Fairy Tail Farms English Orpingtons

[Auntiejessi3]

Mad at the world...
View attachment 3559144View attachment 3559145View attachment 3559146

My dahlia does that on the regular, sounds like a lunatic if anyone goes in the coop while she's laying. Total freak show

 

[Auntiejessi3]

Mad because they picked the hottest part of the year to go broody. Lol

Same. Real feel here was like 116 earlier? I waited until 8:30 p.m. to feed and water Monday and was outside until midnight. It’s just way too hot. I swore if we had a summer like last year I was going to sell a bunch. I just can’t handle the heat and neither can they.

We do what we can do for them but unless you sell them out of state they won't be going anywhere better than in your care

 

[Auntiejessi3]

I haven't lost any yet and still have both the black and chocolate chicks that I hatched from your eggs. They're doing well but terrified of the bigger chicks and adults.*

I will take some pics for you later.

Mine are still in the grow out coop but mingle most of the day with the 9 week olds and the bigs, I'm surprised how easy everything is going

 

[Auntiejessi3]

Okay, so here's chocolate:
View attachment 3559429
Cockerel, definitely.

Hmmm, mine is feathering in so much darker, I need to get some pics this weekend. Pretty boy!

 

[NagemTX]

Mine are still in the grow out coop but mingle most of the day with the 9 week olds and the bigs, I'm surprised how easy everything is going

When I put the 4 week olds out with the 10 week olds and aunty Judy I was worried I would have to find a way to separate them all. Turns out I just had to sit with them a few hours a day and be the angry hen.

 

[ColtHandorf]

It's hot here. That's for sure. My girls are P.O. and screaming anytime I go near them.

I've got a broody Black Orpington, Araucana, Mars Bar, and Call Duck. I'm not sure who is actually broody out of the Muscovy and the geese as they all take turns sitting on a nest of Muscovy eggs, but I'm hoping the co-parenting continues as there don't seem to be any arguments.

I moved the three broody chickens to cages with their nests, so I should have chicks from them in the next few weeks. At least in a cage, there's a lot of airflow, and they aren't in a metal nestbox in a barn. The Orpington is on BBS eggs, four if I remember correctly. I don't trust the Orps with more than that. They always seem to break them if they have more than 4-6. The Mars Bar is on Buttercup eggs. And the Araucana on her and her sisters.

I need to move chicks outside, but I don't have anywhere to put them at the moment. I think I'm going to move the older Muscovy Ducklings into the SLO pen until they are a little older and I trust them with their parents and the geese. There are a couple of young Chocolates in that tractor I'll toss in the Chocolate pen so long as they are big enough they can't squeeze through the chainlink. If not, I can let them mature a bit more in the SLO pen too. Those girls are the sweetest. They certainly can't go in the GLO pen. That Chocolate GLO from Papa's or Carolina Rare attacks chicks.

The middle set of kids can go in the tractor once I've mulched it again, and I think I might combine them with the youngest set of babies. They are only a couple of weeks apart, and at the age they're at, that's pretty negligible. Having them all in one place makes it easier to keep them all fed and watered too. I think we're past the biblical flooding portion of the summer, so they should be safe from inclement weather. And with the hardware cloth, the snakes won't be a problem.

I'm worried about mine but they seem to be handling it alright because we have a good breeze. And yeah had two hatch out some and 3 where lost to the heat. Only the Ameraucanas seem to be taking it the worst.

Me too on the waiting till 8pm to do much out side. I tried more last Friday and got over heated and dehydrated in about 30 to 45 minutes. I get home and emeditly at lest do water.

Thankfully I don't have to water them every day. All of them have multiple 2, 3, or 5-gallon waterers, depending on how many birds are in the pen that are all in the shade of a tree or in the barn. Usually, a cursory look and grabbing eggs is all I can stomach to do until it's cooler.

We do what we can do for them but unless you sell them out of state they won't be going anywhere better than in your care

That's true, but reducing the number was more the goal I was aiming for, like reducing down to two varieties of the Orps and keeping the other heat-tolerant breeds. Other people that have the time and willpower to kill themselves outside with them could have had the others. lol

When I put the 4 week olds out with the 10 week olds and aunty Judy I was worried I would have to find a way to separate them all. Turns out I just had to sit with them a few hours a day and be the angry hen.

I usually don't have many issues mixing babies. I was thoroughly surprised over the weekend when I tossed four young mixed cockerels (holding for a friend to give to another friend), a nearly year-old F1 Blue Silver-laced male, and Richard, my 2.5-year-old Black Mottled/Lavender Mottled male into the same pen with no bloodshed. I put them all on the roost together, and they've done just fine. Not one hackle has been raised.

 

[NagemTX]

Oh they have 3 two gal waterers in one pen, the other only 1 two gal. That pen with the one gets let out at 7am and they have low water tanks. I over rn the tanks when I get home with cool water so they get some relief from the heat @ 3:30pm.

 

[ColtHandorf]

Oh they have 3 two gal waterers in one pen, the other only 1 two gal. That pen with the one gets let out at 7am and they have low water tanks. I over rn the tanks when I get home with cool water so they get some relief from the heat @ 3:30pm.

I'm tempted to turn the sprinkler on them for a bit this evening, but that means I'll be outside and feel obligated to shovel, haul, and spread wood chips.

 

[AMM10]

We finally just got some rain here this morning but it all dried up pretty quickly in the heat and now we're forecasted to get more thunderstorms over this weekend, which is really not what I want cause I was planning on traveling.

 

[Auntiejessi3]

We finally just got some rain here this morning but it all dried up pretty quickly in the heat and now we're forecasted to get more thunderstorms over this weekend, which is really not what I want cause I was planning on traveling.

That's how it always goes it seems