A Day in the Unfolding of the New Year

Trying to take on a few major projects while my work schedule is lighter, as well as help the kids with homeschooling and their own projects has kept me on my toes, but it has been quite rewarding. I will share more about the projects going on around here in the next few days. Okay, seeing how often I am too tired for blogging lately, how about I promise to do my best, but acknowledge they might be a bit late?

This blue Silkie pullet is one of a few new layers who have been contributing their first few eggs to the family here lately. This morning, she seemed bent on being broody, though she wasn't actually sitting ON the egg. Wyatt wasn't sure whether to be thankful she was making the collecting easy or explain how the whole broody thing worked, but since he was trying to get pens cleaned between storms, I think he was just happy for anything simple he could get!

Shine got to hang out in the house for a while with his buddy Shadow this morning. They haven't had as much of this time lately, since the rain and mud has led to some rather muddy hooves! On the flip side, at least the rain has the barrels mostly full again! Shine and Shadow sure enjoy the companionship, though, they were great friends when Shine was a house goat.

Later, Shine got to head down to visit friends at another 4-H club we compete with sometimes. A number of the youth are brand new to the group, but a few have grown up together showing as a group for several yers now. It is amazing to me to see them so grown up!

The older youth were examples and teachers, as they should be as Senior showmen. They also enjoyed laughing with each other and at themselves, I think!

Shine seems to be settling in to the showing thing, though he seemed to like raiding cookies from Bailey's pocket the best!

I think it is funny that after each trip off to training sessions, meetings and community outreach, both Shine and Shadow stop in the front yard to check all of the statues. 

I am not sure what they expect, but they are usually the only ones who move them!

FOr those of you following the saga of the lonely chick, I gave in this week and arranged for the little one to have some friends. A big thank you to Melanie for sharing some of her purebred Black Ameraucana stock with us, these will likely be te only new poultry stock until after county fair.The four little chicks have taken well to their new surroundings, and the slightly older Java of ours seems to also be taking well to having young charges to look after.

Some of the biggest news these days is that Miss Versie seems to be getting ready to kid. Bailey is spending lots of time out there, and we are tracking her progress. One interesting thing about her, Verse has taken in the last day to stretching out by climbing the fences of the maternity ward with her front hooves. I sure hope that means that the babies are settling well into proper position.

You can barely see Verse in this photo, she was in the corner of the pen after our last check. She really is a sweetheart. While I don't think kidding is truly imminent, I will head out there again in another hour and let Bailey sleep a bit. It never hurts to be on the safe side, these will be her first kids. 

On that note, I think I will squeeze in a short nap. While moping the kitchen is calling my name, I think it can wait a coupl eof hours and help me warm up after I traipse back out to the goat area in a spell. Hope you all have a wonderful night, I will share again when I can! Love to all.

Growing Young Polish- the first to hatch here!

This little goofball hatched a little before county fair.For some time, the chick only had a little pompapour poof as it ran around the brooder in the living room.

These days, the little White Crested Polish chick with a little dark in front has been working on growing a rather fancy "do", with the poof continuing to grow. It has also moved out tot he back porch brooder, with a few others.  It seems to have a rather dominant personality thus far.

I always hold out hope for girls, especially since these are part of a project for help out the other 4-Hers, and they typically need hens to balance out males they already have, or often aren't allowed roosters where they live.  What do you think? Pullet or Cockerel? I still think it is young enough that the feathers could tell us either way!

Poultry Available

The chickens around here are used to being spoiled, or in the words of chief poultry man, Wyatt, "well-cared-for".  We often have chickens available, from day-old to adult, in a variety of breeds. We do our best to keep this page up to date, but if you are inquiring about certain ages, breeds or birds, please feel welcome to email or call us.

This is Trooper, a blue ribbon partridge Silkie hen. She is still a wonderful mama hen, who keeps things in line around the Silkie area. When a couple young roosters moved in recently, they thought they would tell everyone who is in charge.  Trooper used the back of her head and backed the two young roosters up to the edge of the coop, then gave them quite a talking to. Their behavior changed radically, and there has been peace in the coop since, with the hens settling back in and eventually returning to sharing nests and setting on eggs as a team.

