Yey! Silkie babies on the way... 

In the top condo Blossom is sitting on 8 developing eggs, due in 2 weeks. 

In the bottom condo Angie is sitting on 3 developing eggs, due next week. 

Can't wait to see the cute fuzzbutts!

Angie on her three eggs...

This is her first time being a momma, she sure is determined!

Blossom on her 8 eggs, she's a pro -

I think this is her 4th hatch in 2 years :)

I'll post pics when the babies arrive!

how about this for a Halloween costume!

OK... maybe not! LOL!

I keep forgetting to post!

Ack!

Time flies like a chicken running towards the treat bucket!

Yep, that's fast - LOL!

Almost everyone's in deep molt right now,

there are feathers everywhere and prickly-looking chooks

not laying any eggs...

I know, a necessary evil - but I still don't like it!

Brrrr winter's on the way.

Here's the flock of banties this morning -
I have been very fortunate to find a super awesome loving home
for Moose, our 5 month old white Jersey Giant cockerel.

He leaves Sunday...

I'm sad and will miss him a lot, but 4 roosters in one pen is just too much :(

I hope to get lots of news and maybe somedaysome fertile eggs from my friend who's taking him -that way I can hatch Moose chicks and hopefully keep some Moose daughters!
How's everyone coping with fall so far?

Good morning!

It's warm, it's sunny, it's the weekend - w00t!

The flocks are all sunbathing outside (bar two hens that have leg sprains and are still confined...), we are entering molt season and thus very few eggs are going in the daily basket but that's all right - life is good!

Wishing you all a lovely day!

lookin' good!

Crossing fingers and knock on wood, it looks like all of my sick banties have recovered from the terrible illnesses that suddenly plagued them two weeks ago.

If I had gotten home from my vacation on time, I could have saved my poor sweet Una (the only hen that died) but alas, it was not to be... I don't feel safe leaving them for a whole week anymore :-(

I have to thank this miracle product called Oxine (AH) for clearing up some of the nastiest lung gurglies ever, and Tylan-200 injectable for the other infection.

A friend of mine recommended the Oxine, I had never heard of it before.

Did some research online and flock owners are raving about it left and right - I knew it was my last chance to save my babies so I called the company HQ in the States who pointed me to their Canadian distributor, who then called me after business hours as my message was quite desperate. Lovely man, awesome service. The next morning they put a bottle on the UPS truck for me and I had it in my hands 24 hours later.

The treatment for "percolator lung" is to put your sick bird in a small, enclosed space (I used a small plastic pet carrier and draped a towel over it to cover the holes) and fog the inside for a good hour or so once a day using a cool mist air humidifier - or an ultrasonic one if you can afford it.

The bird is forced to breath in the the gently misted air which contains the spore-killing Oxine, plus it gives them a nice "spa" treatment between bouts of quarantaine. Keep them warm and offer Sulmet in their drinking water, protein-rich wet foods and their grains.

Now if only there was a miracle product to treat sprained legs...

Yep, a hen from one coop and a pullet from the other both suffered leg injuries the same day last week, it's a never-ending run of bad luck. One has a sprained ankle and the other has something wrong with her hip.

Besides quarantine in tight quarters and twice-daily doses of Arnica (a homeopathic treatment), any advice on treating such injuries? I gave them small doses of aspirin the first few days but don't want to damage their tummies so I stopped... Still no improvement after a week. :-/

My poor babies!

if you can spare some good joojoo...

My flock of banties, never sick a day in their lives before, got struck down with a terrible virus a few days ago.

I can't seem to get it under control, they are falling sick one after the other at a terrible speed. One of my sweet hens died two days after she started having difficulty breathing (liquid in the lungs, turned to bloody phlegm - she died choking...), three more are struggling to stay alive and nothing I give them is working.

There are two different strains hitting at once.

One I can control with Tylan-200 injectable, the other isn't responding to anything (Tylan-200, Procaine Penicillin, Sulmet) - even when I catch it early, isolate and keep the pullet warm. They stop eating and drinking, lose weight quickly, exhibit feverish chills and oh, the thick mucous bloody coughs are horrible :-(

Please have a good thought for my poor babies...

I love them all so damn much, this is breaking my heart :-(

Moooooose!

