What did you do with your flock today?

[Nomadicus]

One more thing I did with a pen of Bresse girls... I took all the eggs from a ground nest they had hidden from me and fed them to crows. I have no way to know how old they were and no hen appears to be broody so.... Now I know to watch that spot in the coop. I'm running a white giant cockerel with them so just maybe I'll get some Giant x Breese hatching eggs after a couple more months. The roo is still young but very hormonal. He's starting to learn how to use them. He's a week shy of being 6 months old.

 

[Shetland lover]

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

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I make dolmas with the vine leaves from our grapes. If I can get them before the chickens!
We're having dolmas with Sunday lunch today. I'm making a Turkish/Greek meze: Biber dolmasi, Shepherds salad, sigara borek, fragrant rice, pepper paste, cacik and whatever else I have time to do - probably something with pomegranates.

 

[Shetland lover]

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.

I share my sweet potatoes with the chickens too. DH can't stand them.... fool!

 

[Shetland lover]

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
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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

Congratulations! What an adorable baby and such a fabulous surprise!

I'd like to breed more chicks from Ferdy, despite all his gold leakage, as he should have some lavender babies but no space and I think the only way to guarantee some lavender chicks is to mate him back to a lavender hen - which I ain't got!

 

[kurby22]

Congratulations! What an adorable baby and such a fabulous surprise!

I'd like to breed more chicks from Ferdy, despite all his gold leakage, as he should have some lavender babies but no space and I think the only way to guarantee some lavender chicks is to mate him back to a lavender hen - which I ain't got!

You could always mate his daughter back to him!

Another surprise baby hatched late last night. It looks like it might be white

 

[Nomadicus]

It's very hot out but all the kids have vittles and water. Not much more to do until the sun is a lot lower down.

 

[kurby22]

It's very hot out but all the kids have vittles and water. Not much more to do until the sun is a lot lower down.

Same here! We put out some ice packs, refreshed waters, checked food, turned on misters, and checked on all the freshly hatched babies. Now we are all resting in the ac! It’s 103 at the moment

 

[TropicalBabies]

I've been digging in the compost with my grandkids and catching big fat cockroaches to feed their chickens Now, that is my idea of a good time!

 

[Nomadicus]

We had a store bought supper plate tonight AKA frozen dinners. We left a dab on the plates for Rosie to keep her thinking she is family. I'm worried about her as she has had what seemed to be 2 lash eggs. Every minute spent with her is a joy.

 

[Nomadicus]

Rosie helped grade the eggs tonight