New Blood

We sold several chickens this year because it's time to cycle out older egg layers and cycle in young ones. They still lay eggs but just not enough for an egg-selling establishment! I had no idea chickens were in such demand! They all went to good homes and will spend their days clucking and singing for someone else.

Some of my Araucana's love to fly up and perch on my head. All I have to do is start walking toward the chicken coop and they will come running, flying, squawking to me and sit on my arms, head, shoulders, whatever is handy. The buyers wanted tame chickens. I think they got them.

Our new chicks will arrive this week...some Jersey Giants (Black pic)--I love that breed and we sold all of our original ones so am so excited to get more, plus they make GREAT MOMS--and some Cuckoo Marans (Black & white pic). They lay CHOCOLATE eggs. Well, not really chocolate, just chocolate colored...beautiful.

AND, my chicks are bringing some new buddies this year...DUCKS!! This is our first foray into the world of quack-quack and I'm so excited. I'll post pics when they arrive.

Good Chickens Do Good Fences Make

Some of you may remember when we erected a five foot chicken fence between us and our neighbor. It was the result of said neighbor's dog attack on my Mables. I had 15 at the time.

Now, in all fairness, the Mables probably instigated the attack. Unintentionally of course. Our neighbor keeps a large pan of dry dog food in his garage which he subsequently leaves open for his dogs to eat a la carte. Mabels had developed quite a taste for it and I'm sure that played a part in the fatal ambush of most of my Mable flock.

After burying multiple Mables FarmBoy Gary and I put up the fence between chickens and dog food. The problem was that at one end of the fence there was a space of several feet occupied by large LARGE and thick and did I say large poison ivy vines, bushes and small hedges. Neither of us wanted to tackle it in it's present leafed out state.

Eventually a few chickens found their way through the poison ivy jungle. One of those chickens was Milly. She did this recon prior to her adoption of 20 chicks. This week they have ventured further and further from the hen yard.

Today Neighbor called to say Milly and all her chicks were pecking away happily at the dog food. How rude.

Consequently, FarmBoy and I scuttled our previous plans for the day and tackled that poison ivy so we could finish the fence. Since we've had several freezes the poison ivy patch was manageable and the fence is up.

Milly and her delinquents will have to find other diversions tomorrow.

Operation Adoption

As it turns out Mater did not make a good mom so I reverted to my original Plan A--try to get my broody Jersey Giant--Millie--to adopt the chicks.

I was nervous about trying it as I sure didn't want anything to happen to the chicks. Millie was sitting on her nest in the chicken house. I waited till evening chore time--it's pretty dark in the chicken house by this time. I nabbed up two little chicks from the brooder house and walked quietly into the c-house, crept over by the nests so as not to rile up the other chickens loafing around and spoke softly to Millie. (As I tell the grandkids--the farm motto is SPEAK SOFTLY MOVE SLOWLY)

Millie is used to me getting eggs out from under her--the other hens jump right in there with her to lay. Brooding hens don't lay; they sit. I gently put my hand under her and released the chicks. Millie immediately perked up when she heard that little peep peep peep. I backed away and prepared to keep vigil until I could determine if I had put the chicks into friendly or hostile territory.

Millie started clucking--that adorable mommy cluck meant for babies. She craned her neck under her body to have a look. The chicks had stopped peeping but Millie kept clucking; she stood up a little and did a quarter turn, looking and clucking. Then she sat back down and made content little noises. She looked out at me as if to say Look--Babies!

Stage 1 complete. Now all I had to do was give her a little alone time with her new arrivals and wait till it was a little darker outside.

I put all the other chicks into a box and put the lid on. I turned OFF their heat lamp. I wanted to chicks to go to Millie for warmth not stand under the light and bask in artificial mom-heat.

I went into the c-house, got the 2 chicks in one hand then got Millie and tucked her under my arm and headed back to the brooder house. I sat Millie on the straw and one by one put the chicks under Millie. Millie was excited so she didn't stay seated. When she began to walk around it scared the babies and they went flying (figuratively) to the far corners of the enclosure. I stepped outside and watched. The chicks cried and squawked; Millie walked around confused trying to console them with her clucks but they would have none of it.

Millie jumped out of the enclosure (but still in the brooder house) and hopped back in several times; the chicks were scared and screaming--I was beginning to worry that this was not going to work. I resisted the urge to go back in and "help" them.

Then Millie jumped into the enclosure and sat down uttering her little coos and endearments. The chicks settled down and huddled around her but did not go under her.

I left them to their own devises until it was good and dark--the kind of dark in the country where you cannot see your hand in front of your face. When we first bought the farm there was a yard light here that came on automatically every night. Now why would we want that? It interferes with the natural rhythm of things and besides, you can't see the stars with it on.

Me and my flashlight--which I never shined directly onto Millie--went into the brooder house. The chicks were all piled up IN FRONT of her--it gets in the forties here at night--way too cold for chicklets. One by one I stuffed them under her--all twenty. She is a huge chicken so they all fit. Now if they would just stay under there to keep warm.

After a couple of hours I went out to check on them; all ok. Another couple hours--yes, they were all still under her. So far so good.

The next morning I went out right at daybreak and watched as they slowly peeked then ventured out from under Millie. All twenty had survived the night. Millie started pecking and calling them to eat; they all gathered round for their first breakfast together.

By the second day it was as if Millie had hatched them herself. They crawl all over and under her and are completely smitten with their new Mommie, as she is with them.

