CHIMBY - Chickens in My Back Yard

[cokey]

No bear meat?

[The Architect]

No bear meat?

Me and Mr. 45 are working on it. 

I just have to make it look like I was startled and in fear of being harmed without actually being startled and in fear of being harmed. 


^^^^just kidding........... 

[Scooter Montgomery]

Not chicken related...
but we have 14 Indian Runner duck eggs in the incubator.

I find Indian Runners very funny. My parents used to have bunch to start off the their dogs on herding.

[ducpainter]

I find Indian Runners very funny. My parents used to have bunch to start off the their dogs on herding.

They're a hoot for sure...

...and prolific layers.

[ducpainter]

Update on the hatch...

out of the 14 we set 12 were fertile at one week. We lost two between the second and third week.

One has hatched and four more have pipped their shells. If they follow suit to the first bird they should hatch by tonight.

Hoping for a few more than that because drakes are pretty useless, and aren't going to stay, but it wasn't a complete flop.

[Ddan]

Congrats

Don't drakes get you free ducks?   

[ducpainter]

Congrats

Don't drakes get you free ducks?   

You only need one, and they're the horniest creatures that have ever walked the planet.

Last time I kept ducks I discovered that they were friendlier and more manageable without a drake around.

We'll see.

[Ddan]

You only need one, and they're the horniest creatures that have ever walked the planet.

Last time I kept ducks I discovered that they were friendlier and more manageable without a drake around.

We'll see.

[ducpainter]

Ducks by nh_painter, on Flickr

Not bad for eggs that were shipped and incubated in a still air unit with wild temperature swings in the room...58.3%

Hopefully we'll beat the 50/50 average and get more ducks than drakes.

[ducpainter]

They're about 2 weeks old now and have probably tripled in size.

They're starting to get some feathers.


Ducks 2weeks 001 by nh_painter, on Flickr

They weren't feeling very photogenic.

[DesmoDiva]

How long before they start laying?

Can you eat the drakes?

[ducpainter]

16-20 weeks.

It isn't the best meat breed. Very small.

[Ducatamount]

From "Funny Times" in the "News of the Weird" section.
The Dept. of Agriculture reported recently that in four of America's largest cities - New York, Miami, Los Angeles and Denver - nearly one home out of 100 keeps chickens either for a fresh egg supply or as pets, giving rise to chicken services such as Backyard Poultry magazine, MyPetChicken.com and Julie Baker's Pampered Poultry store. Among the most popular products are strap-on cloth diapers for the occasions when owners bring their darlings indoors, i.e., cuddle their "lap chickens". Also popular are "saddles" to spare hens mating injuries - owing to roosters' brutal horniness, sometimes costing hens most or all of their back feathers from a single encounter.

[duc_fan]

This is funny.  I used to think raising barnyard animals in the suburbs was just a thing amongst my weird homeschooled friends (I were home edjumacated... had lots of friends in the local homeschool support group).  Looks like this has gone sorta mainstream.

We'd probably have chickens, but my wife has this thing about birds and diseases (understandably, from growing up in Asia).  I think we'll end up with goats at some point in the not-too-distant future.  I'll keep working her on the chickens though... I hear they help keep the ticks down when they are allowed to roam in the fields.

[Dirty Duc]

We decided to do guineas since they apparently scare away snakes and coyotes... 18 came in the mail.  The psycho dog opened the coop and killed 14.  1 hid on the porch.  1 showed up this morning.  We found a dead one this evening.  The last unaccounted one probably got eaten or died somewhere else.