I have quite a few new babies. It's been pretty scarce around here for that. There are 3 litters on the ground (4-6 wks old), but they were each the only live litter out of their round of breedings. So this week looked like a baby boom.
The 2 Zimmerman sable pt does kindled large litters. Bigger than last time. These were both repeat breedings. Of their last litters, only a sable pt doe from each one survived. That's 2 out of the 5 that were born between them. The rest were faders. Those 2 girls are roommates and about 8 wks old now. So I tried the same bucks again.
Z. Suzie had 5 sable pts with Jacob, but she put 2 on the wire and they were dead when I got out there. The other 3 fat and healthy in the box. She only had 3 last time.
Z. Lita had 6! 2 were DOA peanuts. She only had 2 last time. This is an interesting litter. Sire is Sugardaddy so I knew I'd get sable pts. This time there's 3 brokens and a sable pt. 2 of the brokens are black, the other is a sable pt. Lita is smutty, and the daughter from the last litter is also kind of smutty, so I can see the pattern on this broken sable pt kit. Yesterday, it looked like the other sable pt might be broken too. Hard to tell when it's not as smutty. It will be interesting to see how a broken sable pt shows (if it's showable). I didn't set out for sable pt brokens, but there it is. I think a broken sable pt would have to be smutty to show at all.
Then Baroquen x Smith's BL4 had 5. She drives me crazy about the nestbox and I don't trust her to put the kits in it. She did, but she had pulled almost all the nest material out so the kits only had some fur. It got cold that night and they were near death. I saved the only broken and fostered it to Lita. I gave one of Lita's broken blacks to Suzie to even out the numbers. Lita is the better mother, and her litter is a day younger so her kits are closer to the fosterling's size.
Yesterday, Chevette x Bruin kindled. She had one large kit with fur! And a mangled mess of a peanut. She was barely a day late so I don't know what to think about the large furred kit. This is the first time I've got a furred kit that was alive. I've seen it before and it looked like they were older than the rest of the litter so I assumed they were conceived earlier. Maybe it took a few days of attempts to get the doe bred, I can't remember, and she was actually caught in the 1st try. This kit could be 2 days old going by the size and furring. Anyways, fostered it to Lita as well. She's the bigger of those 2 does and should be able to handle 5 kits.
One of the things that decides who gets which fosterlings is color. I need to be able to tell them apart. Chevette's is a himi so that's easy to keep track of in a broken/sable pt litter. Same for Lita's broken black in Suzie's sable pt litter. Baroquen's broken black is a spot pattern so I can tell it from Lita's blankets.
The other doe that was due this week dropped 3 DOAs. She's a 1st timer so failure was somewhat expected.
Not only is spring evident in the successful litters, the bucks and does are eagerly breeding, too! Got 2 bred yesterday, and will be working on getting the rest bred right behind them. Gotta get it while the gettins good.
Happy Spring!
tnt
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Spring has sprung
Officially, there's still 5 days until spring but as far as I'm concerned, it's spring. Weather has been perfect. My only complaint is stupid Daylight Savings Time was moved up. I'm a morning person, and just when the sun was coming up early, it's now an hour later.
A friend gave me some peach tree seedlings a couple years ago. There's a plain green one and a dark purplish one. The leaves I mean. The poor things sat all that time in the small pots they came in. I finally decided where they should go late last year. When I went to get them from the holding place in a garden near the porch, the roots had grown thick and deep out the bottom of the pots and there was only about 6" of dirt left in the pots. I had to pry them out. I didn't know if they would make it. Luckily, winter was very mild with plenty of rain which I think is what got them through it. The green one is only about a foot tall, the purple about twice that. I did not know peach trees bloomed in an intense coral color! Yeah, the little green one is blooming at 1 foot tall! The purple one has buds. So yay, they made it.
The animal swap last weekend went very well, and I actually made decent money! I took 2 roosters, 2 guineas, 3 cochin chicks, and 7 rabbits. I sold all but 2 of the chicks and 1 rabbit. I had to give away the Rhode Island Red roo, but Spiffy the Spangled OE was sold first thing.
