Decorated Eggs

Some of the eggs I've decorated. In a handmade willow branch and grass basket.

Momma Buff

Momma lost her 1st hatchling, I think it got out of the nest box and couldn't find it's way back. It was no where to be found, I think it got eaten. We had some other mishaps with some eggs that weren't fertile and finally ended up with these two little ones.





These are Leghorn crosses. I think daddy might be Wyandotte. I believe the Cuckoo coloring is dominant and they don't look like they have any cuckoo, they also don't show any signs of silkie feathers so only option left is Wyandotte.

1st Hatchling is here!

The 30th was supposed to be the first hatching day for Mrs Buff...




Nothing...






When I got home last night at 11pm I went to go collect the days eggs and close up the coop. As I opened the nest box I heard a faint little peeping!

WOO HOO the first chick is here. I took a pic last night but it's all blurry. Here's todays pics:

Marans Eggs to Hatch

I've been wanting to breed this type of chicken since I first started researching owning chickens. My first attempt at even owning them ended up with two roosters, one of which got into the dog pen andis now in freezer camp. I got four more from the feed store this year (we think three of them are girls). Finally I found someone who is selling them at a reasonable price. I've seen a dozen hatching eggs go for over $100. 6 chicks can easily gor for $150.00. Anyway - I didn't pay anywhere near that and now have a friend trying to hatch 18 eggs for me of a variety of colors. Possible color varieties I have are Cuckoo (color of my current Marans), Blue, Black Copper, Wheaton, Black and Splash. We'll see who hatches out! I'm soo excited.

Buff goes Broody

Mrs Buff decided she would rather sit on eggs than lay them. I initially gave her three eggs to sit on one of hers and two from our easter eggers. After a few days I went to check on the eggs and found she was siting on 5 eggs. What?! I hadn't seen her out of the coop so thought she was somehow moving them from the other nest boxes. The next day I checked and she was sitting on 6 eggs. Holy cow now I'm really confused. The new eggs were all white and I had no idea which ones she has been sitting on for a good four days and which one was just laid. It finally occured to me to mark the ones she was sitting on so Icould let her keep those, take out the new ones and not risk trying to eat a partially developed chicken.

It took a couple more days to realize that the one time a day when she comes out to eat, drink and relieve herself, that Julie, the leghorn, would take that particular time to go lay her egg, and what better place than a nest full of eggs? Better than under the lilac bush I suppose.

New chickies

Here is this years Murdochs additions to our flock. I've started selling eggs and can't keep up with the demand. Only one way to fix that! MORE CHICKENS :)

Cuckoo Marans - We think we have three girls and one new boy.


Rhode Island Reds - We wanted these last year but they were all gone. So far they both look like girls.


Easter Eggers - Who can't resist more colored eggs? Plus we now have a new color of chicken - white!


Salmon Favorelle - We think this is a boy. They have gorgeous adult plumage, sadly I had to put him down after only two weeks, he couldn't walk and wasn't eating.

Some one's playing tricks on me!

 


Ok I want to know who snuck a robin into my coop?