What did you do with your flock today?

[TropicalBabies]

Oh my! Hawaiian navel oranges are the best! Haven't had one in so long we all need a vacation to go visit you!
As far as feed goes, we don't have Kalmbach locally here. I've been using Purina Homegrown Mixed Flock, since I have young, older, and cocks. Have also used Dumor layer pellets and crumbles, and Producer's Pride layer pellets and crumbles, if the Mixed Flock is out of stock.

Wouldn't that be wildly fun. ♡

 

[ChicksnMore]

Shingles, not good at all. My dad also got them in his scalp, and would flare up. The sensitivity and pain never really went away. Have you all of age gotten your shingles vaccines?

Sounds like you've been a busy bee! I'll scratch plank traps off as not worth it. I'm still debating on the treadle feeders... they're so expensive and I have so many coops. Right now most of my birds have the bucket feeders with portholes. Except for the dwarfs. They drag and scatter the food out of the buckets so it's terribly wasteful. Naughty roos trying hard to look out for the ladies.
Hubby's gotten the vaccine but I haven't yet. Suppose I should mention that to my doc next visit.

 

[ChicksnMore]

Today was mostly housework. Cleaned the brooders, uncovered my plants, watered the garden and made some more sauerkraut for hubby. Need to pick some veggies and freeze them... getting too much to eat fresh. It feels like spring here now, though temps are supposed to drop a tad again this week.
Oldest daughters birthday is Tuesday, so tonight hubby's cooking her a birthday dinner of German food, tomorrow she gets birthday cake and Tuesday is a birthday dinner with friends.
Hubby wants to throw his annual Superbowl party this year...first time since 2020. So coming week will be getting ready for that.
Kirin's getting more and more colorful. Such a sweety...he just sits there and let's me spread his wings out . He's starting to look kinda yokoish with that color!

 

[PopoMyers]

Today was mostly housework. Cleaned the brooders, uncovered my plants, watered the garden and made some more sauerkraut for hubby. Need to pick some veggies and freeze them... getting too much to eat fresh. It feels like spring here now, though temps are supposed to drop a tad again this week.
Oldest daughters birthday is Tuesday, so tonight hubby's cooking her a birthday dinner of German food, tomorrow she gets birthday cake and Tuesday is a birthday dinner with friends.
Hubby wants to throw his annual Superbowl party this year...first time since 2020. So coming week will be getting ready for that.
Kirin's getting more and more colorful. Such a sweety...he just sits there and let's me spread his wings out . He's starting to look kinda yokoish with that color!View attachment 3396955View attachment 3396956

Happy Birthday to your daughter, and Happy celebrations! It'll be a fun week for you. Such pretty coloring on Kirin.

 

[PopoMyers]

Wouldn't that be wildly fun. ♡

We could have a huge hen party!

 

[FBMcrazy8]

Got my eggs going yesterday! So nervous and excited at the same time. So far everything seems to be going good. I wasn’t able to take out the turners, I had some that didn’t ship that I wanted on the turners and for whatever reason I can’t take them out individually. Just crossing my fingers for the best results.

 

[ChicksnMore]

Having fun with eggs today. Dwarf egg size always amazes me. So my oldest has one serama hen left named Salem. She doesn't lay very often anymore, but she did today. Then my alohas layed their first egg today. Her serama weighs about a pound. My dwarfs weigh around 1 1/2 pounds, my yokos weigh 3-4 pounds and my alohas look closer to 6 pounds. I really think dwarfs lay amazing sized eggs for their size!

Here's the basket with more dwarf eggs added... they're good layers too.

 

[Shetland lover]

I can just see hubby's face if I asked for a poultry house bigger than what we live in That Welbeck Abbey one is stunning in size and looks! The house it belongs to must be truly colossal.

Magics an India blue loud pied. Was expecting her to be a silver pied but she colored up heavy.


Fingers crossed she's over the hump and glad you have some warmth. I've never used fermented feed...it's too hot here for outdoor ferments to go well usually. We do a lot of fermenting, but indoors. Temp has a huge effect on fermentation. Heat speeds and cold slows, with 68° being ideal. 24 hours at your temps shouldn't be bad though. A sniff test should tell you. Healthy ferments have a sour but good smell. If it smells unappetizing then your starter grain might have picked up a bad yeast or bacteria over time. Think of the difference in smell between buttermilk, yogurt, sour cream etc and spoiled milk.