This is a group of younger chickens in the grow out pen. The Buckeye in the foreground is a blue ribbon, best of breed rooster now, and we only have one young Buckeye available at present.  The light Brahma behind him is among the blue ribbon hens (one of whom has recorded best of breed) that is the mama hen to the current grouping of young Light Brahmas. We have these available from day-old up to adults. These have been champion heritage meat birds, as well as breed winners in their own right.

Some of the Brahmas we hatched last year. We no longer breed the Buff Brahmas, but do have a few left from last year's hatch. They have such a wonderful disposition!

This Buff Brahma was determined to hatch little ones from her favorite rooster! Funny thing about the Brahma roosters, the ladies prefer them so much, they stand and talk to them at the fence, with their own roosters getting rather frustrated!

More of last year's Light Brahmas in the grow out area.  We have one trio of these available right now, who are about 2.5 to 3 months of age. The standard bred heritage day old chicks are $5 up until the age of one month, then $8, then after two months $10, and up from there to cover the cost of the soy-free, corn-free organic feed we use. We have calculated that by the time they reach four months of age, they cost us on average $15, with $20 by 5 months and $25-$30 by point of lay.

These are the babies in the brooder as of the middle of March. Two more little light Brahmas were hatched last night, and are not in the photos below. The little barnyard mixes we also have are a mix of Ameraucana, Phoenix, Brahma and Buckeye. They should be fun! As these are not purebred, they are available for $2 each as young chicks.

The little ones in the brooder get along so well, and even young roosters care for the younger ones as they come along.

Still the young chicks can also be found cuddling up to stuffed animals for a nap when the others are playing.

Present Availability:

day old chicks:

2 Light Brahmas

one week and up:

4 Light Brahmas

2 Partridge Silkies

7 Barnyard Mixes

2.5 months and up:

3 Light Brahmas

1 Buckeye

1 Partridge Silkie

Point of Lay (7 months to 8 months):

not available until after county fair at the end of April

2 Light Brahmas

6 Partridge Cochins

While there are still several eggs in the incubator, after these hatch, we will not set any more until after County Fair, and those will be very limited. Discounts are available to 4-H youth.  Custom hatches are available, with a deposit to set the eggs.

Please feel free to call, email and message with any questions you have!

Topping Off the Weekend on a Positive...

On the way to town this morning, we dropped Bailey off at church. She attended a service and youth group, then volunteered in the nursery. I had thought for sure that I was going to be back for her on time, but in the end a BIG thank you to Pastor Todd for dropping her off at the library.

I spent much of the with Wyatt and Shadow at the Ag complex, where pre-fair for the dog project was taking place.

Wyatt and Shadow are improving, and with the additional year, Shadow was far calmer and not trying to play with all the other dogs. As we dashed up to pick up Bailey, they cuddled up and fell asleep in the back seat.

On the way home, a quick stop for the library books, one item for dinner, and an ice cream cone for all the hard work on all of their parts!

We are beginning to dig out from the storm and make plans for the new doe barn. Too bad we don't have more rain in the forecast, though!

Still, I am thankful for the full rain barrels to begin the new week.

Tomorrow, more of the photos of the contest prizes will go up. Are you getting your baby photos ready?

Our First Polish Egg!

On Saturday afternoon, when we returned from town and got started with chores and feeding and changing waters, we found a new surprise int he Polish temporary pen- 

our first egg from these new friends!

It was tucked safely int he incubator with a couple eggs from the Light Brahmas, to hopefully see them hatch together. As this is their first egg since they came here, likely their first eggs wince the cooler months, the likelihood isn't all that great that it is truly fertile, but since the Polish project is all about seeing what we can hatch for the youth of the 4-H club for next year, we will try anyhow!

We will keep you up to date as we candle and watch for hte hatch. Have a great week!

Friday Saturday Fun Time and Chore Time!

A happy beautiful morning to everyone!  I love watching the sunrise while I do morning chores!

These are the little tomato starts growing along int he kitchen on the window seat.  They are growing much more slowly now, I will be so excited to move them outside!

Bailey, Wyatt and I went to the Desert Museum on Friday with the 4-H Photography group. We had a great time in beautiful weather.  This is a sculpture by where they do the raptor free flight display.

This mountain lion seems to love attention!

With the rodeo in town, folks are moving their wagons to town for the parade, we followed these two from the hills by the museum.

A very happy (and decorative, thanks to his love of the stamps around the museum) boy passed out on the road home.

While I was out watering and doing chores, I caught the rising moon and sure enjoyed the beauty.

