Baby Chick Pics

I thought I would share a few pictures of Tex's' hatch...actually I found out these are his wifes chicks. ;) Good news, I will be keeping two of the four original polish I hatched out before this bunch. The white crested blues are all mine. The other two turned out to be white crested blacks, which I already have some of out in the yard. I will still be keeping those two in with my two for awhile until Debbie has a place for them. They are too old to go in with the chicks that have just hatched. I also have my first Brown Red Modern bantam out of the shell yesterday. Okay, here we go with the pictures.









The little yellow fuzzy legged/footed one here is a Salmon Favrolle. Shelby fell in love with this one immediately, but I warned her not to get attached, these are all going to be gone Sunday when Tex comes to pick them up and take them home for Debbie to enjoy and love.

Here is the other Salmon Favrolle chick...this one was more cooperative in posing for me...





These solid black chicks are still a mystery as to what breed they are...but they are cute...their legs, feet, beaks, body, all solid black.




This little one below seems to be a little behind. It is smaller than the other polish hatched out and seems to still need more rest than the others at lengthier intervals so I put it in with my newborn BR modern chick. This serves two purposes, it gives my chick company and gives the weaker chick a chance to rest more.

First pic is of the sleeping weaker chick, second is of them together with the "Llama mama" I always use to comfort the newborn chicks.







One final picture...one of my day old BR Modern chick, gulping down its first drink of water. With new chicks you always want to dip their beak in the waterer to make sure they know where to get to drinking, and I always show them the food and tap my finger on it several times til they peck at it and know to eat. Usually by the second day they have it down.






I have to get moving. I got a full day of feeding and watering, along with going to Joes this afternoon to try and help out with that llama. We are supposed to have some heavy rain come through tomorrow so I want to get everything done and squared away before then. Everybody have a nice day today. :)

Chattahoochee Valley Poultry Association 5th Annual Show

I finally fell asleep Friday night even with my anxiousness and the anticipation of the following day. Shelby said she caught me sleeping around 9:45 pm. I had the alarm set for 2 am...yes thats right, 2 am. When the alarm went off I was not wanting to wake up, I was definitely wanting to go back to sleep. I forced myself to the shower right away and that helped a good deal. I woke Shelby around 3:20 am and she didnt even bite my head off when I did it. Tip and her were going with me to be dropped at my parents for the day for a visit. For once, we actually left on time! 4 am, and we were pulling out of the driveway. Bags, animals, and us all loaded and ready.

There was no traffic on the road so zipping through the usually busy spots like Hiram was a breeze. We stopped through the drive thru at McDonalds right before we got to my parents and got a bite of breakfast. We made it to my parents right on time at 6 am. Karen was already there parked on the curb waiting for us. After we got inside and got Shelby and the dog settled Mama had heard us and woke up, then Daddy woke up. I was trying to be quiet, but they heard us anyway. Daddy had a full day of guitar students ahead of him and I hope he got enough rest. Dwain was running a bit behind so we met him at the Stockbridge Walmart and then took off from there.

It was a pretty easy ride all the way down to Newnan. Other than the usual, I85 down there has been under construction for years. You never know what is going to be going on there next. I just hate those temporary concrete walls they put up, right up against the line. I know they won't jump out in front of the truck and make me wreck, but they are awfully close to the edge and it still makes me nervous. If anyone were to hit that wall, there would be nowhere to go, you would just have a massive pile up.

We pulled up to the fairgrounds around 7:15. With Karen and Dwain being along I had lots of extra hands to help me get everything and everybody inside the building, get cooped in and set up the food and water cups for the birds.

After cooping in I surveyed the competition in the Asiatic and Continental classes. This was a big show, over 1800 birds were entered this year. The large fowl section had a lot of birds this year. I was glad to see this because the bantams always dominate any show I have ever gone to. There were still plenty more bantams than large fowl, but it was just nice to see more than before.

Once you have been to several shows in a row, if there is a bird there that you went up against in a previous show, you can almost recognize that bird right away. This was the case in the Asiatic class. The same Langshan that won Best Asiatic at the Monroe show was in this one. Beautiful bird. If you look back at the Monroe show pictures, it is the big tall black rooster drinking from a cup. Yep, he won again. I got Reserve Champion Asiatic and he got Champion Asiatic. He also won Large Fowl Champion. He had to be so proud of his bird. It is a beautiful bird. This is the bird, I know the pic is a little fuzzy, sorry about that, I didnt know or I would have taken more than one of him.





and here is Babe in her coop...Reserve Champion Asiatic..





