6/27/18 Cement, Silkies and Moremixing

mixing cement

After doing chores at mom's this morning I got to my place about 6. First thing I made a batch of cement and slogged it up the hill to reenforce the fence posts.

Buff Orpington and other chicks

Then I fed and watered the birds at my house. Funny how different breeds of chicks show different temperaments even at a young age. This pen with several Buff Orpingtons is much calmer than a younger pen with mostly Ameraucana, those chicks act like they are being attacked every time I even open the door.

spring hatched silkie

Silkies are usually the calmest of all. They make great pets and like to snuggle.

squash on a trellis

The big squash vines are beginning to run, this trellis has spaghetti, red kuri and trombonccino. By August you will see nothing but green here.

The Mail o.o

I spent most of the morning watering and moving hoses around. Then headed for the house. A huge pile of mail to sort out and bills to pay. Then went to visit mom. My daughter and grand daughters came to visit. We sorted out some junk for a yard sale. Later I did regular chores and now as soon as I feed the dogs, I'm headed for bed.

good night world

Going to a Chicken Show

The show hall

Over the weekend I attended a fun chicken show. It was a double show put on by the Apache County and Four Corners poultry clubs. It's a lot of work getting the birds ready for a show, they have to be bathed and checked over, nails and beaks trimmed. We oil their legs and combs to make them shinier and to bring their color out.

Black Silkie hen

When you go to a double show you pay double entry fees, but you save on hotel bills and travel expenses. This show is very nice and has some nice awards, which darn I didn't take any pictures of.

One of my black Silkie hens was Best of Breed in one show and Reserve of Breed in the other. Since there were quite a few Silkies entered that was pretty good. One of my blue hens was Best Variety in one show and 3rd place in the other.

Buff Ameraucana cockerel

My buff Ameraucana cockerel was Reserve Breed in one show and Reserve Variety in the other. There were only about 5 Ameraucana entered in total but still not bad. He does have a large number of faults that I'll be working on going forward.

Buff Ameraucan hen

My buff Ameraucana hen was 2nd place in both shows, but her competition won the class, AOSB (Any Other Standard Breed)

Me and some of my chicken buddies, Marcia and Suze

I didn't get any more pics of my chickens, silly me. I was too tired by the afternoon. A couple of my Welsh Harlequin drakes traded off being Best Light Duck and Reserve Light Duck. they didn't have a lot of competition though. 

If you've never been to a chicken show it is a lot of fun and pretty amazing to see all the different breeds. Next time I'll try to take more pictures.

Part of My Mornings

chicks in the house

Well this is a little bit of my morning around here; after a bit of tea and getting dressed, feed and water the newest babies in the house, these were hatched about a week ago.

Silkie babies from August hatch

Then outside to feed birds, A couple of pens of Silkies including  these babies that hatched in January. I still can't tell for sure which are boys or girls.

2-3 week olds

Then out to the small hoop coop by the house, feed the 2-4 week olds, mostly easter eggers and olive eggs, a couple of Buff Orpingtons in there.

4 week olds, OE/ EE and Buff Orpingtons

feed wagon

Then I load the buckets of feed and Giotto's breakfast on the wagon and head for the main coops

6-8 weeks

My bigger hoop coops are divided into 3 sections; first up the 6-8 week olds; some sexlinked crosses (you can tell males from color at hatch), along with more easter eggers and olive eggers and a few pure bred Ameraucana.

Silkie with foster chicks

The next section is a pair of Silkies with easter egger foster chicks. As soon as I finish a coop for the Silkies to go into, I'll open the door and integrate these chicks in with the others.There are a couple of Buff Orpington pullets in the last section but I didn't get a pic of them this morning.

Black Copper Marans and Buff Orpington

After feeding a pair of Ameracauna, feed the babies next door These hatched in January

Buff Orpington pullets

These two Buff Orpingtons are in one of the breeding pens, I'll be hatching just a few from these girls for myself. ;-)

Next the Plymouth Rocks, Buff and White

Muscovy Duck eggs

Next up the Muscovy ducks, building a nest; 7 eggs now.

The layers, looking for breakfast!

Then open the door to the layer house and be charged, everyone is hungry! I found a roll of fabric set out for the trash awhile back and used it to make nest box curtains and to cover the windows  where the afternoon sun is too strong.

Curtains in the hen house!

cat & bunny

After hauling the empty buckets back to the house, I go feed some ducks in the front yard. Here also is my last remaining rabbit, a doe over 5 who hasn't been bred in a couple of years. She escaped her cage and just hangs around with the ducks. None of my cats bother her or any of my grown chickens because they were raised with them since they were little kittens. I don't, however, trust them with baby chicks.

So that is part of my morning. Inside the layer house there are several pens with individual birds, mostly breeding males that have to be separate so the don't fight, and there are a few more chicks and Silkies around.

Setting Eggs

Getting Ready to Incubate

Well I have been collecting eggs for a week so now they are going to go into the incubator.

