Black australorps- 3 months old

Black australorps

Our latest hatch of black australorps hatched mostly yesterday. Dianne says they look like little penquins, pretty cute and chubby. We ended up with 23. They should be laying this spring!!

Homemade waterer heater

A few people have asked me how I made my heater. The first item is a utility pan 3.99 at tractor supply, then I used a scrap piece of metal or a board will do. Make sure it is a little larger than the pan. Then I used a 2 bulb lamp fixture, The one I used you can move the bulbs up and down to vary the heat so you can use it with a plastic or metal waterer, mount the fixture in the center on the bottom piece and then I used weather stripping under the edge of the pan, there is enough lip so you can use small screws to mount the top (pan) to the bottom. Chickens will peck at silicone that's why I didn't use it. The weather stripping will keep water from getting in if it is splashed or the waterer tips over.Total cost about 10.00.

Recouping!!!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. With my wife Dianne having breast cancer and everything else going on it's been tuff!! I plan on posting more pics and stuff later. I've been recouping my coop and cages, lost a lot of birds over the summer to all kinds of predators. I'm doubling the wire and installing an electric fence and have a camera for the night time. I,m up all hours of the night anyway!! Down to 2 birds so fixing stuff is pretty easy. Got 34 black australorp eggs in the incubator now, I'll post pics when they hatch, they will hatch a little before CHRISTmas. In the process of getting other birds so I'll be up and doing good this spring for everyone who wants birds or hatching eggs!!!
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kittens

Stray cat had kittens in our shed, they are hid pretty well. I saw one out and got a pic before it went back and hid!!

Golden laced cochins

I'm very proud how our cochins are doing, about a year old now.

Cinnamon Queens

We got some cinnamon queens this year to try. We've never had any so we figured we would see how they do!! Pictured are almost 2 months old..One easter egger in the back.

Bob white quail

Our quail are now almost 4 months old now. Recently seperated them into breeder cages.

Ice storm quail

Can,t believe our quail are hatching, even with the power going off for 3 hours yesterday!!  We got 10 so far.

Checking the ice out!!

Ice

Don't like ice, chickens don't either!!!!

Baby Ducks

We finally got some duck eggs to hatch. They hatched the week of CHRISTmas and hatched some chicks thanksgiving. They are all doing fine despite the cold. We have bobwhite quail in the incubator now, they should hatch at the end of the month.

Easter Eggs

Got our first eggs from our easter egg pullet, we had two but lost one and a buff orpington to the ducks before I figured out what happening. Plan on getting more in a month or two, hope it's warmer than it is now! Hard to tell in the picture, but their light green.

Brrr!!!! COLD!!!

Had to put the ducks back in with the chickens because of the cold, which is not safe for the hens. The ducks don't use the nest,they lay their eggs right in front of the door.Quess it's cold enough to freeze an egg!!! Instead of being hot enough to fry one?

Nest box

Built a new nest box this weekend out of a scrap peice of plywood.Put old carpet pad in the bottom for a liner,going to put wood chips in also. Not having any luck with my duck eggs hatching, so far they haven't been fertile. I made their pond a little deeper maybe that will help. Any advice anybody has will be appreciated. Our blue swede duck started laying too, her eggs are not as big as our pekin's. Maybe some of hers will be fertile. Our easter egg pullets should start laying any day now, can't wait to see what color they are!! Kitty our handicapped brown leghorn should too, don't know if it will take a little longer because of her deformities or not. If she's real hungry she'll fly up on your shoulder. I still have to feed her seperate from the others, she can only eat mash and it's got to be deep.

Winter coop

Fixed up part of our shed for a coop this winter, our other one was getting too small and didn't keep them warm very well. Since we have ducks this winter we had to change to a different waterer. Ducks will empty a regular chick water in a matter of minutes. Sure not going to have to walk through the mud to feed and water any more.

Beadwork

We were do some cleaning this weekend and I found some items I'd been saving. When I was a teen I was in scouts and use to  dress up as indians and dance at different events and parades etc. I ran across some beadwork that I had done. Brought back memories. And no, Dianne never saw me dance!!!

Quail

14 out of 16 quail eggs hatched halloween night,not bad. Sold them yesterday. Done for the season. Our broody hens had 3 hatch this weekend also. Ducks should start hatching next week. They will be hatching off and on till CHRISTmas. We'll wait and see how many we get.

Deer

A friend of ours killed his first deer of the season on the top of the ridge behind our house, a nice 4 point. He's seen some more but they were too small. It's bow hunting only where he killed this one.

Fall thinning

Sold all my quail this weekend, plus have our eggs in the incubator sold when they hatch. We gave our dominique rooster to a friend who lost her's recently. We are missing a black cochin pullet, don't know where she went. Still have 3 roosters left, 2 we will never get rid of. Planning on raising bobwhite quail this spring instead japenese quail. Have a few people wanting them.We still have 28 chinckens all pullets except 3. We have 2 broody hens on eggs, plus I think a golden laced cochin's going broody so I'll let her set on a few eggs and maybe a duck egg or 2. I would like some more ducks. We'll wait and see how it goes!!