5 Years...

 

The hen to the right is my Cuckoo Maran hen, the last of my original flock, and today she turns 5.

Life Goes on....

Carmel

Carmel died today. I'll start crying again if I type the rest, but in a few days if I can talk about it I will.

Carmel is to the right, Rex who died this fall is to the left.

Snowy Day

One of the big problems with winter this year is the the fact that my flock doesn't like the snow. So the spend all their time in the coop.  But this does at least make it easy to get photos of them. And since I haven't taken any photos since the chick hatched, I decided I really needed to take some. So here is the flock enjoying fresh, warm water.

More Bad News

Sorry that I've been only posting bad news lately, but I have more of it. My little bantam buff cochin passed away yesterday. The chick she had been raising (who is now bigger then any of the cochins) is okay and old enough to talk care of herself. I wasn't entirely surprised by her passing as she had been acting weird the week before her passing, though I could not find anything wrong with her. But I'm still very saddened by her loss as she was a sweet hen.Unfortunately I have to wait until the weather warms up to bury her as the weather is in the teens with snow on the ground.

 

Rex

Rex who was one of Blue Eyes's sons passed away today. I buried him next to his mom.

Rex is the one to the left, Carmel is the one on the right

Dud

Well I had a suspicion very early on that one of the eggs wasn't developing and sense there had been no sign of progress from the last remaining egg I cracked the end open to see if there was an internal pip (into the air cell, which is how they get their first breath) , instead I found an egg that might have developed a few days but had then stopped. So I buried it next to the chick that died and removed the nest box from the cage.

With the removal of the nestingbox from the cage mom and her one chick are getting use to a little more space so baby can learn how to stick around mom for warmth and to learn how to follow her. They have a chick waterer to drink from and chick food will be here this afternoon. But the lack of food really isn't a problem for new chicks, they absorb the yoke which can feed them for 2 or 3 days until all the eggs are hatched and mom is ready to lead them to food. So far they are doing well and in a few days I'll let them out of the cage, but leave them shut in the coop with the other two cochin hens so that they can get use to the other birds and even more space. Then after that when the chick is a little sturdier and they have gotten the sticking together down I'll open the door to the run and let them be. I've added some smaller size wire to part of the fence that has bigger holes so that the chick can't get out into the yard where mom can't reach it. So hopefully this little one is a pullet (female) or I'm going to be heart broken in a few weeks.