not completely unusual) and am grateful for coffee today too! Seems I am in good company.
I like my fairly fresh ground in a French press.

Ahh, yeah I gotcha. I am going to have similar issues! All my accidental backyard mixes are 1/2 Ameraucana and 1/2 Orp or Marans....they are all feathering in at different rates, and different comb expressions. Chickens never cooperate! They're like plants and everything else in nature...they do what they want instead of what we expect haha. I like the attitude of assume they are all boys

I hope your DH's mom is okay!! 4 am is awful early...yucko! I too love a good French Press cup of coffee!

 

[FrankieDoodle]

Beautiful birds @kurby22 . Kids must be having a blast with mommy's obsession lol. Good to have partners in crime yes?
Hope everyone got to spend some quality time with their birds this weekend. I did and did not. It was so humid after the rains and with the heat yesterday was unbearable and the mosquitoes were thick and disgusting too. Today was MUCH better! We got some nice trades and the nasty biters hopefully got blown out to sea 🌬

I have been scratching my head over my 3.5 month old chickens and maybe someone on or visiting this thread can help me out. I would have bet that I had 5 cockerels and maybe 2 pullets after all my sales. But now I'm thinking 2 of the suspect cockerels look a little pulletish. I think the colors def say cockerel in this one but comb and feathering say pullet. This is not the first time my mixes keep me guessing for way too long.View attachment 3119590check blind Mochi hunting the chicks in the play brooder. Bless that kitty ♡.View attachment 3119589
Here are some same hatch boys in the mix. Sorry, they were trying to mug me for treats so no one was being photo cooperative. But you see what I am saying? Shall I dare hope that I was wrong and may have 4 pullets?!! That would make this hatchs ratio an anomaly. 5 cockerels and 10 pullets View attachment 3119591View attachment 3119598

I’m terrible at sexing birds, but those look like pullets to me. I’d imagine that at 3.5 months you’d be seeing a lot more masculine features. The tails on your confirmed boys look pretty pointy compared to the others.
They’re all gorgeous!

 

[FrankieDoodle]

Yesterday I almost saw Watson become dog food to my neighbors GS.

I went out there when everyone was fussing, couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary except for one of the wild doves in the birdbath, which tends to scare them for some reason. Came back in, and maybe about 5 minutes later everyone started screaming again. I almost didn’t go back out there because I thought it was the bird again, but when I looked out the window everyone was standing tall, all the ducks, chickens, all of them. Normally there’s at least a few who still mindlessly scratch around, so I thought that was weird.
Got out just in time to see Watson cornered outside the fence by the GS. He’s normally pretty chill, so he paused when I yelled at him long enough to get her inside. At that point he was over it and went home.

I checked her over and she’s fine, just a little shaken up. She acting totally normal today, thankfully. I’m really glad I went out there. I almost didn’t.

 

[TropicalBabies]

I’m terrible at sexing birds, but those look like pullets to me. I’d imagine that at 3.5 months you’d be seeing a lot more masculine features. The tails on your confirmed boys look pretty pointy compared to the others.
They’re all gorgeous!

Yes, and 2 of them are starting to mate my hand already ... so, there is that...

 

[TropicalBabies]

Yesterday I almost saw Watson become dog food to my neighbors GS.

I went out there when everyone was fussing, couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary except for one of the wild doves in the birdbath, which tends to scare them for some reason. Came back in, and maybe about 5 minutes later everyone started screaming again. I almost didn’t go back out there because I thought it was the bird again, but when I looked out the window everyone was standing tall, all the ducks, chickens, all of them. Normally there’s at least a few who still mindlessly scratch around, so I thought that was weird.
Got out just in time to see Watson cornered outside the fence by the GS. He’s normally pretty chill, so he paused when I yelled at him long enough to get her inside. At that point he was over it and went home.

I checked her over and she’s fine, just a little shaken up. She acting totally normal today, thankfully. I’m really glad I went out there. I almost didn’t.

Oh my goodness. So glad you got out there in time. Boy, I know that sound and look you are talking about and all the false alarms too. Good catch

 

[kurby22]

Yesterday I almost saw Watson become dog food to my neighbors GS.

I went out there when everyone was fussing, couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary except for one of the wild doves in the birdbath, which tends to scare them for some reason. Came back in, and maybe about 5 minutes later everyone started screaming again. I almost didn’t go back out there because I thought it was the bird again, but when I looked out the window everyone was standing tall, all the ducks, chickens, all of them. Normally there’s at least a few who still mindlessly scratch around, so I thought that was weird.
Got out just in time to see Watson cornered outside the fence by the GS. He’s normally pretty chill, so he paused when I yelled at him long enough to get her inside. At that point he was over it and went home.

I checked her over and she’s fine, just a little shaken up. She acting totally normal today, thankfully. I’m really glad I went out there. I almost didn’t.

Poor Watson!! That’s so scary Chickens alert at so many things it’s easy to think they are crying wolf! I may not have checked again either…so good that you paid close attention to their body language too!

 

[kurby22]

Yes, and 2 of them are starting to mate my hand already ... so, there is that...

Haha, yeah Little Ferdinand the Brahma-Cochin boy is only 8 weeks old and mounting the silkies already Very early hormone surge! In comparison to my other boys he is light years ahead! I knew he was a boy by 2 weeks! He’s also super vocal, even when he’s not needing to be. Just noise noise noise! And of course even though Aria knows he’s a boy and isn’t likely to stay since we have so many already…she’s decided he’s her new project to make him so nice I won’t rehome him We have some time to see how he works out I guess! He does love pets and snuggles

Also my BLRW is looking like she will be a super sweet bird. This was her tonight just enjoying some attention

 

[pennyJo1960]

Hey good morning. Have to figure out what the silkie hatched.

 

[TropicalBabies]

Hey good morning. Have to figure out what the silkie hatched.

Oh what fun! Looking forward to the update ♡

Also my BLRW is looking like she will be a super sweet bird. This was her tonight just enjoying some attention

Oh my, that is sweet kinda like a kitty lol.

Well, good morning gang! 2 nice cups of Joe already, yum!
With DH on Oahu my daily chores are increased so now I have to plan my day a little better. Actually feels good to be a bit busy and to be back on horse duty. They miss their mom forsure so I am going to spend a few hours at the pasture letting them graze as tomorrow I will make the time to work them in the round pen and then go for a ride. Let's hope the weather does not blister.
Went for my walk a little late today, did the chicken shuffle and clean and now gotta get them back in the run b4 I head out. Loving today's rhythm.
Fast forward. At the pasture with the mules and it is a perfect day.

We have some nice grass after the rains so I am going to go cut some for my chooks nesting material. They will love a freshening up.