5.23.12

The daylilies are firing up.  It kicked off with "Stella D'Oro" about 2 weeks ago and those are going full blast now.  Stella is the workhorse of the gardens, reliably blooming early and heavily, and reblooming later.   Below is the first of the stars.

"Mrs. Peacock" comes from the daylily collection at Naturesnook.  When I first came to know the Smiths at rabbit shows, I learned they also share my love for the "perfect perennial".  They have an extensive collection and they do a little hybridizing of their own.  And they love to share!  If you join us at the Southeastern Dwarf Fanciers Rendevous on June 9, bring some pots and get some of your own.  This form with the long narrow petals is called a spider .  I haven't measured her but I'm sure she's around 8" across.

Here she is in context with the blue spiderworts and the small yellow homegrown daylily.  I dabbled in hybridizing myself many years ago and "Lemontime" was one of the successes.  It's "Stella D'Oro" x "Ice Carnival".  Ice Carnival is the oldest of my "whites" and crossed to gold Stella gave me a dwarf in the light lemon yellow I like so much.  It reblooms like Stella although not as reliably.  All 3 came with me from Michigan.  I brought a lot of daylilies with me!

Mrs. Peacock isn't the biggest one in my garden.  I think that title is still held undefeated by "Big Bird" which will bloom later.  This was its first year, fully 9" wide!  It would be even wider if the petals were straight.  It's also quite tall so it commands the garden during its time.

Oh BTW.  I figured out that it was the resolution that needed adjusting on the little camera.  It was set too low.  Can't get as much on the memory card with bigger shots, but at least they aren't terrible.  I'm pretty good about keeping the card cleaned out so it's always available.  So all is well there.  For now.  I'm starting to itch for an upgrade.

I'm revamping some gardens (always!) and now is the time to move daylilies.  You wouldn't think so during their bloom season but they take it like no other plant.  I said it was the perfect perennial!  Now is the time to make plans to divide or move because you'll know what color they are.  I have so many, I forget.

Garden Tip:  Save the little plastic clips that come on bread bags.  These are perfect for tagging the varieties.  Just write it with a sharpie and slip it on the flower stalk.  It will last until you are ready to move it.  Put the clip on upside down so rain and sun won't wear off the ink too soon.  Even permanent sharpie ink wears off eventually out in the elements.  They're also real handy for identifying cords on electronics.

I decided to wait until a soaking rain to do any more transplanting.  Got that since last night...a good slow inch so far.  After a day of soaking it up, the plants will be primed for moving, not to mention being easier to dig up.

In the rabbitry:  Have the first litter from the new himi buck, Smith's HD.  Kachina (tort) gave 3 fat healthy blacks yesterday.  Not that I wanted black but I expected it.  Now I know HD doesn't carry any goodies.  Apparently Kachina doesn't either which surprises me since her sire is Sugardaddy who threw Sable Pts.  She also just gave Tort when bred to Sable Pt but there was only 2 in that litter so I didn't consider it a good sampling.  I probably can now.  I'll keep the best of these for the himi, sable pt/tort, and broken programs.

Kachina is such a pet!  Right up until kindling she was begging for head rubs.  She was a wild child, extremely spastic and hard to handle as a jr.  She settled into her current personality after her first litter.  She grumbled a little when I went to check the new litter, but after giving her attention first, she calmed down.  I'm not planning on breeding her again after this litter, but not so sure I want to sell her.  Not very common to come across a doe with such a fantastic pet personality. 

More about HD.  As anyone who has Smith's rabbits knows, their ear # system involves 2 or 3 letters that usually spells something.  HD came to me without a name or number and I wanted to stay with their system.  His sire is HY and his dam DO and so HD for his ear #.  It also stands for HyDef.  He has really good color definition.

In the chicken pen:  The youngest birds are integrating nicely, and the older ones aren't persecuting them as much.  They still have the transition cage, but aren't using it as much now.  I'll take it away pretty soon.  Probably when I run out of chick starter feed as that's the main reason it's still there.  The older birds can't get to it in the cage.  There's 2 distinct flocks in there based on age.  The 2 adults (buff hen, mottled roo) are the overseers.  It's always interesting to see how the chickens work out their hierarchy.

tnt

Bobtail

I've been puzzling over the color of this pullet.  It's out of Buff-Laced Sebright x Mottled Black Cochin.  It's one of the very few hatchlings I've been sure of parentage.  This one was in the batch that was in the incubator.  If I had any doubts about her parents, her comb proves her Sebright dam.  It's definitely a rose comb.  She appears to have the soft feathers of the cochin as well as feathered legs. 

