Roots N Boots

So, not everything has gone to plan with my chickens…but that is okay! In my last post I mentioned that I had two clutches of duck eggs being sat on, but I candled them multiple times and after a few weeks, it did not appear as if any of the eggs had been fertilized. I threw out all the eggs, put my broody duck and chicken in a jail cell for a few days to stop them from feeling broody, and then released them back in to the wild. I kind of regret doing that now, and wish that I had just let both birds set for the allotted amount of time, because maybe I wasn’t viewing the eggs right? I know eggs can look different when being candled, so even though I am pretty sure my detective skills were correct, I wasn’t 100% positive now that I think back on it. But we live and learn. Sadly, somehow, Walter, our drake, disappeared. He was pretty happy with the flock, though the geese didn’t like hanging out with him. I really liked him and he was definitely breeding with the girls, which is why I was surprised that none of the eggs were fertile, but I guess that can happen. Anyway, I don’t know where he went, or if he was accidentally left outside one night and a fox got him, or if he just didn’t feel welcomed and flew away, but now I am back to only having my two hens, Puddles and Pebbles. We did start having a major fox problem, and I lost 3 young birds because of him. Our chicken coop backs right up against our hay field, so it would have been really easy for the fox to slink up to the coop without being seen, grab a bird eating on the edge of the hay, and run away. We have had to keep the birds locked up in their coop while we are away now, and they are very unhappy about it. We are working on disassembling and moving a wire corn crib that we will turn in to a run for the birds. I let them free range any time I am home, and we really haven’t seen the fox around lately, but I don’t want to lose any more birds. Of course the fox took one of each of my favorite breeds, which is so sad, so now I am down to two cream legbars and only one dark brahma. I really want to get some more Muscovy’s, but I don’t really have the room right now and have been thinking about building them a seperate coop. The geese discovered the pond, and they live down there 24/7 now. They still come up to the coop for breakfast and to hang out with the other birds when they are running around, but then they go back down to the water.

One of my Easter Eggers turned out to be a rooster, which was a shame because I bought 3 EE’s for a purpose, and for a little bit of extra money, but we still have the Rooster and he is beautiful. The Guinea’s push him around, so I don’t think he will ever be top bird, but I think that is probably good for him. I do like that he will pass down the colored egg gene to any babies, so if we actually hatch out any chicks, that will be a really cool variety to have around. I do believe it would also make the chicks more attractive to buyers, so that is a plus as well!

I picked up 3 silkies with my second batch of chickens, and of course two of them seem to be roosters, but they can hang around as long as they don’t cause any trouble. As I mentioned, the Guineas are becoming quite pushy and are very loud, louder than the rooster, but I am okay with that as long as they protect the flock. I would really hope that between two Guineas and potentially three roosters, the birds will be pretty well protected.

Believe it or not, my chicks should theoretically start laying eggs within the next month! They were born at the beginning of march (the second batch are three weeks younger), and should start laying between 18-22 weeks old, so that would be in the next 2-4 weeks. I presume it will take them longer to start laying, but we will see!