I wasn't thinking when I set up cages for transport the night before. I have a carrier without dividers that has pretty much become strictly for transporting or holding chickens. I figured the 2 roos would be so uncomfortable in it and riding in the car, they would be ok together. Not. About half way there (it's about an hour one way) they started fighting. I couldn't see what they were doing. I had thrown a rug over them and the cage the guineas were in to keep them quiet. That carrier was bouncing all over the back of the car! It went on for a good half hour, and only stopped just before I got to the sale. I was afraid to see what they looked like when I lifted the rug. It wasn't as bad as I feared. There was blood that I think came from their combs. They were both bloody, but at least there weren't chunks of flesh missing. So now I know. Roosters will fight no matter what!
Oh how peaceful it's been without those 4 birds! Not only was Spiffy much too aggressive, he was much too noisy. He crowed all the time! The RIR was in with the penned birds and he got aggressive with me, too. Since I decided I only want Cochin roos doing any breeding, it was time for him to go. Very happy the guineas are gone. Now I can start letting all the birds range during the day. Currently that leaves me with 2 mottled cochin roos and the 2 free-rangers (Japanese and buff cochin). It should be ok when I start letting the others out. And whatever I get in the chicks.
My friend who sold me the cochin chicks from her hatchery order is setting up another order for us to split. We decided to spend the extra money to get what we want and specified the order. I'm getting more cochins - 4 partridge, 4 silver lace, and 4 red frizzle. Yeah red frizzle! I'm fascinated by the frizzles so I'm going for a few. I guess it's a tricky set of genes and all chicks from a frizzle hatch might not be frizzled, but that's ok, they will be red which I also like, and carry the genes for it. By the time I get them, the current batch will be transitioned to a cage in the pen. I moved their bin out to the rabbit shed today to acclimate them to cooler night temps. That worked well last year. After a week or so if it stays spring-like, I'll move them into the transition cage in the pen.
Started collecting eggs to incubate again. Didn't take long to fill up the egg crate I hold them in. Got 13 since Sunday. I'm running the incubator to get it stabilized by the time I have about 18-20 eggs. No hens have gone broody yet. They lay and that's it. It's funny that one of the cochin roos seems broody sometimes. He gets in the box and sits and shuffles shavings around as though he had an egg under him. Silly roo.
Sexed Dreamspinner's litter of brokens today. Very good. 2 does and a buck. The biggest and smallest kits are the does so doubly good. Maybe I got that beefy typey broken buck I needed.
The other 2 litters are also doing good. Got quite a few due around the 25th.
5 days until Spring
tnt
A friend gave me some peach tree seedlings a couple years ago. There's a plain green one and a dark purplish one. The leaves I mean. The poor things sat all that time in the small pots they came in. I finally decided where they should go late last year. When I went to get them from the holding place in a garden near the porch, the roots had grown thick and deep out the bottom of the pots and there was only about 6" of dirt left in the pots. I had to pry them out. I didn't know if they would make it. Luckily, winter was very mild with plenty of rain which I think is what got them through it. The green one is only about a foot tall, the purple about twice that. I did not know peach trees bloomed in an intense coral color! Yeah, the little green one is blooming at 1 foot tall! The purple one has buds. So yay, they made it.
The animal swap last weekend went very well, and I actually made decent money! I took 2 roosters, 2 guineas, 3 cochin chicks, and 7 rabbits. I sold all but 2 of the chicks and 1 rabbit. I had to give away the Rhode Island Red roo, but Spiffy the Spangled OE was sold first thing.
I wasn't thinking when I set up cages for transport the night before. I have a carrier without dividers that has pretty much become strictly for transporting or holding chickens. I figured the 2 roos would be so uncomfortable in it and riding in the car, they would be ok together. Not. About half way there (it's about an hour one way) they started fighting. I couldn't see what they were doing. I had thrown a rug over them and the cage the guineas were in to keep them quiet. That carrier was bouncing all over the back of the car! It went on for a good half hour, and only stopped just before I got to the sale. I was afraid to see what they looked like when I lifted the rug. It wasn't as bad as I feared. There was blood that I think came from their combs. They were both bloody, but at least there weren't chunks of flesh missing. So now I know. Roosters will fight no matter what!
