BDutch's bantam flock & natural breeding projects #5 🪺 🪺 and #6

[RoyalChick]

If the beer doesn’t drown them you’ll be shouting “Not happy Jan!”

I did need MJ’s post right after to get this one.
Well played!

 

[BDutch]

Abby and Chef are very daint and cute. They look like tiny porcelain dolls! But i’m sure they’ll be up to mischief soon enough !

Yes very daint ant cute. And misbehaving is not soon but now. Like exploring the herbs garden of the neighbours.

Today was upgrading the coop day. With black fungi paint and linseed oil.
Ready except for the nest-boxes
.

Look what I found in it today:

The timy egg is a fairy egg from Katrientje and has the size of euro/even a bit smaller than a qual egg.

 

[fluffycrow]

Yes very daint ant cute. And misbehaving is not soon but now. Like exploring the herbs garden of the neighbours.

Today was upgrading the coop day. With black fungi paint and linseed oil.
Ready except for the nest-boxes
.
View attachment 3627271

Look what I found in it today:
View attachment 3627272
The timy egg is a fairy egg from Katrientje and has the size of euro/even a bit smaller than a qual egg.

Bantam fairy eggs are so weird!

 

[ManueB]

Yes very daint ant cute. And misbehaving is not soon but now. Like exploring the herbs garden of the neighbours.

Today was upgrading the coop day. With black fungi paint and linseed oil.
Ready except for the nest-boxes
.
View attachment 3627271

Look what I found in it today:
View attachment 3627272
The timy egg is a fairy egg from Katrientje and has the size of euro/even a bit smaller than a qual egg.

It looks very nice.
I’m thinking of using linseed oil with turpentine on plywood for our small coop but not sure it's suitable. I can't seem to find the equivalent of your fungi paint here.
The coop looks nice with it’s new black coat. How often do you reapply?

 

[BDutch]

It looks very nice.
I’m thinking of using linseed oil with turpentine on plywood for our small coop but not sure it's suitable. I can't seem to find the equivalent of your fungi paint here.
The coop looks nice with it’s new black coat. How often do you reapply?

Thanks, I like it this way too.

First time sand the wood with regular sanding paper and apply Fungi. Dry one day and then linsead oil. Repeat the the linsead oil every 2 years.

But I didn’t repeat in time (>3 years ago) and the roof lost too much of the fungi substance. The blackening was washed away by the rain. I suppose there was not enough linseed left in the wood to feed the fungi. So I reapplied the fungi substance on the roof. And linseed after it dried. For the sides I only used linseed oil mixed with a little left over of the fungi ‘paint’ to give it a boost.

More info
https://www.fungiforce.com/
You can contact the factory to order it.
Page with pricing in NL:
https://www.fungiforce.com/shop-2/
It’s a bit more expensive with shipping cost to France.

PS, how it looked after the first time applying in 2022.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...page-contest-10.1293484/page-16#post-22788898

 

[BDutch]

So weird. Ini mini sleeps with the pullets every other night.
I wonder why she does this. She really spends one night with the little ones in the small coop in the run , and the next night with the hens inside in the extension.

Chef and Ini mini sitting in sight in the tiny coop.

Ini mini in the extension on the right.

Wondering why there is a double layer of hwc? I opened up the lower part of this side of the original coop. I can open and close it if I want to separate /divide the old coop from the extension. I have done so in the past when I had broodies in the nest-boxes. At the time I made a temporary nestbox (the tiny coop) added to the extension.

PS The extension from the other side during the day.

 

[BDutch]

Today I had a very small white egg. It looks as if Abby or Chef laid an egg .
It would be incredibly fast. They are only 17 weeks old. I never had a Dutch laying before 20 weeks old. So probably its just a small egg of one of the oldies. The chickens gave me 3 small eggs a day, 4 days jn a row.

Chef and Abby free range with the adults more often. They get less harassed but still sleep in the little coop in the run.
Since Thursday Ini mini is sleeping with the pullets every night. I think she prefers tucking in quietly. The pullets make less fuss than the adult hens.

Katrientje prefers to sleep in a nestbox because she is broody again! (But I certainly won’t let her sit on infertile eggs). She even tries siting on a bit of hay without eggs.
Sorry red lady, you have to wait another year or two before I buy six hatching eggs for you. I fel in love with the bantam Speckled Sussex (red porcelain) chicks I had. So this is on my future wish list now.

 

[BDutch]

Today I learned something new.
In the Netherlands we say red porcelain Sussex to speckled Sussex.

Page with all Sussex colours: http://www.kippenencyclopedie.nl/php/index.php?title=Sussex

 

[BDutch]

Katrientje is broody now and she is so grumpy, some hens prefer to lay their eggs under the roosts.

I realised that if Abby and Chef will lay an egg someday, they probably lay their eggs in the tiny coop.
No way they dare to go into the original coop with the nest-boxes as long as Janice and Katrientje chase the pullets in the coop area.

I need to lock up the chickens earlier every day now. The evenings starts about 5 minutes earlier than it did the day before. And Janice and Kraai definitely still like to sleep in the pear. Even Ini mini was on top of the run at 19.15 on the look out for a nice outdoor spot.

The three tree huggers:

 

[BDutch]

Chef didn’t come home tonight.