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Velvet Sparrow posted:By the way, we talked the other night and have decided that this year's Chickam hatch will be done the old-fashioned way...with a hen! This will make it a bit different as you won't be able the actually SEE the chicks emerge from the shells (mama stays clamped down pretty tightly) but on the plus side, you'll be able to see how a mama hen handles hatching chicks...and watching a broody hen mother chicks is sweet enough to nearly kill you. We plan on setting no more than a mixed variety of 12-14 of our eggs (no mail-order eggs this time) under one of the larger hens (if we have no large broody hens, it'll be a banty with only 5-6 eggs). Yassssssssssss. <3 I can't wait!
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Jan 25, 2016 04:44
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Velvet Sparrow posted:Everyone hope for a huge Brahma or Giant Cochin fluffybutt to go broody! Though the webcam pointing at a full-on broody hen with her 1000 yard stare is giong to be scarily adorable. spookygonk fucked around with this message at 22:09 on Jan 25, 2016 |
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Jan 25, 2016 12:49
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Wooo! New chickies! Can't wait for the new thread.
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Jan 25, 2016 20:16
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Will you put up the cam as soon as the hen begins her overwatch? I could spend 24 days looking at an angry chikken.
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Jan 26, 2016 22:16
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AtomikKrab posted:Will you put up the cam as soon as the hen begins her overwatch? I could spend 24 days looking at an angry chikken. It would be kinda like watching paint dry...they go into a trance and sit for hours, until it's time to suddenly stomp off the nest for a few minutes to angrily eat, get an angry drink and take a HUGE, deathstinking poop, which makes the humans angry as they run away, desperate for fresh air. We'd put up the cam when we moved her into the house on day 19 or 20 of the 21 day incubation cycle.
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Jan 27, 2016 09:59
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I'm super looking forward to it and I hope you keep us updated on the progress! You know, when it's actually warm enough.
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Jan 27, 2016 23:35
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spookygonk posted:the webcam pointing at a full-on broody hen with her 1000 yard stare is giong to be scarily adorable. I want to see VS reach in and pet the angry broody hen so that we can hear the adorable growling the hen will make. :3
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Jan 30, 2016 20:55
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Inveigle posted:I want to see VS reach in and pet the angry broody hen so that we can hear the adorable growling the hen will make. :3 Scritching a broody hen is one of the true joys of chicken ownership, it never fails to make you giggle like an idiot and makes a bad day evaporate.  More winter weather for us this weekend, so no cam today...we'll have to wait & see what tomorrow is like but i'm willing to bet it'll be just like today. Stupid El Nino.
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Jan 31, 2016 02:58
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Sorry, no Chickam again today due to A LOT of yucky white stuff falling from the sky. Needless to say, the chickens are not pleased.
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Jan 31, 2016 20:20
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Hey, it's NICE out today! The cam is running! We'll be setting up the Wheel of Food in a bit with some apples, yum! Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 21:50 on Feb 6, 2016 |
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Feb 6, 2016 21:25
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Chickam starts in 10 minutes. That's 12:15 PST. and 8:15pm GMT. Chickens get to go into the FORBIDDEN ZONE!
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Feb 13, 2016 21:07
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This is so the front part of the back yard gets weeded! The dog has been moved to the front yard, there is bound to be much chicken confusion as they are allowed in the part of the yard which up to now has been FORBIDDEN. Weeds, meet thy Yard Dinosaur apocalypse! 
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Feb 13, 2016 21:15
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A lovely day in the yard.
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Feb 13, 2016 23:47
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looks like they are having a wonderful time there!
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Feb 14, 2016 01:17
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They ended up hanging out on the back porch wanting inside the house. When it was time to feed them, all we heard was plaintive whining at the back door. Zip was busy digging a hole next to the house at dinnertime, watching her go back and forth, indecisive whether to keep digging her really cool hole or go eat yummy chickin fud, was hilarious.  First-world chicken problems... And no, they never *did* get inside the house.
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Feb 14, 2016 02:12
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No Chickam this weekend, family problems, sorry.