Oh how peaceful it's been without those 4 birds! Not only was Spiffy much too aggressive, he was much too noisy. He crowed all the time! The RIR was in with the penned birds and he got aggressive with me, too. Since I decided I only want Cochin roos doing any breeding, it was time for him to go. Very happy the guineas are gone. Now I can start letting all the birds range during the day. Currently that leaves me with 2 mottled cochin roos and the 2 free-rangers (Japanese and buff cochin). It should be ok when I start letting the others out. And whatever I get in the chicks.
My friend who sold me the cochin chicks from her hatchery order is setting up another order for us to split. We decided to spend the extra money to get what we want and specified the order. I'm getting more cochins - 4 partridge, 4 silver lace, and 4 red frizzle. Yeah red frizzle! I'm fascinated by the frizzles so I'm going for a few. I guess it's a tricky set of genes and all chicks from a frizzle hatch might not be frizzled, but that's ok, they will be red which I also like, and carry the genes for it. By the time I get them, the current batch will be transitioned to a cage in the pen. I moved their bin out to the rabbit shed today to acclimate them to cooler night temps. That worked well last year. After a week or so if it stays spring-like, I'll move them into the transition cage in the pen.
Started collecting eggs to incubate again. Didn't take long to fill up the egg crate I hold them in. Got 13 since Sunday. I'm running the incubator to get it stabilized by the time I have about 18-20 eggs. No hens have gone broody yet. They lay and that's it. It's funny that one of the cochin roos seems broody sometimes. He gets in the box and sits and shuffles shavings around as though he had an egg under him. Silly roo.
This is one of the treats the birds have fun with. You can't really see it very well as they've got it spinning pretty good. It's a thing I made out of scrap wire to hold corn cobs. It also holds greens as here. The nice thing about the south, there is always something green all year round. I stuff it with chickweed, hensbit, and grass, and it entertains them for quite a while. Chickweed and hensbit. What a coincidence that 2 wildflowers that grow in late winter just happened to be named for poultry.
Sexed Dreamspinner's litter of brokens today. Very good. 2 does and a buck. The biggest and smallest kits are the does so doubly good. Maybe I got that beefy typey broken buck I needed.
The other 2 litters are also doing good. Got quite a few due around the 25th.
5 days until Spring
tnt
Friday, March 9, 2012
How to catch free-range guineas.
Why would one need to know this? Guineas are wary and fast. You have to have a plan if you want to catch them. And a Plan B and C and...
Tools required:
Cage: Have a big enough cage ready to accept the birds.
Net. A trout fishing net works well. I got this net last year to catch the chickens so I had it handy.
Flashlight. Because you'll be doing this in the dark.
Dark. See above because there's no way you'll catch guineas in daylight.
Rain. Drizzle makes it more...umm...fun.
Plan A: Go to the guineas' night roost. Use the flashlight to make sure they are there. See if you can snag them off the roost. Nope. Can't. Guineas aren't like chickens. They don't go into a stupor after dark, and they see pretty well in the dark. They hop off the roost.
Plan B: Now the guineas are on the ground. Luckily, they don't try to fly. Maybe they can't see that well in the dark? Attempt to corner them somewhere and net them. Nope, still too fast. Try to create a corral to herd them into. They go the other way. Try not to slip and stumble on the wet grass. Go back in the house to get fresh batteries for the flashlight as it's now run down.
