Ducklings

Harley & family

Last summer a friend gave me some ducklings, mostly runner ducks crossed with Welsh Harlequins. But one drake looked to be pure WH. Harley is really beautiful with his emerald green head and wing bars, with black and brown on his white body. So I kept him and I got a pretty female from my friend too. She's a little light and does not have as much color on her as I've seen on other WH girls.

She doesn't have a name, I just think of her as Harley's girl or Mamma Duck. She started laying at New Years and laid every day, without a single break until mid April when she went broody.

Now I had read that hatching duck eggs in an incubator is harder than chicken eggs. But I had several hatches of 90-100%. Mamma duck is not very big and was trying to cover too many eggs so I put some in the incubator and left her with 13.

Last week Mamma hatched 10 of her 13 eggs and 2 more babies hatched in the incubator. As soon as they were dried off I gave them to her and everyone has been doing fine.  Harley doesn't bother the babies at all. Oh but don't make Mamma upset because Harley will come to her rescue and Mamma will charge if you try to get to the babies!

All of these babies are for sale, so if you are looking for Welsh Harlequins and are near Globe, Arizona, contact me! (hysong AT cableone DOT net)

A New Chicken Pen

Chain link dog kennels chicken pens

 I have chickens every where right now. Nothing has gone according to plan, so the new coop and runs are not ready yet. So when these dog kennels were advertised locally I jumped on them. A little beat up, a couple holes, I've been working on rewiring them where needed to make them more secure.

 Hard to see, but there are two of those kennels with gates in them, one at each end. Then there are some plain panels to help make a larger area. The original owner cut holes in the sides of the kennels so the center area was accessible to his dogs. Here I've put a leftover chain link panel on top of the far left kennel and wired up some tin.

 New Pens in progress

The idea is to close in this end on the side and back and make this the roosting and nesting area. Covering this end should also help give some shade in the afternoon.

Today when I got home I remembered a large panel of siding nailed to a light weight frame. It was part of the roof of a pop up tent trailer. It covered most of this side, but I didn't get a pic yet.

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In other news, I'm over run with eggs! The light tan ones at 3:00 are from my Buff Orpingtons and Buff crosses. the blue and greens are of course from the easter eggers. In the top are some Welsummer and Wellie crosses and the two dark eggs in the center compartment are from my Black Copper Marans pullets that have recently started laying.

I am not sure who belongs to this gigantor egg. At first I thought it was from one of the Black Copper girls, but when I looked at it again, I'm thinking that it might just be from a young Welsummer pullet in the same pen, as she has suddenly got a red comb. I suppose time will tell. 

More New Layers

New Pullet Eggs

Well some more new girls have begun laying. I have a pen of Black Copper Marans, which lay a very dark egg (well they are supposed to, but sometimes they don't lay as dark as the breeder is hoping for). In with them are some crossbreed girls which are about the same age, some of which have begun laying.

In this picture I found the egg on the right on Thurs and today I collected the egg on the left. Probably from the same girl. One of the Marans girls has a pretty red comb, so I think it belongs to her. I'll try and get some pictures of them up in the next couple of days.

Also today, in another pen one of my young Welsummer pullets left a cute little egg. I love all the freckles! More ducks and chicks are hatching and the weather has been pretty warm and dry. Going to have to water the garden this weekend!

The Chicks Have Arrived!

Chickies!

Well this was a great hatch this time. I am loving this big redwood incubator, it's keeps the temperature and humidity up really well. If I have to open the door, they go right back up where they should be in a just a couple of minutes. Temperature and humidity are really critical when you are incubating eggs. These little guys hatched right on schedule, the early bird was out early in the morning of day 21, which was April 7. About half of them had hatched by the evening.



I had set 46 eggs from my three easter egger hens, a young Welsummer pullet, an old Welsummer hen and a Welsummer / Leghorn cross. They were all bred by my pretty red easter egger rooster, Lil' Red.

Lil' Red

I'll have to take some pictures of their mammas, I don't have many on the computer right now and none of them very good. I had to be gone overnight and when I got home on Monday I pulled all the now dry and fluffy chicks out and marked them so I would know who their parents are when they get bigger. Now there was one egg that had pipped (had a little hole in it) on Sunday. The chick had made no progress at all in almost 36 hours, but was still alive and talking to me. I could see the chick was kind of stuck and beginning to dry out even though the incubator was at 65% humidity. So I chipped some of the shell off and put it back in. In a little while the chick was able to finish hatching on it's own.

The girls from the easter egger hens will lay some shade of blue or light green. The girls from the Welsummer hens will lay some shade of olive, probably from light to a medium shade of olive green.