The camera did a pretty good job of capturing the color.  You might think it's just a dingy white but it's not.  Usually white chicks start out yellow and get whiter as they grow.  This one started out white and got darker.  There was nothing in its environment that could have stained the feathers that buffy gray shade.  If this was a rabbit it might be ermine or frosty.  In person, it has a slight chocolatey cast.

This white chick is not that pullet, but it's very close to how she looked at hatching, including some random black spots.

So where does the title of this blog come from?  On the way to something else, I came across this article about an unusual chicken color.  It's called Bobtail.  No explanation for why someone thought that was a good name for this color.  I do believe that's what this pullet is.  According to the Chicken Color Calculator, Buff Laced x Mottled produces white, but apparently not exactly.  I tried to sell her since I wanted to get the breeding flock to just purebred Cochins, but no one was buying that day.  I decided to keep her to see how she grows up.  She might add some interesting color genes to the flock.

Just a couple more of the young birds.

  

I just love the partridges!  She hopped up here and seemed to be asking for her picture to be taken.

Not sure what to call these two.  Well, I'm sure the one on the left is the cockerel and the right is the pullet.  But are they buff or are they red?  I think the roo is red which would be cool.  He's the darkest of the bunch and his tail seems to be retaining some black feathers.  Rhode Island Reds have black tails.  The 2 pullets could go either way...dark buff or light red.  [shrug]


tnt

Sad Scene

The buff cochin hatched this chick several days ago.  I left it with her to see what happens.  She didn't bring it out of the nestbox until late the 3rd day.  Possibly the 4th as that's the morning I saw it on the ground.  I knew it was at the end of its yolk reserves.

It seemed active and looked like it was attempting to find food.  The hen fiercely protected it.  However, she seemed tolerant of certain members of the flock.  The mottled in the background is the papa and she had no problem with him sharing the same scratch area as she and the chick.   She tolerated the Rhode Island Reds as well.  Actually, that's all the adults in there right now.  She had a problem with the younger birds and ran them off.

I realized water was a problem.  The waterer is suspended a few inches off the ground to keep it cleaner.  I could lower it but it wouldn't have been an ideal situation for the length of time the chick would need to reach it.  I held the chick to the water and it drank a little.  I found a shallow dish and put it near where the hen was keeping the chick.  Hoped the hen would help it to the water.

Alas, it was too little too late.  The next morning, I found the chick dying on the ground.  It was taking its last breaths.  Here's where the sad scene comes.

The buff hen was hovering forlornly near the chick.  The interesting thing was that the RIR was right there too.  She had been sitting on some brahma eggs that I was going to take away soon.  I didn't keep track, but I was pretty sure they were long overdue and not going to hatch (no brahma eggs have ever hatched, either naturally or in the incubator).  Looked in her nest and they were all gone.  Must have been the egg-stealing snake I've yet to lay eyes on.  The RIR was sitting near the chick in her puffed up broody mode.  This little scene really touched me.  I don't know if the RIR thought the chick was hers since her eggs were gone, or if she was mourning with the buff.

Both hens were sharing a nestbox the following day.  Chickens are so interesting in the things they do!  I'm not leaving any more eggs in the boxes.  I don't want any more hatchlings this year, especially since they'll all just be black or RIR/cochin mixed.  Hopefully next year, one of this year's chicks will be a more colorful roo to give me more color in the hatches.  There is the buff cockeral in the oldest batch, and maybe a birchen in the youngest.  Not that I don't like the mottleds, I really do, just not so many of them.

In the rabbitry:   I'm pretty sure now that Dreamspinner's are broken siamese sables.  I guess they are inevitable if I'm going to have sable points.  The weanling broken sable pt doe is looking very promising.   I decided not to worry about broken sable pts as there will be plenty of solid ones.  It will be about type.

