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