Mine too! I think you'd fit our tiny Victorian house in it 10 times over. Rich folks certainly kept their birds in style back then
Welbeck Abbey is massive. It even has an underground ballroom reached by tunnels big enough to take fancy carriages!

I thought Magic was a pied 'something' but I wasn't sure what that was. She's just beautiful. (Ferdy thinks so too, he eyeballs her on screen then gave her a gentle peck and started making 'come hither' noises).

 

[kurby22]

Oh! Thank you all! I had a lovely birthday. Not my shark adventure though, that's not until next year.
We reunited our pigeon friend with her keeper. They were overjoyed to see each other, made my heart melt
I thought we were going to stay overnight in a bnb but DH had arranged a week away in a Landmark Trust property. They save historic buildings from ruin then let them out for holidays. We've stayed in several over the years and they're always a joy to stay in. DH chose Poultry Cottage for us this time. Check out the PDF, they kept their chickens in style in those days! At the end of the PDF, there's a photo of the poultry house at Welbeck Abbey. I grew up pretty much on that estate and I had no idea what that was!

Kurby22, the scrap coop is looking amazing, btw. Did you get the results of JoJo's necropsy?

ChicksnMore, those chicks are so pretty, got a few surprises in feather patterning coming there, methinks And Magic is just stunning! What variety of peafowl is she?

Tropical Babies, such kind words. Not sure I'm deserving but thank you!

Gammas Bearded Babies, how's Lizzie today?

I found a couple of old pictures of the sand tiger I dived with. Here she is in all her toothy glory...

Sounds like a lovely birthday!! And that sand shark adventure looked awesome

I did get the report back :-( He died from severe emaciation and tumors in his kidneys and esophagus. They couldn’t confirm specific cause, just a lymphoproliferative disease. So they assume Mareks because of its commonness, but without further testing they can’t be certain. Since I have lost almost all of my birds from one coop and mostly males—it seems like an odd presentation of Mareks? Especially since some live for months after not walking. Nohope has been inside since early December and aside from not walking he’s totally fine. Eats, drinks, his poop is slightly darker than normal but he’s normal and shows occasional signs of not feeling well. I always read that Mareks was in final stages when they no longer walk. Two months is a long time I’d think, but I can’t say I really would know I guess. But viruses are weird. How can I have so many healthy birds if it’s something so contagious with high mortality? I’ve also read that silkies are really susceptible to both Mareks and ALV and I have three that live in the Death Coop without any issues. Never more than a runny nose. So odd. Soo, I will now be vaccinating all day olds straight from the incubator just to cover all the bases.

 

[kurby22]

Today I took the Sunday as a day of rest, seriously. I got up and enjoyed my coffee and did the NYT crossword, read some news, watched my silly murder shows and took a nap! Aria got in trouble last night for throwing quite an epic tantrum—a characteristic of ADD I’m learning—so she had to earn back some time to play today by doing chores. So I didn’t even do chicken chores! I haven’t taken much of a break since starting my coops, so I chose today while it rained. Aria cleaned, collected eggs, fed and watered, and added fresh bedding to all the inside and outside birds, cleaned the cat box, and put a load of laundry in to start. DH ran errands so I didn’t even have to go to feed store or get groceries! Talk about a great day Nohope and I hung out on the couch together and napped! He now spends every day with me all day. He has a couch box that now comes in to our room for sleeping. He would get sad and upset in his kennel at night so I decided to try the box and he’s much calmer and sleeps all night now. He really hates it when I leave him alone somewhere, he literally yells the whole time I’m gone. Less stress the better! My husband just gave up…at on point Nohope was yelling, the new Cochin rooster boy Wilhelm was screaming like a horror film girl and the d’Uccle was squawking super loud while the dog barked at the mailman it was so loud it was beyond insane and I just giggled so much The house is just pure chaos right now—coops need to be done

I too seem to have temporarily foiled the rats and while they’re clearly still around, they seem to have moved on as a larger group! No more coop breaches lately! Feed is lasting so much longer too! So happy.

Tomorrow will be more coop work and job work! But sunny all week supposedly so I’ll take it!!