Our big boy Moose is already 3.5 months old now!

He's a Jersey Giant but I don't think

he will attain "giant" size as he's from a hatchery.

We still find him hot stuff though ;-)

hangin' out on the front porch

I didn't know the video would turn out so narrow, LOL!

Next time I'll film in landscape mode and not in portrait mode.

But still, it gives you an idea of the dirty faces

we have to live with on muddy days like these!

Gotta love 'em :-)

Tidbits

I love receiving my weekly Healthy Chickens Bulletin - go check it out, it's free and super easy to sign up for! Each e-issue delivered to your email inbox contains valuable information, tip and tricks, answers to common questions we chicken hobbyists face every day, jokes and cartoons.

Love it :-)

In other news my total flock is now reduced to 53 and seems to be holding steady for now...

Except that I'm pretty sure one of my two 6-week old bantam white cochins, Storm, is a boy... which means I'll have to rehome him before winter... huge sniff :-(

And Oh My Goodness - is it already mid-August?!

who came first...

better days :-)

Well, we survived last week's red mite nightmare, coop relocations, flock integrations, chook rehomings and a massive heat wave + a mini-hurricane, so I guess we can survive just about anything!

I now have only two flocks - the sleeping quarters are a bit tight but they're at least dry and bug-free so the birds will just have to endure. They are outside all day anyways, it's not so bad.

24 birds in one coop, 30 in the other - and that's it.

No more for a long time, my flocks are closed.

Every day I inspect for mites and so far so good, only had about two dozen under one sleeping plank a couple days ago, I squashed them then sprayed with permethrin so hoping I got them all. They were probably left-over eggs that hatched and had a first feeding, hah! Dead now. Fuckers.

Lovely breeze out today - can't wait to let the big girls free-range again...

Does anyone know how long it takes to reprogram a chicken's GPS?

I don't want them to wander around lost at bed-time since the coop where they used to live has been locked up and condemned... I want them to head to their new coop.

Guess we'll have to test it at some point...

Coco

That's my girl!

She makes me smile every day :-)

the year of CRAP

Name 15 awful things that can happen to a chicken owner, with red mites in the coop being the Worst Thing Possible, and I've been hit with absolutely everything the past year.

I'm so fed up.

Exhausted physically, mentally and financially.

It's not much fun anymore, even if I love those chooks with all my heart.

Death #4 since the beginning of July in progress this morning, my Sweetie is in a coma and will cross the bridge today after weeks of declining health. I'm thinking liver failure as her face is yellow, but for sure she is anemic from the blood-sucking vampire mites.

I'm not sure I even want to go on being a chicken mama, since I obviously stink at it.

So. Tired.

Oliver Mongfoot

Isn't he just the most handsome roo? :-)

Oliver will turn 6 months old on July 20th

and he's still growing -

hims gonna be a big boy!

His mom is a pure white silkie

and his dad is a partride frizzled silkie.

I can't wait to get babies from him one day :-)

hot chickens!

Yep, the dog days of summer are here - HOT!

What do you do to help keep your flocks cool in this weather?

Mine free-range so have plenty of access to shade and cool dirt, the ones penned up all have the same in their giant runs. I put out bowls of fresh cold water and offer them treats of fresh fruit, but mostly that's all I can do.

I don't trust fans in the coops, too scared of a fire risk :-/

They pant, they hold their wings off their body and mutter but so far
knock on wood, everyone's still accounted for...

Miss Daisy, my latest white leghorn addition:

She's 6 months old and lays like a dream :-)

Lucky she's white, it's my big fat black hens that are suffering

through this summer - although they are all affected.

At least it's not freezing!

hilarious! football chickens!

I should totally get a ball for my chooks :-D

caption this!

I wonder what that hen is thinking... LOL!

more losses :-(

RIP Dizzy, our awesome white leghorn girl... just a year and a half old, found her cold and stiff on the coop floor Sunday morning - no idea why she died, she seemed fine the day before. Her skin was almost purple, her legs stretched out straight from her body, wings tight on her side, neck bent towards her chest and eyes closed. No broken neck, no signs bodily damage.

Any idea what could have caused her death?

RIP sweet Holly, our gorgeous buff orpington hen (July 18, 2010 - June 22, 2011).