Buckbuck did not win, but he did get Reserve Best of Breed and Reserve Best Variety. Babe of course was Best of Breed and Best of Variety. We were actually up against another Giant Cochin. As far as how many birds we were up against in the Asiatic class, there was a whole row. Brahmas, which were Darlenes birds, she is a big time winner at a lot of these shows with her bantam Brahma...here is Buckbuck in his coop, and then a picture of Darlenes large brahma rooster.








My polish did not place in the Continental Class. There was the Best of Breed and Best of Variety, which is still all good marks, along with Reserve Best of Breed and Reserve Best of Variety. Laverne and Shirley took these two spots. I have to admit, I was more disappointed than I thought I would be. It took me about thirty minutes to contemplate and recompose myself, but I settled down. I knew that by the next day I would be over it. When Sunday came I realized these things are not as important as you think they are at the time. I spoke with a judge on my thoughts and concerns about how birds are judged and what the notes on my cards from the polish meant. The notes on the cards are not always for the owner. They are notes for that judge to remind him why he did or did not like the bird so he can narrow it down to the best bird in that class. The judge (he was not judging this day) assured me I had good birds and to go ahead and breed them for future shows, that they should do fine. Like any breeding program, there will be some that are better than others that come out of the hatch, so I will have to pick and choose which ones are the best for showing and leave the others to stay here in the yard.

This show was so huge...and I spent so much time socializing with fellow bird folks and then Karen and Dwain were with me, and Ians dad and Christi, his wife, came to see the show and my birds and me. Before I knew it, it was all over! Everyone was packing up and leaving. I was only able to get a few pictures in, mostly of large fowl that caught my eye.

I did take Phoenix with is John Deere diaper outfit. He was a phenomenon at times...lol. I got all kinds of responses. Some stared and walked on. Some stopped and took pictures of him. A few wanted to know where I got such a thing and how do they go about getting one. I had a card with my name and email ready for this. I had some say that now they had officially seen everything. Some thought it was a great idea, some thought I was nuts I think. Its a good kind of crazy though. ;)

I did in fact end up buying ONE bird. He caught my eye and didnt turn it loose. I looked over all the birds for sale and ended up right back there looking at him. He was only five dollars. I asked to hold him, just to make sure he wasnt going to be aggressive and mean. He was just as nice as he could be. I bought him. He is a golden birchin cochin cockeral. Meaning he is under a year. He is not a Giant cochin, nor is he a bantam. He is a Standard. There was some confusion as to these classifications of size in a cochin, but I think I will go with this until Beth and Jerry tell me otherwise. They call their breed of cochin Giants. I always thought there were three sizes of this breed, but a few say no, I guess it is a matter of who you are talking to. Anyway, here is a picture of the young man. I have named him Tequila. His golden feathers against the black reminded me of Jose' Cuervo Gold Tequila...my favorite drink of choice. Who doesnt like a good Marguerita? I am thinking of putting him with some of my black Giant cochin pullets. I bet he would like that. Time for a new breeding pen? We will see soon. I already have it in the works to build one for the four polish.

TEQUILA...




This is the only picture I have of him at the moment. I will take better ones soon. You should see him standing up...he is just beautiful.

Now on with some of the pictures from the show...first up...Dwain and his PC's or better known as Pocket Chickens! He bought nine chickens before the day was out. These two he bought from the silent auction for a dollar fifty each. The one actually in his pocket in the second picture was quite content to stay there most of the day, spoiled already. ;)






Next up we have a picture of Ray H. 's son and his award. :) Ray, I saw there were two pictures of him on the camera that Dwain had taken, but I wasnt going to show off my dirty truck to everyone, so I thought this one would be a lot better. ;)





Now, here are the few pictures I managed to take of other birds...
















These pictures were just the tip of the iceburg as far as what was there. Thinking back, there were so many more beautiful birds I wish I had gotten a chance to take pictures of, but with all the excitement of Phoenix being along with me for the day, and my good company that was there, along with all the folks both new and old that I talked to...the day was gone all too soon.

