Starting Over

That's the way keeping a backyard flock goes, doesn't it? After 11 years of enjoying chickens, you learn to enjoy the good times, and get over the bad times. My last post were our 2016 chicks that we ordered through Tractor Supply + the few hatched from our hens at the time. A few days after the chicks had grown up and were added to the larger coop to join the rest of the flock, a predator wiped out almost everyone. I cried, as I had worked hard on hand-raising those chicks so they would be more friendly. Out of the 28 chicks, we had 3 easter eggers and 3 cuckoo marans left to share the coop with the other survivors - our bantam rooster, a crested backyard bantam chick, and a blue orpington, who we called The Hound because she had been injured from the attack and was pretty ugly for a while.

The backyard bantam chick

The silkie mix and our bantam roo, 5/15/2016. The silkie mix didn't survive the attack, and we gave away the little roo when we got the polish roo. Both roos were very loud, so 1 had to go.

 
 

Later that year, we added more from a Havana swap meet - a couple of white hens, a couple of bantams, and a white-crested blue polish pair, including a very loud roo.

One of the white egg layers 7/16/16

cuckoo maran, easter egger, and crazy roo

2017 

In 2017, we added 5 more rarities that we got on Craigslist as chicks. -

 

ayam cemani 7/20/2019

An ayam cemani, who turned out to be a beautiful rooster. We gave away the loud polish roo in favor of this much quieter guy. He's great and still with us. 2 of the chicks also turned out to be roos, so we gave them away. One was a frisian gull and I can't even remember what the other breed was.

A pumpkin pavlovskaya. I love her and call her Big Bird, although she's relatively small.

"Big Bird"

A Swedish orust.

 

2018

2018 was a relatively trouble-free year. No predator attacks, and the flock loved being out and about. Some backyard chicks hatched and a couple survived.

2019

 In late spring, my husband saw a hawk attacking one of the black backyard hens. It took off with its carcass, probably to feed its chicks nearby. Around the same time, a black hen and a white hen went missing. The black one was secretly brooding on a nest and came back with a chick. The white one never returned.

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The missing cemani hen has returned with a chick! #ayamcemani #backyardchickens

A post shared by Michelle Marie (@kandilareyna) on May 21, 2019 at 8:25am PDT

In the Instagram above, the chick was stuck in between some wire and we had to take some of the coop apart to free it.

It was an egg hunt most days in the yard.

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Found this week's hidden eggs in the purple heart! Happy Easter! #easteregghunt #secretnest

A post shared by Michelle Marie (@kandilareyna) on Apr 21, 2019 at 5:52am PDT

Summer 2019

The summer of predators! It was a warm winter, with barely a frost. Maybe that's why it seems we had a bunch of unwanted guests. In June we noticed a raccoon eating the cat food in our carport. Lee set out a trap and got a possum instead.

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Cat food stealers. Tried to trap the raccoon and got a possum instead. #backyardcritters #possum #raccoon

A post shared by Michelle Marie (@kandilareyna) on Jun 21, 2019 at 8:30am PDT

Some days later he trapped a baby raccoon. We saw through our windows an entire raccon family trying to break it out.

 And then, in what seemed like retaliation, a raccoon (we were sure) wiped out half our flock, leaving us with the ayam cemani rooster, the pavlovskaya, the cemani chick, one easter egger, and one cuckoo maran. Devastating! Looks like it broke through the area where we had to take apart some of the coop to free the chick the month earlier.

Another few days later he trapped another two juveniles -


Yesterday, 2 trapped possums.

And today, one of the big ones. It looked pretty well-fed.

 

The same day our chicks arrived from Meyer Hatchery.
 

We are ready to start over yet again.

Chick Days Again

Hatch Date: 5/9/2016, Privett Hatchery, NM
13 standard EEs, 12 Cuckoo Marans

The #babychicks arrived early! #easteregger #cuckoomaran #greeneggs #chocolatebrowneggs

A photo posted by Michelle Marie (@kandilareyna) on May 12, 2016 at 9:00am PDT

Since Francis, our first abandoned chick that hatched on April 20, 3 other bantams hatched on May 3-4. None of the hens seemed to care for them either, so we thought it was safer to bring them inside with Francis.

All are feather-legged like Francis. One is black with a small white bib, one is a pretty self-blue, and the smallest is buff-colored with just a few dark specks near its neck.

Wednesday, 5/11 was the day I had planned to prepare the outdoor chick brooder for the 4 bantam chicks that had hatched from our hens. I just needed to put up draft walls and the heat lamp. When I got home, I noticed that Lee had already set up the brooder for me. How nice! When I looked closer, I saw a lot more chicks! I wasn't expecting them until July/August instead of my original May time frame, since TSC had told me that they had screwed up my special order and had to resend it to the hatchery.

All the chicks look great. There's one runty-sized maran that doesn't appear to be as downy as the others, but it seems to be thriving as well as the more robust-looking chicks. I love the bearded faces of the EEs. It makes their eyes look Asian.

Abandoned Chick

#abandoned #chick 🐣

A photo posted by Michelle Marie (@kandilareyna) on Apr 20, 2016 at 5:02pm PDT

Hens appear to have no time for their early firstborn.

So now he's in solitary confinement in hopefully a catproof nursery.

#loud #chirping #chick wants to be held

A video posted by Michelle Marie (@kandilareyna) on Apr 20, 2016 at 5:07pm PDT

at 2 weeks 5/4/16

http://bad-postcards.tumblr.com/post/140632818848/delmar-the-dancing-bantam-delmardancing-bantam

Ponyboy

I love our tiny rooster Ponyboy. He's grown up to be a handsome Golden Neck d'Uccle. He's a good flock leader and still pretty tame.

Chicks!

2 chickies hatched 3 weeks ago, mothered by the lavender ameraucana. Goldish white like our roo, with feather feet. One has vulture hocks. Both are doing great. Glad they are big enough to not pop through the chicken wire anymore.

Tiny Dancer is Molting

Tiny Dancer, our only standard-size chicken and our oldest, is molting, and she just looks awful. And I hate that the coop is full of her feathers everywhere. It looks like a predator got lucky. But when she's back to herself again she'll be a an even more beautifully-feathered Columbian Wyandotte.