Holly got sick this spring along with quite a few other hens, some sort of pneumonia. Three girls died before I got my hands on penicillin, which didn't eradicate the illness but allowed a return to normal life for the survivors.

Except Holly fell sick again about 3 weeks ago and this time meds didn't do a thing - she stopped eating and drinking and never managed to shake it. After 10 days in isolation I stopped treatment and put her back with her flock so she could have a few nice last days in the sun...

Three days ago she crawled under our back deck and never left.

She was waiting for death, which came and took her away sometime during the night.

Even an expected and in this case a welcomed death for a sick and suffering creature strikes a blow. Holly was our big silly fluffernutter, the cartoon of the flock, gentle as a feather duster but three times cuter.

Not a happy day :-(

i can haz chicks!

Fourteen chicks, in fact :-D

I love these little stinkers!

Can you spot the breeds?

spicy chicken?

Annabelle

I came thisclose to rehoming this little brat...

Put her up for sale,

had a guy call and he say he was coming the next morning

to pick her up.

I waited all day, phoned but there was no answer.

Can I tell you how relieved I was for the no-show?

Had a bad, creepy feeling about the guy - 

and I was right.

Took her for sale ads off the innernets

and what do you know -

the jerk showed up on our doorstep

a whole day later

without calling, without apologizing, nothing -

wanting to"pick up his bird".

Like, seriously?!

I told him to get lost!

She's my baby, my responsibility, she's a good healthy girl

and I have to endure her big personality, that's all.

I have one too, I should know better ;-)

my chickens are frying!

Anyone else's flocks suffering in the brutal wet summer heat?

My poor birds... panting like dogs with wings outstretched, even in the shade buried in cool dirt. I try to keep them supplied with fresh cool water, I put a fan in the main coop at night to get some air moving around but still, it's HOT.

I'm collecting hard-boiled eggs from the nesting boxes, LOL!

OK not really, but you get the idea.

A few girls have had a relapse with the lung issue thanks to the heat, one is isolated and on penicillin since she stopped eating and was acting really downbeaten (my sweet buff orpington Holly). The others are still laying and acting fine so I'm leaving them alone.

Gotta get the coop ready for two new girls tomorrow, a white leghorn and a red production hen - both at POL (point of lay). I've gotten hens twice from this breeder before and they're awesome so I'm hoping all goes well this time too.

Yes I have a lot of chickens but not many are regular layers, I'm getting between 14 and 20 eggs a day for almost 60 birds - bad, eh? Yes OK I have baby chicks, pullets too young to lay, old hens past their prime and a handful of roosters, hens in molt and others who just don't lay much at all no matter what.

I have to stress the point that these are my pets, eggs are a side-benefit!

But... people want those pastured (free range) eggs real bad so... I gotta get me more young, ambitious and reliable layers, no?

*grin*

the most logical explanation!

(click to enlarge pic)

Meet the peepers!

It's so hard to take good pics of the wee ones

when they're under a heat lamp!

60W yellow bulb here, hence the yellow hue:

I gave the white crested polish back to my friend

as I was 90% sure he was a roo, and to be honest

we just didn't "click".

So in all there are now 14 babies:

1 three week old white jersey giant, named Doudounne

3 easter eggers

2 salmon faverolles (which are roos according to wing feather... damn!)

4 barred plymouth rocks

3 blue orpingtons

1 splash orpington

Can't wait to see them grow up and be part of the flock!

knock knock!

Hand over the treats or we'll poop on your porch!

Cluckle, cluckle - who are we kidding, we'll poop no matter what :-D

(good thing I love these girls, LOL!)

Monday cluckles

Chickie love!!

OK they're not here yet but I'm picking up a bunch of sweet chicks Saturday morning - can't wait!!

They will be between 3 days and 1 week old, a mix of: barred plymouth rock, salmon faverolles, easter eggers and orpingtons (blue, black or splash - don't know yet).

Squeeee!

In the meantime I'm having a blast with my little bantam frizzle babies, they're the softest, sweetest, funkiest things ever - I really need to take some pics or a video, just waiting for some good light!

More. I want more :-D

Sharing the chook love :-)

It was a beautiful day today -

a happy flock makes for a happy mama!