Plan C: You realize they are dazzled by the flashlight. Use it to herd them where you want them to go. Keep the spot in their eyes to hold them long enough to get close enough with the net. Quick, net the nearest one. Got em! Put in the cage. Go after the other one. Which has now taken off somewhere in the yard and you'll have to scout around with the flashlight until you find it. Ignore the neighbor's 3 big really stupid dogs who can't tell the difference between someone who belongs here and any other intruder, human or otherwise, and have no business over here anyways, and after being alerted by the flashlight are now frantically barking at you from the field next to the fence, thus alerting the neighbor who steps outside to see what all the ruckus is and probably has a gun in his redneck hand. Go to where you last saw the guinea go but it's not there. Go back to where you were and find it not far from the one in the cage. Get the light in its eye and catch it as before. Success!
Why did I need to catch the guineas? There's only the 2 males left and they have become more annoying than they are worth. They beat up the free-ranger bantam roosters. If I want to give the roos some corn, which I do, I have to fend the guineas off until the chickens clean it up. I also want to let all the chickens free range during the day, but can't while the guineas are there. Since I quit feeding the guineas last year and shoo them away a lot, they lost their "tameness" around me. I discovered they hate the yellow broomstick handle I sometimes need to fend off the aggressive rooster Spiffy and all I have to do is wave it at them. So anyways, I'm over guineas and they need to go away, and they weren't going away on their own.
There's a parking lot animal swap in Kingsport this Saturday. I tried it once last year, but didn't sell anything to even make back the $8 seller's fee. Decided if the weather looks good (it does) and I could catch the guineas (did), I'd take excess critters up there. That's why I decided to attempt the chase last night instead of tonight. In the rain. In case I needed a Plan D. This means I have to feed and water them in the cage today. I'm also taking the aggressive roosters with me, but those are easy to catch after dark so I'll get them tonight. And a few rabbits. I'm hoping to make back the fee on the guineas, there's almost always a market for guineas, but the roosters might end up free to good home. Or whatever. They must go now.
10 Days Until Spring!
tnt
Tools required:
Cage: Have a big enough cage ready to accept the birds.
Net. A trout fishing net works well. I got this net last year to catch the chickens so I had it handy.
Flashlight. Because you'll be doing this in the dark.
Dark. See above because there's no way you'll catch guineas in daylight.
Rain. Drizzle makes it more...umm...fun.
Plan A: Go to the guineas' night roost. Use the flashlight to make sure they are there. See if you can snag them off the roost. Nope. Can't. Guineas aren't like chickens. They don't go into a stupor after dark, and they see pretty well in the dark. They hop off the roost.
Plan B: Now the guineas are on the ground. Luckily, they don't try to fly. Maybe they can't see that well in the dark? Attempt to corner them somewhere and net them. Nope, still too fast. Try to create a corral to herd them into. They go the other way. Try not to slip and stumble on the wet grass. Go back in the house to get fresh batteries for the flashlight as it's now run down.
Plan C: You realize they are dazzled by the flashlight. Use it to herd them where you want them to go. Keep the spot in their eyes to hold them long enough to get close enough with the net. Quick, net the nearest one. Got em! Put in the cage. Go after the other one. Which has now taken off somewhere in the yard and you'll have to scout around with the flashlight until you find it. Ignore the neighbor's 3 big really stupid dogs who can't tell the difference between someone who belongs here and any other intruder, human or otherwise, and have no business over here anyways, and after being alerted by the flashlight are now frantically barking at you from the field next to the fence, thus alerting the neighbor who steps outside to see what all the ruckus is and probably has a gun in his redneck hand. Go to where you last saw the guinea go but it's not there. Go back to where you were and find it not far from the one in the cage. Get the light in its eye and catch it as before. Success!
Why did I need to catch the guineas? There's only the 2 males left and they have become more annoying than they are worth. They beat up the free-ranger bantam roosters. If I want to give the roos some corn, which I do, I have to fend the guineas off until the chickens clean it up. I also want to let all the chickens free range during the day, but can't while the guineas are there. Since I quit feeding the guineas last year and shoo them away a lot, they lost their "tameness" around me. I discovered they hate the yellow broomstick handle I sometimes need to fend off the aggressive rooster Spiffy and all I have to do is wave it at them. So anyways, I'm over guineas and they need to go away, and they weren't going away on their own.
