crimsonlonghorn

Dude is so talented. Music degree from UT. Guitar. Opera singer. Piano. Oh yeah, he also is one of the best kickers in the NFL history, has a Super Bowl ring, and gave us 27-25. Might not be the greatest Longhorn of all time, but he's waaaay up on the list.

The Sand Aggy tortillas are a great touch as well.

Considering he was in the coop with the chickens that lay the most expensive eggs, I suspect that motherfucker owes me about $50 going back to February. Guess I shouldn't have killed him, should have just hired Rocky to break his thumbs.

Yes, the nest boxes are attached to the back door and rest on top of that wooden strip so that they are elevated for drainage. When the door is closed there's about an inch or so of space under those plastic boxes, right where he's laying. Chickens probably came in and laid eggs right on top of him.

Speaking of ratsneks. Crossposted from my chicken thread. My son found him yesterday evening in the chicken tractor when we checked on them at an unusual time. He had a very sneaky hiding place where neither the humans nor the chickens could see him. I hated to kill a pretty ratsnake like that but I suspect he has been coming and going for some time and is the reason my chickens in that coop have been "underproducing" eggs all spring.

Speaking of snakes. Don't normally shoot rat snakes but I do shoot thieves who I know will just keep coming back for more loot. Very sneaky snek. My nest boxes are attached to the back door and are about an inch or so above the floor of the coop when it's closed so they can drain underneath. Where that snek is laying would be under the boxes with the door closed. Likely nobody could have seen him under there, not even that mean barred rock rooster. And he would have just slithered out after dark once they were all on the roost up above.

I have a Vaultek that I bought on Amazon in the drawer next to my bed holding a P226 and an extra mag. I test the fingerprint scanner and battery every three months and it always seems to works fine. I presume will do the job if I ever need it. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LY908Y4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Out of stock but I guess you could find it somewhere else.

Address? I'll be by later in the week to take it all of your hands. No cost to you. You're welcome.

So that was it for the chicks. She abandoned the rest of the eggs so I got 2 chicks out of 9 eggs. I'm satisfied with the result. Friday morning I found one of the chicks walking around outside of the tractor. Guess he squeezed through an opening and couldn't get back in, so I moved the mama and the two chicks into the brooder box for a few days to keep them safe while they are so little. Good thing I found him before a snake or a hawk did. It's pretty funny to watch them with their mother. She waddles around and scratches in the shavings and they try to stay out of the way and peck at whatever she pecks, then she plops down and puffs up and they burrow underneath and keep cheeping while they are hidden underneath. I'll probably move them to a separate pen next to her regular tractor next weekend and then a couple of weeks after that I'll move them all back into the general population. Photo below. She keeps knocking over the feeder so it's messier in there than I would like.

That's what I use. Marlin 60 and BSA Sweet 22 scope. Both are budget and it's a very handy combo for popping tree rats. FWIW, the rifle acton likes plated hollow point ammo much better than unjacketed lead like Thunderbolts, but in all things 22, YMMV.

Another pic. Today is the due date and is last day we let her sit on these eggs, so if no more new chicks tomorrow we're tossing those eggs and being perfectly content with just two babies for our first attempt. (Ms CL is a UVA grad, hence my son's shirt)

They do. Hybrids tend to be healthier than pure bred birds. The "problem" - if you want to call it that - is that most modern breeds have an emphasis on egg production bred into them, so hybrids tend to lay fewer eggs as part of the "reversion" back towards the natural state.

Last month my kids convinced me to let one of our broody hens sit on some eggs and try to hatch them. Rather than let the hen lay them all we collected eggs from two coops and gave her an instant clutch of nine eggs. May 7 (tomorrow) was supposed to be the day. Two eggs broke early on and were thrown out. We found a dead premie in the coop on Monday (gross) but then opened the coop this afternoon and found these with the mother still sitting on four more eggs. Never hatched eggs before. This is kind of cool. They will all be mixed breed since none of the roosters and hens in either coop where we gathered the eggs are of the same breed. The one on top is likely a cross of the Barred Rock rooster and a Buff Orpington hen. The one on the bottom hatched from a white egg, so we know she's 1/2 leghorn (and looks like a leghorn chick) but can't tell which rooster was her daddy.

Oops, just reread your posts and they aren't barred rocks. Roosters will still be easy to tell soon enough.

Barred Rocks? Cool. Should be pretty easy to tell the boys from the girls in about 2-3 more weeks. The stripes on the males are much more brightly colored compared to the females. Hard to describe but you'll be able to tell easily. My understanding is that this is because the males get their barred coloring from two different genes whereas the females only get it from one single gene. The overall color appears lighter because the white stripes are whiter on the males. Here's a pic of that previously posted rooster when was only about six weeks old and still nice to people. He looked like a cartoon, the coloring was so bright on the stripes and the caruncles. Bright yellow feet and beak, too.

You dumbass, that's impossible in the SEC West.

SIAP

I bet that shoots great! /glock fans

Also, this poor guy peeked out a little too far from the very top of the tree this weekend. Guess I have that BSA Sweet 22 scope sighted in just right to 20 yards.

I don't have the P320C in 45 but I do have a regular P320 45ACP and it's probably my favorite handgun. Just not as practical or compact as a 9mm so it doesn't do much unless I'm at the ranch.

Good point. All of the stuff I've read about Day 3 says "Collin Johnson is a potential red zone target." Sounds like the NFL sees him in a more limited fashion that way. And I would have been surprised a year ago to see DD drafted ahead of him, but again, DD is a YAC guy and CJ is not. Makes sense.

Dammit thanks for taking 30 minutes of my time with that. And I mean that sincerely. It was awesome.

I sniped one off the backyard fence last week with an airgun that did that exact move. It was like something out of the matrix. He dead.

Mrs CL texted me last night: "I need you to show me how to use your squirrel gun the next time you are here at the farm." That woman is getting even cooler than she was the day I met her.

I've moved on from guns and ammo to building out a damn home gym. Talk about expensive.