Hope you enjoyed watching this

as much as I enjoyed living it :)

beware the roose

Good-bye my sweet Angel

I can't believe she's gone...

My sweet Angel, one of the first silkies

to grace our mismatched flocks...

She wore her name well...

Never sick a day in her life,

she survived a crop surgery on our kitchen table last summer -

and now she's gone because of a stupid eye injury.

One day she was fine,

the next day her right eye was closed 

and it was obvious she was in a lot of pain.

I assumed someone had pecked her in the eye,

gave her antibiotics to ward off infection

even if there was no sign of anything awry

except her tightly-closed eye -

She went blind on one side.

In she space of a couple of weeks 

she lost half her weight.

She lost her balance 

and her status in the pack.

She kept swinging her head from side to side,

trying to see

or trying to alleviate the pain.

Everyone started pecking on her.

I found her on her back earlier today,

head twisted to the side -

when I lifted her up I noticed blood on her neck feathers

then her eye, or whatever was left of it.

Absolutely horrible.

She was half passed out from pain and shock.

There was only one thing to do,

the kind thing, the humane one.

The final act of mercy.

Thank you to my dear husband

for ending her suffering,

I just cannot do it.

Can't.

I feel hollow inside.

knock knock - who's there?

Why, we sweet chooks of course!

Never a dull day here at the technofarm ;-)

Sunday cluckles

It's... better?

Quick update...

We lost our beloved little Jasper yesterday to some unknown long-term illness, I'm reasonably sure he and his sister Sookie (who passed away a couple months ago) were inbred, leading to genetic weaknesses that never gave them a chance to mature into strong adults...

He was a gorgeous, slate-grey silkie and he will be terribly missed.

RIP my sweet cuddle-bug :-(

Still have some sick hens, some are learning to live with their wheezy lungs and others have good days and bad days, however everyone is now free-ranging except the silkies, who will be moved to their summer pen tomorrow if all goes well.

If chickens could smile, I'd have been blinded by shiny toothless grins today!

It's a LOT of hard work (my back, arms and fingertips are KILLING me tonight from an afternoon of securing bird netting with zip ties, LOL) but oh so well worth it.

We're all set until next winter, woo!

What's next, flying locusts?

The technoflocks have fallen victim to a host of plagues, and they just won't go away! Everyone was fine all winter and now that the main flock is out free-ranging: MISERY!

-Mysterious viral and highly contagious respiratory disease, not responding to treatment, wet coughing with mucus, water in lungs. Lost some sweet girls and a baby chick :(

-Mysterious secondary upper respiratory infection causing swollen sinuses, bubbly eyes that swell shut with gunk. Affected hens respond to treatment but it's slow.

-Found some tiny lice on the silkies, must be transmitted by mice entering the barn - treated everyone with Ivermectin.

-Found roundworms in the main flock's poop, treated everyone with Piperazine - even the girls in quarantine who are on meds.

-Spring molt has started so there are feathers everywhere and egg production is dropping significantly.

I can't wait for all this crap to be over and done with... I want my pretty, happy and healthy hens back, please! I've lost 9 flock members since the beginning of the year, enough already!! :-(

A smile to break the dark clouds over the coop...

Heartbreak

My beloved Paloma was fine a few days ago,
happy and free-ranging with her flock - 

and this morning I had to watch her die in front of me, 

drowned from thick fluid in her lungs 

after struggling miserably to breathe the past two days.

All this because I had no access to the proper meds to save her.

I am devastated.

I brought this sweet girl home at 8 weeks of age on November 30th, 2009, 

and watched her grow into a huge, beautiful and gentle soul 

with the softest feathers and most demure disposition. 

And now suddenly, she is gone.

And three more girls are sick with the same respiratory ailment

after being fine the whole winter long.

I'm almost ready to throw in the towel,

I can't take any more hits like this, 

it hurts too much.

Good forever night, angel...

Spring bliss

If a photo is worth a thousand words,

then a video is priceless :-)

Enjoy!

I am chicken

Hear me roar!

chicken paradise!

The long-awaited day, finally here!

After five months of being sequestered in the barn (even if their living quarters were pretty ritzy), Ti-Lou's flock got to feel the warm sunshine on their feathers again!

