Good Day, Bad Day.

Today was a bad day.

I lost my favourite little chicky (my little penguin) when he fell into the chicken's water bucket. We've had chickens (meaties) drown in other waterers before, but that bucket has been in the coop through lots of chicks and this has never happened. I was in there at noon and forgot to check the chick's water, the bigger chickens must have drained it & little penguin got thirsty.

If nothing else, I learn from my mistakes, and hubs is picking up a proper waterer on the way home today. I was hoping to set up an elaborate rain catch & drip-water system. That's not happening any time soon, so in the mean time we won't loose any more chicks.

Coco officially abandoned her nest. There was one cold morning she got off to eat & the BPR took over to lay an egg, and then Coco did not return to her nest. The eggs hadn't cooled off too badly so I was hoping they'd survive, but it looks like none of them did. Coco kicked an egg out yesterday, then two more this morning, and left the last 3 this afternoon. She's back to being a normal chicken and I dismantled the nest.

I wouldn't let her go broody for at least a few weeks because she needs to get back to a good condition; and then the weather is going to be way too cold (November chicks was kind of pushing it). So the soonest we'll let her hatch more is early spring. We'll see what she thinks of that plan.

Out of about 2 dozen eggs we got 6 chicks and I'm starting to re-examine my hen-hatching plan in favour of an incubator... well not really. Selecting for a good chick raising instinct is really important to me, but those are some frustrating numbers!

Instead of removing the dog kennel I set up a creep for the chicks. Now they can access their feed and water where the adult chickens can't reach it.

The other bad news is that someone is eating my chicken eggs. It started before the new chickens arrived, so it's not them. I'm moderately sure it's the turkeys. I have been going in there to collect eggs as frequently as possible (usually 4-5 times a day) so they don't get a chance, but they got another one today. That means I need to separate the turkeys, egg eating is very difficult to stop once it starts, and I don't want to the hens getting any smart ideas.

No idea where I might put the turkeys for the winter... so this could prove challenging.

Good news on the turkey front is that they were looking a little wormy, ruffled feathers so of shrunk up posture, but I locked them in the feed-room of the coop (where they may have to stay) with turkey feed & a whole lot of Diatomaceous earth and they look great!

We're still getting a dozen or so eggs every day out of the coop, most are xl & jumbo so I'm on the hunt for some bigger egg cartons. Hubs should also be picking up our regular sized cartons on the way home today, and I'll be glad to get all my bowls back since they're in my fridge holding eggs.