Sprocket

One of our birds that we hatched- the one that was supposed to be a Silkie but is actually a Cochin- is most definitely a male. He's not crowing (yet, thank goodness!) but here he is in all his handsomeness. We've named him Sprocket. Make note of his fancy hairdo ;)



And a closeup of his man part (no, not that you sicko!)

Pics

Here's our flock, in an X-Pen while their run is being built.

Clipping wings

We finally got around to clipping the egg layers' wings. We have a 6 foot tall privacy fence, but I just don't trust the birds to stay in and the neighbor's dog to not kill them if they somehow get out.

This doesn't hurt, and it is super duper easy to do- easier with a helper (especially if you're taking pictures during the process LoL) but totally doable if you're on your own.

Grab the bird's wing and spread it out



See how there's shorter feathers and longer feathers?
Cut to the length of the shorter feathers, like so...






Repeat for the other side...




That's all there is to it! You don't actually have to do both sides- I've heard that one side will do it, but I'm not taking any chances.

That was an Easter Egger. Here is the process with a Barred Rock (same process, just different looking feathers)

It's been two months

What can I say....mmmm, I stink at updating the blog? Yeah, I could say that. I got pregnant, got tired, then avoided the blog like the plague- you know how you put something off and put something off and the longer you wait the worse it gets? So yeah....

The meaties are gone. Thank goodness, because dang did they ever stink. Dirty, nasty, slovenly creatures those meat birds are. But dang tasty! (or so my husband and son tell me). For some odd reason, this pregnancy has me turning up my nose to all things meat and so I haven't actually tried it myself.

The Mr. had the dirty job of actually "taking care of" the birds. I had all intentions of helping clean them, but then I got pregnant and pukey and the thought of helping went right out the window.

But here's a few pictures for your viewing pleasure....

One of our Barred Rocks, obviously complaining about something lol.






No Jib, that's not a meat chicken. Besides, it's not time to eat them yet you silly boy!

One of the Easter Eggers with her beautiful feathers coming in.


Why yes, Jib is in fact wearing an "I'm the Big Sister!" shirt. Yes, Jib is a boy; but this shirt was mine when I was little. He wore this when he went to see my mom, our way of announcing our big news ;)




Nope, the chicken is not dead. This is what chickens do when you lay them on their backs. Weird, huh?!

Updated Pictures

Note: Please remember to click on the photos to see the whole thing. If anyone knows how to fix the issue of Blogger cutting off my photos, please leave a comment or email me, thanks!


Here is one of the babies that we hatched. We bought the eggs from Destiny Farms thinking they were Silkie eggs but it seems we got a surprise! I emailed Joni, and she said it sounds like we got a Cochin mix.








And the ones we believe are Silkies (though I've never seen a Silkie in real life so what do I know? lol)