Velvet Sparrow fucked around with this message at 00:36 on Feb 21, 2016 |
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Feb 21, 2016 00:33
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It's a gorgeous day, so here there be chickens! http://www.ustream.tv/channel/chickam2008
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Feb 27, 2016 20:02
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Velvet Sparrow posted:It's a gorgeous day, so here there be chickens! http://www.ustream.tv/channel/chickam2008 Does look a lovely day (currently here: twenty past midnight GMT).
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Feb 28, 2016 01:18
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Thank you VS, 12_String and The Kid for the video show. I have to take care of some shopping for my Dad. Oh, Mushroom has a lot of girlfriends LOL! 
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Feb 28, 2016 01:29
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Yeah, Mushroom is getting all geared up for some Springtime romances! Loads of flirting and courting going on out there, and some LOUD eggsongs.
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Feb 28, 2016 10:12
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Winter is back, no Chickam today, sorry!
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Mar 5, 2016 22:51
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Velvet Sparrow posted:Winter is back, no Chickam today, sorry! THANKS VS! So Nevada is sending us rain and snow tomorrow I see LOL! This has been a weird winter. Snow/slush every storm..... nice weather... now tomorrow. Any idea of which eggs you might be using for Chickam? When I was watching last time, it looked like lots of the gals are fond of Mushroom. They didn't even try to get away from him!
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Mar 5, 2016 23:01
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piscesbobbie posted:THANKS VS! So Nevada is sending us rain and snow tomorrow I see LOL! This has been a weird winter. Snow/slush every storm..... nice weather... now tomorrow. Any idea of which eggs you might be using for Chickam? When I was watching last time, it looked like lots of the gals are fond of Mushroom. They didn't even try to get away from him! Mushroom is quite the ladies man these days...Cam mostly hangs with the older, larger girls. When we run the hatch, we'll try for an assortment of eggs. The weather is warming so it shouldn't be much longer, but no broodies yet, tho!
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Mar 6, 2016 09:23
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Welp, we're having us a three day high wind event, so no Chickam again this weekend, sorry. Still no broods, but there is tons of egg drama ongoing, so they are getting ramped up for Spring!
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Mar 12, 2016 10:07
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Don't want to highjack the thread, but if you need to get your egg-hatching fix, there's a pair of bald eagles who took up residence at the national arboretum in DC, and one of their eggs is hatching now. Live stream: dceaglecam.eagles.org
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Mar 18, 2016 00:15
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The cam is up! It's a beautiful Spring day for a change... The chickens will be doing some light weeding in the dog yard, that's why the view is a bit different. If the little slackers will go INTO this part of the yard--normally they aren't allowed so they might be shy for a few minutes. Goodies will be tossed out to encourage bravery. Also, 12_String is doing some light metalworking out there for a bit, it shouldn't be too noisy but if you hear weird sounds, that's what it is. Also, TONS of eggsong! I'm doing some Spring cleaning and redoing some of the nest box curtains, then giving the nests fresh hay to encourage maximum broodiness--we need mamas! Only little Blossom is broody so far, and she's a bit young to be entrusted as an all-the-way broody hen/mama, even if she IS a Silkie mix and naturally OCD about the broody thing...
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Mar 19, 2016 20:35
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Velvet Sparrow posted:The cam is up! It's a beautiful Spring day for a change...
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Mar 19, 2016 22:33
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I just did Spring cleaning and a bit of refurbishing on the coop & nests, which means loads of fresh, lovely hay in the nest boxes and coop to play in. Most of the flock had to provide Direct Chicken Supervision of course to make sure that I did it correctly (and bitch because I was making changes and chickens don't LIKE that). Especially Snakefast, who HAD to cackle RIGHT in my ear as I reloaded the nests. Jesus, SHUT UP, CRAZY BIRD. So that's what the outraged bursts of cackling was all about. Hopefully the fresh nests and warmer Spring weather will trigger broodyness in someone else besides Blossom and Sophie, who are inexperienced and way too tiny.
