Chickens hiding behind dogs?

Hopper was busy on guard dog duty yesterday, and I thought I should check on Vegas.  I found him watching the Eastern end of the property from the shade of the palm tree by the house, surrounded by chickens.  The Phoenix chickens were poking around, hiding behind Vegas in case Hopper was onto something scary.  Silly group!

A Tiny Green Egg

Had this cute little egg appear in the nesting boxes today!  I would have thought a random wild bird had snuck in to the chicken nesting area, but it was so perfectly shaped and just the right color of green.  Yep, it is what some call a “practice egg”- an egg from a new layer.  Their eggs start small, and increase in size as their laying time goes on.  The new layer- one of the pretty little white Americaunas which hatched last spring.  We had a number of beautiful young ladies hatch this spring, especially the white Americaunas from Muffy the blue ribbon Americauna rooster.

Around here, eggs come in a number of sizes and colors.  From tiny as the hens begin to lay, to extra-large ones which we cannot close the cartons over.  Officially, the standard only recognizes colors in white, brown and tinted, but we see speckles, pinks, and green, blue green and olive.  It all makes for a beautiful egg basket, though the actual nutrition of the egg is determined not by the color of the egg but by the quality of the feed we provide our hens.  (The color is determined by breed and has no effect on nutrition or flavor.)

Nevertheless, any chicken owner can understand the excitement when a hen begins to lay, and the joy of those silly little eggs.  Thought you all might enjoy the photos, and the little joys from here.  Have a great weekend!

Adventures in Nelsondom

This week has kept me running.  All of us, really.  Between substitute teaching two days, the kids returning to school from winter break, the Crush build season in high gear, preparation for my semester of teaching and attending college to begin next week, and all of the many projects around here- I am tired!  I sure had a good time with my Mom, too, she went home in the beginning of the week.  It feels like it was longer ago, though.  I have seen more of her since Aunt Leanna moved here, and we enjoy the visits.

By the way, for those of you wondering- I was a middle school substitute teacher for two days last week.  I had the please if being with the same class, so I had a better handle on things the second day.  For all of the times that I have joked that feeding for the kids when they are away for some reason is like being a substitute teacher in Junior High- it was.  Only feeding doesn't last as long.  It wasn't terrible, but it was tiring!  And it reminded me why I drive so much, and why I like my community college students. 

Anyhow.  Saturday came with shooting sports day at the range.  Wyatt is shooting pretty well, Charlie needs to fix Bailey's .22 when he comes home.  Wyatt seems to have figured out what to do for his shooting sports poster for fair. 

We came home and got to work with the animals and chores.  Bailey worked on walking goats, scrubbing waters.  Wyatt did waters and one of his pens.  I was working on the cover for the garden ( my seemingly neverending project) when Bailey brought Prissy over for a discussion of her condition and whether she seemed pregnant.  Prissy would still have two months to go, but short of taking her in for an ultrasound, there is no good way to know for sure. 

Every once in a while, it comes up as a question, "Would a home pregnancy test for humans work?"  Once I bought a few, but Bailey was unsuccessful in getting the samples to try it out.  So out of curiosity, Bailey and Prissy headed off to the tack shed, rummaging for the tests in the health box.  Wyatt took a break to pitch in.  Before we knew it, we had one single pink line.

Well moms, we know that means one of a few things, she is either pregnant and the test doesn't work on goats, not pregnant and the test does work on them, or some other combination of the two.  So to the internet Bailey went.  According to the internet, they don't work on goats.  So we will be watching and waiting, just as we were before.  We did take some photos, though, and figure it will make an interesting poster for county fair. 

Watch the blog, or the posters at fair, to find out.  We need to move on to the next chore, and the next adventure.  Have a blessed day!

What We've Been Up To...

We rather needed to circle our wagons and get things done the last week or so. So as the kids are returning to school, and I am preparing for the next semester of teaching and attending Pima, here is a little of what we have been up to...

Playing with growing baby goats while doing chores and teraining the older goats.

Enjoying watching them explore while I work in the greenhouse and on the garden and the kids clean pens...

Wyatt got to deliver his own eggs to the farmers market.  Usually I do this in between teaching classes at Pima...

Wyatt has been perfecting his smoothie making skill...

Wyatt and I attended a woorkshop for poultry.  It was fun, a great discussion on sustainable meat poultry and egg production, and a good 4H day, too.  Wyatt came home charged to redesign his breeding operations and expand his farming capacity.

Wyatt also worked heavily on his science fair project.

Jecks, Bailey's market goat for this year, was weighed in the house, and growing...

The babies went to be disbudded. Olympia was stoic, Fly By Night wanted to hide. But they are both doing great! Especially once mama Glory got them back!

Fly By Night rode back in Wyatt's lap.  They are turning into good friends.

Olympia cuddled down with Bailey for the ride home.

Jecks wasn't too into the car ride.  But on the scale she learned she was light, so maybe she was anxious to get back to her food bowl.  Or maybe she wanted to nestle on someone's lap, too!

And more poultry photos for Wyatt's documenting of this year's hatch.

All in all, we are still moving along.  Vegas and Hopper are trying hard to remember the working dog stuff they had passed on to Remington for so long.  Hopper is doing more of the gurad duty and walks outside on late night checks, Vegas is trying to help with the goats and keeping Bailey company since Hopper prefers the chickens.  One day at a time...  Now that the kids are in school, busy busy busy as we head toward hatching season, Prissy's kidding date, the spring garden, and Pima County Fair!