Hey There!

It's close to Thanksgiving, and the chickens are doing well.  We haven't had any casualties in a while, which is a great relief.  YAY!  So I am saving my "wish-list" for the next Spring order.  The Polish are necessary, and so are the EEs.  The Barred Rocks are great egg producers, and they are heat tolerant.  OEs?  I just like the color eggs produced.  Speckled Sussex are just cool to look at, and they are good producers.  Natural broodies too.  

We have donkeys....  But they are awesome!  And friendly.  They don't try to stomp the dogs, though they have only been near Rose who doesn't do anything but stick her nose anywhere there's another nose, since the nose is so close to the mouth anyway.

Rose does not go out with the donkeys alone if they are out in the front yard, just in case, but that doesn't keep the donkeys from checking her out.

Shaine poses so well, he is often the subject of my puppy portraits.  The classic Sheltie smile is amazing.

Then again, so is this...  :D

There was a day where it was just dreary and raining all day long, so I left all the chickens in the coops, and they were not happy.  I do believe I received ONE egg from them that day....  Not happy...

Dora is posing.  She loves the attention, but no touchy.

The silkies.  The buff silkie died...  Not sure what took her, but all that was left was a pile of scattered feathers.  The others are doing well, and they love to free-range.  The silkie rooster has fallen in line of the pecking order.  He knows he is low on the totem, and he's made due, so he just stays out of the way and tries to keep the bigger girls at bay.

The adult chickens out running amuck.

Joan, a Columbian Wyandotte from the 2013 McMurray order, is looking pretty poorly during her time of molt and recovery.  You see, she's been overly raped by the boys earlier this year, and it really took its toll on her.  I tried separating her, but she was so stressed over not being with her flock, I was worried it would do more damage than good, so I tried a hen saddle.  That didn't work either.  Actually, it kind of seemed like it made it worse, as if it was a beacon saying "HEY!  Come rape me!" So I took it off, and now her feathers are growing back.  Right now, she has one pitiful tailfeather.

The last clutch of eggs I hatched in the incubator.  The first three are the day after they hatched.  They were all fairly friendly at first.  Now they run for their lives!

As shown in this picture (and the few following), they tried their best to get as far away from me and the camera as possible.  There are five total in the brooder.

The red chick is most definitely a cockerel.  The others are still holding their secrets, though I suspect (and hope) the other four are pullets.

For sure, this is Jersey's baby.  We're not certain who the sire is, though I suspect Bandit is all of the little bundles' father.

This is only to show the two formation of one of the EEs.  The toe curls out and up rather than down and under, like the others do.  This is because when they were hatched, I put them all in a brooder with hay as the base layer.  They flattened it out too quickly, and this is the result.  I have a cockerel that does this, and he gets around fine.  I'm not worried, just making a note of it.

This little one has very unique features.  I'm not sure who the mother is, but Bandit shows through well enough.

OE mixed cockerel in the back and a Phoenix pullet.

Buttercup the Buff Orpington and Poof's EE mix.

Red the Golden Buff checking out my phone.

Poof's clutch EE mix pullet.  Instead of being dark like the others with her color pattern, she is more of a blue-lavender.

Red the Golden Buff.  :)

The Phoenixes and an EE from Meyer Hatchery.

OE cockerel from Poof's clutch.

No post is complete without the Disney Ducks.