There's a parking lot animal swap in Kingsport this Saturday. I tried it once last year, but didn't sell anything to even make back the $8 seller's fee. Decided if the weather looks good (it does) and I could catch the guineas (did), I'd take excess critters up there. That's why I decided to attempt the chase last night instead of tonight. In the rain. In case I needed a Plan D. This means I have to feed and water them in the cage today. I'm also taking the aggressive roosters with me, but those are easy to catch after dark so I'll get them tonight. And a few rabbits. I'm hoping to make back the fee on the guineas, there's almost always a market for guineas, but the roosters might end up free to good home. Or whatever. They must go now.
10 Days Until Spring!
tnt
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
3.6.12
Well, I'm unable to update the website right now so I might as well blog. My web host is in the middle of heavy server work so I can't get in there. Not that there is a lot to update, but there are a couple minor things.
In bunny news:
Kachina finally gave me a live litter again. She was bred to Jacob (the new Jacob's sable pt). She has 2 torts. There was also a peanut. I thought (hoped) that the lighter one might be sable pt or even blue tort but at 5 days old, it's obvious it's just a lighter black tort. It was pink at birth. There's a fair chance Kachina carries dilute and a remote chance Jacob does. Then again, it's just as well if Jacob doesn't carry as that really wouldn't be very good for the sable pts. In any case, I'm not disappointed with the litter.
Chevelle has 3 with Jacob. 3 siamese sables. That is disappointing. I really wanted sable pt from that. I don't want any sia sables, but hopefully one will be something I can work with since they do carry for sable pt. Trying to decide if I want to repeat the pairing. I don't usually unless I think the genetic dice will roll differently. That could happen here. I don't really have anyone else to breed to Chevelle right now which means it might be a good time to move her out. I'll see how I feel about it after I see how this litter develops. She's such a good doe, one of my most trustworthy, and I usually get a keeper from her. I want to make sure I'm absolutely done with her before I sell her.
Dreamspinner's 3 broken blacks have their eyes open. Big heads on 2 of them. Hope the type got there, too. If you remember, I didn't keep any from her 1st litter with Smith's BL4 because the type went to the solid black instead of the broken. Keeping my fingers crossed. A doe would be real nice, too.
All open does have been bred except one. I'll get to her as soon as it warms up again. We're in the midst of a cold snap. I moved all the bucks outside last week and it went down to 23 this morning so I'm sure I'll be dealing with frozen water. Sure hope this is the last blast of winter.
In chicken news:
I picked up some new Cochin chicks from a friend at the show this past weekend. She had ordered from a hatchery and had way more than she needed. It was a great opportunity for me to get more Cochins. There's 2 partridge and 9 variously marked buffy ones. 2 people at the show said they were all solid buffs and the markings would grow out. Oh well. Was hoping maybe they were something new and different. I'm excited about the partridges. I think this is one of the most beautiful chicken colors...the classic rainbow rooster seen in all sorts of chicken art.
I decided to trash all the eggs in the incubator and what was in the nestboxes. I couldn't keep the incubator's temp stabilized and worried it had killed the eggs. If they were ever fertile. I candled just before trashing and saw no evidence of an embryo in any of them. BTW, it's a lot easier to candle chicken eggs than guineas. Guinea eggs have thick shells! I had left eggs in the nestboxes to see if anyone went broody, but no one did, although new eggs appeared daily. Since the eggs had been out there in wildly fluctuating temps, I decided they were trash too. They would have just frozen today anyways. I'll start collecting and try again.
In other news:
Weather has been pretty wild around here for the last week. There were dangerous storms 2 nights in a row, and they were both setting up like the tornadoes last April. I'm kinda gun-shy now and seeing that on tv makes for tension. The storms did a lot of damage in some areas, but luckily fell apart before they got here. I only got a little lightening, rain, and the power didn't even blink. Wasn't even that much wind which is really unusual for here.
