Good Morning! 2019

[WLLady]

they can sure run fast lol. they do laps around the container lol
i will try that and see what happens lol kind of torn between seeing what happens with them or just seeing if the chickens like them. theres only 5 of them and i really dont want to raise those too

[Jaye]

Trust me, the chickens will like them.
If they're super worms, then yeah, they look to be a pain to raise, and if they're BSFL, it's a bit early to start raising them, because their home is um stinky and needs to be outdoors, and they need a little bit above zero temps. I would love to raise BSFL, but in our climate, there are a lot of challenges keeping them through the winter. No, their aromatic home does not come indoors here.

[WLLady]

well i gave em a little piece of meat and i swear they ran the other way! i got my first mealworm beetle this morning!! woohoo!
and looks like several more should be coming in the next few days if i am seeing the right colour. they hatch much lighter than i expected....
chickens are all doing great. my older free rangers are actually out in the ice and snow this year. candled and about 50% of the eggs are fertile. i should have piles of welsummers this year....and even the ferttility on the turkeys is getting better. a few rhodebars and of course the mixes from the freerangers are fertile-some of those hens are 5 years old but theyre with 3 boys-1 is too old and the other 2 are both a year old. one loud coloured unknown mix (they boy in the text box here this month) and a welsummer. so i should get some interesting colours...all mixes of course which is fine. hoping they will be colourful enough to sell at the local spring sales. still waiting on my ameraucanas to shaoe up....theyve been on strike all winter it seems. and the leghorns just quit laying at christmas too....but the days are getting noticeably longer now! yay

[Jaye]

well i gave em a little piece of meat and i swear they ran the other way! i got my first mealworm beetle this morning!! woohoo!
and looks like several more should be coming in the next few days if i am seeing the right colour. they hatch much lighter than i expected....
[...] still waiting on my ameraucanas to shaoe up....theyve been on strike all winter it seems. and the leghorns just quit laying at christmas too....but the days are getting noticeably longer now! yay

LOL, sounds like you may have super worms then. The pupae are a light cream coloured and look like aliens. The beetles emerge as a light brown, but darken fairly quickly. Congrats on your first!
My Ameraucana isn 't laying yet either, but then neither is my Welsummer or my Euskal Oiloa.

[WLLady]

okay i found out what they are. they're dermastid larvae....they use them to keep the dead stuff down in the rearing pens. so, i'm not too wild on those being in the house....but the 5 are still in the plastic container, so no one got loose yet....i'll likely donate them to the composter outside...i don't even really want those in the chicken coop.

trying to clean today. it's not going well LOL
had a nice visit with cathy and colin (farrier) yesterday for dinner to celebrate birthdays, and deciding i don't need to eat today LOL
hope everyone is having a nice weekend!

[Ontario Chick]

Chuckle of the day for me, yesterday finished reading an article that said, an I quote
"Don't expect Gerald Butts, Prime ministers top adviser, to be sacrificed in the wake of the SNC scandal"
24 hours later, he was outa there !!!!! it's getting a bit crowded under the bus

[WLLady]

I think i'm going to turn off the news for a while, and see what happens in about a month. if anything has changed. it's too stressful LOL. south of the border AND north of the border!!!! unbelievable. i wouldn't want to be anywhere near any of that stuff, which is likely why people that could actually DO something good for this country don't bother.....sigh.

and here i am excited that i have 4 mealworm beetles now. LOL. and hubby made me a sifter. so much faster for removing the pupae. and it's -21 again this morning. and my one waterer in the outside coop was frozen again. yay? and more freezing rain for tomorrow! whoohoo! but we did get a good start on cleaning up the basement. but of course, we touched 2 of the water pipes and then had to fix those from leaking um....stupid plastic water piping! was going to head out for a walk and hubby comes in and said "i just wiped out in the driveway" (he was okay thankfully!) so i opted for a hot chocolate and sitting on the couch....lol. my one horse is shedding like crazy, so hopefully this means that spring is on the way! of course it's the black horse. standing in the sun all the time-wait, what sun...hm.....haven't had any of that lately. so maybe spring is coming!

first hatch due not this weekend but next, need to get the brooder area prepared.....lol. yes, i know, it's still 12 days away! eggsited for new babies though. have to move birds around soon-have some ready to lay just starting to lay, which is perfect. time to switch out the older girls and shake up the breeders LOL.

hope everyone stays warm!!!! and not too much freezing rain tomorrow.

[Jaye]

I put the girls to bed last night and grabbed the lone daily egg from the usual nest box. When I got inside into better lighting I realized that it wasn't Deanie's egg (the only one that's been laying regularly this winter); it was one from Penelope! Yay!

[ross]

Morn all , nice sunny day here . Barometric pressure good arthritis feels eased , taking small walks aroun house without aids . FEELS GOOD.

[Ontario Chick]

Glad to hear you are mobile ross, nothing better then get the "mature" bones moving
Snowy here, DH snow blowed thru my path in the back 4, so I don't have to walk on the road which is getting narrower by the minute.
Hope this will be it until spring, I am pretty sure he doesn't wan to do it again.
Reading @WLLady preparations for chicks hatching, is making me contemplate this years plans.
There is 24 hens and 10 pullets in the barn, and 3 Roos but I don't count those
for the last 4 month at lest 8 hens didn't lay at all, which means it's time for a major clean out, before we have feed gobbling lawn ornaments and no eggs.