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Mar 19, 2016 23:12
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No Chickam today as we have other things going on...but tomorrow, Easter Sunday, we're going to try to set up the cam in the coop, pointed at the nest boxes so everyone can experience sudden, ear-splitting bursts of eggsong! It all depends on whether everything works at that distance...if it doesn't, what the heck, it'll be the cam on the flock as usual. Still no new broodies right now, and the ones that are broody are only half-hearted about it. I've spruced up the nests and made sure of lovely, deep hay in the boxes, plus every nest has two golf balls in it to encourage the girls to set up camp. Also the kid and I trimmed chicken butts on everyone of parenting age, and when I did a breakout on 16 eggs, almost all were fertile. So things look good. Now we just wait!
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Mar 26, 2016 22:02
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The cam is up, pointed at the nest boxes today! It's at the absolute limit of it's range, sorry if it's glitchy. Also, the hens can be LOUD, be warned...
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Mar 27, 2016 19:44
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Well, the hens have steadfastly refused to go broody for Chickam. Except for little Sophie, the half Sicilian Buttercup bantam mix. So we've gathered 12 eggs to hatch for Chickam and we'll start them in the ReptiPro this weekend! This year's candidates, we tried for an interesting mix:  Hatch day should be April 29-30, our plan is to move Sophie into the brooder box one or two days before hatch and place 6 (or fewer, don't want to overwhelm her) of the eggs under her, the other six will stay in the ReptiPro. After the hatch, however many chicks we end up with will be transferred to Sophie so she can mother them all. Hopefully all goes according to plan and on hatch day we end up with chicks hatching in the incubator AND under Sophie. In the event Sophie doesn't work out or drops her brood before hatch day, we'll do it like we usually do, all the way in the incubator. Of course if one of my BIG girls would go broody, THEY could be mama and successfully cover all 12 eggs...we'll see!
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Apr 8, 2016 11:00
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I can't wait! 
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Apr 8, 2016 18:18
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Velvet Sparrow posted:Chickam! So exciting! A non-goon friend was getting worried because he knows that it's usually started by Easter. I've been passing along your posts to keep him abreast of the updates.
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Apr 8, 2016 18:39
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HOORAY! baby chickens! Thank you VS, 12_string and The Kid  I've been going to Tractor Supply, IFA (intermountain farmers, Cal Ranch, another local western store to get my baby chicken fix LOL!
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Apr 8, 2016 22:37
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It's raining here this weekend so no Chickam, sorry... Also, I set 18 eggs in the incubator about an hour ago at 9AM! We hope to get around a dozen eggs to hatch, we tried to select a nice variety of bantam & standard size chicks and a range of mamas. Daddies are either Cam the Americaunas/Giant Cochin mix or Mushroom the bantam Cochin. We only have three eggs this time where we know the mama for sure: #2 came from Crack, a gray Americaumnas/Giant Cochin mix, #13 came from Toaster the bantam Cochin and #16 (the tiny one!) was laid by Wiggles the gray mottled Belgian d'uccle.   Hatch day should be April 29th and 30th! If they follow the usual routine the banty eggs should hatch at 20 days first on the 29th (or even a day sooner) and the rest starting on the 30th.
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Apr 9, 2016 18:21
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Best time of the year Will you have a separate thread for nicknaming?
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Apr 11, 2016 01:45
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Kerfuffle posted:Best time of the year We'll probably keep this one going up until the GBS thread starts, if anyone wants to suggest names here I'll note them down. Meanwhile it's a beautiful day, so for Chickam today the chickens are going to be doing some weed control in the back yard! And boy, does it ever NEED it!
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Apr 16, 2016 20:37
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Velvet Sparrow posted:We'll probably keep this one going up until the GBS thread starts, if anyone wants to suggest names here I'll note them down. Throwing Marshmallow back into the hat. Hopefully for a banty cochin fluffball.
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Apr 17, 2016 19:11
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How about Peepers?
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Apr 17, 2016 21:04
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Henny Lee
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