Quail_Antwerp: Words from the Barnyard...

[Quail_Antwerp]

Yes, Frances is starting to look better. At least I think so. Her Deleware markings are coming back in her neck feathers, finally, and I can see some dark spots in her tail.

The reason Ernie took to calling Sam "Grant" is because he said everytime he says the rooster's name, he thinks of his brother, who's name is Sam and is the brother who gives us all the heartache. So I told him that Sam was named for Ulysses S. Grant, and he said, "We'll call him Grant then."

I'm going to try to take some pictures of the flock later. I promised a couple BYC'er's pictures of my Dominque chicks for the BYC breed page and another BYC'er some pics of the Welsummer/BBS/Barred rock mixes I hatched from her eggs in February.

My mom's been moving her poultry out to their new home the last couple days. Shouldn't be long before I get to go tear down her coops, spray them to kill off any possible germs, and after they air/dry out in the sun, bring them over hear and re-assemble them! I'm using her 8x8 coop to enlarge my current 8x8 coop! And when I'm done, the addition will be divided off into 2 rooms...one for brooding young chicks and the other side for probably my pair of Welsummers. That will give the cochins a whole pen to themselves, too!

 

[lorihadams]

So glad to hear the "first ladies" are getting adjusted! That's great about the extra coops! Does your mom not need them all? Chad just got some more crates and I am itching to get some crested polish and I would have enough to make them their own coop/run with the lumber we've got but I am making myself wait until spring.......

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

My mom doesn't need her existing coops because they built a brand new coop on the other property. Her new coop is bigger than her two coops at the old house combined.

The best part is, we're getting the old coops free! I plan to spray both down with a bleach solution and allowing them to air dry and then dusting them down with sevin dust before moving them to my property. Just to be safe, you know.

I have plans for the new half, that I can envision, but it's hard to really explain. With the new addition going to have a floor and two rooms, I'll be able to move my brooder into one of the rooms. We plan to run electric to one of the two rooms, which will enable me to have my chick brooder in the room with electric. No more brooding in the house!! AND I can hatch all year round!!! (Shhh, don't tell Ernie that! He might not like it ) It will give me space for different age groups, and also provide (if I don't have chicks in there!) a winterized house for my bantams, or any birds that aren't doing that well (ie. get frostbite and need a quite, warm place to heal).

Also trying to talk Ernie into trying to do a hoop house (after we complete my fancy coop, that is). I think a hoop house for my turkeys is a grand idea. Thanks, Becca!

Almost forgot! My parents own the 2.1 acres across the road from us. It's mostly wooded, but we're allowed to use all the locust for fence posts out of there we want, and we're also allowed free access to all the firewood we can cut. Today, my parents agreed to sell us the 2.1 acres for $1500!!! So now it's ours!! Ok, well, not quite ours yet. We do have to pay for it, but we can't afford to fork over $1500 at once, so my parents have agreed to let us make payments to them. Shouldn't take long to pay it off, though, and in the meantime, they are considering it ours, so we get to say it's ours!! My parents said they'll draw up paperwork with our agreement. Not that we don't trust our parents, but we've been burned by family before, and so have they, so it's more to protect us and them.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

OK, I wanted to post new pics of Grant (Sam) and the First Ladies, but photobucket was giving me a hard time and my Uploads here are full, and no way am I going to delete pics to make room!

I had oodles of space in my Uploads on BYC, so I put the pics there, with a vivid description of how spoiled The Ladies and Grant are used to being and how loved they were by their Real Mama.

I think I also got everyone's names right, and their breed! (I've been studying!)

http://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=2781672#p2781672

I'll be adding more pics of my flock to that thread, but Grant and The First Ladies had priority, as I wanted keljonma to be able to see recent pics of her babies.

 

[Farmfresh]

Great pictures Quail!

It is hard to get good pictures of free ranging chickens. I wish you could come and photograph mine.

 

[keljonma]

Great pics!

I know I'm prejudiced about them. But they all are really looking terrific, QA! I hope you are enjoying them as much as we did.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Thanks, FF!

It takes a lot of patience, and about 100 pictures to get 2 or 3 good shots of the chickens.

Bribing with feed and treats works, too.

Tomorrow, I am going to work on pics of the chicks in the brooder....and I might have some new chicks to take pics of tomorrow.....

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Great pics!

I know I'm prejudiced about them. But they all are really looking terrific, QA! I hope you are enjoying them as much as we did.

I am! I am glad you like the pics, just sorry I had to put them on BYC instead of on here. Photobucket switched things up on me, so soon as I figure out how to operate photobucket again, I'll work on getting those pics here, too!

So, when do you and your DH want to come down to visit with Grant and The First Ladies?

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

As you already know, we lost our RP Gwen last week, and she was setting on 15 eggs. Only 11 eggs were salvageable, or so we thought. Turns out, I had to remove another one, as it was weeping, leaving us with 10 eggs.

I was hoping to get at least 5 to hatch. Right now I have ONE completely hatched! and FOUR MORE PIPS!!!!!!

 

[PamsPride]