I had a really good time, and I really love doing this. Darlene asked me to go to Ohio with her in November to one of the big shows out there. I don't think I am ready at this time in my life to do that. I still have too many other responsibilities here. Shelby, Ian, and all the other animals depend on me every day to be here. I have also promised Brian Blair that I would be at the special show he is putting together just for Serama in November. I wouldn't want to miss that, so I will probably stick around here for now.

This entry has gone on for long enough...I have other news, chicks are hatching today...but I will save that for tomorrow.

If your wondering what I am doing making an entry and not wrassling a llama, I called Joe and we both agreed that it is just way to windy and cold to deal with that today. It is supposed to warm up in a few days so we are going to try again on Thursday.

Hope everyone is having a nice Monday. :) XOXO

Tired and Out of Time

I know I am supposed to be posting about the poultry show yesterday, but I haven't had time to sit down like I want to and talk about it all. I have eggs pipping and I have been shuffling birds around and getting ready for the babies that are coming. I slept late this morning, so I have been behind all day with my regular chores and animal chores. I sit here now at one minute til 8 and I got to go whip up some supper in about twenty minutes time..guess its a spaghetti night eh? I am loading some pictures onto Photobucket to use with my next entry...so be patient and I will be back as soon as I can. Tomorrow I have to go see Joe (the goat man, remember I bought the emu babies from him). He has a llama that has overgrown teeth, and probably is going to need a toenail trim. I have been reading up today about how to trim the toenails, but the teeth may be more of a challenge, we will see. I will be back with a good entry soon...in the meantime, if you look on my sidebar, you will see that Babe won Reserve Champion Continental. :) I am proud of her. The tag is the only thing I have to show though...the plaques and trophies at this show were limited to Class Champions, Champion Large Fowl, Reserve Champion Large Fowl, Super Grand Champion and Reserve Super Grand Champion. Every show is different as to what they give out in awards, but I can still say she won her place in the show.

More later...got to go get some supper on, Ian will be home in fifteen minutes...

Good Friday Morning

How is everyone this Friday morning? We are doing pretty good this morning around here. :) We were very fortunate to not have had any of the tornadic activity all around Georgia Wednesday. It was raging above our county and raging below our county. It was even raging in the very county I will be going to on Saturday to show the chickens. From the look of the news reports there was a lot of damage down there in Coweta County. Speaking of news...take a look at the local newspaper there...they have a write up on the upcoming show on Saturday. Seems this particular show is really starting to draw a lot of attention.

I am trying to make a clickable link to the article, but blogger seems to be trying out new and different things this morning...so you may have to cut and paste this link.

http://www.times-herald.com/local/2000-birds-are-expected-at-Saturday-poultry-show-666074

A summary of it is..they are expecting around 2000 entries from 12 states and this show is one of the biggest in the southeast U.S. Very exciting!

I have some more pictures to show from the Monroe show to put on todays entry. I will have so many to show after Saturday, I don't want to fall behind! ;)

Here is a picture of the Silver Spangled Hamburg that won Champion Large Fowl and Champion Continental. I told the guy he deserved it, that he had one beautiful bird there.









The one that got Champion Asiatic was a Langshan. There were four of them, three roosters and one hen...here is a picture of one of them, I don't know if this is the one that actually won, but Babe was the Reserve Champion Asiatic up against one of these.






Here are a few more pictures I took of birds that caught my eye at the Monroe show...












Now that I know just how many entries there are going to be at this upcoming show...I am really going to be a nervous wreck! What kind of competition will I be up against? I have a lot of confidence built in my birds from the last three shows...but how will it be at this one? Its going to be HUGE!

So today I will be making sure my birds are as perfect as they can be. I won't put them through the torture of another bath. That isnt really necessary. Maybe just a little fluff blow dry and some extra shine spray...and of course putting the coating of mineral oil on their legs. Babe and Buckbuck will need their feathers just under their vent (nice word for the poop hole) cleaned and blow dried again. Cochins have such big fluffy feathers on the rear that they cant really help but get some poo stuck on their rear.