I am SO happy! They are so cute as a little family and the chicks are being taught to be chickens. My other batch that I hand raised last year slept under a heat lamp 24/7--totally unnatural but they have to be kept warm. Then when they were old enough to be moved out to the chicken house they were afraid of the dark!

Here is Millie loving being a Mommie at last. She's probably thinking wow, I didn't know I had THAT many eggs under there! (That little green marble is actually a tomato for Millie!)

Mater and Chicks

Summer is drawing to a close...only a few more days until the autumnal equinox. I love this transitional time when the earth is changing from green to gold and we are changing from shirts to sweaters. The animals start growing more hair and the plants stop growing anything. Well, that's not exactly true as I am starting my winter plantings. Farmer Gary is mowing down some of the garden--like my broom corn. Last year it was 2 - 3 times my height with beautiful tassels of red seed; this year it's barely knee high.

There's nothing more refreshing than a brisk cool morning to get you going. Usually I love it; drinking hot tea up on the mountain watching Rocky and the goats eat and play--here's a photo of them. But, today we got some baby chicks so I was wishing it was a tad warmer. However, they seem snug in their brooder house with the heat lamp overhead, straw on the floor and straw tucked into the air spaces in the eaves and rounded cardboard in all the corners. What is it that makes chicks pile up in a corner on top of one another until the suffocate? Here they are in their new home. They're so stinkin' cute. It looks red because of the heat lamp. You can just see Mater in the top right.

Mater is keeping them company, at least for tonight. Mater is a little red hen who loves to eat tomatoes in the garden. Because she was covered with tomato juice --I may have blogged about that earlier--the other hens pecked her bloody. She spent a few days convalescing in sick bay then went back in with the flock. This was a month or so ago. She is now a bit slow in the mental department--having your head pecked will do that to ya. Yesterday, Rocky (our ever vigilant 14 month old guard Anatolian), who loves to "play" with the chickens, played with Mater till she was completely disoriented. No blood drawn. I let her dry off and get her wits about her--dim as they are--most of the day then at bedtime put her in with the flock. Come morning, her poor little head was once again pecked bloody. This time a lot more damage was done. I can't say why the others ganged up on her again other than chickens are ruthless about their (no pun intended) pecking order and automatically single out the weak ones. Survival of the fittest. My sick bay is in the brooder house and that's why she's in there with my chicks. I hoped that she might mother them. Although she doesn't peck at them I don't think she's feeling anything maternal.

I have a broody (broody means they are "setting"--they want to hatch chicks) Jersey Giant--Millie...isn't she beautiful. This was taken last winter--she shows up great in the snow! She's been setting on the nest for a couple weeks. I'm thinking that I may be able to sneak a couple of chicks under her (she's setting in the chicken house) and maybe she'll adopt them. Then I can move her under cover of night into the brooder house and she'll adopt the entire batch of 20 chicks. Don't worry, Millie is a huge chicken so she can accommodate that many. I wouldn't be able to leave her in the chicken house--the nest is a considerable distance from the floor and the other hens would be mean to them. I want to have time to watch Millie with the chicks in her nest before I move them, just to make sure she accepts them and they come to no harm. I won't have time to do this before Sunday because of farmers markets, but come Sunday I'm going forward with my plan. Wish me luck.

Gardens Galore

Yesterday it was hot hot hot and today it's blustery frigid. Mable is saying hey, what's up here? In spite of Mother's Nature's spring show of I-can-do-it-all-in-one-day weather (yesterday: hot/cold/rain/wind/hail) egg production is at an all time high: 9-10 a day. And, the chicks are getting so big. I may have to put a "no-fly" guard above their cardboard corral as the outside brooder is not quite ready for them.

Take a peek at this great little book: The Backyard Homestead. All the how-to's you'll need to grow your own food. If you don't have a garden yet, come on, you can do it. Even if it's just one pot...BEGIN. You cn also click on my Amazon widget on the right side of this blog.

We have been working on (paper plotting) Rocky Creek's gardens FOR MONTHS. We are planning gardens with the intention of getting high tunnels. Gary attended a working seminar and learned some valuable info about installing them. And, as is true to our nature, we decided to change the size of the gardens from 42 feet long to 72 feet long. So, instead of nine gardens we will have six that will accomodate three moveable high tunnels. (We missed out on the high-tunnel grant this year-- DRAT) Plus, we moved our raised garden (which has nine 8x4 beds) out of the high tunnel configuration. I am updating my Garden Planner--GROW VEG
today...that will take several hours. But, then I think we are good to go! I have boxes of seeds waiting quietly in the dark to be planted.

If you are thinking about gardens, try out GROW VEG It's an on-line garden planner--I love it. Plant to your heart's content and change your mind as often as you like! It tells you all the pertinent info about plants and even has where you can buy them.

Yo Yo Weather

It's bad enough for the plants to have to cope with up and down temperatures. My neighbor said her lilacs have frozen for three years running. I enjoy warm spring temps as much as the next person, but mid 80's? Really. And, it's always April Fool because the temps always drop to freezing or below a few days later. We had near 90 degrees a few days ago then we had 29 last night. My 1-3 week old chicks have heat lights in their little brooder area, but when the temp rises outside, the temp rises inside. They get too hot so I raise the heat light further from them then they get too chilly. Ei yi yi. Where is that mother hen when you need her?!