Vegas and I prepped the summer coop and moved everyone, boy what a job - but worth every ache and pain :-D

You couldn't find happier chickens even if you tried, LOL.



Tomorrow morning the pen doors open wide, can't wait to see the flock scattered all over the yard again... my busy little gardeners! The grass is only starting to grow in spots so I hope they don't wreck anything, otherwise I'll have to keep them penned up for another couple of weeks.

*fingers crossed*

Two more flocks to move and we're all set until November - w00t!

Aren't they sweet?

Not the best video ever

(those darn heat lamps!)

but here are The Lucky Seven!

I loves them :-)

Miracle babies!

Could you, would you believe it??

On day 24 of setting, mama Blossom has hatched five chicks to date with the final two having pipped their shells this afternoon, so there may be as many as seven lovely new babies by tomorrow morning!

All this when I thought all was doomed since the chicks were due three days ago - and to think, I almost tossed the eggs having assumed the babies were all still-born - OMG!!

So far we have a bantam frizzled cochin, a bantam black cochin and three silkies, with two more silkies on the way. They are terribly cute, quiet and incredibly adorable - I'll take a little video tomorrow, you just have to see for yourselves!

I bought a bottle of rosé wine to celebrate this miracle!

YAY BABIES!

Monday cluckle!

Hmmmm

Blossom is hard at work sitting on those 8 eggs, but I don't think more than 2 or 3 chicks will hatch, if any... Half the eggs were cold and candling showed sloshy insides (quitters).

She's kinda rough with rolling them around and has scratched all the bedding away so the eggs are laying on hard plywood.

As long as she gets two babies, I'll be happy!

They're due March 30th so I'll keep you guys updated :-)

OoooOOoo more babies!

My awesome silkie hen Blossom has been hard at work sitting on a pile of eggs for a week now, and it looks like there might be seven babies on the way - wheee!

Here's to hoping for some cute wittle silkies and maaaybe a frizzle in two weeks!

Mojo! We need chickie mojo! w00t w00t!

Man with giant cock!

...because wow, that's one big rooster! 

LOL!

News and such

Well!

The coop's been busy!

First, Coco made a miraculous recovery from her illness - I truly thought she wasn't going to make it but lo and behold, she's totally fine now. The power of positive mojo... and Tylan-50 antibiotics. That was a close call I hope to never repeat!

But as life gives, life also takes away...

My husband found one of my two gorgeous sweet buff orpington pullets, Wanda, cold and dead in a nesting box last Saturday. No signs of illness or injury so I think she must have been egg-bound... She was only seven months old :-(

In a rage of losing so many chooks the past few months, today I put 13 eggs (for good luck!) under Blossom, my broody silkie mama. She's hatched babies before so let's see what comes out of it in three weeks, if anything. I got some eggs from one of my friends and am crossing fingers and toes to get a few chicks - specially the black frizzle bantam cochins!

Spare COME ON CHICKIES mojo gladly accepted!

In return you get cute pics, updates, videos... LOL!

Speaking of which, remember cute baby Penguin aka Smudge?

He somehow caught the Uglies, poor thing!

Pretty sure he's a boy... 

Who knows, maybe he'll turn out handsome once all grown up?

Everyone's feathered in and developing personalities to match-

This is Nelly, whom I think is a girl...

At this age (6 weeks old) it could go either way, to be honest.

Girls! I need girls!

The babies were moved to the big silkie pen today and they are LOVING it! Finally room to flea-jump everywhere, plenty of places to explore, lots of food to throw around - the adult birds are super patient and sweet with them, I was amazed and relieved to see that as you never know how it can go.

I love my chooks :-)

Please pray for Coco...

My sweet sultan hen, Coco Chanel, fell terribly ill last night.

She was fine during the day, and then bam! Some sort of bronchitis? I don't know what happened other than she is gasping for every breath, wheezing with her beak wide open, struggling to get oxygen in her lungs, sneezing and gurgling.

It sounds horrible, like a mewing cat with every painful breath.

I isolated her in a heated condo, syringed Tylan-50 into her crop as she is not drinking, 

and hoped for the best...

She made it through the night, although she isn't much better this morning.

She hasn't touched her medicated water at all and I'm afraid to syringe more meds into her, as every dose is potentially going into her lungs and that would be fatal.

