Wednesday, June 26, 2013

d'Uccle Flock

I have a small flock of "found" d'uccles. They seem to find me. :) This is just a purely fun pursuit with no project to speak of and no goal for improving my stock.  I hope that's not too blunt or disappointing for anyone but it's the truth.  I think they're adorable and as good a starter bird as any for backyard coops. Especially because, for such little things, they pack a powerful punch in terms of learning about genetics.


"Apollo" is a "lavender pattered isabel partridge". 

The white hen is named "Zinnia".  My best guess is she's a recessive white because it looks so clean and because I have yet to hatch any white birds..... 
The two mille fleurs are "Lizzie Pebbles" and "Laura Pebbles".  
Unpictured: "Astrid" is a porcelain hen who just joined our flock this spring.  
PS Lizzie Pebbles is one of our oldest birds - hatched in 2009, she's one of our special pets.


  









A Girl and Her Cow, 1965

I've had a life long interest in children and how they interact with their environment - especially in a historical context.  From time to time I'll post an especially poignant picture I've come across.

I found this special piIcture a few years ago. It was taken by Dennis Stock (the man who made James Dean live forever) at the 1965 Iowa State Fair.  For me it brought back all the sights, sounds, smells, and sweat of the county fair livestock barns. To be honest  I didn't show any cows myself but I had enough friends and family who did to know it just wasn't the thing for me.  They would sleep in the barns with their animals and primp and fuss over their animals exactly like the girl in this picture which Stock titled "Beauty contest for cattle at the Iowa State Fair, 1965".

I imagine that somewhere at this very moment a cow is haltered and tied in a dark (hopefully cool) stall inside a creaky old barn on a quiet farm in rural America. A teenager toting a bucket of all the best beauty supplies is trying out all the tips and tricks she's learned about making her cud chewing cow ("Trixie"?) look good.  By fair time in August they'll have a well practiced routine for morphing Trixie into a moo-ing dreamboat cloud of hairspray with a bright white tail and shiny hooves.  

A girl and her cow, 1965
(PS I wonder what the cows are saying to each other...)


Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Birdie, It's HOT Tonight

The heat is on!  

The ground has mostly dried up inside the coops and we're down to just a handful of broody hens in nest boxes.  The rest of them are out teaching their chicks to forage and keeping them near water.  

We're two weeks into the heat and it was about this time last year our well went dry....and stayed dry until the middle of August.  Right in the middle of that parched dryness we had 14 back-to-back days of heat indexes over 100 humid degree temperature, barely dipping out of the 90s at night.  Yeah, it was a downright nasty evil hell for our feathered friends.

All things considered this year is a cake walk (so far.....) Over the last year we've strengthened our housing infrastructure to better buffer the heat. We now systematically conserve and store water.  This is good and has meant being able to manage the bumper crop of chicks, poults, and keets.

Several of the projects have had excellent break throughs. The Aikikos have finally produced several dark skinned, rumpless, pea combed GIRLS and we hatched our first barred chocolate rock!

Also, I've been tinkering with a genetics app to make it easier to document and track field observations.  Yeah, I'm geeky but at least I aspire to someday be organized.  I'm looking into how to put it together so other people can use it too.


Friday, June 14, 2013

Mottled Java "Nannie"




Nannie is the last of my trio of mottled javas. She enjoys being a part of the flock but isn't especially chummy with any other hens.  I've never had her go broody but she's very good at helping new moms.

Nannie and Brandi have an easy respect for each other.

Nannie likes to help take care of everyone's babies.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Young Professor and the Willas



The Blue Wheaten Ameraucana hens (the Willas) are enjoying some time in the Rest & Respite Free Range flock. They seem to be quite happy so I'm going to hold off on segregating them with the purebred Blue Wheaten Ameraucana rooster (Will).


The Rest & Respite Flock protector, "Young Professor", is a purebred (but a non-standard color) Ameraucana with a pleasant temperament and excellent gentlemanly manners. He is much more consistent with the demeanor I need for my flock. Both his father and grandfather were superior flock protectors who the girls would rather follow than hide from.

My best guess-timate is that Young Professor is genetically a blue partridge/brown with multiple melanizing forces. Based on my genetics calculator tinkering I suspect the offspring will appear to be wheaten. The blue genetics mean there could be blue, black, or splash feathering.  (genetic code calculation)

   

The Rest and Respite Flock, June 2013