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Now I've been raising chickens for a while and I don't usually go gaga over chicks, although they are cute. But these guys with their little cheek puffs are extra cute!

Not all of them have puffy cheeks, but a lot of them do and some have bigger cheeks than others. The cheek puffs and later a beard are traits from the Ameraucauna breed of chicken, which is what Easter Eggers are bred from.

There is a range of colors and patterns, most of which will change before they are adults.

More Chickies on the Way

46 eggs set to hatch on 4/7/13

Well I have 46 chicken eggs set to hatch this weekend. The girls from this hatch will all lay some shade of blue or green egg, those hatching from the brown eggs will lay olive.

Ducks and chicks set to hatch 4/14 and 4/21

There are also 29 more chicken and 9 ducks due on April 14. Then on April 21 there are 12 Muscovy duck eggs, 7 Welsh Harlequin ducks and 27 more chickens due.

Easter eggers & Olive eggers going in to hatch.

And tonight I set 27 more chicken eggs!

It's Still All About The Chickens

Buff Orpington chicks

Well it continues to be all about the chickens around here. (oh and yes, some ducks). Some Buff Orpington chicks hatched last weekend and some more are hatching today.

The weather is beautiful, though it is almost too warm out in the sun.

Welsh Harlequin Ducklings

hoop coop

Do you remember the hoop coop I built the first of the year? Remember how little the chickies were? Well all of those babies are growing up. The boys are starting to crow and a couple precocious girls have begun to lay tiny little eggs. (ignore all the junk laying around....)

The new chicken house

I've been working on the new chicken house whenever I can. It is post and beam construction and has required the digging of 8 post holes through rock and the caliche which is like concrete. Sometimes it has taken me two days to dig one hole. But I do go slow and easy and take frequent breaks. I don't have time to hurt myself! But this morning I finally got the last hole dug! The last four posts are plumb, braced and the concrete is poured! Oh Yeah! I might even have a drink to celebrate! The rest of the construction will be easy peasy compared to what the post holes have been!

And why do I go to so much trouble? Because I am having a lot of fun with my chickens. I love to get all the different colors of eggs each day. Can't wait until my Black Copper Marans start laying and add dark chocolate brown to the egg basket!

Eggs from March 12, 2013

SURPRISE!

pullet eggs

Well I had quite a little surprise when I went out to feed the babies this morning. Well I suppose at 3 & 4 months old they aren't really babies any more. Teenagers now, I guess.

Well there were two tiny little pullet eggs in the coop.

tiny first eggs

Two little cross breed pullets had laid their first eggs. These girls are only 16 weeks old. You can see how tiny their eggs are. They will get larger in a few weeks.

Their mammas were the barred rock banties hens I bought last year and their daddy was a mean Buff Orpington rooster. When he became even more human aggressive than he had been, I had mean rooster soup.

 These two girls are very sweet and calm natured. When I get the new  chicken house and pens built I think I will breed them to my Easter Egger boys and see what we get.

Harvest Monday

Duck egg at 6 days of incubation

Welcome to Harvest Monday, sponsored by Daphne's Dandelions, this is a great blog hop to share you garden with others from around the world.

This week has been all about eggs. I have some duck and chicken eggs in the incubator and Friday was day 6 for them. The duck eggs are big and white and easy to see into when you candle them. Here you can see the red blob that is the embryo, with the spiderweb of veins that supports it.

Chicken and duck eggs from 2/22/13

I have several breeds and mixed breeds of chickens which are beginning to lay now. The big white eggs are from the Muscovy ducks and the slightly smaller ones are from the Welsh Harlequin. The green and blue ones from the Easter Egger chickens, the brown ones from my Buff Orpingtons, Welsummer and Welsummer crosses.

eggs from 2/23/13

On Saturday my third Easter Egger started laying, a tiny bluish egg, there in the center. The Muscovy girl seems to have rolled her egg through the mud.

eggs from 2/24/13

Today another new girl started laying; a mix between a Cochin and a Rhode Island Red. That tiny egg at the top center is her first one. I am really excited to have such fun eggs! I'll be selling chicks pretty soon and I'll have eggs to sell at the farmer's market this summer.

Snow!

The weather has been really crazy this week. It snowed on Wednesday. Then yesterday it was so warm I was working outside in a t-shirt and this morning it snowed again!

As you can see not much going on in the garden outside right now!

Harvest Monday

Green Eggs!

Welcome to Harvest Monday! This is a great blog hop sponsored by Daphne's Dandelions, stop by and visit with gardeners from around the world!

I have been gone for awhile because of an issue with my IP and my Google accounts. I couldn't access any of my G. accounts for a long time and couldn't even make a comment on anyone's blogs! I am so glad that I was able to get things resolved with the help of a friendly fellow over on the Google Help Forums.