She ate a few bites of food but is fluffed up and you can see she's exhausted from trying to breathe.

I feel so useless :-(

I have to leave for the weekend and am only back late Monday,

so it's out of my hands.

My husband will do his best to take care of her and keep me posted.

Any spare mojo, healing vibes and prayers you can spare would be greatly appreciated.

I love this sweet, tiny, gentle girl :-(

How it's made:

Cadbury Easter Eggs! :-D

Seriously, with the price of a 55 lbs bag of layer pellets

rising to $12 (from $9.50 two weeks ago!),

maybe I need to get myself a couple randy rabbits for the hens.

Those chocolate easter eggs sell for more than $5 a dozen! LOL!

Les little piranhas!

I finally managed to get the wittle beasties on film this morning!

Yay me! LOL

The silkies are now 5 weeks old 

and the rest of the gang turns 4 weeks old tomorrow -

here they are in their new condo

as they were getting too big for their baby brooder!

Amazing how fast they're growing, eh?

Chicken experts, do you see many roos in there?

I know Tank is a boy (the one who still has a chipmunk head!).

Besides the silkies they are all mutts with the same father,

all hatched from green eggs from different hens -

so there are some Easter Egger genes in there.

One chick is a white leghorn x BLRW, she's white

with a black spot on her shoulder.

I can't keep any roos, technically... :-/

Yikes!

I've been meaning to post a video of the baby chicks (who are growing like weeds, btw, prehistoric weeds!) but I've managed to forget my camera every time I've gone out to the barn.

Holes in the brain, I tell ya.

Video soon, I promise!!

OooOOops!

I've created little monsters!

Good grief! What have I done - LOL!

I decided to try something with these baby chicks to see if I could tame them with food - all other babies I've had before have been terrified of humans approaching them in their condo until they were about three to four months of age, so time to change something!

As soon as they were about five days old, I started putting a bit of freshly sprouted alfalfa in their brooder a couple times a day.

At first they were scared of the stuff, then as soon as one tasted a sprout it was game over - the little piranhas let loose and have been getting greedier with each feeding!

It's hilarious, really.

I need to get a video for you guys!

Now every time I go to the barn and they hear my voice they start peeping like mad, all lined up like little soldiers against the front of their screened condo door, demanding to be fed.

Barely two and three weeks old and they've got me trained well, eh?

Anything I put in my hand that I stick in their condo gets me covered in hysterical, clawing peepers who can't seem to grab and swallow fast enough, LOL!

They've had cooked rice, bits of cooked meat, alfalfa sprouts and whole-wheat bread, which seems to be their favorite.

It makes them go MAD!

Most entertaining, lively, healthy and sweet peepers ever :-D

Public service announcement

Growin' up fast!

It was time to move the peepers to the barn yesterday, oh I was so sad to see them go! The first bunch had been in the brooder since Jan 20th and the second bunch since Jan 26th, so they were strong and healthy enough to make the transition.

Here was there brooder inside the house,

as you can see they were running out of space!

They grow so quickly...

Here they are in their transition condo!

Lots of space to run around, nice and warm,

with bedding to scratch up and nice teddy bear

to climb up on, although they've not gone near it yet.

They are very calm chicks, inquisitive and friendly

and just a pure pleasure to be around.

I miss seeing them every few hours but I try to make it to the barn at least three times a day to give them a cuddle and bring them treats, OK fine I do it for all the chooks but shhhhh don't tell the babies! ;-)

In a few weeks this condo will be too small so they will be moved to a bigger one that's just beneath this one, and then when they've outgrown that one they'll be moved to the silkie pen. I don't know what will happen to the roos yet, I sure hope there aren't that many because parting with any of my babies is terribly difficult.

More pics to come soon! :-)

Tuesday cartoon

Um...

The "fart egg" strikes again!

OK back to business, girls!

RIP little one

The little one didn't make it.

After two days of seeing it suffering and in pain, slowly dying, we had to make the difficult decision of giving it eternal peace instead of prolonging the agony.

I will never pull one out of the shell again.

Mom Nature knows best.

RIP sweet baby :-(

Here are the peeeeeeeeeepers!