On the left, 11 Muscovy duck eggs. In the middle carton towards the back are 4 eggs from a show quality standard bred Buff Orpington named Henrietta.The bluer eggs in that carton are from a purebred blue Ameraucana pullet bred to my pretty Easter Egger roo Earl. The greenish eggs are from Earl and his half sister. And finally on the right, 14 Black Copper Marans. In real life these are about half a shade darker, the flash washed them out a bit. If you have the egg color card from the Marans club, these are all about a #4. If you don't know, that is the lightest color they are supposed to have. They can get much much darker, but it takes a lot of breeding and culling to get there. These will be my first generation of my own breeding so I have a long way to go.

Oops forgot to mention those two little eggs in the middle carton, two silkies, just for fun. Twenty nine chicken eggs and 11 duck eggs. The chickens will be due February 27 but the Muscovy take 33-35 days so they won't hatch until around March 13.

Move In Day!

coop door, just needs a latch

Well finally the top floor of the silkie/brooder coop is done enough to move in! After a lot of set backs I finally got a door made. It has a Lexan panel in it which I scrubbed on for a whole afternoon trying to get the remains of the paper covering off of it to no avail. I even tried some orange goo and a plastic scraper. So it will always look really dirty....

stairwell bumper

I added a bumper around the pop door opening so that litter would not be always falling down the hole when it's open.

I never got the side windows figured out, so just stapled some plastic over the openings and called it good.

On the advice of a long time breeder and master exhibitor I added plain old clay cat litter to the floor. The non clumping, no additive kind. I may add some shavings on top; not decided yet.

Mamma silkie & the two BCM chicks

So now mamma silkie and the chicks are outside in their new home.

Mom! Let me in!

Those chicks are real camera shy; I have to be quick to catch them before they run back under mamma!

Slow Progress

pop door open

Well it was slow going today on the little silkie coop. I did manage to fix up the sliding pop door though.

pop door closed

door frame try out

I also got the door frame built and tried on for size. But then things got really bogged down. I wanted to use some small panes of glass that I had but of course they were just slightly too big. So a lot of time wasted finagilling what else to use and how to go about it. I'm still working on this problem.

I did manage to put some tar paper on the roof. And in other news, I did actually work in the garden today, but I forgot to take a pic. Of course all you would see would be white row covers. I planted some lettuce in one bed and some carrots in the other.

vermicompost

I also emptied part of my worm box of compost to spread on the seeds I planted. I thought about feeding some of the worms to the chickens but decided to wait until next time I clean out the box as I want to get the population up there before summer.

I also just took a few minutes and hung out with the birds.

Mr. No Name

Precious

Mr. Snowman

Smokey

Since the coop did not get finished and the eggs are due to start hatching tomorrow, I brought the broody girl in to a crate so I can give her the chicks as soon as they hatch. She did not like the box I gave her for a nest but as soon as I put a couple of eggs on the crate floor she promptly sat on them. 

Silkie Coop-hitting the home stretch

east wall , trim try on for size

Well another day working on the coop. I really feel like I didn't get that much done today, but that's because a lot of what I did was fiddly bits like trim work.

Stapled wire on the east wall, cut and fit the trim boards to go over them, then took them off to paint them.

mmmm there is something wrong with this picture

Did any of you notice that something might be wrong with the inside of the back wall in this picture from yesterday?

that's better!

I was up in the coop getting ready to put all the trim boards in when I realized "DUH!! you forgot to cut out for the vent on the inside!!!" So I popped off the back paneling and fixed that.  While I was putting it back on decided it need a coat of paint. The wood is so old and dried out it's getting crumbly. So two coats of off white interior paint. Then the trim, which I painted with the same blue paint as the back wall downstairs.

East wall with trim

Some other fiddly bits are that I added 1/4" hardware cloth over the window openings. Cut and painted the trim boards to go around the vent. Need to decide what I"m doing around the inside of the window openings. Put the trim boards back on the east side when the paint was dry.  Just before dark I got the center rafter put on but by then it was getting too dark to take a picture.

I don't think it's going to be chicken ready by this weekend. In which case I may try bringing broody mamma into the little crate in the house so I can give her the chicks when they hatch. Then move them all into the coop as soon as it's done.

Back to the day job tomorrow, so probably not much progress to be made the next few days, we shall see.

New Chick on the Block

A Frizzle

I have been fostering some hens for friends when they were told they had to go because they are not allowed inside the city limits. They are working with the city council to try and get the ordinance changed. In the meantime the girls are hanging out at my house.

Included in the group are two kinds of chickens I haven't learned much about yet, Frizzles and Silkies. I really haven't had a chance to look them up, but I do know that Silkies have black skin, meat and bones and are considered a delicacy in some Asian countries.

Both kinds of birds have mutations from normal bird feathering. And they are both very small, making them a frequent choice for youngsters getting their first chickens.

They are cute, but they sort of look like aliens!

One of the foster girls, a white silkie

I love how the Silkies have bright blue earlobes, like they are wearing earrings!

And the Frizzles have cheek poofs and little topknots. They do sort of resemble a pine cone!

a buff Silkie rooster

I never thought I would have little tiny chickens like Silkies, but recently a new friend gave me this pretty little buff Silkie rooster. Knowing my foster girls could leave any time, I went ahead and bought a little buff Silkie pullet to keep him company when the foster girls leave.

buff Silkie pullet; I think she has eyes in there somewhere