Now I have some easter egger chickens that lay green and blue eggs. My first one has been laying a couple of weeks, that's her egg on the left. And today another girl started laying, that's her egg on the right. There's a third pullet that should start laying soon and then some more that aren't old enough yet. I'm hoping someone will lay a really blue egg, but not holding my breath.

Got Eggs?

 In the carton here, the white eggs are from my Welsh Harlequin duck, the small pinkish one is from one of the Buff Orpingtons that survived the dog attack last fall. It's amazing she lived; the dog's tooth got her right at the back of her comb, straight into her head. She's blind in one eye and acts a bit goofy but otherwise has made a complete recovery. The light brown eggs are from her sis and the darkest ones from my Welsummer pullet. And of course the green ones from the easter eggers.

Tomato seedlings under lights

I've been trying to get some things planted outside and in. I was so busy over the fall that I didn't get a lot of my usual stuff planted, like peas. I could plant some now, but won't get that many before it is too hot and dry for them, so think I'll just wait and put them in this fall. I do have a small patch of lettuce to pick from and a bigger patch planted. And I've started the tomatoes and peppers under lights in the house.

New Chicken House

I've started a new chicken house, this one will be 12x24 feet. This one is pole barn style and here I've gotten the first two posts set. The ground here is solid caliche clay, which is like trying to dig through concrete, plus a lot of rocks. It has been slow going to dig the holes, but once all of the posts are set it will get easier and faster. (The old tires are part of an erosion control retaining wall I'm building in the wash below this flat piece of ground.)

free wood

This week I also managed some free wood. While some is very short lengths, some is of great usable sizes and kinds.


It'll be a bit before I can get caught up on my harvest tallies, but I have harvested quite a few pounds of duck and chicken meat over the winter also.

Nov & Dec Babies

The chicks hatched or bought in November and December are really growing fast out in the hoop coop. Unfortunately it was a great year for roosters, so many of these boys are destined for freezer camp. By the way that red feed tray is actually the top tray from an old tool box which I found in my junk pile.

Daffy

And today a promise of spring, a clump of daffodils in the front yard is blooming. Seems like we might have a short winter again this year.

Where Have I Been?

Easter Egger rooster

Where have I been? Well there has been an issue with my internet provider. They made changes to their email platform which caused an issue with my Google accounts. This meant that I have not been able to log into and do anything in Blogger or any of my other Google accounts. The issue is finally resolved and now I'm able to access everything once again.

In the meantime I was working my regular job and trying to keep up with things around home. I didn't get as much done in the garden as I had intended over the fall. I have been busy tending to my ducks and chickens. After the dog attack wiped out my layer flock I picked up a lot of young Easter Eggers. Hatcheries call them AmerIcauna. However, they are not a true breed and the spelling of the true breed of chicken is Ameraucauna. Those are a breed that lay blue eggs. The hatchery birds are usually Ameraucauna mixed with other breeds of chickens and they may lay any shade of blue or green egg, occasionally such a light brown it is almost pink.

Eggs from Feb 3

In the ones that I got there are 3 pullets  that are now 5 months old and one has been laying for about a week.

Some of the other girls are also laying now. At the top of the picture, the white egg is from my Welsh Harlequin duck, clockwise the next two are from the Buff Orpington pullets that survived the dog attack. The next three are from the Welsummer and Welsummer cross girls and then the cute little green egg from the Easter Egger.

December chicks

In December I hatched some chicks from shipped eggs and a few I had on hand from my layers after the dogs killed them. In this pick the one in the feed bowl is a blue Ameraucauna, pure bred. The little brown one with chipmunk stripes is a Welsummer. The larger black chicks are Black Copper Marans that were shipped to me from Texas. Due to horrible delays by the post office only 5 chicks out of 20 survived.

hoop coop

So I built a hoop coop, which could also become a greenhouse if I don't need it for chickens.

Chicks in the hoop coop

The black & white and gold & black chicks are from the layers that I lost. The white ones are definitely boys, to gold ones could be girls, but I'm not positive yet.

Fried Chicken

The boys are named Fried Chicken and Swims with Dumplings, they are mixed breed and I don't need them for breeding, so they will go to freezer camp when they are big enough. The girls can stick around as layers.

Black Copper Marans

Besides the shipped chicks, I also hatched out 2 Black Copper Marans chicks from shipped eggs, but I think they are both boys. I also purchased chicks from another breeder and drove nearly 5 hours to pick them up.

Out of 20 chicks it looks like I might have 4 girls. That's the way my chicken luck went all year.

I'll try and get some pictures of garden happenings this weekend, if it doesn't actually snow like they are saying it will.....