In all, 8 sweet babies hatched on my birthday (Jan 26th), which makes them two days old now. They all have the same father (an EE cross) except for one chick, and I've no idea who the moms are - some are pure Easter Eggers, others are half sexlink/half EE hens but the babies all hatched from green eggs.

Basically they are all mutts but IMO

they make the prettiest birds!

Here are a few of the cutest babies!

This is the last one born, a bit of a surprise actually -

and he/she is huge!

Same chick, different view -

it's silver, cream, black and dark copper...

Super le cute fluffball!

Another of my favorites,

look at those stunning colors!

Blue/steel grey with a white tummy,

a white beard and white under the eyes.

I've never seen one like this before :)

Same chick, she needs a name don't you think? ;-)

This one is the oddball,

hatched from a white egg

so mom is a white leghorn and dad

is a blue laced red wyandotte.

We call her Dottie, but with my luck

it'll be a Spot!

I adore this little cutiepie,

she is cream colored

with a silver back and a copper hat!

And lookit the giant beard she has! :-D

Still the same chick,

because she's just so photogenic!

Another fat fluffball,

looks like a bearded chipmunk - lol!

This is one of the silkies born on Jan 20th,

she has craaaazy feathers growing in -

kinda curly and silly lookin'!

Her dad has some frizzle genes so that explains it!

I'll post more pics next week...

One of the new chicks isn't doing well and I doubt it will survive the next few days, so sad... It was too weak to hatch on its own, I helped it and everything seemed fine but now it's going downhill. Weak, breathing fast, droopy wings, not eating or drinking, eyes closed most of the time... Poor thing. I have to let nature take its course, I should have not touched that egg in the first place.

Please learn from my mistake!

Awe peepers!

The babies are four days now and still as cute as ever!

One of them, Little Oliver Mongfoot, had a crooked toe that needed some straightening so he's wearing a little slipper for a couple of days and being a very good sport about it ;-)

OK fine, we have no idea which ones are boys and which ones are girls but it's still fun to pretend like we do. I'm hoping for more girls than boys but with my rotten luck that won't happen... We can only keep one boy from this hatch so crossing fingers daddy Tyler did a good job and gave us girls!

The three other babies look like this, light grey and cream. 

No idea what they'll look like growing up 

but it'll be interesting and they can only be adorable since, 

after all, they are sweet silkies :-)

A day later...

And voilà, here are the four musketeers!

Amazing how different they look when dry, eh?

I call them the Charlie Chaplins,

they are soooo quiet and hilarious with their

little pitter patter antics!

Seriously, the BEST chicks evar!

Silkies, I love thee :-)

First chick is here!!

Yaaaaay!

I'm so relieved!

Here she is, folks!

It took a full two days from cheeping to full hatch,

what a long journey!

She's drying out in the incubator now,

encouraging her little sisters to hatch too.

If all goes well by tonight or tomorrow morning

we should have three more babies - 

please send us your good joojoo!

Happy faces

I took a short video of my easter egger girls yesterday 

(this group is one of my three). 

They are 12 girls + 1 rooster in all, in about 200 sqf of space. 

For the hens you will see 7 easter eggers, 1 black cochin/brahma mix, 

2 polish/leghorn mixes and 2 blue laced red wyandottes.

Yes, that rooster is indeed the famous Jericho!

The sweet one that I hand raised since he was a day old...

The one who attacked me out of the blue a few weeks ago

and whom I beat half to death with a big plastic spoon.

I'm soooo glad he's OK -

Trust me, this will never happen again!

Respect, peeps, respect :-)

Lockdown!

Hurrah, already lockdown time for the future chickies!

Well, hopefully most will hatch fat and healthy... you never know what can go wrong even when things are looking perfectly all right :-/

Let's see if we get any wee ones in three days.

*please pretty please*

I had to leave the automatic turner in the incubator as there are a bunch of eggs only due in nine days, hopefully the increased humidity over the next few days won't harm them... it's my first time dealing with a "rolling hatch" so we'll see what happens.

The soon-due eggs are safely tucked away in a corner of the incubator floor, had to be ingenious about this. Yay for removable turning trays and husbands that figure this stuff out! LOL

Will post an update soon!

Is this an awesome pic, or what?

Tee hee!