In nature:  I've been hearing a familiar drone far off somewhere.  It could have been machinery, but it seemed awfully consistent for that.  Followed my suspicions online and learned there is a small brood of 17 year cicadas emerging in the Appalachians this year.  This was the sound I remembered from 2008 when there was a huge emergence in this area.  I had never experienced it before and it was astounding!  That time there were hundreds in my yard and the surrounding forest and it was almost deafening.

This cicada was on the barn siding in '08.  I haven't actually seen one this year, but I now know that's what I'm hearing.  Once you hear it, you don't forget it.

tnt

Chix Pix

Just a few new photos of the birds.

The broody girls.  One of the cochin's hatched yesterday.  It's under all that fluff somewhere.  I'm leaving it with her to see how it goes.  I don't want any more black chicks so I'll only take them if they aren't black.  BTW, that's the menacing "mama bear" pose.  They puff up as big as they can and growl.  More bark than bite.  That cochin hen has never let me touch her but I can when she's on the nest.  She's even accepted (under protest) my picking her up to see what's going on under her.  I noticed she talks to her chick.  A soft chuckling sound that she doesn't make any other time.  Probably the bonding process what will help the chicks when they come out of the nest.

Partridge and buff pullets.  One of the buff hens has a definite pet personality!  I can't tell which one it is until she perches near me.  She lets me pet her, looks like she enjoys it, and even seems to ask for it.  I love friendly chickens!

The partridges are getting so pretty!

Colorful lawn ornaments!

I need a new camera.  I don't know what's going on, but it's just not cutting it lately.  Maybe it's me, but I don't think so.  That shot of the free rangers should have come out better (Blogger didn't help by downsizing it), they were right there near me in good natural light.  Heck, all of them should have come out better.  I had to put quite a bit of editing on them to get them to look this good.  I think the problem is the focus and shutter speed.  It might be slowing due to wear or age, I don't know.  Maybe it's also the resolution.  I'll be researching new ones.  I know I can take better pix than this!

I was wrong about Dreamspinner's litter.  Those are not broken torts.  Still not sure what they are but it's sure looking like siamese sables.  Oh well, at least they are nicely broken.

 tnt 

Oops

I forgot to mention a blunder that happened in the barn about a week ago.  My bad.

Recapping:
Zimmerman's Suzie x Jacob's J269 had 3 sable points.
Zimmerman's Lita x Sugardaddy had 4 brokens - 2 black, 2 sable pts.
Baroquen x Smith's BL4 had 1 broken black.
Chevette x Bruin had 1 himi.

I gave Chevette's and Baroquen's singletons to Lita.  I gave one of Lita's broken blacks to Suzie.  That gave Suzie 4 and Lita 5.  Because of colors, I could keep track of what belonged to who.

So I was playing with the babies, 4 wks old at the time.  I looked at Lita's bunch first.  Then I pulled Suzie's out .  Not paying attention, I put the broken back in Lita's cage (they're right next to each other).  Didn't realize my mistake until the next day when I missed the broken in Suzie's cage.  I actually looked around to see if it had gotten out.  Then realized Lita's cage looked crowded.  Yep, there it was.  I didn't know if Suzie would accept it back.  She's the less mellow of the 2 does.  So Lita is now raising 6.  She actually dropped 6 but 2 were peanuts.  So far, it seems to be ok.  The kits are eating solid food well, and probably aren't nursing much now.  That was my main concern, that she wouldn't allow the stranger to nurse or that she couldn't support them all.  It's safe to say Lita is a bomb-proof doe.

It's been getting pretty hot during the day.  I'm debating whether to wean all those babies out early.  It looks so crowded and hot in those 2 cages.  I usually wean out at 6 weeks, but that's not until next week.

Got a new litter from Dreamspinner x Jacob's today.  1 broken black, 2 broken (I think) torts.  Very good!  All have good pattern.  It's about time I got some broken torts with decent pattern.  I didn't know if Dreamspinner carried non-extension but now I know she does.

The other 2 kits I mentioned last time are a himi from Chevette x Bruin, and a tort from Broken Dream x Jacob's.  Broken Dream is raising them.  This is her first live litter (finally!!!).  I really didn't want to give up on her, but it was getting there.  I lost her "twin" sister to unknown cause, and Broken Dream was the only chance to keep that line going so I kept trying.  Not to mention being a nice doe I really needed to be successful.

tnt