Surviving Minnesota!

[duluthralphie]

Lovely.

Lavender cuckoo sounds quite beautiful.

Why when I read Lavender Cuckoo do I picture you standing in front of a mirror, your head wrapped with lavender lilacs, staring at yourself and mumbling about how beautiful you are?

 

[jerryse]

Ralphie I finally grafted some of those pear yesterday . First grafting this season . Got a lot done on these nice days . First mowing . Lots of things blooming now . Trillium , Dutchmans breeches and violets in the woods . Pear , cherry, wild plum and peaches started to open blooms yesterday . Wanted to spray weeds but never got time . I did dig some bull thistle . I do enviro friendly methods time permitting .

 

[BantyChooks]

Why when I read Lavender Cuckoo  do I picture you standing in front of a mirror, your head wrapped with lavender lilacs, staring at yourself and mumbling about how beautiful you are?

Sounds like you think of that so vividly only because of personal experience, eh?

Fess up, Ralph... We won't judge, even if lilacs do look rather funny on you.

 

[I Love Layers]

PC is of course still happily sitting on eggs

. Black cochins went out again today, they are enjoyng it out there. The black cockerel has started making a few moves on the Frizzle. He's not sure what he's doing exactly and usually ends up trying to start a fight between him and the pullet.
Chicks will be 7 weeks this Thursday! Only 9 more weeks until eggs!! I meant to revamp the rabbit hutch for them but didn't have time so that will be this weekend. We put one of our no waste feeders in the second brooder, the waste from the mason jar feeder was horrible.

 

[lvie]

Good Morning Chickeners . . . . Caught up. Good thing it rained last night so EVERYONE (where are YOU Holm and BC?) could chatter. I sewed the cutest little Easter Bag for little kids (making four) who will be at my son's wedding on Saturday. They decided to Elope instead of waiting for July 8th for a number of reasons, most are monetary. I thought eloping was when you did the deed and told about it later. I guess not. There will be 44 of us eloping with them. Being that it is the day before Easter we will lay low for Easter. So! Between my future d-i-l three grandchildren, and my seven grandchildren I decided that they should get their Easter Bunny stuff the day before. It will keep them busy at the eloping reception.

While working so much outside this past Saturday, Reggie and his four ladies were allowed to free range and I observed them. Reggie is so paranoid of Copper that he will not pass in front of the large coop with Copper in it. He finds ways to sneak past. Later in the day I saw one hen squat for Reggie to do his deed. Yeah - he tried to get on and stumbled right off.

After the hospital coop the birds are going into the coop with Reggie. They should not encounter too much stress in his coop.

Poor Reggie. So nice Reggie. Sweet heart Reggie.

Were you by Ralphie? I have been cleaning my ghetto yard. Now I will get on my project manager step son to get the debris out of here. Greg says you are welcome to any of those windows that you want. Obviously a homeowner is replacing their windows and these are the tear outs.

Ill - you have such lovely-looking birds. I hope all the broodies hatch those eggs and are good moms.

Quails - lottsa quail talk. A new endeavor if you pursue it MNnice. BantyChooks - I thought you were new to raising poultry but am rethinking that now. Where in the world did I come up with that assumption? You have already done quail.

This will not be the last day of Grandma Daycare for eternity - however, it is the last day of school for my d-i-l. She will now have a masters in therapy. That is my generalization of that education of course. To think she started back to work when this unexpected little guy (Ivor) was just a babe and survived family life, parenthood and marriage to graduate in June with a 4.0 gpa - well, I am proud of her. A journey starts with one step . . . .

Jerryse - I hope the sun shines for you today. Honestly I do! It is no fun to go without sunshine when your brain needs it so badly. My DH is like that. We used to go to a beach on the ocean somewhere each year and he would soak up the vitamin D. But now he has the lot in Aitkin. Not more sunshine there than here but somehow it does the same thing for him. Odd?

Have a great day chickeners . . . .

 

[bantiesrule]

Hi! I don't really post on here too much, but I've been having trouble finding things and thought I'd try local. I'm looking to make/buy cheap poultry transport crates for shows. Like wooden crates for standard sized poultry, most likely Lavender Orpingtons. I also want to make some for some Call Ducks I'll be getting. I always see everyone with them at the shows but I have never seen anyone selling them! And googling it has turned up nothing. Does anyone have some good plans to make cheap ones or know of anyone in MN or surrounding states that sells them for a lower price? I'm 16 and all of my money goes into my chickens so I want to spend as little as I can haha

If you are handy at all, check out videos on Youtube. If not, check craigslist or local auctions. Just keep your eyes open and you should come across a good deal eventually.

 

[holm25]

I'm here Ivie. Just busy.


2 new calves last night. Tried getting one of the cows into the shed but working cattle in the dark with calves didn't work well. Especially with my moms cow. I have to watch her after the other day. Was standing along side a gate and turned around and there she was about ten feet away and once I saw her she came at me lol. Luckily there was a stick by me and I just swung that at her. But then yesterday afternoon she never really got goofy like usual.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Good morning all. I had a nice lengthy post typed but lost by a mobile glitch.

Had my largest production week last week for 5 hens laying. They are such good girls. I think they really like junior as well.
With saturday's warm trend the grass popped some green and the flock grazed and grazed. They also were on the hunt in the woods for chirping frogs. Skeeters hatched and I don't have any dunks. I will have to change that state of affairs.

Construction junk removed from under the deck, popple moved but still need to move more, coop debunked of straw on the front but other bales still frozen down. They work the opposite in the spring insulating ice and frost. Plastic torn down.
Worked out at the resort on Leech yesterday with the twins. I've decided on two jobs again this summer. Get DD going out there and DS. Money will be nice too.
So a busy two days.
I love Banty's fan girl moment on here. Lol. Jerry has a cabin in my hometown and asked about growing pear trees in my little town on this thread. I thought somebody was pulling a funny on me. Because the town is really small and I had never divulged my town on here before. Well after a meet and greet luncheon with Ralphie too we had a laugh about the coincidence. So pretty special to have Jerry joining this little Minnesota group for sure. Thank you Jerry.

Cluckies I love the sound of your weather adventure. What a fun place to be stuck.

We had gorgeous orange, pink, red and purple splotchy sunset last night. No weather just clouds setting off the sky. Colder today though.

Time to make the donuts.

 

[beritbeth]

If you are handy at all, check out videos on Youtube. If not, check craigslist or local auctions. Just keep your eyes open and you should come across a good deal eventually.

What do you suggest searching to find a video? Whatever I'm typing in is not giving me any results. I think I could build it on my own, maybe with a little help, but I'm not sure what I should do for size unless I have specific instructions. I have smaller Orpington hens and a pretty large rooster. I'm also thinking of trading my barnyard mix hens for some more show quality hens in the near future.

 

[beritbeth]

Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do about an aggressive rooster? He was originally very sweet but I left for a month in February and since then he's been attacking me. Nothing really serious, but I can't walk, crouch, touch the feeder or waterer, or be near the chicks without getting pecked or kicked. Haha, he just jumps up at me with his feet, which I can easily block with my foot. I've tried using the same boots and coat as I used to, in case my newer ones were confusing him. And I've tried holding and petting him in from of the girls. This wouldn't be a big deal to me, just an annoyance, but my mom frequently takes care of them for me and is really upset about it. I don't really want to cull him as he's won first place several times in shows and I'd like to keep him for future shows and breeding. I got rid of his brother for aggression as didn't want that in my line, but I really am hoping to keep him. He's a year and a half old Lavender Orpington rooster.