Well, it's still winter, and still cold, lol. Bitterly cold, although the forecast for the near future shows some improvement. I'm getting spring fever, and very impatient with not being able to be outside as long as I like getting things done. I've picked up a new dog kennel to use to add on to the mandarin duck pen so they have a bigger area. Then they can have their bigger swimming area and will be much happier I hope. I'm still waiting for eggs from most of my chickens and all of the waterfowl. I may be making some changes to my flock too. I'm more of a waterfowl person than chickens, and somehow I've ended up with more chickens and less waterfowl than I meant, and will be changing that this year. It's hard to decide who stays and who goes though, I wish I could have some of everything, lol. 

The days are getting longer, and I'm finally finding eggs in my coop again. After going through quite an eggless spell there, I'm thrilled. I have eggs from the japanese bantams in the incubator, and over 2 dozen in the fridge. Yay me! Lol. Now I get to try all the yummy egg recipes I've found, but didn't have enough for. Sure wasn't going to use those nasty store eggs for anything other than cooking, and luckily even during the slow spell my girls squeezed out enough the only store eggs I ended up buying were for holiday baking. Speaking of baking, the ducks are still being slackers. I'm hoping it's only a matter of time there though. They are starting to get frisky, so maybe that's a sign that eggs are on their way. 

Time flies when you are having fun. It also flies when you aren't. I haven't been able to get anything done lately. It's cold and frozen or cold and muddy outside, of course the holidays have kept me busy, and to top it off I caught the flu at Christmas and just haven't been able to kick it off and get back to normal. 
My New Year's hatch was a failure, I only ended up with one lone chick. 
The birds are doing great in spite of me though. The older birds are starting to lay again after molt, and the d'uccles are old enough to be starting soon. My serama cockerals have started crowing, and have become super friendly. My japanese are doing wonderfully, even my little hen who was a little "off" for quite awhile after the hawk incident. The rooster hasn't shown any signs of frostbite, which I was pretty concerned about having to deal with. I have a half dozen of their eggs in the incubator, and fertility is great on them. I'm hoping with non shipped eggs my next hatch will be much better. Now I'm just hoping for time to continue to fly so spring can get here, and I can get a move on making the mandarins and d'uccles a bigger pen and pool.