All the pens and free rangers have fresh water and lots of food for Saturday. No one will need tending Saturday. I thought it was going to rain on me but the weather folks have pushed the rain back to Saturday night. I am thankful and relieved about that.

The eggs in the incubator should start hatching this weekend. (These are Tex's polish and DUccles) I have also been adding eggs from the brown red modern bantam trio I recently purchased. There are ten eggs fertile and growing in there right now...and I have two waiting for a spot in there. In the other incubator (Dwains eggs) things didnt go so well. I am down to two eggs that might still be developing. This incubator would not keep a stable temperature and plus I had to hand turn these, which I had never had to do before. Evidently between the unstable temps and my sporadic turning I didnt do so well. Lesson learned. I need that automatic turner if I am going to successfully hatch eggs, for myself, or anyone else.

Alright...enough rambling. Its time for me to get going around here. I want my birds and I to be ready to take on the world tomorrow!

Everyone have a wonderful weekend and I will see y'all after the show! XOXO

The Polish Babies Video

Okay...here are my little carniverous babies! ;)

( Just to clarify, the dog food gives chickens more protein than regular chicken food, and thats a good thing )

Polish Babies, Phoenix New Outfit

I haven't shown the four polish babies on here in a little while. They have grown so much! I believe two of them are in fact white crested blacks and the other two what was expected, white crested blues.

They are characters I tell you. They are starting to hop onto the side of the box to look out at the rest of their world. A couple of times I have found one on the floor and had to put it back. So, today I found two of them exploring on the floor and decided it was time for the netting over the top. I would hate for them to get out onto the floor while I was gone and get cold and hungry. So I did that, but before I did, I took this video and this picture.

Let me explain what is going on here. I learned from the guys at poultry shows that they train their chickens to pay attention with dog food. Not just any old dog food. Its this here...and at first I was skeptical, because I dont feed any of my animals any by products of any kind. This is an old brand food, but was surprised when I read the ingredients! Just good old beef...no by products! So, I got some and my chickens love it. The other day I decided to give a little to the babies...WOW..they thought it was the best thing since sliced bread!

Warning...do not click on the previous link if you use your reader...I deleted it for a reason. Shelby said this had never happened to her before, but a virus was trying to attach itself from that site. DO NOT CLICK on the link I deleted. PLEASE. I will have to try using another host for the video...when I find one that will work without any repercussions I will post the video, my apologies.




I couldnt get Youtube to load my video, so I am trying this link here. Shelby has been using this site and says it is good to use. Let me know if it doesnt work for you and I will try something else.

Here is the dog food I was talking about...




and here is the picture of the babies this morning...




I finished Phoenix's new chicken diaper outfit...so now he is going to match my good luck shirt when we go to the show in Newnan. :)






Time for me to get back to work around here. Ian is getting off at 3 today and we are going to the store in a little while. I want to be ready to go when he gets here. I just wanted to stop for a few minutes and make an entry before the day got away from me. :) Hope everyone is having a good day today. XOXO

Pictures From The Show

Today I am going to post pictures of some of the chickens entered in the Junior Show. Young people are encouraged to participate in these events...one day the old timers won't be around anymore, then it will be left up to us middle aged folks and then the young folks to carry on the poultry shows. Ray, (from the poultry show) I am posting your childrens birds first. I only got one picture of the Salmon Favorelle, but he is a beautiful bird..










Here are some more of the Juniors birds...











Thats all for today. More pictures tomorrow.

The hawk didn't come back yesterday. I am hoping that means it was wounded and dying or dead, or it has moved on. There are a lot of crows around today, and that is a good thing. Crows are welcome around here. Sometimes they will steal the eggs the chickens lay if they can see them, but they hate hawks and keep them away. I consider the few eggs gone as payment for their protection against the hawks.

We have some rain rolling in so I need to get out some hay to the emus bed so they will have a nice comfy dry clean bed area when the rain comes. Everyone has already been fed this morning. Today will be an easy day, just homeschool and housework mostly. I am starting on Phoenix's outfit for this weekend today and I need to make out a grocery list for tomorrow morning and go through the coupons to see if I can use any of them this week.

I hope everyone is having a good day today. I did get around to visiting some journals today. If I didnt get to yours today, I will be there soon. :) XOXO