Then there were the extremes! It was in the 70s for several days before the storms. Then the cold came in yesterday and it pulled out everything in the bag. There was lightening before dawn, then the temps went down by mid-morning, then a bit of rain and tiny floaty snowflakes. Then a good hail shower that stayed on the ground like snow. Then some snow that didn't stick. Then clear by late afternoon when the temps really dumped. This morning the sun was hitting the heavy frost on the ground just right and it looked like someone spilled multicolored glitter all over. Pretty.
13 days until Spring!
tnt
In bunny news:
Kachina finally gave me a live litter again. She was bred to Jacob (the new Jacob's sable pt). She has 2 torts. There was also a peanut. I thought (hoped) that the lighter one might be sable pt or even blue tort but at 5 days old, it's obvious it's just a lighter black tort. It was pink at birth. There's a fair chance Kachina carries dilute and a remote chance Jacob does. Then again, it's just as well if Jacob doesn't carry as that really wouldn't be very good for the sable pts. In any case, I'm not disappointed with the litter.
Chevelle has 3 with Jacob. 3 siamese sables. That is disappointing. I really wanted sable pt from that. I don't want any sia sables, but hopefully one will be something I can work with since they do carry for sable pt. Trying to decide if I want to repeat the pairing. I don't usually unless I think the genetic dice will roll differently. That could happen here. I don't really have anyone else to breed to Chevelle right now which means it might be a good time to move her out. I'll see how I feel about it after I see how this litter develops. She's such a good doe, one of my most trustworthy, and I usually get a keeper from her. I want to make sure I'm absolutely done with her before I sell her.
Dreamspinner's 3 broken blacks have their eyes open. Big heads on 2 of them. Hope the type got there, too. If you remember, I didn't keep any from her 1st litter with Smith's BL4 because the type went to the solid black instead of the broken. Keeping my fingers crossed. A doe would be real nice, too.
All open does have been bred except one. I'll get to her as soon as it warms up again. We're in the midst of a cold snap. I moved all the bucks outside last week and it went down to 23 this morning so I'm sure I'll be dealing with frozen water. Sure hope this is the last blast of winter.
In chicken news:
I picked up some new Cochin chicks from a friend at the show this past weekend. She had ordered from a hatchery and had way more than she needed. It was a great opportunity for me to get more Cochins. There's 2 partridge and 9 variously marked buffy ones. 2 people at the show said they were all solid buffs and the markings would grow out. Oh well. Was hoping maybe they were something new and different. I'm excited about the partridges. I think this is one of the most beautiful chicken colors...the classic rainbow rooster seen in all sorts of chicken art.
I decided to trash all the eggs in the incubator and what was in the nestboxes. I couldn't keep the incubator's temp stabilized and worried it had killed the eggs. If they were ever fertile. I candled just before trashing and saw no evidence of an embryo in any of them. BTW, it's a lot easier to candle chicken eggs than guineas. Guinea eggs have thick shells! I had left eggs in the nestboxes to see if anyone went broody, but no one did, although new eggs appeared daily. Since the eggs had been out there in wildly fluctuating temps, I decided they were trash too. They would have just frozen today anyways. I'll start collecting and try again.
In other news:
Weather has been pretty wild around here for the last week. There were dangerous storms 2 nights in a row, and they were both setting up like the tornadoes last April. I'm kinda gun-shy now and seeing that on tv makes for tension. The storms did a lot of damage in some areas, but luckily fell apart before they got here. I only got a little lightening, rain, and the power didn't even blink. Wasn't even that much wind which is really unusual for here.
Then there were the extremes! It was in the 70s for several days before the storms. Then the cold came in yesterday and it pulled out everything in the bag. There was lightening before dawn, then the temps went down by mid-morning, then a bit of rain and tiny floaty snowflakes. Then a good hail shower that stayed on the ground like snow. Then some snow that didn't stick. Then clear by late afternoon when the temps really dumped. This morning the sun was hitting the heavy frost on the ground just right and it looked like someone spilled multicolored glitter all over. Pretty.
13 days until Spring!
tnt
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