Tribbles!

My tribbles.

See? This is what they look like from above. Little fluffy balls. They chirrup and seem to purr as they scratch the pen floor litter, and as they perch with their mama hen in the evening. What's not to like about tribbles? ( O.K. They are Bantam White Cochins, frizzled) To see more about them click here.*

Eggs ! My New Flock Is Laying~

The first eggs from my new laying flock!

The chicks I received in the mail from Murray McMurray in April are now grown up, and within the next few weeks I should be getting eggs from all 19 hens.

 I have Silver Laced Wyandottes, Americaunas, Delawares,Cuckoo Marans,and White Orpingtons. I ordered all pullets, but one turned out to be a rooster. Thankfully he is a Cuckoo Maran rooster, and pretty mellow.

One of my 5 Americaunas.

 A Maran rooster & hen.

 Delaware hen.

 White Orpington. 

 A white Americauna. I suspect she laid the 3 minty green eggs.

Porcelain family

 While my cousin was here I decided that we should try and get some photos of how fast my porcelain chick is growing and and since there were a few extra hands we thought we should get his parents in the photo as well, this is Platinum the dad Silver Mist the mom and my Porcelain chick who we named Image because he looks so much like his dad did at that age and has the same personality as his mom.

 This is Image who is now about two months old , and at first I thought he wouldn't make it , but so far he is doing great and is turning out almost exactly like his dad , if you want to compare scroll down where there is a photo of his dad at about the same age.

 This is his dad Platinum , who will fiercely guard the hens from dogs  who try to attack and most of the time they get scared off and go away,  he's also one off the most beautiful roosters I have .

this is his mom Silver Mist who he gets his personality from, Silver Mist has had a great personality since she was a chick, which she seemed to pass on to Image , whenever I go out to the pen she is always there at the door waiting for me to pet her and and when I walk around the pen feeding and watering them she follows me around, and since she has no fear of me and loves being held she is going to be my fit and show hen for this year.

And finally this is Platinum at about 3 months old who if you scroll up looks almost identical to Image who is basically an image of his dad.

New chicks!

 Today I went out to my pen to check on my broody hens and found 6 little peeping chicks poking there heads out from under there moms, above is a Black Mottled d'uccle who we call Junior Mint after the " junior mints " candy.

 This is a Mille Fleur and Black Mottled with there moms.  If anybodies wondering what variety's  and  how many there are 4 Mille Fleur's and two Black Mottleds so far.

 This is another  Black Mottled chick.  Also if anybodies wondering about the eggs in the incubator from my last post none hatched and Im  not really sure why so after I tossed those eggs out I set these eggs under my bantam hens.

 This is one of my favorite photos which I took when I first went out to the pen.

 These are the chicks from the last post a few days after they hatched , right now they are much bigger and have all there feathers in, unfortunately I haven't been able to get any pictures yet.  This is the Mille Fleur who right now looks like a rooster.

And this is the Porcelain who also looks like a rooster.

Early birds.

 Two days ago I had a Porcelain and Mille Fleur chick hatch one day early  and looked a little small and undeveloped here is a picture of them above, Mille Fleur om left ,and Porcelain on right.

 This is my Black Australorp hen sitting on the eggs before they hatched, usually I don't put to many eggs under her because she tends to break them so I only put four under, three hatched and one was bad, and one chick died because she squished it and it hatched to early, the two chicks are now doing fine and are out in the brooder outside.

this is the incubator my grandma let me barrow these eggs are still waiting to hatch ,there are 32 eggs in the incubator right now.

Disqualifications and Defects.

 Disqualifications and Defects for the Belgian d'uccle bantam.  D'uccles should have a straight firm comb with about 5 points.

 Duccles should have a thick and full beard and muffs, absence of beard and/or muffs is a disqualification,  They should also have an absence or very small wattles.Other disqualifications are ,severed wattles, squirrel tailed, and absence of vulture hocks which are basically featherless legs.

 Bull neck and v shape in back are very important for body shape.

 This is Oreo my Black Mottled d'uccle , he is a general description of what a d'uccles body shape should look like.other defects are , large wattles and ear lobes, and neck unduly long and too narrow.

The d'uccle is a four toed breed and should have four nice toes like this, also bare middle toe is a serious defect.  All of my birds seem to not have any thing wrong except for Oreo who has too many complete white feathers.

Broody Poultry

There are a lot of broody poultry here at our place. This time of year broodiness seems to be the name of the game as far as my chickens, ducks, doves, & turkeys are concerned.

 The end result of broody hens that have been successful is always a delight!To see more about the broodiness going on around here check out this post on my other blog.*Spot On Cedar Pond