New Happenings

The Silkie Tribe 

Well things around here have been totally insane. I have been working crazy amounts of overtime while my boss recovers from surgery. Hopefully things will settle down soon. Some days it was all I could do to make sure everyone had food and water. Today was my first day in 28 days.

So I let some of the birds out to run. The weather was really nice; the iris, tulips and lilacs are blooming. Here the Silkies enjoyed a day in the sunshine from the front, Mr. A. Snowman, Precious, Black Magic, Fiona, Smokey.

Fiona is the girl that was broody, her foster chicks are off in the bushes taking dust bathes.

Bianca is broody

I'm afraid little Princess & Roger were killed by an unknown predator. After that I moved Miss Bianca in with the other Silkies where she would be safer. What I didn't realize was that she was making a nest. She was still coming out every morning for breakfast and with my work schedule I wasn't paying a lot of attention. So I have no idea how long she has been sitting on these eggs. Guess we will just wait for the chicks to show up when they are ready.

Precious

Little Precious was apparently injured and spent some time in the house recovering last month. I didn't know that Silkies were prone to brain trauma from head injuries such as another bird pecking them on the head.

But she is well now and doing fine with the other Silkies. I think it was a rambunctious little rooster of another breed that was in with them that injured her.

The Kennels with the chicken house

I bought a large kennel new and found another smaller one on craigslist so have been busy getting them all set up to use for breeding and growing out youngsters. It's still a bit chilly at night and the wind has been blowing; therefor still needing tarps and plastic on the sides. Pretty quick I"ll have to change it out for shade cloth.

Claude

Claude is a really big chicken. My son saw him and remarked "That is a big freakin' chicken Mom!". My grandson saw him today and said "That is a big chicken!"

Claire 

Hennrietta

 I have been hatching babies from Claude and Hennrietta, have 11 chicks now with more hatching today. Maybe another day soon I'll be able to get pictures of all the babies I have!

Buff Plymouth Rocks

Buff Plymouth Rocks

Awhile back I picked up six buff Plymouth Rocks from a new friend. She can't have roosters where she lives right now but likes to breed standard poultry and asked me to be one of her breeding partners. It looks like I've got four girls and two boys.









They have been in the baby coop and are so funny, they have been total scaredy cats. Er, chicken. They have been refusing to come out of their little cozy space. So finally the other day I crawled in and tossed them out (a couple of them more than once!). The usual color of Plymouth Rocks that most people know is the black and white Barred Rock. The buff color has become quite rare. I happen to love buff, in the sun they look like little golden birds.

The barred Rock was the first variety developed in New England and shown in 1849. Several other varieties were developed and today the American Poultry Association recognizes 7 color varieties. Plymouth Rocks were developed as dual purpose farmstead birds, producing good quantities of both meat and eggs. The White Rock variety is still used in developing strains and hybrids of fast growing meat birds. At one time Plymouth Rocks were the most extensively raised breed of chicken in the United States.

My friend and I will be working together next year to decide which birds to use for breeding. We want to make this variety more available to the general public, especially in the western US.