I've been too busy to keep up here. It was planting and chick season, so I've been super busy. Plus building a big coop for the 11 chicks I special ordered. I had to sell lil Mr.M and Mini, the neighbors were complaining about the crowing. Sticky had to go too, but I have the hen babies from all of them.
Libra is beautiful and growing well, no eggs yet. MrM's last batch of chicks are doing well also. One of them laid her first egg.
The left one is a medium egg, the right is a large egg. Her's is so tiny. They will get bigger!
Here are Mr. M's last chicks.
They are going up to my mom's, to live in a beautiful coop with a large run. I have 2 bushes to plant in their run, and shade cloth since my stepfather has the idea that you can't grow anything in an old alfalfa field. Won't he be surprised!
Lil Mr.M and Mini went to a farm out in the country where they will start the couple's Polish chicken breeding farm. They will be kept separate and have lots of babies. Sticky is not far from us, also to be used as a breeding rooster. He was stunning! Absolutely perfect! I was hoping to keep him but the neighbors were standing around my property with pitchforks. No not really, but the gal next door works at home now, so I can't blame her. They annoy me too.
@Zoogal, do you have any cute or funny stories about your flock?
I had two hens go broody for the first time, and both were less than a year old. Monkey and Big Bird were raised together. They went broody together and shared the eggs. When Big Bird's eggs hatched, one baby was abandoned and died. The two left, Bert and Ernie, were shared at night. Big Bird would take an egg and chick, and so would Monkey. Big Bird abandoned her chicks early, at 3 weeks, so Monkey would sit on them at night. Only one of Monkey's eggs hatched, and the poor little chick fell out of the nest and was shrieking in the pen, so I put her back. Big Bird was laying eggs in that coop, so Monkey kept sitting on them. We named the chick Peanut, and I found her the next afternoon in the pen shrieking. I kicked Monkey out of the coop, shut the door, but she still wouldn't take the baby. Bert and Ernie are wild and scrappy chicks, so there was no hope that they would adjust to the baby. I don't want any more chicks, so I didn't want to buy another, since Doris is sitting on 6, and Sissy hasn't gone broody yet. It's not good to raise a lone chick with humans, as they need to learn to be a chicken.
When Bert and Ernie hatched, I bought two day old chicks for Monkey, and even then she took them and would sit on them, but wouldn't take care of them. My son took them to raise. I put Peanut in with my son's chicks, who were 3 weeks old, still babies, and the one without a name took Peanut and tried to sit on her to keep her warm. She showed Peanut how to eat, and sleeps with Peanut on her back or under her wing. Nature is amazing! A baby taking full care of a hatchling, when a hen can't figure it out! I just can't get over how strong the mothering instinct is in some and not in others. After Peanut had settled in, Monkey, who was kicked out of the broody coop, decided to take over Bert and Ernie, so now everyone has a mom. Sort of. I'm hoping Monkey does better on her next brood. I should really sell them, since I have 2 broodys already, but Doris and Sissy are 5 years old. Life expectancy is 6 to 8 years for backyard hens, but my animals seem to live forever. Monkey is a beautiful bird, and Big Bird lays dark brown eggs, so I don't want to sell them.
Someone, and I won't name names, cough *Doc* cough, broke into the garden and left the door open. I was working in another area nearby, so I caught them right away, but they had eaten 8 broccoli plants and dug up a zucchini. I replanted some more starts I had, but boy, they can clean out your garden in 5 minutes!
