Update on the Chickens

 Sorry I haven't done anything on here for a while!

Fuzzes "grandkids" have been growing so fast!
 Bella the oldest is sadly a rooster.Mom and Dad have been calling him Fella but I think I'll always call him Bella.
 Mini Trouble is also a rooster.His crowing is the worst sounding crow I have ever heard.
 Splat is the only girl of the silkies this year.Fuzz has been giving her "egg laying lessons"in the nest boxes.
  We will be looking for homes for both roosters.
 Trouble has the 8 young hens in with him.At first he was discusted..but now he has a buddy of one of the young Rhode Island Reds.
 We built a new coop for the bantams.So that left the tractor to become....
JAIL.Some of the older Red Stars,Both Black Stars,and Fanny(Abe) were being mean or to rough on the other chickens so they have moved to their very own Jail.
 All of the chickens have been doing pretty well exept an older Rhode Island Red died of some unknown disease.
 I will try to get some pictures of the new coop,the younger chickens,and the jail on here soon!

New Arrival!

Trouble's a grandpa, Fuzz is a grandma!

Hatched 5/20/14, Fuzzette's (this Fuzzette's name is Fluff) little chick Bella (if it's a pullet)!  A little explanation here:  Fuzz and Trouble had 4 chicks, 3 pullets (all named Fuzzette) and 1 rooster (Toot).  So, Fuzz and Trouble are grandparents, Fuzzette (Fluff) is a mom.  She has 2 more eggs due to hatch next week that are currently being incubated by Fuzz.  We attempted to hatch 3 of Sunshine's eggs, unfortunately, it turned out they were not fertile eggs.  

The nest boxes on the small coop, insulated for winter but seem to keep them a little cooler in the heat too.  We're almost done building a third coop (another little one) to be able to separate the little chicks out a little and have more of them!  

Notes about Breeds

Just some spring notes as we're thinking ahead . . . from our experience with chickens so far:

1. Americanas don't seem to be very winter hardy, or maybe very hardy in general. Our remaining Americanas are always roosting in the hen house towards late afternoon on cold days, they frequently are all fluffed up and just looking cold.  This is the only breed we've had trouble with a prolapse on too.  The breed is so interesting to look at and very friendly, and you can get so many different colors, but probably not one we'll be getting more of.

2.  Red Stars (also called Red Sex-Link, they are easily identified as male or female by their markings as chicks), in our experience, is a very "picky" breed.  Ours "pick" on everyone . . . we have very few hens that have full tails because of them.  In fact, some have no tails and some have few feathers in their rump too.  We've seen them pick right in front of us, that's just not a nice trait to have.  They lay nice, brown, uniform eggs, but needless to say, there won't be any more Red Stars here.
3.  Australorps are a very interesting breed, they make a noise that isn't usual for chickens, kind of like a "honk".  They are very friendly birds as long as you don't want to pick them up (they don't seem to need to be picked up and would prefer to follow you around).  One of our friendliest hens right now is an Australorp named Peep who meets us at the doors to our house and is happy to follow us just about anywhere. 
4.  Rhode Island Reds seem to be an okay bird.  We have two of them, neither is real friendly, one picks, the other doesn't.  The jury is still out on them.
5.  Buff Orpingtons are supposed to be very nice, calm, happy chickens.  We have one.  She is the low-chicken on the totem pole and maybe that would explain her behavior.  She is loud, fast, and mean (to us, in picking at us when we get too close, although if you pick her up, she is fine).  The jury is still out on that breed too.
6.  Silkies are wonderful.  They are little walking puffballs, but they are rather noisy.  If you tame them as chicks (it's hard not to), they are little sweeties.  We have 4 full-blood Silkie hens, 2 full-blood Silkie roosters, 1 half-Silkie hen and 1 half-Silkie rooster.  No picking of feathers goes on with this bunch.  Our Silkies have a hen house of their own with our Nankins.  They lay nice medium eggs, but are often broody.
7.  Nankins are delightful little tiny pet-like chickens.  They are so interesting to watch and lay small eggs and are also often broody.  We have 1 full-blood Nankin and 1 Silkie-Nankin, both are really cool to look at!  They are tiny, so they have to be with other small banties, and they don't want to be picked up but will happily roost on your hand.  A very neat breed, that I think is one of the rare types.  Worth having, we will probably be getting more of these.  If you get some (and have a rooster), let the hen sit on eggs at least once (the tiniest of chicks comes out of them!).

So, that's all we have time for right now . . . just a few thoughts on our bunch!

Hurray For Sunny!

   Sunny has moved to a new home and now has his very own flock of hens!  He is very happy!
   I'm not really sure what chickens we're going to get this year, but I'm pretty sure we're going to get some Nankins.
    We had a very windy day a little while ago and we said if the Fuzzettes were on ice they would get blown away! They are so lightweight!  And Toot would just be standing there wondering where they went!  They're so goofy. :)

Betsy

Yesterday Betsy died.  She had a prolapse.  It's sad because she was one of my favorites. Trouble kept crowing for her.  Now we only have 4 Americanas.  We'll have to get more this spring.  We found out Sunshine is a Nankin, so we might get some this spring.  I also would like to get some Belgian Bearded d'Uccles.