What a GEORGEOUS DAY IT WAS TODAY! Whew! No really, just fantastic. Sunny, cool breezes, warm to almost hot at times in the sun. What a great day for working around the yard and getting some things done, which is exactly what we did! Breeding Pens have been arranged and the chickens have been divided. All in all I gotta say, all the cooped chickens took it really well! All recovering from the shock of being moved, in fact in Pen #3 there are 4 hens huddled in the corder on their new nest baskets, and in the aviary Coop #2 everyone is sleeping in a huddle ontop of the blue storage bin that I have in their for them to nest in for a while!
While all that went well, swapping Big Blue out for his brother Black did NOT go as well as we hoped. Sure Black was happy to get himself a flock of ladies, but Blue was NOT HAPPY to be suddenly sharing the yard with Wattles, our favorite Buff Orpington Rooster, he’s almost a year old now and has pretty much had run of this place since he got here. Well.. next to Blue, Wattles looks like a midget and we had to stand by with only minor intervention and let them “establish the new pecking order” unfortunately once they started to draw a tiny amount of blood we pretty much cut that off. I know they have to do it at some point, but they did argue for about 15 minutes, Wattles DID seem to want to mostly give up, and so I’m going to accept that as progress. I mean it’s unrealistic for me to expect them to work it all out at once without killing one another! They have no logic, they are only instinct. So Wattles has already backed down a few times, we’ll let them cool off and try to let them around eachother again but be ready to seperate them. We don’t want any blood if at all possible, and that’s my top priority. SO… I scooped up Blue and my daughter grabbed Wattles and I put Blue in the Freedom Coop and closed up the plastic to encourage him to stay a few minutes (it’s totally open really and just has plastic draping around it) and hurried to help my daughter setup Wattles on the front porch under the table of showbirds. It’s one of those 6’ long work tables you can fold up and put away and he’s been sleeping under there on the coldest nights with a red flood light & a pile of hay, so he’s familiar with the setup. About the time we got him closed up in there sufficiently so that he can’t break out (using an old screen door to block off the table along the front because the side was already closed up to keep him warm those nights) anyway about that time Blue made his way out of the Freedom coop and was assessing his new situation, trying to figure out how he might make his way back into the hen house or aviary. It was a whirlwind kind of day really. We did all of the just before sunset so everyone wouldn’t have a lot of time to fuss, and so far that seems like it was a great idea.
We also put 6 eggs under our Black Orpington broody hen! She has been trying to incubate eggs for almost 2 weeks now, so focused. I noticed that she even started sleeping in the nest boxes even though we always remove the eggs. So I decided to give her some eggs to hatch and see how she does! By all strokes of luck she fortunately picked the “broody box” to set in, I suppose that is kudos to the designer which is me of course! It’s a two seater so to speak and now I’ve removed all the hay from the other side and that’s where we’ll put some food & water for her. When it comes time to hatch, IF we get that far, her box can be seperated from the rest of the hen house safely, without disturbing her or the chicks! Turns out it was a great design after all! Well, I don’t have high hopes, I’m sure the weather will go into a winter freeze in the middle of this and really the hen house is an open design so it’s likely the eggs will not be able to stay as warm as they need. But.. the idea of freshly hatched chicks by my own hen is just too appealing to not let her try! What if she’s not in the mood later on? Maybe she’ll love sitting on eggs so much she be my third incubator!
On a whole NUTHER note, I have received my first order for Gold Lace Orpington Project Eggs! It’s not paid for yet of course because it’ll be a month before I know for sure that the matings are taking, well maybe only 3 weeks really. But I am very excited to have someone interested already in working on this project! I think it’s fantastic if I can spread these around and other people with different or better resources can avoid this first step and get on with step 2! That’s fantastic in my opinion. I have my fingers crossed that we will just magically yield LOTS AND LOTS of straight combs with pink leggs.
I still haven’t heard from Sandhill Preservation but I’ve learned one thing in the poultry industry, patience is a virtue! Lots of waiting when you get involved with chickens! Wait for chicks, wait for them to get feathers, wait for them to lay eggs, wait for crowing, wait for fertile eggs, wait for incubation, wait for chicks and start all over again!!! LOL If you want a special breed, gosh forbid, you’ll have to do some more waiting! Like I’m waiting now, waiting to get a reply, waiting to hear if my order has been accepted, waiting to recieve my new turkey poults and white orpingtons one day hopefully this summer. Waiting, therapy for someone like me with little to no patience in the past.
Well, thanks to Daylight Savings time it’s now 1:09am and I’m just now getting tired. Why do things have to change? I was JUST getting used to that, but alas, life is a rollercoaster, and nothing remains the same. Well.. get out there and start tilling your gardens people! No better time than the present, unless your farther up north, in which case I say MOVE SOUTH, I did, it’s worth it!