This is my little asparagus patch. I am thinking of expanding it to the left.

more of the moon rising as it grew dark

my "tattooed" boy being silly

We enjoyed a sunshine cake as a family.  I used the hearts my mom tried, and thankfully Charlie and the kids didn't mind that it came out fo the pan a little lopsided.

The barley I had soaking was ready, so more of the newly scrubbed fodder boxes went back into service!

Saturday, I stewed tomatoes and canned 7 quarts of tomato sauce!  Then, I found another box of tomatoes... yup that's me!

I am also trying a green bean salad experiment. We will see how it goes!

Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday! Love to all!

Custom Hatch DC, part 4

Today was a big catch up day- again. I finally felt well enough to push the workout and work on projects on my list, as it has felt like treading water since I was sick and the beginning of the semester came with so many other commitments!

I wish I could say I had the video and other photos, but something went wrong with that process! Nevertheless, I finally got a chance to candle the second set of eggs for the DC Special Hatch.  You see, there is no candling eggs, or touching eggs or livestock when I am sick. The kids didn't complain at all about taking my chores, I take theirs when they travel or get sick.  So the candling, along with several other things, waited!

I am sorry to say, but this batch was also infertile. It came from a Dutch that belongs to a friend of ours, who has been laying consistently and is in with a rooster.  It was worth a shot to see if they would be fertile! We had hoped, but perhaps later this Spring we can try again and it will work better. =)

Leather fun!

Working our way through lessons, we still had to do a project with the leather circles they were assigned on Monday for the Friday meeting,  Because the leather circles weren't quite right for leather work, it had been suggested that they try to make leather roses of them.

They found some instructions on line, and started making the little clover-like circles needed while they were watching a movie about Westward Expansion. (Hopefully the movie helps with the position paper they have due to me Friday!)

After cutting out and soaking the pieces, they punched holes to make stems. I don't know if you can see the pieces, but another of my needles bit the dust in the making of this project...

I don't know if Shadow was just resting after a mad game of fetch, or if she was giving Wyatt the cold shoulder for paying more attention to the project than her...

THere wasn't a design for leaves so we created some.  There are still ribbons tied around the roses as they dry, but I will take a photo of the finished projects later.

Well, got a lot to do in the morning, so I suppose I had best get to bed!  Have a great night, and tomorrow I promise to post the photo contest!

The Polish Project

After the freak loss of Bailey's little showmanship hen last week, she was down to her one and only backup bird for showmanship, and right before the 4-H ownership deadline for our county fair.  We were looking for another blue bantam Cochin hen, but didn't find any that would work alongside those she already had. Some cute ones, but not really what she needed.

Then I was talking with the 4-H leader about leg bands and some other things, and she said the club had been made an offer earlier yesterday. It seems that a local breeder was needing to refocus and downsize, and was going to offer the club a small flock of Polish in order to help the youth and carry on the line.

There was a cute little Splash colored hen, as well as a few white crested Black ones. And one Blue rooster.  There were a couple of other families who needed backups, as predators have been on an all out offensive lately, and a few odd things had happened.  But the leader wasn't sure what to do with the rooster, and part of the thought was that the youth would work with the breed.

To be honest, I don't know if she had already had the thought when she called or if it came in our talk, but we decided that one of the hens and the rooster would come here to our place, the birds could serve as my daughter's backup, and any chicks we could hatch out in our breeding program here would be next year's birds for youth in the 4-H club.

So, after teaching this morning, having a run in with the salesman at the tire store and picking up Wyatt's special order lumber, we met up with Connie along her road back from picking up the birds.  These two silly sweethearts have moved in to the quarantine pen as of this afternoon... 

FOr some reason, this boy really tried to escape when they were capturing him, but he rode home in Bailey's lap.  THe goofy hair has her talking about naming him torpedo.  Silly kid, silly bird, I guess, right? I suppose the silly name goes with it.

He really doesn't want to look at the camera for his cameo, though!

Here she is cuddling with the hen, who coincidentally rode home in my lap!  And for some reason, the name Checkers is rising to the surface as her name...

She kind of complied with looking at the camera, but it is pretty hard to see with those crazy Polish crests!

We will do our best to keep you up to date on this project.  Watch for the labels Polish Project, and others noted in this post, and feel free to follow the blog to keep up with the latest. 

Now it is time to let them settle in, and then hope for fertile eggs and a good time at the county fair!